Mankind Rising- Book 2

I do not have the memory of a seive obviously u would need their permission to publish doesn't mean it can't happen and ooh a 4th story can't wait XD

epic

its possible you could get authorisation to use the brand as it would promote their product itsnot like they havent "borrowed ideas" deathstar anyone . If nothing else you could post the Quadrilogy on the ogame boards for recognition as a brilliant writer i want to see who dies

due to a bloody long day in london, and the time spent recuperating, i havent had much time to write the next chapter. but, i should have it this weekend

I've just sat down and read the lot and what a story!!!

You have a talent for this, keep it coming

daggers wrote:

I've just sat down and read the lot and what a story!!!

You have a talent for this, keep it coming

thank you, what im most excited about this new-found talent of mine is that i can make this up as i go along. i wonder what i could come with, given a year to plan it...

her eyou are, chapter 3. and is the deathstar really so unbreakable after all?



Chapter 3
Troubles Ahead.

UEA President’s Office, Haven.
‘So they’re finally starting to fight back, eh?’ Pendragon was surprised it had taken Korvath this long to scrape together a coherent defence of some kind against the UEA. Chimera nodded sagely.
‘It seems the core worlds have been extremely busy with shipbuilding. We estimate they’ll be back to full fleet strength in less than 2 months. That’s about 3 million ships.’ Pendragon coughed in surprise. Korvath was still showing itself to be highly efficient in fleetbuilding, even when the outer colonies were falling like dominoes.

He sat at the table, contemplating the reasons for the war. There was the question of revenge, that was for sure. Then there were the resources in the Andromeda galaxy, especially deuterium, which the UEA always had a lack of. Then there was the fact that they could have an entire other galaxy join, adding a huge boost to their military weight. All in all, it was enough to go to war once again. Now, however, it seemed Korvath was beginning to get its act together, and had enlisted its elite ships to help fight the war.
‘What about these ‘elite’ ships I’ve been hearing about?’ Asked the President. Chimera grimaced, then explained in the core planets of the Korvath Empire the best of the best was stationed. The core worlds were made up of 5 different planets, including the capital, and orbiting these planets was the toughest ships in the entire empire. The UEA would have a hell of a time subjugating them.
Pendragon sat back and folded his arms. On the table sat a bottle of Syphiryx whiskey, and he stared into its glass form, lost in thought. Chimera had brought a bottle along with him, and he was starting to wonder how on Earth the Chimereans had the stomach for it. Earth…

Pendragons thoughts turned to the cradle of mankind sadly. He had visited it once, in a radiation suit, and witnessed the scarred and choked surface, thick with radiation from a full scale nuclear war in 2089,a war that should have never happened. It was only by plumbing the depths of human ingenuity that a massive ship was constructed to ferry thousands of humans across vast distances: the colony ship Salvation. It left earth to carry humanity to the stars, and never looked back.

‘There’s another problem,’ Said Chimera anxiously. Pendragon looked at him, exasperated. ‘What now?’ he asked slowly.
‘Our espionage network operating in Andromeda has recently noticed a massive upsurge of resource shipping and shipbuilding activity around the Korvath home system. Based on this data, and conjecture, we think they’re building something gigantic.’
‘A huge fleet?’ asked Pendragon nervously. Chimera shook his head. ‘We have seen no ship leave the system, which would suggest they’re only building one ship, one massive ship.’ Pendragon’s eyes widened in horror. ‘You don’t mean…’ Chimera’s face was stony, jaw clenching.
‘Yes. We think they’re building their own DeathStar.’

*****
Fejana System, Andromeda Galaxy. Bridge of the DeathStar.

Admiral Mourwen almost lost her footing as another massive shockwave hit the Soul Ripper. This Korvath fleet was like none other she had ever seen; they were extraordinarily powerful and well defended, and were striking the DeathStar with surgical precision. At last, a worthy foe to this battlestation, she thought grimly. The destroyer escort fleet was long gone, the Korvath ships had dispatched them with shocking ease. They were now bombing the DeathStar with everything they had, and it was actually proving quite effective. The shields were at 40%, and the battle had been going on for nearly an hour.
These ships were obviously part of the elite force the UEA had been warned about. Much harder to fight, and much harder to destroy. Mourwen scowled as a power coupling blew out on the brigde, and the lights dimmed for a brief period before a back up kicked in. across the mammoth vessel, the hull was being bombed into oblivion, whole sections of the shields entirely overwhelmed. The graviton cannon was wrecked, and the deuterium reactor was approaching critical. Mourwen snarled the order to fire the rarely-used plasma turrets, which took the pressure off them slightly.

