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The Eternal Paradise "--There is no black or white, only an endless sea of gray which eventually swallows us all" --Last words of General Redfield before committing suicide at 0610 hours "The war needs to end" The CEO of Astex said. "Why?" asked the admiral. "The profits from manufacture of weapons components has plateaued, as have the profits of warship construction" "Damn, I was getting fond of dropping CASVEX-gamma on the little bastards" "Well then, then Ill coordinate the movement of the entire damn confederated navy!" the admiral said, happy to finally be kicking some ass after Five years and over three billion casualties later. "Well need it to; the Confed Intelligence Agency has located the Alien homeworld" Ryan Benson said flatly. "Terran naval yards will begin construction of a planetary-class capital ship; it'll be three times the size of a cruiser! well make three of them." said the CEO of terran naval yards excitedly. "Astex will begin manufacture of planetary-class gravitc neutron hydrogen bombs, and planetary-class CASVEX-Gamma impregnated mass driver rounds" "Soveriegn Yerza'Kzlxa, we have detected a massive fleet of Terran fighters and Frigates entering the system!" "They must be getting desperate... perhaps our defeat at Sirius was not a defeat" "They did lose a large amount of ships..." "How do they hope to stand against our entire planet?" Yerza'Kzlxa smiled. "Engage our surface defenses and send every one of our Hybrid Cruisers to dispatch them. Leave no survivors, we need to teach them a lesson!" Commander Redfield was uneasy. The force of frigates and fighters had gone to a battle the couldn't win; they were the sacrificial lambs. They had just jumped to the Alien homeworld system. In the fourth system in the Trugati system, the force of cruisers waited. "We have utterly obliterated half of the Terran force; they put up a valiant fight, but they are jumping out!" "Tell half our forces to follow and kill them! It's payback time for Sirius!" "Half? but sovereign--" "DO IT!" "Yes, honorable Yezra." Colonel K'rach'chec caused his cruiser jump to follow the fleeing Terrans. As the disorientation of hyperspace wore off, he saw a incredible snow white mass of shifting objects. It was almost as big as a planet! as they neared K'Rach'chec's eyes widened. Those were terran capital ships! then, he felt himself being engulfed in a wall of heat and light as they began to fire; stupid to die like this, being deatomized by a bunch of torpedoes; stupid stupid stupid. Commander Redfield felt a jolt and the ship jumped into the Alien system, and then, the cruisers did. And then the remaining frigates. "Weapons comm 1, begin dropping the bombs. Weapons comm 2, engage the mass drivers." The ship began to literally shake, and out the viewing dome he saw the other two prototype Planet-class cruisers, Zeus and Naga also delivering their payloads. The planetary defense mortars sent many, many bolts into the charging cruisers. The glare from the explosions was... blinding. "Sir, were being impacted by seeker drones!" "Hold position and keep firing!!! we have to fire every shot and drop every bomb!" "Sovereign? our... cruisers were ambushed by 500 terran cruisers; we just lost half of our defense force... And sovereign, we are experiencing severe orbital bombardment" The advisor had his eyes to the ground. "We have now detected three thermal shock waves. They are traveling at over ten-thousand kilometers per cycle, and have an energy output of over... one-hundred thousand terrawatts, for a total of three hundred thousand." "The shields of this installation, how many terrawatts do the shields absorb?" "ten thousand" The advisor made a circle in front of his face, then a line across his chest" "Eternal honor and sacrifice. You have done well; the eternal paradise awaits" the sovereign then made the Xez'Koan religious symbol, and then there was a flash of white; then there was nothing. "Commander Redfield! the Alien ships are retreating!..." the crew member trailed off. "S-sir? sensors indicate that the alien planets core has destabilized; we need to leave. Fast." "This is Commander Redfield to entire fleet! fall back, and jump back to Sol! now! this systems gonna blow!" The massive prototype capital ship pulled away from the rumbling Alien planet, and charged up for hyperspace. The ship had done well; it was estimated to be 100 times as armed as a cruiser, and was the ultimate physical weapon. The Alien planet had fallen. He felt another jolt as the ship jumped. Then his eyes widened. A giant crimson maelstrom raged in a waves around the ship... they made another jump from the exploding system... and then they were safe. Redfield checked sensors; as the crew cheered, he was dead silent. "Corporal." "Sir?" "Make a update the the confed military Galaxy map, authorization code sigma. Kappa. Phi. Gamma. Mark. Red Mark Epsilon. Mark. Delta.mark. blue." "Map is ready to be updated" "Designate the trugati system" "Sir?" "I said desigate the Trugati system!" "Yessir" "Reename the system... The trugati asteroid belt, and the systems in it as nonpopulated" "We killed them all?..." "Yes. We did." Redfield bowed his head and crossed himself. "Sir?" "Hmm?" "Did we do the right thing?" asked the corporal, in a quiet child-like way. "I don't know. I honestly don't know....." Chapter 4.5: Blood stains "And lets welcome the newest member of our family, The recently promoted General Redfield!" the CEO of Astex yelled happily. They had been apprehensive of the result of the assault the the Alien planet, and they had been up all night and morning, waiting. The clock read 0608; it had been a long night. "Where's the president?" asked Redfeild. "Ahh, we don't need him around" said the Admiral. "wow, so many new faces! so many have come out more than even during this pivotal moment in mankinds history!" The admiral poured a glass of vintage scotch, and offered it to red field. "To bad the captains of the Zeus and Naga couldn't make it" "They died serving earth" Redfeild said coldly. "There has to be sacrifice at every war! but the bad guys lost! The good guys won!" "There is no Black or white, only only an endless sea of gray which eventually swallows us all" Redfield then walked out of the room, and into the dimly-lit steel-gray hall. He then turned to the MP observer. "Soldier, I want some target practice outside, could I borrow your pistol for a few?" The MP observer looked at him understandingly , and handed him his pistol. Redfield opened the doors that led above ground, and the bright landfall sun filled the hall. "You know, son you never told me your name" said Redfield. The MP observer smiled weakly and simply said "Doesn't matter" Redfield then ascended the stairs and walked out, and faded into the light... The MP observer crossed himself and closed the door. "It has been about a month, and we seem to have gotten over the tragic loss of General Redfield, eh?" the CEO of Astex took another puff off of his imperial Elite Opium-laced marijuana cigar, and the swells of the private string quartet filled the very exclusive lounge. He took another shot of tequila from his personal diamond shot glass, and the music began to sound better... "Yep" the CEO of Terran Naval Yards mumbled. He had answered every thing said to him with "Yep" after his 18th shot of vodka. "Heh, this is the life, eh? profits are up by 250% since the mining of the rim worlds has began, and well... geez, I love getting high and loaded at the same time!" He popped a morphine pill into his mouth, and sighed contededly. The CEO of Terran Naval yards inhaled more nitrous oxide, and at that point, fell blissfully asleep. The CEO of Astex staggered up, and then he flinched as the noise of the door opening hurt his ears. "Sir?" the MP observer looked very nervous. "Hmm... What?" "your policies for the miners have caused discontent; they have ousted the confed forces there... the rim worlds have closed their borders." "aww, Christ just when everything was going well... tell the admiral to allocate the confed fleet in such a way so that for every one ship they have, we have five, OK? after that, Allocate half of again of the fleet to dominate the planets and with this problem. And tell them to leave Leave no survivors in the... heh, 'Rebel' navy" A few hours later, the tiny force guarding the outer rim planets borders were utterly decimated by the Confederation... And so the Iron fist was forged...
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