Chapter 4

Terran Choice

7th Fleet News Network

Recent events?

After the successful defeat of the Aschen forces, in the Battle for Talmark, Federation forces from the TFS DD-136 Fremont withdrew back to their ship and the recently captured Aschen vessel Volia. There they waited for the rest of the fleet. Lt. Commander Edmond Tromblay used this time to speak with General Juan Haymaker and to gather as much information he could on the galaxy at large.

Soon the rest of the 7th fleet TFS Cindy Lin DD-120, TFS Walker DD-163, TFS CVC-1034 Doolittle Carrier, and TFS CVF-603 Gettysburg Fuel Tender/repair ship, arrived in orbit of Talmark, but not alone as they hauled the wreck of the TFS DR-50 Teddy Roosevelt, into orbit around the Talmark's moon. Now a Council of Captains is about to be held that will decide the 7th Fleet next move.

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General Juan Haymaker was promoted due to the rest of the government being dead or taken off the world by the Aschen during the Battle. His first act as General of the Army was to declare: "We will no longer wait for the Aschen, we will hunt them down and make the Aschen suffer for all the live they extinguish. We will only consider peace when the Talmarkian flag flies from the highest building on Neo Aschen."

The Fourth Legion was marched out of the capital city for holding, but was treated well thanks to a talk between General Juan Haymaker and Legatus Legionis Kaeso Titurius Aquila had earlier. Learning that the Aschen medicine had the nasty habit of sterilization, Kaeso Titurius Aquila later declared to his troops. "Haec verba Porren quia necesse est demonstrationem non habent fidem, et Ares voluntas prodest illis qui moriuntur." Which was translated as, "This and the words of Porren is all the proof we need to know that they have no honor and it is Ares' will, for them to die under our boots."

As the Stargate has yet to be uncovered, it is unknown if the rest of A'reseya will have the same way of thinking.

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Orbit of Talmark, TFS DD-136 Fremont, Briefing Room, Two days after the Battle for Talmark [unknown]{December/28/2001}

Lieutenant Commander Edmond Tromblay walked in the room and with a heavy sigh and took a seat in one the chairs. "Well I'll start this off. We are in an alternate universe and as of yesterday we are at war with Aschen, a race that believes everyone who's not them is barbarian. Also we now have a friendship with Talmarkians who have just declared a blood vengeance against the Aschen. Who wants to go next?"

Lieutenant Jonnie Grant captain of the CVF-603 Gettysburg, an American, 5'8, greened eyed, with blond haired, asked. "Well why don't, we contact Earth?"

Lieutenant Mayo Shinya captain of the Walker DD-163, a Portuguese women, 5'5, long dark hair, and grey eyes, said. "There's no point, if you had read the report Edmond sent out, you'd know that he thinks that humans here, were taken from Earth by aliens for whatever reason they had, a long time ago. If that is true, we must assume that the tech level of Earth, is probably around that of A'reseya or the Talmarkians, since the Aschen seem to be an exception."

Lieutenant Jonathan Drake captain of the Cindy Lin DD-120, a young Canadian, 6'0, brown haired, yellow eyes, asked. "So what do we do then? Just sit back and wait for Earth to mature?"

Lieutenant Sera Hale captain of the CVC-1034 Doolittle, a Vaga colonial, 5.9 , gold haired, purple eyed said. "Hell no, we should hunt down this universe's Forth and make them send us back."

Mayo rolled her eyes. "I guess you didn't read my report. It would take 20 to 30 years to even get to what we think is the Forth's home galaxy, which would be useless. We would all be too old to fight the Forth if they are as hostile as they are in our own universe. Plus there are no guarantees this universe has a Forth like race." Sera seemed to deflate at her words.

Jonnie spoke up. "We don't have enough fuel to get there anyways." Everyone turned to him "The Gettysburg has just returned from stocking up on three months' supply of fuel for about half the fleet but even if we redistribute that and any fuel cells we can salvage from the Roosevelt we will only have about 16 months worth, not counting whatever we get from the scoops ."

Edmond said. "Well, then we can't go home, it would serve no purpose to go to Earth and the Forth are unreachable or may not even exist. As I see it we have two choices remaining, try to nuke Neo Aschen and then try to survive on our own hoping we got all the Aschen or … try to make a new Federation here, in this universe, starting with Talmarkians and their allies. We raise up their industry, give them the knowledge for light armor Soldiers, weapons, armor, and training, then with this new Federation under our leadership we will tear down the entire Confederacy. But before we put this to a vote though, remember one thing, whatever we choose here will decide the fate of 1,861 Federation citizens. Now you know my vote, what say you?"

