The World of The Gunny

The Wasted World of Gunnery Sergeant DeShane
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 Post subject: The Por'yr
PostPosted: 17 Mar 2009 20:18 
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The Por'yr was a rare ship indeed. She had served in nearly every major battle in the Azine war more then 35 years ago and more then a dozen major pirate hunts since then. Her tiny cylindrical hull was a mere 653 feet long, making her the smallest jump capable warship in the Imperial inventory. Even her assigned destroyer escorts were longer then her by almost 300 feet.

And yet her ability to kill potentially out striped her escorts by a serious margin. She mounted a single point defense system capable of killing fighters, missiles, and badly scratching large freighters. Her real punch rested in her three half size squadrons. The squadrons were composed of one strike squadron and two space superiority squadrons for strike escort and CAP duties.

They had been on deployment for the past eighteen months and had been looking forward to switching out with their alternate crew. Eighteen months of relative quiet was something they were all looking forward to. They would be dispersed for a year of recertification before coming back for reassignments. Some would stay aboard, but many would be assigned to the far larger escort carriers with some seniority already established. After all, a posting to the Por'yr virtually assured combat of some sort. Her last Captain had often remarked how bad the Por'yr's luck was The question was, bad luck to whom?

Such was the life of a mini-escort carrier.


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PostPosted: 18 Mar 2009 09:38 
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Interesting stuff bud. Do we see the influence of BTS! here? :w :bs



Cheers, Thor

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man, you gotta realise that thor and bos fell out of the patriot tree (like the ugly tree, but instills patriotism instead of ugly) and hit every branch on the way down.


"Gone now, dispersed by the brutal destruction of this one day, was the belief that the Darkman and his army of the dead were so superior as to be invincible. By attempting to destroy the morale of the Marines, the Darkman had restored it to full vigor. Dia De La Muerto had failed in its objectives."
The Gunny: Stand of the 300

Si vis pacem, para bellum
If you want peace, prepare for war

Gunny's color #FF2400


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PostPosted: 18 Mar 2009 13:20 
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Quite possibbly. :bl


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PostPosted: 19 Mar 2009 17:02 
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Captain John Carter sat in his command couch and considered the current orders. His task group, TF 6.27, had been assigned to monitoring some of the more quarrelsome polities near the Korgan-Imprial border. The Por'yr's presence had dampened the quarrels to mere diplomatic shouting and overt military posturing. The problem was three marginally habitable, but currently unsettled systems that no fewer then five of the nearby polities claimed and had fought bloody wars for in the past. It had left bad blood between them all and had encouraged them all to militarize to the point where it had damaged their economies. Most had expanded their fleets to the point where they had problems paying basic fleet maintenance. One of his jobs had been to see if any of them warranted Imperial backing. That had included assessing the polities politics and past actions. The Tagari, an avian looking race, were the best of the bunch in that they recognized allies, in addition to predator/prey relationships. Or, he thought, maybe a more accurate way of saying it was pack/prey relationships. The rest of them, including the both human polities, were way further down the scale. He didn't trust them to keep their word, or treaties for that matter, unless they had a battle fleet tapping its foot impatiently.

He had not had a battle fleet with him, but he could have whistled one up inside of 72 hours. Even that was not a complete guarantee. The independents and even a protectorate had attacked Imperial ambassadoral escorts and piracy patrols. It had caused more then a few abrupt government changes and a few occupations as well. Several of the worlds had ended up petitioning the Imperium to join it, but most had ended up going their own way. The Imperium really did not care either way. Occupation was hideously expensive and attempting to force a planet to join creatd unrest that tended to be very expensive and time consuming to put down or even win them over.

The primary case in point was the Sarigetti system. The Emperors father had wanted access to the exotic ores in the systems astroids and had had his chance to sieze the system when proof came out that the system was acting as a hub for pirates who were unloading captured freighters and merchandise there. The Sarigetti's defense fleet had surrendered without firing a shot when faced by a fleet more then six times their size in hull numbers, never mind tonnage.

