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Fan Fiction / Re: Kerensky's Lost Hope - A Kapteyn Universe Novel
« Last post by Daryk on Today at 15:59:28 »
Progress is progress! :)
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I liked Sinister better back when he was fallible and could make mistakes.

I'd love to see a TRUE age of Apocalypse set up, taking ALL of  those comic titles we saw, and bringing them to life.
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Same here, I like upgrading the helicopters and whatever the BIG tanks are.  I'll "Usually" have both of them in groups of 6, with 2 each upgraded to haul infantry, the speaker tower, and the miniguns!  :evil:

The Hinds are the helos, and the tanks are Overlords, the ones that can have a bunker atop, and can get the gattling cannons or the speaker towers..

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Fan Fiction / Re: A Long Journey
« Last post by 2ndAcr on Today at 15:28:49 »
6 March 2789
Mackolla (Federated Suns)


 While equipment was pulled and shuttled over to where the 79th and 123rd Mechanized Infantry Divisions were currently housed, planning was already starting on how to clean out the Tortuga Dominions. With a massive shortage of Dropships and even transport collars to haul what Dropships they did have, it made for some long hours.

 "I think the best we can do is assign a single Conestoga to each of our Divisions. We can then assault a system each. At least we will each have most of our Aero Wings to provide defensive capability against any enemy Aerospace. If we divide up the normal Dropships, each of us will be able to secure a landing zone and hold it while the bulk of our forces are shuttled down from the Conestoga's. The intel estimates we have looked at say we will face roughly a Regiment on each world in total strength so it could even be possible to take several systems before we even fully unload. We then can reload the combat Dropships with fresh forces before moving to the next target." Major General Michael Levanth said

 "I agree, I just do not see any other way of conducting this operation with the limited Jumpships and Dropships available to us. I also would like to stress the importance of capturing any hostile Jumpships and Dropships we encounter so that we can use them for our own purposes." Major General Cynthia Olsen replied

 "I will also be assigning each of you one of the Tracker Gunships we currently have stationed at Morgan's Holdfast. You can use them to secure the other Jump Point in the system your assaulting. It will enhance the ability to capture hostile shipping. I have also given orders to pull one Infantry Regiment from each of our garrison locations who will be replaced by early activation of trainee's in our seven training locations. That will give us six additional Regiments of Infantry to help garrison the systems out there. They will be carried on two converted Jumbo Dropships, which we have six of, each capable of hauling 14,000 people. Not comfortable at all, but we travelled on them out here from Terra, at least this will be a much shorter voyage." Lieutenant General Paul Jefferson said

 "We have at least a year before the Conestoga and Dropshuttles are even ready, so what is the word on those experts?" Major General Olsen asked

 "Two more months until they are here. Then at least several months before we know how bad this really is. I am hoping it is not bad but we have to plan as though it is the worst case scenario." Lieutenant General Jefferson replied

 Over at Mackolla Enterprises Corporate Headquarters, Gerald Mitchell was still kicking himself for missing the support vehicle production during his buildup. It had always been so easy to just buy them on the open market, then the war started and that ability just vanished. No he was behind the eight ball and playing catch up. Something he thought was behind him. License requests had gone out to Vandenberg Mechanized Industries for their Sherpa design, all variants, a simple but durable design. Another was sent to New Earth Trading Company for their BFFL "Buffalo", hover transport. The easiest to purchase had already been done, the Flatbed Truck, which was manufactured on just about any world with any sort of industrial base. Even Mackolla had a single manufacturer, though they had only built 60 per year. He had purchased the local builder outright and a massive expansion was underway, both for the Flatbed Trucks but he also planned to have them build the Sherpa and BFFL. Another license request had been sent to Buda Imperial Vehicles for rights to the 135-K Coolant Trucks versions, he did not have much hope, and he was ready to pirate the design if he had to. It was too important to not have it.