Jonnie Grant nodded and said. "I'm in for option two. If we do this we can build and get production of hydrogen fuel which we will need sooner or later anyway."

Sera Hale though about it and said. "There's a chance to blow shit up either way; I pass on my vote."

Mayo Shinya nodded and said dead pan. "It's hard to argue with you Edmond I'm in for option two. But don't you screw this up or I'll beat you up like I did in the academy." This made Edmond shiver.

Jonathan Drake finally said. "I'll take two as well, but not to blow shit up as Sera put it. The countries that make up the Federation set up one major goal, which is to spread humanity across the stars and protect it from any and all threats. Well humanity already spread across the stars here but apparently there is no one to protect it. This galaxy needs us as much as we need them. Remember that."

With that, the meeting came to an end and the Terran Federation began preparations for war.

Orbit of Talmark, TFS DD-163 Walker, Infirmary, Three hours after the First Council of Captains

Third Lieutenant Lokia Tremble sat up in bed sipping her soup recovering from her mental exhaustion from using her Psychic power too much. She was going to be let go today, which was good with her, she was interested in learning more about this new galaxy. But she wished that the new galaxy hadn't come with the loss of everyone she new.

Lokia was only in her early 20s, had black hair and brown eyes. She had joined Military Intelligence only a few years earlier thanks to Psychic ability and was still getting used to using her power so, when the curtain was pulled back quickly and she heard someone yell. "Boo!" she reacted by throwing her soup bowl right into the person's face. "Aaah my eyes!" The man who had pulled the curtain away, yelled and tried to rub the soup out of his eyes. It took her a moment, but then she recognized him.

"Uncle? Uncle Edmond?" She asked in shock.

"That's Lt. Commander Uncle Edmond to you, squirt." He said.

Still in shock she asked. "What are you doing here? How are you...? Why the hell have you not called in 10 years?!"

Edmond shrugged "Well squirt, I'm here because you're here and I got here via Slingshot, and I have not called because your over-protective mother told me that if I was going to re-up, not to bother calling in case I ended up dead, She didn't want you to have loss of family issues."

"Okay, that does sound like her, so you get a free pass, this time." Lokia sensed something and asked. "So why else are you here?"

Edmond sat at the foot of the bed and said. "You heard about the Stargate yet?" She shook her head and he gave a brief explanation, and then said. "If we're going to use this device to find more people to join the Federation, we're going to need someone who can tell, without a doubt, when we're being lied to."

Understanding Lokia nodded. "You want me to be part of what, a diplomatic team?"

"More of a first contact team, but yep you got it." He said with a smile.

Talmark, Capital Building, The next day

Juan Haymaker sat across from Kaeso Titurius Aquila with the Ambassador Hurken of Tilma, in between them. Tilma was one of the other planets to have left the Confederacy and they still kept friendly relations with Talmark, most of the time anyway. Right now Hurken was being, well him, as he was not a fan of military nations and he was stuck in a new one until the Stargate was reopened, "General why is this A'reseyan here?"

"Ambassador I was asked to have him and you here by the commander of the Soldiers who saved our collective asses yesterday." Haymaker said.

"What use would he serve? He works for the enemy!" The Ambassador accused.

"That gentleman is yet to be seen." Edmond said entering the room, Lokia right behind. "This is Third Lieutenant Lokia Tremble from Military Intelligence, she will determine if he can be trusted."

Lokia walked over to Aquila and said. "Aschen." Then after a moment she said. "He is really pissed at them."

Through this he had remained still, but then he jumped out of his chair and yelled. "Witch, what sorcery was that?!"

"Not sorcery just a potential some humans can achieve." Lokia said stepping away from the table.

Before they could got side tracked, Edmond said. "Gentlemen, now that we have determined that, at least, the leader of the Fourth Legion is not working for the Aschen, let us move on to why I called you here." He pulled out a file and had Lokia hand out a copy of the information inside to everyone. "Quick rundown of the info inside, we're from another universe we can't get back to, so we're setting up shop here. In order to set up the Terran Federation here we are willing to give you and anyone who is willing to sign up with us, Second Bug War tech in exchange for the right to set up recruitment centers on your planet for both the fleet and the mobile infantry. Now as protectorates of the Federation you will be allowed to keep your army, though we will be trying to recruit heavily from them since they will require less training in the long run. You will also be allowed corvette class ships tech which we will provide technical info for construction. Finally as protectorates of Terran Federation you will not be able to dictate policy, but anyone who joins the fleet, mobile infantry or any other branch will be considered a citizen of the Terran Federation once they have served for two years honorably and will be able to vote on our policy. Any questions?"

General Juan Haymaker asked. "When you say pre bug war tech how far exactly ahead of us is that?"

"Two maybe three hundred years." