Writing Practice 2

Sophia woke, as always, with a start. Her bed obligingly began to raise towards a standing position and she stepped shakily from it, pulling the waking circuit from her arm and rubbing her eyes. "Good morning Excellency." Lily stepped forward and offered a spotless silver tray, on which stood a tall glass of fruit juice, and a glass bowl containing her medication.

Sophia took the medication with a gulp of fruit juice then sat down at her desk, holding her body still while her eyes roving over the screen, shifting between one page and another with a mental command. Lily stepped forward and began to click her support systems into their ports across her body. Another morning in the life of a super being. Sophia allowed herself the one instant of loathing for these daily rituals, for her father for making her this way, and for her own body, then clamped down.

"Lily, after breakfast have the my staff assembled in meeting room too." She drained the remains of the juice and looked down at her hands. Today she would find out if she was as good as she thought she was.

Planning

The meeting room was cramped, barely large enough for the wooden table and seven officers who sat around it. Morale, Sophia gauged from the slumped postures and quieted dialogue was not high. All rose as she came in, and she returned their salutes "Good Morning, please sit." She walked to the head of the table and looked around, "The mood seems pretty sombre here. Did I die in the night without realizing it?"

That got a few chuckles. Admiral Marlson raised his head. "Well Excellency, you've got to admit, there's not much to smile about."

"True, the situation is bad, but we're not done yet." Sophia sat, folding her arms in her lap. "Even if the Independents, no, I should say, the Mnemosyne have won a stunning victory, they are one planet. The Union counts a thousand worlds among its territories. They will need far more than one victory to gain hope in this war." She looked around, watching as her words returned animation to the rest of the room. "That doesn't really help our position however, this position is still untenable. We'll have to fall back to Zeus." She loaded a file from her implants into the tables projector and the room's lights dimmed. "On the way though, we won't be idle." The projector showed a system. A bright blue star surrounded not by planets but by vast whirls of gas and rock. The legend Cyclops was emblazoned above it. "We will move to the Cyclops system, and there ambush and destroy the Mnemosyne First Fleet as it attempts to transit to Zeus."

There were murmurs at that. "Admiral Hantsburg," Representative Douglas spoke up "I admire your bravery in wishing to engage the enemy fleet so soon after their victories, but how do you know they'll transit through Cyclops? Why not Hades or Persephone?"

"That's simple: time. Cyclops is the fasted route from the last reported position of the first fleet to Zeus, and they must get there fast. Every moment until they do is one more when we can figure out a way to destroy the shipyards there without devastating the planet, and another when reinforcements may arrive. If they lose those shipyards then what little hope they may have will evaporate. Thus they will move by the shortest route, and attempt to pre-empt our defences."

On the plan a gleaming path Douglas nodded, his handsome face set in a frown of concentration. "The same logic applies to this choice of route yes? Extensive reconnaissance would spoil the ambush as our scouts would certainly be detected."

Sophia felt a flash of annoyance at him stealing some of her thunder, and but quickly continued "Indeed. Unfortunately even with the Mnemosyne I don't believe they'll oblige us by making their exact transit time subject to maths. To determine their precise position we will however cheat." She raised a hand to point to a glowing blue dot "This is scientific probe AX-281. It was launched around fifty years ago, but it's still transmitting. We will position our elements so the Mnemosyne's projected route is between them and the probe. Their particle jamming field will allow us to determine their exact position."

The graph changed at her mental command, zooming in on one point. "The fleet will split into two elements. The first element will consist of twenty lowercases. Vice Admiral Marlson will be in command. They will be ahead of the enemy here. I will command the second element, here, containing the majority of the fleet and our capital units. As the Mnemosyne fleet transits across us group will launch a volley of missiles against its rear half, forcing those ships to drop acceleration and evade. One division from group two under Commodore Littenwood will push in between two halves of the enemy fleet." Sophia could see Littenwood smiling at this notion. He always loved this kind of thing. "Meanwhile group one will attack the head of the enemy and prevent it from turning back to attack us. Do not engage them heavily, as you'll be outnumbered. Instead attack them only enough to prevent them from turning." Marlson nodded. "Once we have crushed the back half of the enemy fleet we'll turn our full force on the front, and finish them off. By massing almost our full strength against half of theirs, and making use of the superiority of our vessels against their cruisers we should gain a fairly easy victory." I hope hung in the air unsaid.

Marlson nodded "I cannot see any initial problem with your plan Admiral, but we should war game it to see if any problems happen in execution."

"Alright." Sophia nodded "Assemble your staffs ladies and gentlemen.

Something totally else I thought of

Introduction Goes here

Literature Review

Lit Review Introduction goes here

In general the literature regarding the Republic of New Liberty is divided between two narratives. These narratives generally but not exclusively run along political lines, and geographical ones (Simons, 2331 pp 21). Both of these narratives are however the product of history, and in general seek to draw a parallel between the Republic of New Liberty (RNL) and an earth based historical parallel.

The first, presented by writers such as Richard Hicket (Hicket 2329), Susan Lasmis (Lasmis 2330) and Nina Baltimore (Baltimore 2332) we characterize as the narrative of an "Old State". This narrative is often the province of writers from North America and in some cases Europe, and is generally associated with sympathy for the Party of the Past (Simons, 2331 pp 22). Under this construction the RNL is seen as a throwback to the Pre-Nuclear Exchange/Pre-Contact states twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What is remarkable about this narrative is that it does not lead to seeing the RNL as a relatively benign but underdeveloped entity, which will eventually join the Federation proper. Rather the RNL's success in colonizing its own homeworld and spreading through the surface gate system is seen of evidence of the strength. The RNL is not behind us on a the same path, rather it is in on a different, perhaps even superior one.

Something completely different again

The deck under Meixiu shivered in the heavy swell. She scanned the ocean through the bridge windows, the displays built into them out the dark ocean in an eyrie blue wire frame. Ahead, she could make out the bulk of [i]Sea Witch[/i], her eyes encoding neutralizing it's optic camouflage, but still having some difficulty seeing it in the darkness and uncertain thermal conditions of the storm tossed ocean.

A massive breaker sloshed across the fore turret, breaking against the bridge windows and momentarily washing out her view. The main plot showed they were still on course, the red line of their weapons range creeping gradually forward towards the shore and the icons of friendly and enemy units displayed there. Behind the Sea Witch and Meixiu's Water Lily the other two warships of the flotilla Tiger Lily and Ocean Breeze kept their station.

Meixiu tried not to think about the other red line, the one extending from the shore far past her flotilla representing enemy weapon range. If the enemy attacked now they'd have to launch their missiles and hope for the best, most likely losing most of them before they even hit the shore, let alone the enemy.

A new contact marker appeared on the map. "New contact." The sensor operator called out, rapidly scrolling through her screens. "It's on the water surface. I'm seeing it on both the air and water drone tracks." She looked up. "About ten thousand tons displacement. Definitely a ship."

"Any active emissions?" Meixiu raised an eyebrow. The enemy wasn't supposed to have ships.

"I'm spotting neutrinos, likely a fusion generator, and several electromagnetic disturbances, probably spark plugs or capacitors." The sensor operator looked up. "I think we're looking at some kind of native conversion. Something the EPIs have bolted a bunch of their technology too."

"That tracks... weps, get me a firing solution on that thing with the cannons. If it pings us, sink it. Sensors, find me anymore of them." Another wave washed across the forward turret as it swung around, hyper coils swinging to track the target, the turret and guns moving minutely as they kept up the track with the movement of both vessels. Meixiu could see the guns on Sea Witch doing the same.

There was a tense silence for a few moments as her section heads began to work through their internal communications, then three more blips grew on the map, at some distance from the first, then eight, then three more.

"There's a whole squadron of the alien fucks." The weapons operator muttered.

Meixiu frowned a bit, watching. The enemy where arrayed as if they where a convoy and pickets. "It looks like they've got the same idea we have. Use the storm to cover a seaborne assault. Only the middle contacts are likely troop ships."

"Concur." Sensors nodded.

Meixiu looked up and to her left, bringing up the images of the three other ship's captain's under her command "You lot following along here?"

"We're humming along Commodore." Captain Mehra of the Tiger Lily grinned. "If a bunch of Balwar marines come ashore behind our line the ground forces are going to be pretty hopped. We need to sink these transports, or at least report them."

"That'll open us up to fire from the land though." Adachi off the Ocean Breeze frowned.

"I thought of that." Meixiu pointed at an area of the map to the West, closer to shore. "We'll cut through the convoy behind the front escort force and run along the chain of islands here. That should shield us from most shore based detection except for drones. Our drones can pop those from above the storm."

"Very well. Engage if they see us?" Adachi asked, adjusting her cap.

"Weapons free if we're revealed, and run as soon as we fire." Meixiu looked at the contacts. She wondered how much of a fight the enemy could put up with native conversions. The Expanse cruisers should be able to wipe the decks with them given their sea frames but you could never be entirely sure. She watched the plot as the four cruisers moved in between the two parts of the enemy formation, distances between icons lengthening as the ships separated to combat distance. On the foredeck the ship's main turret swung slowly, tracking its target.

The turret had tracked so far that it would soon lose its target behind the Water Lily's superstructure when. A new contact blinked onto the screen. Sensor's voice was urgent: "drone launch from one of the warships near the centre of the convoy."

The ship's radar warning receiver began to beep, and then the guns discharged. "Multiple hits on the first enemy. She's sinking." Weapons reported coolly. "Engaging second target. Torpedoes away." Rockets thundered up and away into the storm, bright flares of heat marking [i]Sea Witch's[/i] release of similar weapons in the distance. The sound of the supercavitating torpedoes hitting the water showed on the main screen a moment later, weapons running in towards the enemy convoy from all angles.

The frontal enemy group was sinking already. Several of the torpedoes where stopped, others pushing through towards the central group. The plot beeped urgently. "Shore based missile launch detected." The computer said. There were eight tracks, four lofted high, four coming in low.

"Tracking incoming weapons. Point defence active. First missile... gone. Second missile... gone." Weapons worked frantically. "Main turrets tracking..." A blip vanished, then another. Two went up at the same time. "The last one's still on course but it's going to overshoot. It won't be..." the warhead vanished and at seemingly the same instant there was an intense flash of light and heat. Meixia grabbed onto her chair as the ship shook, a wall of glowing water hurtling towards them. The captain had time to raise her hands reflexively before the nuclear shock wave slammed into the cruiser.