 While they would be purchasing at least the first years production, the proposed designs could at least be sold on the open market for a profit. He planned to scale up to at least 200 per day of each design which he estimated would bring in a return of at least 21% for a revenue stream of roughly 33 Billion and a potential profit of 7 Billion. Made easy since everyone could use the damned things even after the fighting stopped. This last thought had caused him to think about the civilian market, every inhabited world needed a cheap motor vehicle and every major world had local manufacturers of said designs. This could be a very lucrative market to dive into for a steady revenue stream that is not really effected by any sort of war or peace. It would have to be cheap enough that anyone who wanted one could easily afford it, heck, he could even offer in house financing for the things and collect extra on the interest payments even. He made a note to have some of his people poach some good engineers of civilian vehicles to help them design something.
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Fan Fiction / Re: Bad Dreams
« Last post by Daryk on Today at 15:28:10 »
Excellent start to the story, but I don't the board is going to look too favorably on that answer.
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#1277

When the FedCom accord was signed, Melissa Steiner was fully on board with marrying Hanse Davion, but now its 2026 and its possible that she's found love, in the arms of her bodyguard and body double's boyfriend. What possible changes occur
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I liked Sinister better back when he was fallible and could make mistakes.
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Fan Fiction / Re: Kerensky's Lost Hope - A Kapteyn Universe Novel
« Last post by mikecj on Today at 15:22:19 »
Six worlds?  Is Lonestar the addition?

Seven bases?

Nice.
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Fan Fiction / Re: A Long Journey
« Last post by Daryk on Today at 15:18:34 »
That all makes sense to me! :)
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Fan Fiction / Re: Kerensky's Lost Hope - A Kapteyn Universe Novel
« Last post by Blacknova on Today at 15:15:28 »
Gabriel Fleet Servicing Yards, Odessa, Donegal Province, Lyran Commonwealth
26 September, 3028


The JumpShip flashed into existence at a very specific place, at a very specific time. That was necessary when visiting the site known as Gabriel, as mistiming a jump meant either destruction or detection by the Lyrans, neither of which would do. Gabriel sat within the mass of planetary bodies and debris that danced around the world known as Odessa IV, a massive gas giant that floated through the frigid outer regions of the Odessa system. Around the vast world orbited well over two hundred moons, moonlets, captured asteroids and other bodies, some of which had originated in the particularly dense field of debris between Odessa IV and the inhabited Odessa III.

Like the base that the Capellans had discovered in the Lhasa system, which had rejuvenated naval technology in the Inner Sphere, Gabriel was constructed by the Star League Defense Force during the wars that marked the end of the Star League period. The base acted as a re-supply and repair station for units preparing for the assault on Terra, and was almost a twin to that built in the Dark Nebula that the Oberon Confederation had found and stripped. Gabriel was a very large facility with both pressurized and unpressurized repair facilities and a habitat that could accommodate thousands of people. The base was intentionally placed outside the traditional jump points, making it largely hidden from detection by the usual means that most star systems relied upon, though that did not mean that jumping in or out could be done at a whim, care was still required. Though stripped of much material in preparation for Kerensky’s Exodus, some vessels too crippled for the journey were left behind and had been salvaged for the ComGuard feet, and they now served the Terran Hegemony. This was all due to ComStar having quietly taken possession of the base during the First Succession War, when Odessa III was savaged and barely survived. This enabled ComStar to alter and delete many astronavigational records, hiding the means for jumping into close proximity with the site. ComStar had also embedded long serving agents in the government of the system, so they could both operate from Gabriel and use the system as an insertion point for many ROM agents into the Commonwealth.

The Hegemony now controlled the facility with a skeleton crew from the THN and the HID, using the system to infiltrate agents into the Commonwealth, but also as a forward staging base if a full-scale war with the Lyrans ever broke out. If the former Archon Katrina Steiner had ever learned of that fact, Odessa would have been the site of a new flash point between the two nations, and considering the building tension along the border created by the ongoing raids that had never really ceased after the end of the Fourth Succession War, it really was for the best that the THN and HID kept a low profile in the Odessa system.

A shuttle left the Scout-class JumpShip and headed for the small moon from which Gabriel had been carved. When the shuttle had docked, Black Heart Lorelle Karimov exited and was greeted by an old friend; the dark skinned and fiery eyed Margitta Kariuki, still slim, which made her height seem more than it really was. Both wore non-descript THN jumpsuits, ostensibly to hide their identities, but to the naval personnel on the base the HID staff stood out as unfamiliar with space and easily identified.

