Post by Alan Haskayne on Jun 24, 2012 18:27:39 GMT -5
"Twelve years, twelve long years, that's how long it took us to get Suriso back. The cost to humanity was almost too high."
-Commander Nathan Sol Hawke, 2072
"Those now famous words were first stated by the famous Commander Nathan Hawke of the GPF at the end of what is now known as the Hegemony Uprising War." the still fairly young woman in front of me states, looking over the statue on New Rainier, one of the largest mountains on Suriso. I am out of breath while she seems fairly in shape, even after the war, but surly lacking the bursting energy she was once known for. A small girl tugs on her arm and asks "Mommy, you knew that man?" the girls cat like ears flicking as she asked, and her tail moving around happily. The woman quickly nods and said "He was an old friend, why don't you go ask your great grandpa about him?" a large Lunan man walks over and leads the girl away. The woman is 31 year old Elisa Day-Brisco, comrade of the commander and widow of the late Alexander Brisco. She leads me over to a water fountain, more for my benefit than hers and explains "The commander was a kind man, a good man, during the early stages of the war at least. Though I can say with clear honesty that till the day he died he was a good man, and without a doubt a stronger man than any born before or after him." She sighs as she looks over the landscape, it is beautiful without a doubt, but war machines litter the ground, broken tanks, destroyed APCs, even ships that fell out of orbit. She shakes her head "We thought it was going to be an easy war, we had a couple billion soldiers, but as I'm sure any armchair admiral will tell you, it doesn't matter how many troops you have if you don't have the ships to move them." she lets out an annoyed sigh, looking around, then straightening her uniform denoting her rank as the new Commander of the GPF, a title she received after Hawke's death. She looked at the ground and kicks a rock down the side of the mountain "The Hegemony won that war, let no one tell you otherwise, their objective was to destroy the Space Pirates, Commonwealth, and GPF, they succeeded, even the GPF, because we don't resemble the GPF he intended to destroy. We never imposed will on planets, we didn't have a central dictatorship that ruled by keeping the planets in line with dreadnoughts and massive battlestations. The GPF I fought for was a peacekeeping outfit, like the UN but with a little more force behind us." she lets a grimace cross her face as she looks up at the statue "He would never have stood for it." with a sad tone. Before I can ask another question the little girl once again runs up "Mommy, come on, lets keep going, I want to see the top." she smiles and takes her daughter by the hand and said "Ok, lets go." I reluctantly follow, being exhausted already. As we climb I think.of the other interviews I conducted, in.my effort to publish something to make the people remember the sacrifice, not just on our side, but on all sides.
"The true merit of a person should not be judged based on the person, but who that person chooses as their enemy."
-Ancient Shark Saying, Unknown date
I try to relax as much as possible, as I walk on the edge of a ocean on the Shark homeworld, the name which most literally translates to 'The place of blood' something I find a little offsetting. I climb aboard a small flat raft, as it is pushed out I lean over the edge waiting. After a few moments the head of a shark person pops out, I identify her as one of the ruling warlords of the Shark people during the war. As I hear is custom I offer my arm to her, I didn't realise what this ment, I just heard it was a greeting. She takes my arm and makes a small bite, I manage to contain a scream of pain, knowing this interview is worth.a small flesh wound. She lets my arm go and offers me hers, not knowing what else to do I try to bite her arm, dot really doing anything against their thick skin, feeling my distress at offending her, she takes out a knife and stabs it into her arm, then I simply lick the blood and this seems to satisfy her. She then starts "I am sure you are here to talk about the war, no other human would offer their arm if you weren't, it is a sign that you wish to lean of my knowledge as a warrior." I nod quickly and then add just to be safe "Yes, I wanted to know what it was like to be a Hegemony warlord." she shrugs slightly, her tail mostly being what is now keeping her afloat "That is fair, but first you have to understand our culture a little, we are a warrior species, unlike with humans our decades of peace only left us angry and edgar for the hunt once more. I commanded over twenty of what your people would call dreadnoughts, and they carried our unique anti gravity sky fortresses. However what I truly thank my ancestors for is that I commanded a ship of the ancients, something that is revered in our society, only those who are truly worthy may even work on one, and only those who have killed at least ten others in unarmed combat may commission one, and even then the other warlords may object, and you must defeat them in unarmed combat, usually to the death. Their firepower and armour are unstopable, and if your captain loses one in combat she is to survive and kill herself only if you allow, otherwise she must live with such shame." she seems to realise something, then uses her knife to cut off a scale from her body and hands it to me "My apology for blathering, you are an honourable war historian, I am sure you wish me to tell of honourable combat." I nod slightly "I also want to hear of how your race got into the war." she nods "Wise indeed, let the future generations know of how to make war, not just useless combat. Well it started when we were approached by a Hegemony destroyer, we later found out that is what you people call a cruiser, so small." she moves her head back and forth slightly in what appears to be a shrug like motion then continues "We were about to declare war on them when they told us of the military, but then they told us two things, one true one false. The false one is that the GPF had a water world that we could have, stupid ice ball. The true one is that their were more worthy opponents than the Hegemony, and the GPF would challenge our skill and honour as warriors, we laughed in their face at the idea anyone could best us in direct combat, and we said that they would face war for such an insult. However their leader, the Alan, he said one thing 'Duel me for our military, if I win, I get your military, if you win.you get mine.' our leader couldn't walk away from that, it would insult her honour. So she agreed and he won, so the warlords chose, you could pledge your honour to Alan, or commit ritual suicide and preserve your honour without pledging it. Most of us went to Alan and allowed a bite without biting him, the sign that we submitted to him."
