Terran Resistance

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/24/2351 20:09

I've had some time to think finally since there hasn't been much to do for a while. It's been 3 days since we were sent off on our "mission" and so far we're still stuck in the Sol System. The Vinak are guarding every warp point that we could utilize to get out of here. That's the bad news. The good news is that our Active Camo is working perfectly. As far as we can tell neither the Constant nor the other 4 Guerrilla Cruisers have been detected floating around the Sol System. We're all just hoping that an opportunity arrives where we can successfully run a warp point.

There's no official definition of what it means to "run" a warp point, but pretty much it means trying to go through a wormhole that's defended by an enemy force. I've never been involved with "running" a warp point. John told me that a he was part of a group of pilots that had to do it. Apparently while defending a system, I think it was the Newton system, they got separated from the main fleet. The fleet they were a part of retreated and then the Vinak guarded the only warp point that would take them back to a Human controlled system. Apparently they just went full speed and blasting away until they went through the warp point and found themselves 12 light years away. A few people didn't make it, but that's the danger of running a well defended warp point. Between being shot at, and the natural gravimetric turbulence from approaching an open worm hole, your ship can get banged up pretty good.

I can tell that the Captain is getting restless. He's constantly talking to the other captains trying to come up with a plan to get out of Vinak controlled space. I'm getting a little concerned because the plans keep getting crazier and crazier. First we were just going to wait for an opening, but that's taking too long. Next idea was to sneak by hoping that the Active Camo fools sensors even at close range, but I had to stop that idea because the gravimetric turbulence would tear our Active Camo apart. Then the idea was that one ship would create a distraction while the rest sneak through. The problem is that would only get at most 4 of the 5 ships out of the system. The latest plan - and I use that term loosely - is all 5 ships just go full speed towards a warp point, turn off our active camo, then blast our way through. Which is a plan that a 5 year old could've come up with. I'm quickly losing what faith I ever had in our "leadership".

System Command: End Log

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/23/2351 20:12

I've now deleted and restarted this log 3 times now. I don't know what to make of what's happened. I watched as the President officially surrendered and the Prime Minister handed control over to Jonas. I watched as Vinak cruisers started orbiting earth, and transports landed Vinak ground troops. I also read reports of the remaining Human Ships were abandoned; it's crews sent home. By all rights I should have been part of one of those crews that got to go home. Not sent on some fools mission. I wonder if I could just ask to be let off. Hey Captain, I didn't sign up for this crap. Let me off at the next space station, will ya? I don't know what else to say.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/21/2351 18:36

We're surrendering! It just came across the news wires. Some sort of treaty has been worked out. The details are still sketchy, but essentially it's handing sovereignty over to the Vinak ambassador, Jonas. Both the President and Prime Minister have endorsed it, but it still requires approval by 2/3rds of the Assembly. The Assembly will be voting on a treaty shortly and it's expected to pass easily. Unfortunately, I have to celebrate this by myself in my very very small bunk because I still haven't found anyone else that was hoping for us to surrender. Apparently, the rest of the crew aren't good at thinking things through.

From the sounds of it, the only concessions humans received was that Soldiers and Officers of the Human Armed Forces would receive amnesty from all past crimes. That works for me. I've got a live feed of the Assembly building in Cairo. I'm going to watch. Attention: All crew stand by for an announcement from Captain Harris. It seems the Captain is going to make an announcement. Hopefully, this is our decommissioning orders.

All Officers and Crewmembers, this is the Captain. When I first received command of the H.A.F. Constant, I was handed sealed paper orders that I was ordered to keep hidden and not open until given an explicit directive from the Admiral of the Fleet himself. A few moments ago I received that directive. The first line directed me to read the whole of the text out loud to the crew before reading it myself. It reads as follows:
HAF Crew and Officers. If you are hearing this, then today is a sad day for humanity. It means that the United Human Government has been conquered, destroyed, or in some other way incapacitated by the Vinak. Your final order from the government you pledged your allegiance to is straight forward, but difficult. Resist. Resist until either death or humanity is free from alien control. Do this by any means you deem necessary. Since you're hearing this, It is likely that you are among the last of the Human Armed Forces. With the orders your captain has received will be times and coordinates to rendezvous with other surviving HAF ships and soldiers. Humanities future is being entrusted with you. You were not selected for this task by random chance. You were chosen for your current assignment because you are the best and the brightest. You have been given the training and the equipment needed to carry out these final orders. Good luck.
Signed,
President Rachael Racanelli
President of the United Human Government
Commander in Chief of the Human Armed Forces.

...
...
Full Alert!
Weapons! Engage The Active Camo!
Helm! Take us out of orbit and away from any Vinak Ships!
Comm! Turn of that damn Intercom!


I... uh... Shit! I need to report to the Command Center!