“Margitta! I heard you had been sent out this way, but I did not realise they sent you to this dark hole.”

The two embraced. “Hole it might be, but it does allow me to manage agents across a fifth of the Commonwealth. The LIC would have a fit if they knew just what we can accomplish from here. Why don’t we go to my office, we can talk more openly there.”

“Of course.” Said Lorelle. She shifted her backpack, which contained all of her needs, and followed Margitta through the warren of old corridors to a small office that was part rock and part steel. Like many such facilities, Gabriel utilised the natural material it was hewn from wherever possible. Margitta directed Lorelle to a comfortable chair and took the one opposite.

“How can I help?” She asked her visitor.

“You are aware of my mission?”

“Yes, you and some of the others are trying to find where ComStar went.”

“We are. And we have found some of their departure points, but no leads on where they went after that.”

“And you think they are hiding in the Commonwealth?”

“No. We think that Gabriel was a major departure point. We did not take possession of this facility until December of ’27, which gave them twelve months to use it without our knowledge. Unfortunately, we were able to get little about this facility from the ROM records, as they were part of the secure databases that the SAS was not able to take intact. Still, there were enough hints that Gabriel was in some way important to get me sent out here.”

“Why now.” Her host asked.

“Because our other leads are dry, and we have only just begun to crack what we did salvage from ROM. Gabriel was mentioned three times, and once in conjunction with a phrase called “The Path of the Faithful.”

“The faithful? I assume you are talking about the nutters who kissed their toasters in the morning?”

Lorelle laughed. “Yes. The ‘nutters’ as you so call them were about a third of the order. They are kill or capture on sight these days and are most of who remain at large. We are starting to think that a secret order within the order existed, and that the true believers kept much to themselves. About sixty percent of the order believed but were not fanatics, most of those ones that survived are out on Columbus now. There were about a tenth of the order that were more secularised, and many of those have transitioned over successfully to regular life. Pretty much opposite to the old ComGuards, where ninety percent were secular Terrans and only ten percent were believers or fanatics, and we killed most of the latter when the HAF dropped on Hilton Head, the rest of both groups being picked up very quickly during the initial movements of the Reclamation.”

“And now you think that those who like to get high licking sparks are all gathering together somewhere.”

“That is our fear, yes.”

“I’ll make sure you have full access to the facility and tell Commodore Walsh, but there is not much here beyond the parts of the place we routinely use. Do you think there are hidden sections of the base?”

“I have my suspicions. Do you have many people here?”

“About fifty.”

“Can you spare them for a day or three?”

“All of them?” Margitta asked with some surprise.

“Yes.” She reached into her pocket. “I need them looking for any marks that look like these.”

On her data slate came up the images she had seen in the bunk room on Lone Star and then others, some of which were the same, from several other sites.

“Are these markers?”

“We believe so. We think they are indications to the ‘faithful’ about the path to safety they followed, but we have not deciphered what any of them mean as yet.”

Margitta gestured to the pad, “Can you send me those?” Lorelle nodded. “Good, I’ll have my people briefed and the base sweep commenced by the end of the day. Then we’ll see if we can find a way to track Alice down the rabbit hole.”

<<<<<<<<<<<–>>>>>>>>>>>
It took two days to find anything. The naval personnel stayed out of the way, ordered to do so by their Commodore, as when the HID issued an order, it was followed. The fifty HID officers, including Lorelle and Margitta, then covered every inch of the base, going through every room, passage, compartment and service way looking for anything that might be a discrete mark. There were several false positives, before a sharp-eyed junior saw a glyph that matched one from Lone Star in a disused passage deep in the facility.

Lorelle and Margitta were called to the location, and the passage was cleared while the two of them went over the site very carefully.

“Here.” Said Margitta eventually. “Look, another symbol.” She pointed to a small square that was slightly off colour from the rest of the wall and had a cross, or sword engraved on it. The mark was tiny, about the size of a fingertip and square. On a hunch, Lorelle pressed it.

There was a hiss and the wall moved back and then slid to the side, revealing a new passageway.