That had been the easy part. The old Emperor had spent the next twenty years, tens of thousands of lives, and enough money to build another Capital Fleet, putting down miniture uprisings, dealing with sabotage, and even having rampant corruption amongst his own governing officials. The current Emperor had made the descion to let go of the system fairly early on in his reign, much to the applause of the Senate. Sarigetti's extremist goverment lasted less then three years before it was overthrown and the new government appied for entry to the Imperium. Quite likely because the old one had pissed off its neighbors to the point where they were getting ready for their own take down that would have bloody at the best and murderous at only the midpoint going down.


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 Post subject: Re: The Por'yr
PostPosted: 13 Oct 2011 00:04 
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All in all it had left a bad taste behind that nobody wanted again. The current Emperor had made the decision to let go of the system fairly early on in his reign, much to the applause of the Senate. Sarigetti's new government had then quickly become a byword for unbelievable corruption and had lasted less than three years after the removal of Imperial protection before it was overthrown by people reputed to be ex-pirates. The resulting new government quickly applied for entry to the Imperium. Quite likely because the old one had so pissed off its neighbors to the point where they were getting ready for their own take down that would have bloody at the best and near genocidal at its worst. His ear bug beeped, distracting him from near ancient history, and he reached up to touch it. "Captain here."

"Sir, emergence is at plus five."

"Acknowledged, XO. I will be there momentarily." He got up and checked his hair in the mirror, straightened his uniform with a few tugs and stepped out into the narrow corridor beyond. Ten steps had him on the cramped bridge.

"Captain on the bridge." Announced the tactical officer from his shock couch.

"XO, status?"

The executive officer was a Thrombrid named Khyiar and resembled nothing less than a dragon covered in bright yellow and white feathers with strapped on webbing for assorted pouches and tools. At almost fifteen feet from nose tip to the feathered tail end, it was hard to imagine him getting around smoothly on such a cramped ship, but he did, furled wings and all. In spite of his appearance, what most people had problems with was how human his voice sounded, even right down to the Capital accent. "CAP is at 5 seconds and Hellion squad is at plus one. All systems are within tolerances Captain.", Khyiar said as he unwrapped his lower body from around the couch.

"Good. Turn over completed, I have the deck." He had made it standard for the four ships of his squadron to be at battle stations whenever they dropped from hyper. Standard Imperial practice was to only do that in unknown or hostile territory, but that left most Imperial ships badly out of practice and prone to mistakes when the battle stations alert when off. The four ships emerged from hyper a mere hundred thirty thousand miles outside of the hyper limit imposed by the sun's gravity well. It was, he thought, a masterful piece of navigation. "Comm, get us our routing from station five. Inform them we are happy to be home."

"Sir." Lt. Garamie Sheple flashed a grin as she went to work. They were all happy to be home. Seconds passed, and then Navigation spoke up. Lt. Pieron d'Gambson voice sounded odd.

"Captain, the navigation beacons are down and automated routing is not receiving an answer." Lt. Sheple spoke up, worry noticeable in her voice. "Sir, communications with our HQ and sector HQ is non-responsive. I am attempting to contact system defense head quarters now."

Captain Thomas flipped the red plastic cover off of a small button on his couches control panel and mashed it down. Immediately the lights dimmed and sirens hooted, signaling battle stations for all hands.

Seconds later the ship shuddered as the six Alert 5 fighters emergency launched. The three destroyers of his fleet lit up their sensors in response to automated battle stations orders from the Por'yr and began to probe nearby space for targets, The powerful scans lashed out and encountered nothing. That did not help the tension. The communications silence was enough to imply volumes.

Seconds ticked by slowly before the communications officer’s voice suddenly broke the thick tension. "Captain, we have contact with a secondary HQ onboard Fighter Station Twelve. Darnell was attacked by a Korgan fleet. Most of the mobile units have been lost as have been the fleet facilities and shipyards at Darnell Four. Darnell Three's shipyards and defenses are untouched, but they do not have any fleet facilities there. Rear Admiral Jenkins has requested that you rendezvous with him at FS12."