-Commander Nathan Sol Hawke, 2072
"Those now famous words were first stated by the famous Commander Nathan Hawke of the GPF at the end of what is now known as the Hegemony Uprising War." the still fairly young woman in front of me states, looking over the statue on New Rainier, one of the largest mountains on Suriso. I am out of breath while she seems fairly in shape, even after the war, but surly lacking the bursting energy she was once known for. A small girl tugs on her arm and asks "Mommy, you knew that man?" the girls cat like ears flicking as she asked, and her tail moving around happily. The woman quickly nods and said "He was an old friend, why don't you go ask your great grandpa about him?" a large Lunan man walks over and leads the girl away. The woman is 31 year old Elisa Day-Brisco, comrade of the commander and widow of the late Alexander Brisco. She leads me over to a water fountain, more for my benefit than hers and explains "The commander was a kind man, a good man, during the early stages of the war at least. Though I can say with clear honesty that till the day he died he was a good man, and without a doubt a stronger man than any born before or after him." She sighs as she looks over the landscape, it is beautiful without a doubt, but war machines litter the ground, broken tanks, destroyed APCs, even ships that fell out of orbit. She shakes her head "We thought it was going to be an easy war, we had a couple billion soldiers, but as I'm sure any armchair admiral will tell you, it doesn't matter how many troops you have if you don't have the ships to move them." she lets out an annoyed sigh, looking around, then straightening her uniform denoting her rank as the new Commander of the GPF, a title she received after Hawke's death. She looked at the ground and kicks a rock down the side of the mountain "The Hegemony won that war, let no one tell you otherwise, their objective was to destroy the Space Pirates, Commonwealth, and GPF, they succeeded, even the GPF, because we don't resemble the GPF he intended to destroy. We never imposed will on planets, we didn't have a central dictatorship that ruled by keeping the planets in line with dreadnoughts and massive battlestations. The GPF I fought for was a peacekeeping outfit, like the UN but with a little more force behind us." she lets a grimace cross her face as she looks up at the statue "He would never have stood for it." with a sad tone. Before I can ask another question the little girl once again runs up "Mommy, come on, lets keep going, I want to see the top." she smiles and takes her daughter by the hand and said "Ok, lets go." I reluctantly follow, being exhausted already. As we climb I think.of the other interviews I conducted, in.my effort to publish something to make the people remember the sacrifice, not just on our side, but on all sides.
"The true merit of a person should not be judged based on the person, but who that person chooses as their enemy."
-Ancient Shark Saying, Unknown date
I try to relax as much as possible, as I walk on the edge of a ocean on the Shark homeworld, the name which most literally translates to 'The place of blood' something I find a little offsetting. I climb aboard a small flat raft, as it is pushed out I lean over the edge waiting. After a few moments the head of a shark person pops out, I identify her as one of the ruling warlords of the Shark people during the war. As I hear is custom I offer my arm to her, I didn't realise what this ment, I just heard it was a greeting. She takes my arm and makes a small bite, I manage to contain a scream of pain, knowing this interview is worth.a small flesh wound. She lets my arm go and offers me hers, not knowing what else to do I try to bite her arm, dot really doing anything against their thick skin, feeling my distress at offending her, she takes out a knife and stabs it into her arm, then I simply lick the blood and this seems to satisfy her. She then starts "I am sure you are here to talk about the war, no other human would offer their arm if you weren't, it is a sign that you wish to lean of my knowledge as a warrior." I nod quickly and then add just to be safe "Yes, I wanted to know what it was like to be a Hegemony warlord." she shrugs slightly, her tail mostly being what is now keeping her afloat "That is fair, but first you have to understand our culture a little, we are a warrior species, unlike with humans our decades of peace only left us angry and edgar for the hunt once more. I commanded over twenty of what your people would call dreadnoughts, and they carried our unique anti gravity sky fortresses. However what I truly thank my ancestors for is that I commanded a ship of the ancients, something that is revered in our society, only those who are truly worthy may even work on one, and only those who have killed at least ten others in unarmed combat may commission one, and even then the other warlords may object, and you must defeat them in unarmed combat, usually to the death. Their firepower and armour are unstopable, and if your captain loses one in combat she is to survive and kill herself only if you allow, otherwise she must live with such shame." she seems to realise something, then uses her knife to cut off a scale from her body and hands it to me "My apology for blathering, you are an honourable war historian, I am sure you wish me to tell of honourable combat." I nod slightly "I also want to hear of how your race got into the war." she nods "Wise indeed, let the future generations know of how to make war, not just useless combat. Well it started when we were approached by a Hegemony destroyer, we later found out that is what you people call a cruiser, so small." she moves her head back and forth slightly in what appears to be a shrug like motion then continues "We were about to declare war on them when they told us of the military, but then they told us two things, one true one false. The false one is that the GPF had a water world that we could have, stupid ice ball. The true one is that their were more worthy opponents than the Hegemony, and the GPF would challenge our skill and honour as warriors, we laughed in their face at the idea anyone could best us in direct combat, and we said that they would face war for such an insult. However their leader, the Alan, he said one thing 'Duel me for our military, if I win, I get your military, if you win.you get mine.' our leader couldn't walk away from that, it would insult her honour. So she agreed and he won, so the warlords chose, you could pledge your honour to Alan, or commit ritual suicide and preserve your honour without pledging it. Most of us went to Alan and allowed a bite without biting him, the sign that we submitted to him."