Difference between revisions of "Free Fleet"

However, it wouldn't save them from the sheer might of Commander [[Mezer Juul]]'s hammer. The Fleet smashed into the [[Der'em]]'s [[Ventosian]] home system, and the Der'em could do naught but delay the inevitable.

Now, because of the fundamental nature of [[wormhole]]s, a one-way wormhole is much more difficult to precisely target. It's also a fact that the energy cost to create a temporary wormhole increases faster than linearly with distance, though not exponentially. As a result, there's a rough optimum distance that [[skipdrives]] on [[starships]] use to create their one-way wormholes, and instead of skipping across huge distances, they skip repeatedly across short ones, at a much reduced energy cost.

In this case, though, the Der'em had no choice but to escape immediately, and so, knowing that where they'd end was fairly unpredictable, they opened a massive one-way wormhole and sent their small fleet through it, hoping that they'd find survival at wherever fate took them, and that the Free Fleet would be unable to follow.

They made it safely through, but the larger the wormhole, the longer it takes to close, and the Free Fleet was able to arrive and deploy a wormhole stabilizer before it closed, leaving the way open for them to pursue the Der'em, which they did.

And Cap'n Maddox? Well with all respect to Commander [[Mezer Juul|Juul]], bless his hairy hide, Cap'n [[Maddox Khan|Maddox]] is god. Wouldn't be standing here today without 'im. Saved us all multiple times... and if he's god, then [[Akari Lane|Akari}'s his angel of death.

In 35 A.E., the Free Fleet defeated the [[Bushraki]] and [[Vendal]] with the help of the newly-formed [[Song Dominion]] thus ending the [[Bushraki War]].

By 50 A.E., Maddox and Akari were aging, and retired. Their 36 year old daughter, [[Tamiko Lane Khan]] took over as Commander of the Free Fleet.

In 74 A.E. the planet Song was utterly devastated in a massive, unexpected and final attack by the Bushraki and Vendal, who then retreated.

In 75 A.E. [[Tamiko Lane Khan|Tamiko]] threw away two entire attack groups of mixed Song and Free Fleet forces against the Ascendancy, doing so in a way as to make it look like the Song commanders under here were at fault for their stunning defeat.

Desperate, the civilian Song council gave Tamiko what she asked for: Direct control of the [[Song Dominion|Song]] military, so that she can integrate them completely with the Free Fleet and thereby maximize their power vs. the [[Celestine Ascendancy|Ascendancy]]. Tamiko hoped to use this power to establish an Empire of her own.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this made no difference to the [[Song Dominion|Song]] - their people had suffered and fought for years against the [[Celestine Ascendancy|Celestines]], and whatever crime the Celestines didn't commit to start the war, the Song believed the Celestines had done far worse since in the following war.

For nine years, the Free Fleet searched for somewhere suitable to live. Ideally, they wished to find a system with at least one broadly-habitable planet that was unoccupied, but none they found met their requirements, and eventually, with resources running low, they agreed to establish a permanent civilization in an asteroid field. These asteroids were found to be rich with raw materials, that they could trade for other supplies, and as a bonus many of the asteroids were nothing but huge chunks of water ice, which could be broken down into its component atoms for oxygen and fuel, or melted to supply the burgeoning civilization with water. Effectively, they had found a source of recoverable water larger than anything a planet could provide.

Resentful of this control and popularity the Human race seemed to enjoy in the Fleet, despite being a small minority, a sizable population of its non-Human members mutinied, led by Harris's second-in-command, a fiery W'hoorn named [[Sere Umox]]. After a brief skirmish, the former Lieutenant Umox took with him nearly half of the fleet's ships and mercenaries. Under [[Sere]] these mutineers became the [[Iron Corsairs]].