Post new topic   Reply to topic    7th Fleet Forum Index -> Fleet News
View previous topic :: View next topic   Goto page 1, 2  Next
Morgan Shackelford
sparrow794
Tactical - Vice Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 17 Jan 2010
Posts: 3119

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

Forum Image

As some of you may know, I have been working on a novel for about the last six months.  I am preparing to release the second draft; if you want to be on my mailing list to receive a copy, please respond to this thread or send me a PM with your e-mail address.  Teaser follows in thread.



Last edited by sparrow794 on 08/14/14 19:43; edited 1 time in total


_________________
Morgan Shackelford
sparrow794
Tactical - Vice Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 17 Jan 2010
Posts: 3119

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0



Last edited by sparrow794 on 05/19/14 22:53; edited 1 time in total


_________________
Morgan Shackelford
sparrow794
Tactical - Vice Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 17 Jan 2010
Posts: 3119

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: Chapter 8

0

Scipio, when he looked upon the city as it was utterly perishing and in the last throes of its complete destruction, is said to have shed tears and wept openly for his enemies. After being wrapped in thought for long, and realizing that all cities, nations, and authorities must, like men, meet their doom; that this happened to Ilium, once a prosperous city, to the empires of Assyria, Media, and Persia, the greatest of their time, and to Macedonia itself, the brilliance of which was so recent, either deliberately or the verses escaping him, he said:

A day will come when sacred Troy shall perish,

And Priam and his people shall be slain.

And when Polybius speaking with freedom to him, for he was his teacher, asked him what he meant by the words, they say that without any attempt at concealment he named his own country, for which he feared when he reflected on the fate of all things human.

The Fall of Carthage

 

Sunless Heart wanted to see the view with his own eyes, not through sensors or on screens. He shut down all the interior lights and flipped some safeties, and with a whir the blast screens protecting the main bridge of his cargo vessel began to slide open. Bright light immediately came through the initial opening, expanding as the doors moved to flood the bridge, its warmth passing across his face as if the sun were rising.

When the doors finally clicked into their fully open position, Sunless Heart stood, allowing his eyes to adjust to the sunlight. There in the center of the window hung a waning blue crescent, glittering in the light of the distant sun. Earth.

Just getting here had been a nightmare. His presence in this space was a direct violation of Council law. The outer edges of the system’s planetesimal cloud were littered with both active and passive monitoring devices designed to prevent exactly what he was doing, which was penetrating this system with a starship. Many of the snoopers had been left by his own people, but it still took several of his best tricks and more than a few tense moments to pierce through the protective layer unnoticed.

He partially turned to see the rest of his skeleton crew taken by the naked view. “Prepare and launch a standard probe spread. We need to find out if this trip was even worth the trouble.” As he saw his Seth snap out of their awe and move to execute his commands, he returned his attention to the open window bay.

Earth. Theirs had been the first eyes to lay upon this planet in more than a century. From this distance, it looked none the worse for wear. But Sunless Heart knew looks could be deceiving, particularly in this case. The last time he had seen Earth, it was consumed with fire.

It had not been the decision of the minds at the time to deliver a counterstroke in the same vein as the atrocity that had drawn them all here in the first place. They would not destroy this world utterly, though they likely could have cracked this rock in twain if they had wished it. No, planets like this were precious, rare commodities, and they could be patient. Exterminating the inhabitants without permanently ruining the world was the decision. It would cost them little more than they had already paid, in any case.

In what some scholars considered an unusual coincidence, all of the races that were involved in the Terran Conflict took to the stars at approximately the same time. Approximate, that is, in cosmic terms – which is to say things were close enough among them to where there were no large gaps in technological advantage that existed between any of the races. Trade, diplomacy, agreement, and even outright intellectual theft kept all of the races on relatively even terms of scientific advancement from that point forward.

