- MaxRealflugel
- |
- Elder Mythic Member
Here's what I actually used for my English work:
Tarrick wandered slowly around the command deck of the Hellgret , its polished Tritium hull reflected the countless years of experience that his features portrayed.
Despite this, Tarrick was an efficient and respected ship commander, and the Hellgret would no doubt add to his already impressive stature.
Around him technicians and operations staff busied themselves with endless combat simulations and weapon diagnostics, which would assure the fleet of victory.
He knew that engaging the enemy with overwhelming force, superior tactics and firepower had been the downfall of many commanders who underestimated their foe. But Tarrick was determined that he would not be one of them.
Tarrickās enemy was indeed primitive and narrow minded. With a predilection for self- annihilation and murder on a grand scale, they were more than capable of presenting a threat to any unsuspecting and overconfident invader. Their millennia of warfare had created societies that had raised vast armies who constantly fought with one another over scraps of seemingly worthless land and bleak featureless deserts.
But despite their apparent barbarity, Tarrick was fascinated by them. His decades of schooling as a child had shown him that they had a unique grasp of tactics. And even when faced with overwhelming odds, defeat could still be avoided.
One battle in particular that had stayed with him over the years concerned a small group of soldiers armed with just swords, spears and shields. Over the course of a few days they inflicted an unbelievable amount of casualties on an enemy many times their size with little loss of their own. In the end though they were betrayed, surrounded and killed. And it was these historic accounts that captivated him.
Tarrick had encountered many enemies before that were gifted with technology far beyond those in his studies, but their ineptitude in battle and failure to seize any form of initiative had resulted in defeat. Whereas this new enemy were intelligent in more ways than one.
As his crew readied themselves for the coming battle Tarrick gazed at the main display screen at the forward end of the command deck. Its flowing star scene was almost seductive, as millions of observable suns twisted and warped as the nearby space was altered by the ships powerful star-drive.
This technology had been available to his species for over fifty millennia. But Tarrickās enemy had only recently ventured to the several planets that made up their star-system, and even that was made by autonomous probes launched years before their arrival.
Even this attempt at progress had puzzled him; some were intent on discovery whilst others were more concerned with destruction and death.
The display on the forward screen suddenly changed and Tarrick could feel a shift in the artificially created gravity field from the deck plating. They were slowing.
Before him the image viewer polarized and adapted with the shifting spectrum to exhibit the more familiar scene of stationary starlight.
Tarrick immediately ordered a fleet-wide status report, and at the same time the viewer changed to the lateral sensor array where the previous starlight was replaced by thousands of capital ships, cruisers and fast attack craft all in perfect formation.
At the leading edge of the fleet were point-defence craft. They were tasked with destroying any and all orbital installations around the target, and already they were accelerating ahead of the main fleet to carryout their duty.
The bulk of the fleet was made up from capital ships like the Ascendant Justice. Between them they could house whole populations of cities, but they were also more than capable of reducing one to rubble in an incredibly short space of time. They would provide the majority of the fleetās firepower in addition to the drop-ships for the ground assault.
Flanking them were the faster and more maneuverable cruisers. Despite their reduced firepower when compared to a capital ship they could attack swiftly and in large numbers. This made them the perfect accompaniment to any assault.
After a brief wait a multitude of confirmation indicators chimed the main fleetās readiness for combat.
Only two support craft had been forced to remain at the exit point which sent a crooked smile across Tarrickās wrinkled face.
Despite the advanced technology available to them, travelling between distant points in space was always risky, and he had accounted for the possible loss of ten or more ships at least during transit. So the news of two intact but non-operational craft was more than welcome.
Once Tarrick was confident with the fleetās dispersal and status he ordered the advance to the target. Before them a dull-grey moon flashed quickly by as they sped into a geosynchronous orbit with the target.
As they arrived the point-defence fleet was mopping up the remaining satellites in orbit, but Tarrick knew that only a handful of them were even the slightest of threats.
āStand by to fire,ā ordered Tarrick.
The bridge crew and the rest of the fleet immediately responded with the opening of plasma batteries.
The dull thrum of charging weapons sounded throughout the hull of the Helgret , as the energy of several suns were channelled into cohesive balls of superheated plasma.
āFire!ā Bellowed Tarrick
The ship shuddered violently before the inertia reduction field kicked in.
The display screen changed once more to the forward view just in time for it to be illuminated by hundreds of pulsing plasma shells all hurtling towards their individual targets on the planet below.
Tarrick was pleased by what he saw and had to restrain himself from roaring with joy. He was old enough to know that victory was far from assured.
But in the end, like every other world before it, Earth would fall and every trace of Humanity would die with it.
[Edited on 02.05.2009 10:54 AM PST]