Author Topic: The Story of The Aftermath  (Read 827 times)

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Offline herkie423

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The Story of The Aftermath
THE STORY OF THE AFTERMATH

After The Second Shivan War or commonly called The Second Shivan Incursion, every human and Vasudan wondered when will the red destroyers return to invade us again. Everyone knew that the severing of Capella was just a temporary measure, a postponement of something that will inevitably come. After getting ourselves ready, amassing so much arsenal and building our military might, they finally came and we did not even have to wait long. Only three years after our second war with the Shivans, they appeared suddenly during an operation to smash the United Pirate Coalition in Adhara III. Just moments after the destruction of the UPC flagship, an entire Shivan battle group arrived and engaged the elements of the 7th Battlegroup. This encounter also attributed to the destruction of the GTD Galileo, one of the prototype destroyers. Thus marked the beginning of The Third Shivan War.

The GTVA went into full alert and rallied most of the Terran fleet to build up in Adhara while the Vasudan forces were deployed to protect our home systems. It was also during this time that the enemy entry point was determined, an uncharted jump node near Adhara V in sector AD23 that connected Adhara to Gamma Draconis, a system we knew to be the vanguard of the Shivans. We still had considered ourselves fortunate that they had not found any other entry point to our space. The AD23 jump node was heavily blockaded then by our forces when the Acquitaine and her taskforce successfully took out the rallying Shivans in the vicinity of the node.

 High Command had decided right away that the enemy stronghold must be searched and found. The best place to start was the nebula explored during the Second Shivan War which was named as the Mutara Nebula. An expedition was sent to secure that second Knossos and investigate the system beyond the portal. Two wings of SOC Eagle interceptors piloted by volunteers from the 77th Dark Angels Squadron were sortied to enter the Knossos portal and discovered the home planet of the Shivans. Although some analyst suggested that there may be more Shivan planets, a few believe that the Shivans occupied half of the Galaxy. Nevertheless, the High Council voted on the resolution to take the war on the enemy's shore and invade their planet, designated as Shiva, in a surprise blitz attack. But the entire endeavor had met with disaster. The GTD Titan and the GTCv Babylon, which was dispatch to secure our rally point at the far side of Shiva's moon, were overwhelmed by the Shivan's counterattack. The two warships barely escaped the hostile system and the Mutara nebula. It was a clear underestimation of our enemy. Most critics claimed that the arrogance of Terran Command had paid the price. It was then we knew that our war with the cosmic destroyers will be long and bloody.

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 Our research and development for new warship designs and weapons plus our full mass productions of new military assets had paid off. Our advancements had brought us in level with the Shivans and we even outmatched their ships. Our new destroyers, corvettes and cruisers, together with the GTVA Prototypes, were very powerful. The Sirona class destroyer alone can defeat two Lucifers in a single combat, the Erebus warship can wipe out an enemy battle group single-handed. Our fleet commanders were shrewd and our pilots were brave and skillful. However, the Shivans had a significant numerical advantage. They were seemingly countless. And so the war went into a deadly stalemate that lasted almost a year as we stopped them in their tracks in Gamma Draconis. The system became a blood-spattered arena, a site of many heroic battles and harrowing defeats that claimed more than half a million human lives. Until today, the floating debris of fallen ships, ours and theirs, can still be found in many sectors. Shivan hulks were sought after by our scientific salvage teams and scavengers like the UPC remnants who upgraded their warships with Shivan weaponry.

 The deadlock in Gamma Draconis was becoming insufferable for us and our enemy had felt that as well especially when they incurred so many losses than they can inflict at us. Despite their vast numbers they could not break our defensive lines so the enemy had to devise some tactics to defeat us and many of their strategies were our very own, copied from us. An example of this was the introduction of the Asura cruisers which mimic the functionality of our Charybdis AWACs and then they improved on it even more. Many of our warships had fallen trapped of the Asura's deadly subspace and weapon inhibitors and it had a perfect cloaking mechanism. Though later, we did manage to capture one and studied it. Our AWACs are now equipped with Asura tech today. Another one of their moves was the infiltration of Adhara, they destroyed the AD23 and GD57 node blockades. They intruded and targeted the Eris spaceport, a very important repair and resupply station, in an effort to weaken us. It was also notable that later that day, they unleashed a terrible weapon of mass destruction, the subspace bomb. A weapon whose energy signature is similar to the one detected in Capella before in went supernova. The 7th Battlegroup, which was in pursuit of the intruding Lucifer fleet, was the first to get a taste of the subspace bomb's destructive capability. The SOC conducted a covert reconnaissance to collect vital information about these weapons. Then a mission was executed to eliminate a convoy ferrying these bombs and to capture the only facility known in existence to ever manufacture these subspace bombs. Apparently, the Shivans also knew the danger of making these weapons in large quantities for fear it could backfire at them unlike our reckless ancestors three hundred years ago. The mission was called Operation Red Viper led by Commander John K. Richter. The undertaking was successful, the facility was hauled back to Gamma Draconis by the GTCa Hestia, the ship's commander and crew were awarded the Unit Citation. Regrettably, acquiring these Shivan subspace bombs had sparked a heated disparity between the Vasudan Parliament and the Terran Assembly. The planned research and development for these weapons was not sanctioned. The bombs were securely stored and was to be disposed of and detonated in the remote uninhabited system of Laramis which was abandoned because of increased solar activity and cosmic radiation.