Fighters were released, and repair nanites swarmed over the battlestation, mending the great beast’s wounds. In minutes, the DeathStar was patched up as best as possible, but the nanites couldn’t repair destroyed weapon placements, or shield generators. The mighty ship was weakened, and the Korvath fleet was coming in for another strike. Once again they began bombing runs, and the entire vessel shook with explosions. An officer cried out that the shields were gone, and then the punishment really began for the stricken station. Mourwen couldn’t understand what was happening; the once invincible fortress was being battered from all sides. She was just about to scream the self destruct command, when the tactical officer gasped in shock.

‘What is it?’ she yelled hoarsely.
‘Its…its…another DeathStar!’ Mourwen’s jaw dropped as she saw another DeathStar, even larger than the Soul Ripper, appear in the midst of the melee. At once, its fresh and unbroken weapons fired at the Korvath fleet, which was taken completely by surprise. In just under two minutes, the Korvath was gone, leaving the bridge of the Soul Ripper in deadly silence. The larger DeathStar did not bother to communicate, and simply flashed out of the system, into a hyperspace vortex.

Mourwen breathed a sigh of relief. The Soul Ripper was battered and broken, but it was still standing, barely. Reluctantly, she asked for a damage report. The tactical officer began.
‘Shields are completely gone, we need at least 5 hours to get them back online. 70% of all weapons are down, and the ones that are still working are misfiring, or one shot away from breaking. The power grid is down to 15% functionality, and the hull has almost a million breaches, ranging from inches, to one nearly 400 metres across. All in all, we’re fucked-‘ Mourwen whipped round at the profanity, eyes narrowed. The officer finished, because at the moment, he didn’t care for protocol. ‘- but we can just about get hyperdrive online. Ma’am.’

Mourwen rolled her eyes, then settled back into the command chair. ‘Set course for Haven, best possible speed.’

It's really starting to hot up now i think we're in for a real treat

Liked the introduction of this new deathstar Took me by surprise a bit!

I know i thought that too but then i remembered about the plan to build 100 deathstars in the last story XD

well, remember the soul ripper was only a prototype, its natural bigger, more powerful versions are coming along...just wait until later in the story...

chapter 4, hot and ready to serve. enjoy


Chapter 4.
Revelations.
UEA Central Headquarters, Haven.
Mourwen stormed into the Presidents office, taking little notice of the guards, except to flash her ID. She had been on the surface of the planet for just 5 minutes before demanding to see the President. The Soul Ripper had barely managed to limp back to Haven on its own steam, and was now presenting itself as a tricky job for the ship engineers to fix. The 1000km wide battle station was so badly damaged, repairs were being projected into the months to complete.

‘Why was I not told there was another DeathStar?’ she demanded, skipping pleasantries entirely. Pendragon took off his glasses, and looked at Mourwen with some surprise. Mourwen and her crew should have been getting a full medical evaluation right now, after the kicking the Soul Ripper had taken. He had blanched when he saw the amount of resources it was going to take to fix the thing. Almost as much as it cost to build it, in fact. For an invincible ship, thought Pendragon dryly, the Soul Ripper had shown itself to be remarkably mortal. These elite, core manufactured Korvath ships were proving a nasty thorn in his side; luckily, he knew of something that could solve this problem.

‘There isn’t’, said Pendragon calmly, lacing his fingers together on his desk. His mouth twitched slightly as Mourwen looked stunned for a second. ‘What do you mean…’
‘I mean there isn’t one more DeathStar. You see, our shipyards have been extremely busy lately. We’ve been moving in secret, straining our budgets, mining as much as possible. Its incredible what several empires working together can achieve over a single empire.’ The President got out of his chair, and walked towards the window. He looked tired, the weight of two galaxies playing on his mind. He looked every one of his 42 years. He turned to face the Admiral.