Thomas looked at Khyiar and said, “Who the hell is Rear Admiral Jenkins?” The Thrombrid's feathers twitched and flowed around its head in what Thomas had learned to recognize as amusement.

“He is the current second in command of the Fighter Academy, Sir. I believe he has had experience with Captaincy of a Fleet Carrier before his current assignment. I would say he is par for the post.”

Thomas took a moment to filter the answer through his head. It could be taken any number of ways, but he suspected it was ultimately a diplomatic non-answer. Khyiar was damn good at his job, but he just did not think like a human. Nor did he truly understand the concept of seniority. Khyiar could understand experience, but not experience because of seniority as many human centric command systems seemed to use. On the other hand, Thrombrids did tend to do well on the command track and most of them had above average scores on their ships and squadrons. The difference could be seen in the war games played out each year at the Neviargh and Yeudin systems. But so few of them entered the Academies that they had never been able to really prove themselves or their battle doctrines to the High Admirals.

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 Post subject: Re: The Por'yr
PostPosted: 14 Oct 2011 12:49 
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***** Year 452 Day 248 11:26 Darnell System, Fleet Sector 8 HQ

FS 12 was one of a number of fighter training stations that the fighter academy command used to train new pilots in patrol and dog fighting techniques. She was not a monolithic facility like what the holo vids often showed stations to be. The hangers, fuel and living areas were all in their own self contained habitat spheres connected by tram corridors and an impressive number of skeletal girders. Most would have called her ugly at best. And yet she had become the new temporary HQ for Darnell as she was linked into the remains of the system defense data net and could coordinate what remained of the defense more than adequately.

Of course what remained was pitifully small. While virtually no carriers had been damaged, their escorts and the battle line had been nearly wiped out. Several light cruisers, less than twenty destroyers, and all of the original 40 carriers were what remained to assist in the systems defense.

The carriers had taken huge losses in their wings, but the destruction of the Battle stations over Darnell four had left more than enough fighters and pilots to refill the decimated squadrons. Unfortunately, that had brought about its own problems. Few of the pilots knew each other and even fewer had trained together. It would take months to reestablish the unit integrity and training levels to make them effective again.

All in all, it could have been worse, thought Eidenbrack as he entered the crew mess that had been taken over for the meeting. His XO flowed in on its short limbs and took up a position behind his chair. The Thrombrid body was simply not designed to use human benches and he had settled on just standing behind Thomas.

Eidenbrack poured himself some water from the carafe in front of him and waited for the remaining Captains to finish sitting around him. Thomas noticed an old fashioned civilian 2D vision screen had been unrolled and attached to the far wall. The last time he had seen one of those had been in a historical docudrama based off of the Azine war from some 60 years ago.

The Captains rose in a group as Rear Admiral Jenkins walked confidently in, followed by two aides. He turned and faced the room packed full of the lucky few that the navy had determined could command in His Majesties Navy and realized that he may have bit off more than he could chew. But, as was typical of him, it did not stop him from jumping in and doing what needed to be done. With every one of his superiors dead or missing in action, command of the third largest military installation in the empire had devolved upon him. He liked challenges and this was most certainly one of them.

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 Post subject: Re: The Por'yr
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2011 00:22 
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Jenkins voice carried across the room easily. "At ease, Captains. I will be short and to the point. I do not intend to sit here and wait for the Confederacy to come back and mop us up. We will do what our force composition dictates. We will attack. For your information, Darnel is currently off of the FTL com net and will be so for the next 2 weeks as it is rebuilt in orbit over Darnell three. Until then we have no idea of what has happened elsewhere in the Empire. Furthermore, Intelligence thinks that the systems between us and the Confederacy have likely fallen, as have the near ones around us. We think that these systems will have the most Confed forces so we will strike towards the Confederacy where, hopefully, they will have left minor forces to watch over the systems. The lighter units will be easy prey for our fighters and heavier strike bombers. I do not expect us to engage their capital ships. Go for softer targets. Our goal is to attenuate their fleet units by forcing them to escort their convoys heavily. Since they took major escort losses in this battle here, they will be forced to use heavier escorts like cruisers or else face stripping their battle line of its remaining screening units.