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/20/2351 20:04

All ships have been sent a general "stand down" order yesterday. We received it after a 2 hour meeting between President Racanelli and the Vinak ambassador. That allowed us to go back to a normal rotation and since then I've been glued to any console showing live news feeds. When none is around, I have my PID. I've been looking for any signs that the government comes to it's senses and realize that we can't win. Though, around here, I'm starting to think that I'm the only one hoping for a surrender. Everyone else seems very happy to die for no reason.

Anyways, from what I gather, the Vinak ambassador has been in closed door meetings with various government officials all day now. I've also learned that his name is Jonas. Well, actually, that's his human adapted name that he's going by on Earth since his real name is completely unpronounceable. Something like [*gulp]gagu or something sort of like that. I'm told that some people have actual learned to speak rudimentary Vinaken, I am not one of them. Maybe I should start...

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/19/2351 11:22

My God, there must be thousands of them, and yet more keep coming. Vinak warships, transports, and other flying hardware are now surrounding every moon and planet in our system that has any humans on it. If they decided to attack it would probably be all over in a matter of hours. No matter what kind of terrestrial defenses that the H.A.F. have put in place.

A small Vinak shuttle made it's way to Earth. Perez picked up radio signals from it claiming to be a Vinak ambassador wishing to negotiate a fair peace deal. I thought it would be turned right around. That's the way the President has normally reacted. However, this is the first time Vinak warships were getting ready to invade his own planet. The President must have noticed that because he allowed the shuttle to land and has called for a closed session of the Assembly.

After hearing about the news I got permission to leave the Command Center from Commander Pierre. I made up some malfunction that needed to be attended to right away. Instead, I came to my quarters. I came to pray. Pray that the Assembly negotiates a surrender. I'm not afraid to fight and I'm not afraid to die. I'm no coward. I don't want humanity lose our freedom, or the Vinak to conquer yet another species, but none of that matters now. There's nothing we can do about it. There are thousands of Vinak warships out there, and more coming through every minute. Why fight a battle that's going to cause untold death and carnage when you know you're going to lose?

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/18/2351 13:45

I just got back from unloading supply ships. We must have taken on 100 tons of supplies. I wasn't doing the inventory, but I think it was enough weapons for us to fight the upcoming battle by ourselves. We're all in disbelief that we had enough time load it all before the Vinak attacked.

About 10 hours ago, the Vinak attack stopped. They didn't retreat, they just stopped attacking and advancing, and it's not like we stopped them. Most of our cruisers were destroyed or disabled. Every single space station and orbiting outpost has been destroyed except for Earth's. Our fighters, what ones are left, are facing fuel and supplies shortage(fortunately, it seems, the Cruisers are not). Every ship that's left - about two dozen, I think, is currently orbiting Earth or Earth's moon. The human race can no longer protect any of it's colonies... or probably not even Earth itself.

Meanwhile, Neither the President, Prime Minister, or the Assembly are showing any signs of surrendering. They put out a message on all of the civilian comm networks saying to prepare for the 'worst'. "No matter what happens, know that you are not alone. All of mankind is standing together to resist." It was quite the war cry, but completely ineffective. Soon after making the speach, I watched from my console as hundreds of civilian ships took off from Earth, Mars, and dozens of moons making for various warp points around the solar system. The Vinak destroyed a few dozen of the fleeing ships before the rest turned back.

From what I hear the Vinak have never done that. When conquering our other systems, they always let civilian ships run away before bombarding and landing ground assaults. For the first time, I'm scared of what the Vinak are going to do once they've won the war.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/18/2351 03:36

We engaged a couple cruisers on the way to Earth. 3 of them. I was terrified. I thought we were goners. This was the first time I'd ever actually been in a battle. I think the last time I was that scared was when I was 7 and my dad told me he was dieing. The Captain kept his cool though. Instead of trying to get away, he ordered us to charge head on into them. I wasn't really paying much attention to the actual battle while trying to keep the ship together during the battle. Suddenly, I wasn't registering any more hits on our outer armor. I looked up at the tactical display and no longer saw the Vinak cruisers. I must have muttered something out loud, though I don't remember what. Commander Pierre looked up from his station and at me. He smiled then turned back around.

We've arrived at Earth. The Vinak ships have stopped advancing at the moment. They're probably preparing for one last push to Earth. We're taking advantage of the break by getting resupplied. I'm catching a 30 minute chem-nap before I have to help load up the supplies.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/17/2351 00:23

The ship is repaired and headed to battle. We're heading straight to Earth. Since we're still so far from the action, most have been ordered to get a chemical induced nap.

The other ships that were protecting Draco-Dresdin have already entered the battle hours ago. Unfortunately, with the exception of the BC-7 and GC-1 class ships, they didn't last long. How could they? Most of them couldn't stand toe to toe with 1 Vinak cruiser, and now we're facing being outnumbered 3 to 1 with fewer and fewer fighters left to lend a hand.