“Gordon, seal off the area and get me six pairs of hands.” Margitta called back.

Her aide, Gordon Lyme shouted some orders and then came back up the passageway with five other HID officers.

Lorelle looked at them. “Teams of two, record everything, miss nothing. Call me if you come across anything of note.” She then moved up the new passage, carved from rock like the rest of the base, side-by-side with Margitta.

“This what you were after?”

“I imagine so.”

They walked down the dark passageway, lights playing about before the corridor lit up suddenly. Everyone stopped and did not move a muscle.

“Found the switch.” Said someone at the start of the passage.

Everyone breathed out heavily and then kept walking. They moved slowly down the corridor to a door with a plate data pad with the same sword symbol Lorelle had seen on Lone Star. She reached out and touched it, the same request appearing before her. ‘You have followed the path of the righteous, enter now your mark of faith and move forward on your journey.’

“You know what that means?”

“I do. It means this was on the path to wherever they went. We have seven codes we can use to access these, four have already been entered at other sites, and we do not wish to use them more than once.”

She then leant forward and punched in one of the three remaining codes and this door opened for her, like the one on Lone Star. In this instance she was greeted by a huge hollowed out space, with a gantry running around the outside, seven more rose up above and six more were visible below. The space was easily one hundred meters across, and around each gallery were at least forty doors.

“Wow.” Said Magritte.

“Indeed.” Said Lorelle. “This may take a little time.”

“I’ll get the rest of the crew in.”

“Please do.” Lorelle then walked to the edge of the gallery and looked down, and at the bottom was a huge version of the same logo that had been on the data pad at the door. She then looked up to see it above her on the roof as well.

Margitte tapped her on the shoulder and pointed to a plaque set in the wall. ‘You have followed the path to the Five, welcome to the ruins of Gabriel. Blessed be Blake and go forth in safety in this sanctuary from the unbelievers.”

“This is no bolt hole, this is more…” Lorelle said as she looked again at the vast space. “…I think this is one of their bastions, but they abandoned it. Margitte, you need to signal Terra and get Madison out here.”

Vision City, Mayadi (Tangerz), Irurzun Prefecture, Draconis Combine
13 October, 3028


Two hundred and ninety light years away from the spectacle that was unfolding before the assembled agents of the Hegemony Directorate, a light denoting an arriving message flashed on the terminal of one of the Faithful. This member of the Faithful, one of the Founders of the now exiled Word of Blake was pensive. She had dark hair, pulled back severely and a harsh face, and she was a fanatic of the truest sort. She was the senior surviving member of what, in her darker and more honest moments she knew to be a dying order. Too many had fallen, too much was lost and there was too little time before they were found to prevent further loss and almost certain destruction. Much of what she had been focused on was in creating a seed that could be planted somewhere else and given time to grow and rebuild in safety. She reached forward and touched the message, and it was what she had feared for many months now. Gabriel was discovered. Along with the return of those idiots from House Marik to Jardine, the loss of Gabriel meant that only Taussen and Obeedah remained as safe havens. Mayadi was certainly not a safe haven, though it was critical to their plans. The bioweapons accident in 2958 had rendered what was left of the broken world uninhabitable, and the Word had returned here with a small team to undertake some very specific research. The original plague that had annihilated the Faithful who lived here was a nightmare virus, not one to be used on a large scale, but there were others researched here that were of greater value.

As the sole surviving member of the upper echelons of the old ComStar, Demona Aziz had one mission – to harm the infidel Hegemony in such a way to create its collapse, and to plant the seed for the Word’s future. On Taussen and Obeedah new formations both  rained and also prepared a mission to go far towards the galactic rim to establish a new haven, one well beyond the predation of those who sort the weakened Order’s harm. Unfortunately, they had few senior surviving people, and that meant the planning work fell to her and those like her. The leadership group, the new First Circuit, had agreed early that a blow of epic proportions must be struck against the Hegemony, so that it could hound them no longer and their mission to escape could be successful. That meant a two-pronged attack from the legacy of Mayadi and the Shadow Divisions being raised on Taussen and Obeedah. But would there be time? That was the constant worry. The Hegemony was looking for them but had not yet come to close.