‘For the past year, we’ve managed to produce 26 more DeathStar-class battlestations, in total secret.’ Mourwens eyes widened, and she had to lean on the President’s desk for support. 27 DeathStars…it was inconceivable. It had been hard enough to manufacture just one, though that was in the days before the UEA. Therehad been signs, however. There had been a tightening of security measures in the UEA government, and shipbuilding had been slowed right down over the past 3 months especially. Presumably it was because all efforts had gone into this mammoth project.

Mourwen asked why they hadn’t been deployed already in the Andromeda galaxy. Pendragon grimaced, and explained the lack of deuterium in the Milky Way Galaxy had effectively grounded the DeathStar armada, allowing only occasional ventures out into space. The Soul Ripper’s distress call had been picked up by the DeathStar class battlestation Goliath, which had been authorised to assist it. At 1200km wide, the Goliath was a truly gargantuan vessel, dwarfing the Soul Ripper. It was the largest of the DeathStars, the others of which ranged from 600km ‘light’ versions to around 1100km heavy battle stations.

The Goliaths armaments…were beyond terrifying. Almost 2 million gun placements, and shields 3 times stronger than the Soul Ripper, made the Goliath utterly dominating on the battlefield. All 26 DeathStars had performed as well as was expected of them, and as soon as the deuterium crisis was ended, they could enter normal service. The war, the invasion of the Andromeda Galaxy, was starting to boil down to one massive, unavoidable reason; deuterium, a constant, flowing supply of it that could support and fuel the UEA’s massive fleet. Mourwen listened with folded arms while the President spoke, then sighed and sat in a chair. She shook her head sadly.
‘We’re at war with another galaxy…for their fuel?’ She sounded a little disappointed, she wished it was for some noble, honourable reason, but now the truth was pouring from the president like raw deuterium ore itself.
‘There are other reasons, but the weakening deuterium reserve in this galaxy has become worrying. Korvath territory is swarming with it, since they use Zero-point energy as their fuel source. They have entire planets, that are 30% deuterium! We NEED this fuel source, now more than ever.’ The President finished, leaning against the MetaGlass window, watching Mourwen with an unreadable expression.
‘I’ve been a Vice Admiral for over 15 years with you, Arexel. I’ll be by your side, no matter what we fight this war for.’ Pendragon inclined his head in acknowledgement. Mourwen turned on the spot and walked out of the Presidents office, leaving the most powerful man in the galaxy to ponder the events of the universe.

*****

Dagria System, Andromeda Galaxy.
Patrol duty of a subjugated star system was tedious work for anyone to do, let alone for 14 hours. Captain Garroway was feeling the strain of a very long shift, his eyes were red rimmed, and his bed in the captain’s quarters sung to him. On top of everything, the Syphiryx whiskey had burned a headache into his skull that was driving him crazy. All he wanted was to walk off the bridge and get some sleep; unfortunately, he had some politics to do. Gruffly, he ordered a channel to be opened to the planet Dagria below, so that the surrender of the populce could be confirmed. A Korvathian appeared on screen, and seemed to be almost smiling.

‘Do you accept the terms of your surrender?’ he asked, knowing full well they had little choice. The answer that came back, however, took him completely by surprise.
‘Do you accept death, human captain?’ the Korvathian asked in a bone-chilling voice. The bridge stopped all activity and looked at the screen, causing the Korvathian to smile even wider. Garroway scoffed, then walked towards the screen.
‘You realise that you don’t have anything left to fight us with, don’t you?’ It had been a hell of battle, with heavy losses on both side, but Garroway had secured victory. The Korvathian on the screen, however, simply threw back his head and laughed evilly, causing every hair on every crew members neck to stand rigid. Something was very wrong here, but Garroway couldn’t put his finger on it. The connection cut off, leaving the bridge in silence.
‘What was that all about?’ Asked the First Officer in a puzzled, but wary voice. Garroway sat in his chair, pondering the words of the Korvathian. The rumours that had been circling the UEA were unnerving, to be sure…whispers of Korvath having impossibly advanced technology, that was now being lost thanks to the crumbling nature of their regime…
‘Captain!’ yelled the tactical officer suddenly. ‘We have something massive approaching this planet!’ Garroway looked up at the screen, to be faced with what was unmistakeably a DeathStar. It wasn’t dressed in UEA colours, however, a fact that made Garroway leap into action. He knew precisely what this new ship was; Korvaths version of a DeathStar.
‘Raise shields, arm all weapons, activate aim computers!’ he roared, the exhaustion slipping from his body. He quickly opened a channel to the whole, beleaguered fleet.
‘All ships, fire on that DeathStar! Do not hesitate to attack, its not ours!’ The still-massive fleet opened fire, in a futile attack that caused only cosmetic damage to the shields. Simultaneously, all the remaining planetary defences that had been silenced after the surrender, began firing on the UEA fleet. Garroways ships winked out of existence in seconds, the vessel taking ten direct hits from a plasma turret on the planet. The rest of the fleet was shrinking rapidly, overwhelmed by the enormous amount of energy weapons being fired at it.
Caught between the hammer and the anvil, the UEA fleet had no chance of survival or escape. Ships attempted to flee the system, all were shot down by what the UEA would soon come to call the Behemoth, Korvaths own, massive DeathStar incarnate. Still no damage was dealt to it, the vessel was as unstoppable as its UEA equivalents. The Behemoth really started to give it its all, opening all weapons up against the fleet, millions of bolts of energy carving through ships with ease.