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 Incidentally, getting a hold of the subspace bombs was indeed timely as were faced again with a terrible threat. The previously severed node to Capella had reopened. It was also the day of the Archangel's unveiling and the dreadnaught's first field testing by destroying a Sathanas juggernaut that emerged from the node and saving the GTL Enterprise. A taskforce, composed of the 7th BG's warships, the Capella, the Dauntless, and the Vigilant together with the entire squadron of the 77th Dark Angels, were sent to investigate. They discovered a hornet's nest of more than a hundred Sathanas juggernauts already preparing to invade. The taskforce was obliterated except for one survivor, John Richter, who was already considered a legend among his peers. High Command anticipated this threat and set up a blockade around the jump node to Capella. The Archangel and the recently formed Strike Group Alpha, an Avenger corvette and six Boreas cruisers, destroyed thirteen Shivan juggernauts and dozens of Shivan destroyers that came pouring from the node. And it was unanimously agreed that the best place to get rid of the subspace bombs was the region of the Capella supernova remnant. A group of volunteers piloting Mara fighters and a captured Rakshasa cruiser loaded with seven hundred thousand metric tons of Shivan subspace bombs were sent into a suicidal mission to detonate the weapons in Capella with the hope of wiping out all the juggernauts. The resulting explosion destroyed everything and erased the Capella supernova remnant. It was an awesome and yet terrifying display of destructive force. Again, by some miracle, there was only one survivor: the hero, John Richter.

 Now that the threat of the juggernauts was gone, it was high time again to take the war to the Shivans. The Terran High Command assembled the entire Terran armada in Mutara and to ultimately invade the Shivan home system. With Strike Group Alpha's unrivalled firepower in the lead, the passage through the nebula wrought devastation to hundreds of Shivan capital ships. The Avengers and Boreas carved them up like butter. Then the Terran forces gathered at the Mutara Knossos portal preparing for the big invasion. But before that could happen, three battle groups along with the super carrier, Warlock, were sent ahead to secure the Shivan side of the Knossos portal. However, the Warlock group had great difficulties and help was badly needed. The Avenger, piloted by its group leader Captain John Richter, and two Boreas were dispatched to aid the carrier even though all the Strike Group Alpha assets were already worn down with busted components and damaged subsystems due for repairs. Richter was able to rescue the Warlock and destroyed more than forty Ravanas, Demons and Garuda destroyers, four Lucifer destroyers, and a score of Shivan corvettes and cruisers, almost a hundred capital-ship kills in a single engagement. The combat deployment showed the true extent of what the Avenger and Boreas are capable of.

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 The breaching of the Shivan system was not easy. The enemy was highly coordinated. Our military analysts surmised there must be a command craft coordinating their efforts. So Terran High Command deployed all the 7th BG warships, except the Excelsior, to hunt down this ship. Unfortunately, the Shivans lured the battle group into a trap. The Shivan command craft was even more powerful than initially speculated. The Shivans wiped out the entire attack fleet. Eventually, the deadly ship was destroyed by the 288th Armageddon squadron. But the blockade of the Shivan Knossos was already heavily fortified and the battle groups that emerged from it were easily picked off. Only a few surviving ships managed to slip through, the dreadnaught Jupiter, three corvettes and six cruisers. And so together with the Excelsior, the Warlock, and the severely damaged Strike Group Alpha were left stranded while the entire Terran armada was reluctant to enter the system and break through the massive hostile defensive lines.

 Nevertheless, everything was not in vain. Admiral Cartwright devised a plan to seize the Shivan Knossos portal to give way for the Terran fleet. An operation which was famously dubbed as "The Battle of the Bulge" and the "Face to Face" encounter between the Warlock and Excelsior against a huge Shivan rallying fleet. The Warlock and the Excelsior were destroyed in the battle and this paved the way of our first contact with a new type of Sathanas juggernaut, the royal flagship of the Shivan supreme leader or "supreme controller" in the Shivan language. We called him Grond.

 Despite the sacrifices of Admiral Cartwright and Admiral Romero, the strategic plan to take the Shivan portal was still a success. The human armada of dozens of battle groups waiting impatiently at the Mutara side was able to penetrate through and from that moment on, The Third Shivan War grew even more chaotic and devastating as we were finally waging battle with our enemy in their own turf. It lasted several months. Eventually, the Shivans were sent reeling and pushed back to their home planet. But the enemy's resolve were unwavering. The Shivans will fight to their last man. This was where Captain Richter and his strike group were sortied to annihilate this massing enemy force near the planet Shiva. And Richter faced down a hundred enemy capital ships, several Sathanas juggernauts and Lucifer super destroyers. The strike group of one Avenger corvette and a couple of Boreas cruisers managed to strike out half of the Shivan forces before finally being overwhelmed. At this point, High Command ordered Richter to execute "Order 66," to overload his Avenger's reactors and detonating their ships along with a cache of Shivan subspace bombs that was secretly stashed away and was covertly loaded on to their ships. Just as Richter decided to sacrifice himself, Lieutenant Greg Sanders volunteered to do the job himself and saving his group commander and best friend. The blast of the explosion did decimate the entire enemy force but it was doubtful that Captain Richter could even survive that. He went missing and later was presumed to be dead. A funeral service was even made to commemorate him. Then later in a mysterious circumstance, John Richter reappeared in Sector GD28, Gamma Draconis. He was found floating in his spacesuit and his Avenger corvette was drifting nearby. He had recovered after one week and rejoined his fellow soldiers in the final confrontation with Grond above Shiva where the Archangel destroyed the Royal Sathanas and finally defeated him. Thus marked the end of The Third Shivan War.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2022, 10:41:37 pm by herkie423 »