Demona left her desk and wandered through the facility, mulling over the options before her and what different timelines would mean for the plans the Faithful had. Revenge must be tied closely to survival, as one without the other was a fruitless endeavour. She eventually came to the labs, and walked up to one of the large, recessed viewing windows, that allowed one to view the work, without be exposed to it.

Demona looked through the glass into the lab where the scientists were working, then to a woman who came to stand beside her. The other woman was tall and strongly built, with long and straight red hair, hair that sat awkwardly around her flat, rounded face. She was older than Demona, but deferred to her, as Demona had become the de facto leader of the True Believers who had fled the scourge of their order, despite the role of the First Circuit in Exile. “When will it be ready?”

“Several years yet. The strain is still far too virulent, and not contagious enough. It would burn out too quickly. We need time to modify it, prepare the Deliverers and ensure they are in place as well.”

Another voice from behind them both spoke, “I think it is too much, we should only use the Shadows.”

Demona turned on the man, her narrow face a mask of fury, “We will use the Shadows, and this! We will use every tool we have to break the betrayer and burn his dream to the ground!”

Gabriel Fleet Servicing Yards, Odessa, Donegal Province, Lyran Commonwealth
14 October, 3028


“We’re bloody well nowhere!” shouted Lorelle after two weeks of examinations and a report that was one hundred pages long and said nothing of substance, and which was sailing across the compartment.

“It’s not as bad as all that.” Said Madison Perez, unphased by her subordinate’s outburst and violent treatment of the report. Perez was small and round and very sharp. She was the ex-head of ComGuard’s military intelligence, the deepest mole the Black Hearts had placed in the order. Madison had adapted quickly to her expanded role as she endeavoured to build the HID up from the ground, once she had been assured that Angus Hamilton would support her as she supported him. The Director looked like an unassuming schoolteacher, but she was now the head of the HID as well as the senior Black Heart. Leaving Terra required a lot for her these days, but the discovery of Gabriel warranted her personal touch. She had arrived three days ago over a very secret command circuit.

“We now know from what little we learned here that this Word of Blake has lost two of its hiding places, and they match up with regions where the last adherents of ComStar were generally disappearing from in both realms. That also means that we can narrow our search in the other nations if the same holds true.”

“Which means I am going on a trip.”

“When are you not Lorelle?”

She smiled at her boss, “Part of the trade.”

“It is. But where to send you…we have three mentions of one other site, and two of the other two, yet no idea where they are, and it sounds like one was lost to the fanatics as well. That’s all we have from ROM’s databases, but it is more than nothing and it does not lead nowhere.”

“I can’t be in three places at once.” Lorelle said, moving over to a chair next to Madison, and facing Margitte, who faced the HID Director.

“No, you cannot, and since you are our best hunter, I’ll leave that to you. Where do you want to go?”

“The Federated Suns.” She said without hesitation.

“Why?”

“Easier to get around than the Combine or Confederation for one. But we also have a sharper read on where the epicentre for the disappearances in that realm occurred. If we take what Jardine and Odessa are in the scheme of things, old SLDF sites and lost worlds, then there are seven major ex-SLDF bases and six worlds that were lost in the Succession Wars within two jumps of the epicentre of the vanishing fanatics in the Suns. Unfortunately, there’s no overlap between the two, but it’s a better place to start than anywhere else.”

“Aren’t you looking for a pattern from only two data points to hold true?” Said Margitte. “Their third base could be something else entirely.”

“I acknowledge that and do not discount it either, but I have to start somewhere, and the Federated Suns is better than the other options. I’ll base myself out of Schedar and go from there. Can you spare me a team?” She asked the Director.

“Not much of one, but you’ll have two, maybe three dozen others to back you up, and all stations will be ready to give aid to you or your team if they are carrying the codes we’ll assign you. I would like to say this is the sole Priority One operation, but I am fighting a shadow war in the Hegemony against five intelligence agencies, while trying to build networks across the Inner Sphere. I can give you what I can, but the cupboard is bare, and you’ll have to make up for what I cannot give you with ingenuity and luck.”

“Understood Director.”

Lorelle accepted the burden and wondered how in hell she was going to pull this off.
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