By the hundreds they fell and by the thousands they died, scythed down by the mighty warship and the defences of a planet 5 minutes ago they called their own. Eventually, just over a hundred ships were left, forming a tight cell of firepower that seemed to be making progress. They were forming a well defended phalanx, and started to really make damage on the defences of Dagria. They still couldn’t make a mark on the Behemoth, of course, but for a short time it seemed like they may seriously cripple the planet below at least.

That brief illusion ended, however, when the Behemoth started to rotate, pointing its underbelly at the doomed fleet…

the appearance of the Deathstar :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX0IXHMuy7U

such a great clip

wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! awsomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol, isnt that where you got your last sig from on the old forum? looks familiar...

yeah it was a great scene :)one of my favourite films

here be chapter 5. remember, graviton cannon+jumpgate=baaaad shit...



Chapter 5
Destruction.

Pendragon had needed this vacation. He had chosen the beautiful planet of Aquahydron, its name simply meaning ‘water water’, emphasising the stunning, sparkling oceans it possessed. The bright sun of the planet made the planet look like a gem, and it was the most popular holiday destination in the galaxy. Pendragon was feeling apprehensive, however. There was a gnawing feeling he had somehow escaped something awful, something that was going to happen quite soon. Pendragon shook this thought away, however, he shouldn’t have such grim thoughts while on his break. Smiling, he continued to savour the fresh, sea air of Aquahydron.

Admiral Valkyrus looked out of the bridge of the DeathStar Jericho with frustrated annoyance. They were grounded here, thanks to the deuterium shortage, orbiting the planet Arc on guard duty, from an enemy that was unlikely to mount an attack. They were allowed occasional ventures around the Arc system, but were usually not allowed to travel any further than Paraxis Prime, the next planet out from Arc, and secondary planet of the former Chimerean Empire.

The Jericho was one of the smallest of the DeathStars, at 650km wide, but it still utterly dwarfed the rest of the UEA ships milling around it. It lacked a Graviton cannon, being slightly too small to carry one, but in its place stood a Jumpgate, connected to another Jumpgate orbiting the Plant Haven. This made the Jericho a useful addition to the UEA fleet, being effectively a mobile Jumpgate, as well as a terrifyingly well armed starship. Thanks to the imperfect science of the gates, however, raw resource ore like deuterium was impossible to be digitally broken down and transmitted across the gates, only solid objects like ships were able. The pioneers of the Jumpgates were stunned to dicover, on their first transit, their precious crystal ore had disappeared during the journey; it was a lesson well learnt.

Jumpgates were still a relatively new invention, and were extremely rare, thanks to their high production costs. They worked by digitally breaking down every atom that passed through them, and reassembling them at another gate, connected to the first. It transcended even hyperdrive in temrs of speed, as travel between two gates was instant. There was still a fraternity group opposed to the idea of these new machines, claiming it was unnatural to do such things to the human body. They were mostly dismissed, however. Jumpgates were quickly proving themselves to be highly useful inventions, and were set to be installed in more and more systems across the galaxy.