Meanwhile, more Vinak cruisers are continuing to flow through the Alpha Centauri warp point at an unbelievable rate. Worse, they are spreading in every direction. They are charging through our system unchallenged in many parts. In others, only token resistance. This is retarded! Why can't we just surrender? We lost. The Vinak have won. This war is fucking over! [*sigh]

John 's entire fighter wing was destroyed.

System Command: End Log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/16/2351 3:24

If there ever was a chance of repelling the Vinak Invasion, it was lost in the last 12 hours. Those random missile attacks ended with a bang. A... I don't know how many, high speed and large payload missiles came flying out of the Draco, Dresdin, and Alpha Centauri warp points. I watched on the tactical display as about 20 or more color coded dots - each representing a HAF cruiser - disappeared from the display. The Comm officer, Lieutenant Perez, I think, reported several others took damage.

Meanwhile, the fighters at Alpha Centauri experienced a similar assault. Several faster and smaller missiles popped through and took out a couple hundred fighters. Less than a minute later the Vinak cruisers started streaming through the Alpha Centauri warp point blasting anything that didn't look like one of their large shiny bright white ships.

We and a couple of the other Guerrilla Cruisers were the only ones to avoid any damage probably because of our state-of-the-art defenses. Expecting the Vinak to come through the other 2 warp points, we and the other undamaged GC-1 cruisers took our points directly facing the Draco and Dresdin warp points with the rest of the fleet flanking.

For what seemed like forever we just held our position. The Captain, along with everyone else in the Command Center, got periodic reports of the battle waging on the other side of the solar system. The reports were never good. Vinak ships kept streaming through faster than the fighters could take 'em out. Once in a while the Captain would bring up the tactical display of the battle, and I would steal a glance. It was almost artful the way the entire fighter fleet descend on the Vinak cruisers, tried to hit their weak spots, fly past, turn around, and do it again. The Viank cruisers looked like 800 pound apes swinging at a swarm of bees. Once in a while they'd get lucky and hit one. Unfortunately, there were so many of them, and they each kept getting lucky. Their ships, in spite of heavy loses kept pushing further and further away from the Warp Point. They pushed right into our stationary outposts and destroyed them.

It was at that moment that the Admiral of the fleet ordered all ships to enter the battle which was probably ridiculously too late. It would take us at least 18 hours to get over there at max speed. Maybe less depending on how far the Vinak fleet push. Anyways, at this point all the cruisers turned around and maxed their engines to the other side of the solar system. That is, all the cruisers except one. I told the Captain not to it. We had not tested them at maximum burn. Well, he didn't listen. Helm fired up the engines to max, and the next thing I know I have a Leading Shipmate yelling into my ear piece to shut down the primary thrusters.

As it turns out our 2 primary thruster's main plasma line wasn't created properly and when the full heat and pressure of the engine fuel hit it, the piece ripped apart and deadly plasma started venting into our ship. This ship has 2 of everything... except fuel lines. Now we're dead in space except for some slow maneuvering thrusters. A supply ship has been dispatched from the Jupiter yards with a replacement piece. It'll take 'em 8 hours to get here and another half day for us to replace the tubing. I don't think I ever heard a Captain swear as much or loudly as Harris did when I told him how long it will take to fix his ship. "Great! Fucking Great. Hey! Why don't we all have a god damn tea party while we're at it! Jesus Christ I don't fucking believe this. Damn it Chou. How could you let this happen".

I replied with something like, "Hey asshole! don't blame me for this. You're the idiot that didn't let me test the engines and then maxed 'em out against my warning." OK, I didn't put it that way exactly. I said something that was a little more diplomatic, but not much apparently.

"Chou! Get the hell out of my command center and don't come back until my ship is flying again!" For a moment I thought I saw actual steam comping out of the Captain's ears.[laughing] Well, until the supply ship gets here, there's nothing to do and I'm not welcome in the C.C. So nothing to do but wait.

System Command: End log.

Alex Chou's Log for: 12/15/2351 13:34

It's been almost 4 days... I think, maybe more. I don't really feel like doing the math right now. It's hard to keep track with the insane sleep schedule I've been keeping. I'll be on dugy for 14 hours,sleep for a couple hours, back on duty for another 14 hours straight and etc. Meanwhile, the Vinak keep launching futile missile attacks through the 3 warp points they could come through. The Captain keeps us on the highest level of alert possible. I don't think he realizes that this is probably what the Vinak want. Make us all exhausted. If I was the Admiral of the Fleet I'd stand down every cruiser and fighter except those needed to shoot down these pointless missile attacks.

What I wouldn't give to do something besides stare at my console for 14 hours straight when I wake up. The Captain won't let me leave the bridge or take anything offline for standard maintenance. In a fully tested and shaken down ship, that wouldn't make me nervous, but this thing just left the fleet yards. "Hey Asshole, don't blame me when your ship doesn't work".

System Command: End Log.