The Ebri were an aggressive, expansionist race whose homeworld, Haven, was not terribly far from Earth. Much like Humans and Seth, Ebri were descended from a predatory, omnivore species. In the specific case of the Ebri, their genetic ancestors were very similar to wolves. It was not long before the two races ran headlong into each other, and it wasn’t long after that when they started vying for territory. A ‘cold war’ of sorts began, each side attempting to position itself advantageously. As time passed, other races began to enter into the picture. The Nillu, the Lepid, the Seth, and to a lesser extent the Jhovan – everyone made contact with everyone else and established formal relationships, and oftentimes, trade. But no other races were as antagonistic towards each other as the Ebri and the Humans. There simply were not enough ideal worlds to go around in their mutual vicinity.

And so it came to blows. Humans had rushed headlong into a system very near Ebri space, a system the Humans chose to name ‘Serendipity.’ This was space that the Ebri considered theirs by right, though they had no formal claim or established colony. When Ebri colony ships landed on the one habitable planet in the system, they discovered a thriving colony of some one hundred thousand humans. The Ebri then proceeded to slaughter every last one of the Human colonists without hesitation.

Many historians agreed that the Ebri were the initial aggressors, but some of them speculated that the Terrans planned things this way. According to the theory, the human colonists knew nothing of the danger in which they were being purposefully placed; but the Terran Confederacy understood full well the response just such an incursion into Ebri claimed space would provoke. The one fact that made this theory even slightly plausible is that after the Serendipity Massacre, the response of the Terrans was incredibly immediate. It was if they were prepared. Terran fleets swept through Ebri space in a wide pincer movement, catching the Ebri almost completely off guard, and when the hammer struck the anvil at Haven, the Terrans turned the entire planet to cinder. They sterilized it. Every blade of grass, every bird, beast, microbe, every mote of life, Ebri included - were not just killed, but turned to piles of so much ash. The planet would never live again.

The remaining races could not ignore what was happening, especially when Terran fleets began to behave aggressively along their own borders. One could argue that the Humans were paranoid, protective, or even afraid of a repeated incident with another race that resulted in the murder of a human colony. Whatever the case, the result was that the remaining races banded together to form the Council – and when they did so, they did not invite the Terrans to be a part of it. And that was all it took. Convinced that they were a target, that war was inevitable, the Terrans launched pre-emptive strikes into Council territory.

Despite the seeming preparedness of the Council races, they nearly lost. The primary Terran fleet made it as far as Falloh in a lightning campaign that swallowed up a third of Council space in very short order. It was feared that the Seth would suffer the same fate as the Ebri. But things would be different than on Haven. The Seth were not taken entirely by surprise as the Ebri had been. They were dug in, and had just enough manpower and weaponry to hold out.

Fighting raged throughout the Falloh system for months, the Terrans never quite able to position themselves for a coup de grâce. Every gain the Terrans made was followed by a similar setback, until finally the Lepid Collective arrived in system. They crushed the exhausted, battle weary Terran fleet with weight of sheer numbers. After the Humans had been pushed out of Falloh, the rest of the conflict could be defined as a ‘mop up,’ though that phrase was a terrific understatement. The Council Navy’s campaign to Earth took years, and the Humans fought tooth and nail every last step of the way. All except for the final step.

Desperate to avoid the same fate they had dealt the Ebri, the Terran Confederation offered a flag of truce to discuss terms. Council leadership accepted, their casualty projections for an assault on Earth were simply unacceptable. So the Terrans allowed a small contingent of Council representatives to land on Earth to start talks.

What happened next is somewhat unclear, but seemed to be by design. The Terran Defense Grid and Confederation Navy were completely brought offline in what is believed to have been some sort of cyber-coup, and the Council Navy entered the system as if on cue and razed Earth’s population centers with virtually no resistance. The targeting of the Council ships was very specific, bombarding Confederation military assets with an uncanny degree of accuracy and wiping out large segments of the native populace. Council Marines landed shortly thereafter and finished the job, sparing the large portion of planet while fully removing the cancer that the Council considered humans to be. The battle at Earth, and its subsequent cleansing, became known as The Great Ravaging.