Valkyrus sighed. The frustration he felt at not being on the frontline, fighting for the UEA was knowing away at him like a parasite. There was never going to be an attack here…not with Korvath the way it was…
The early warning system was to prove him wrong. On the screen, a gigantic green DeathStar, the behemoth, appeared through a hyperspace vortex. Valkyrus’ world suddenly descended into a confused nightmare, as both DeathStars fired at each other with the might of the titans themselves. The Jericho was being supported by a sizable fleet, otherwise it would have come much worse of in the battle. All ships opened fire on the Behemoth, and distracted the mighty battlestation from destroying the Jericho outright.
Jericho still took a huge amount of damage, enough to knock out most of the weapons immediately. Valkyrus, bloodied and wounded, yelled the order to retreat, and let the defences deal with the terrifying new threat.


Admiral Valkyrus, a clever and decisive leader though he was, would forever be remembered as a man who made a terrible mistake in that moment. It was no fault of his, he could not have begun to fathom the planning that had gone into the Behemoth attack. This was no ordinary strike, it had one, specific purpose. One purpose that Valkyrus, in his panicked state, had allowed the Korvath Empire to fulfill. As the Jericho turned, and sped away from the Behemoth, its powerful underbelly thrusters kicked into action, allowing it to accelerate to massive speed. The other object on its underbelly, however, was the focal point of the attack by the Behemoth. The Jumpgate, unable to transport resources, but perfectly capable of transporting raw, undiluted energy.

The Behemoth had come into the system with its Graviton cannon pointing forward, another crucial part of the plan. On seeing the fleeing Jericho, with its exposed jumpgate, the Korvath captain on board the Behemoth smiled to himself; the plan was going perfectly. Calmly, revelling in the chance to deal a severe blow to the enemy, he growled the order.
'Fire', he said, and the massive graviton cannon roared to life with the power of a supernova.

A trillion gravitons raced towards the Jericho, raced towards the terrible weakness it had exposed, what would turn out to be the weakness of the entire UEA. The Jumpgate, with its direct link to Haven, had just broken the spine of the UEA’s economic and military machine. Valkyrus screamed with horror as he realised his mistake too late, he saw the flash of the graviton cannon, and the stream of gravitons passed straight through the Jumpgate attached to the hull of the Jericho.


UEA Capital Planet Haven.
38,000 Lightyears away, Haven sat quietly in orbit around its sun, the Jumpgate sitting quietly in orbit around Haven. The planet had not been attacked for a long time, and the people had become relaxed, sure of their safety. The only direct link to their homeworld was attached to the hull of an extremely powerful battle station. Surely there was nothing to fear anymore? They could never have known the horror about to be inflicted upon them.
The gravitons streamed out of the gate, and streaked towards the planets surface at the speed of light. With a boom that resonated across the entire world, they impacted on the capital nation of Haven, causing a billion lives to wink out of existence. In an instant, the most powerful planet in the milky way galaxy had a crater the size of its moon, Eshwar, ripped into it. Magma erupted from the surface, and broiled over the rim of the crater, spreading across the surface for hundreds of miles. Over 2 billion more lives ended as the wave of magma spread across Haven. people cried out in fear, as their homes, and cities, and countries, were torn apart by a wall of molten rock.

President Pendragon was at that time on Aquahydron, but if he had been on Haven on that day, he would have been killed straight away. Haven’s face had been permantly, horrifyingly scarred, and it was all because of the actions, of one man, trying to protect his people, in the cruellest of ironies.

The game had just changed for this war.

Ouch , a brilliant idea , i suppose we must thank god that a whole jumpgate network didnt exist , poor valkyrus tho i wonder if pen will behead him

i needed a game changing event to happen, and i thought abou the impenetrable defences of haven, the sneakiness of korvath, and it just came to me im pretty pleased with how it worked out.

and sorry valkyrus, but somebody had to make the mistake that could cost the UEA the war, and i chose you for the role

Tbh I could never give the order to kill anybody hell any related to killing in real life in general makes me sick and angry chim says coz of the way I am I could be the next Doctor Who don't know if it would ever happen never been good at acting

lol penny, i never realised you were so opposed to war

Whahaha nice dude you should consider making a book xD

nice job i wanna see some more

writing postponed due to flu...i will post the next chapter this week though...
things are about to get worse for haven...hehehe...

You ducking yanker poor haven haven't u done enough over 2m lives lost already.

i wonder what would happen if the graviton cannon caused a black hole within haven