The screen came on behind him. "We will split into four task groups. I have picked the commanders based off of recent combat experience and seniority." He rattled off the names, including Thomas’s. "I do not have any ammunition stores transports to give you. What you can carry on board is what you will have until we can scrape something up. So use your expendables wisely." A map of local space appeared on the screen and a green dot began blinking. "We have commandeered four freighters that did not run during the fighting and will position them in deep space. They will carry consumables and spare parts. We may even be able to jury rig one of them into a cheap munitions stores transport, but that will take weeks and may not be feasible in the end. For the foreseeable future, munitions replenishment will require that your task forces return here where they may be vulnerable to ambush if the Korgan take this system."

A series of green arrows stretched from the Capital system and other fleet bases heading for 8th Fleets area, pushing into the glaring red of what was thought to be occupied space. "We have reinforcements coming from prewar reassignments. Over a thousand more ships from the various commands have been assigned to 8th fleet, However, they will be trickling in over the next three months or so. This is based off of the assumption that they are not intercepted short of Darnell or given different orders based off of what is happening elsewhere."

"In short gentlemen, we know we have help coming, but we don't know if it will be in time before the Confeds return to Darnell. We think we can hold it against perhaps two squadrons of battleships. Anything more will simply run us over at this point in time. But I don't want them looking at Darnell. I want them looking over their shoulders for your ships. Even if you do little damage, you will represent a fleet in being and they will have to recognize the threat and guard against it."

" Your job, Captains, is to force the Confeds to pull ships off of the front to prevent a thinning out of their supply line. Targets of opportunity are to be struck at your discretion. Use it wisely."

The admiral took a deep breath before the plunge. "Questions?"

One of the destroyer Captains rose. "Sir, what about the shipyards on Little Darnell? Will they have anything finished in time to aid us in our first operations?"

Laughter echoed across the mess as the Captains enjoyed the inside joke. Darnell Three had eleven shipyards designed with the newest automations to reduce construction time by a third. Naturally, it did not work as intended and hadn't since the yards had been finished five years ago. They typically took twice as long to manufacture anything, including themselves. Even refits took longer than at the less automated yards. It was a bitter joke as the money could have bought nearly twice the number of standardized yards or even another ten desperately needed dreadnoughts.

“As it turns out, no. But they will have two additional destroyers refitted in several weeks time. The next ship officially scheduled for completion is the Dreadnought Vengeance in two weeks. So I figure we will see it in roughly a month. If we are still here she will double the firepower of our non-carrier ships.”

“Sir, what about crew and pilot replacements?”

“We have plenty of both. After all, Darnell is the Primary pilot training academy for the Empire. We actually have more pilots then small craft right now. Also we have the crews for the reactivating ships and the ships that were undergoing refits staged on Darnell Four. Crew are not a problem. Our problem is dealing with your battle damages. Remember, most of the yards are so much junk right now and much of their wreckage has landed on Darnell Four already. “

Jenkins continued, ”Fortunately the actual damage has been relatively small, but it has caused much disruption. Darnell’s industry is largely intact, but it is at the bottom of a gravity well and the planet has few space ports.” Yeah, he thought bitterly. Tourist spaceports with almost no ability to do heavy lifting of any kind. Still, the ability to move people was important and they could still lift minor amounts of consumables. But they could not begin to equal the ability of the destroyed space elevator to move masses of equipment and construction materials.

Darnell was out of the fight for at least three years while it built up its space ports and as for the elevator. Well, it could take up to ten years to replace. It depended on how badly damaged the base of the elevator was. That alone could make a difference of a year or more.

He took several more questions, but his heart was not really in it anymore. The Confederacies attack had ripped the heart out of his commands ability to make a real difference and the Captain’s questions merely reinforced that for him, though that would not stop him from trying to do something. So he would use what he did have going for him. Somehow a half-assed task force of mismatched carriers with largely green pilots did not encourage him much, but it was better than nothing. And that, Jenkins guessed, was something.

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The Crystaline Castle does not do well against rocks. -unknown sarcastic Mage.


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