In the aftermath, Lepid scientists descended on Earth and made battle damage assessments. They calculated that the environment would stabilize itself, given enough time. Many native flora and fauna would survive – probably even flourish - in the safe zones. They estimated it would take a few centuries before the entire planet was safe for colonization. In the meantime, the Council decreed the entire system off limits to all races. Exactly who would be given control of such a rare gem would be determined at a later time. After some early incidents where pirates had used the space as a hideout, monitoring stations were installed throughout the planetesimal cloud that shrouded the system.

Sunless Heart watched as a series of probes launched from the belly of his vessel. He hoped the planet itself was as strong a fighter as its host species had been. He closed the blast doors and took his seat in the Talon’s chair and pondered the idea of failsafes.



_________________
Jason32
Science - Vice Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 16 Apr 2011
Posts: 1136

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

I highly recommend this book if you are a nerd reader like me...



_________________
CAPT Huckabee
Tactical - Captain

user avatar

Joined: 28 Jun 2011
Posts: 2173

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

Hmmm.....I want to read it, sign me up.  You plan on getting it printed in future? I've always preferred an actual book over electronic.



_________________
Admiral Van Wormer
Science - Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 24 Aug 2009
Posts: 762

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

Oh yeah, I wanna read it!! Thanks Shack.



_________________
Wupteedo
Science - Fleet Captain

user avatar

Joined: 12 Oct 2012
Posts: 1222

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

Always enjoy a good read.  Please sign me up.

 



_________________

Improvise    Adapt    Overcome
 
Anton Mercer
Engineering - Captain

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Posts: 1620

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

Sign me up as well. My email is the same as before but let me know if you need it.



_________________
VADM pRett
Tactical - Vice Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 14 Jan 2010
Posts: 1865

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0



_________________
Prett photo Prett.png
Morgan Shackelford
sparrow794
Tactical - Vice Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 17 Jan 2010
Posts: 3119

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0
Huckabee40 wrote:

Hmmm.....I want to read it, sign me up.  You plan on getting it printed in future? I've always preferred an actual book over electronic.

 

One way or another, yes.  It's the method of reaching that goal that is still largely up in the air.



_________________
VADM JT Kerry
VADM JT Kerry
Engineering - Vice Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 18 Jan 2010
Posts: 1248

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

I'm in.  I've been waiting for it.  And, I'll buy the book when it's published - even if it's digital.  Shack, I told you before, you make a good read.

JT



_________________
 


VADM JT Kerry, USS Astoria, "Lucky" 7th Fleet, Starfleet Command, UFP

davisjm0311

user avatar

Joined: 29 Mar 2009
Posts:

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

Would love to read it!



_________________
 
EvildeadXL
Tactical - Captain

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 11 Mar 2012
Posts: 256

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

I would like to read it as well, email is the same.



_________________
Anton Mercer
Engineering - Captain

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 20 Sep 2009
Posts: 1620

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0
sparrow794 wrote:
Huckabee40 wrote:

Hmmm.....I want to read it, sign me up.  You plan on getting it printed in future? I've always preferred an actual book over electronic.

 

One way or another, yes.  It's the method of reaching that goal that is still largely up in the air.

There a chance you could put it up in the store? Maybe that could smoke out a publisher, or at least give it some PR



_________________
VADM pRett
Tactical - Vice Admiral

user avatar
Awarded:
Joined: 14 Jan 2010
Posts: 1865

Send private message
Reply with quote

re: The Sun Never Rises

0

Don't forget, Shack, once you get it to a stage you're ready to try and get it published, I do have a very good friend that's an author* that can provide some pointers/suggestions.

 

* = published (started with self-publishing)



_________________
Prett photo Prett.png
Posts from:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    7th Fleet Forum Index -> Fleet News All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum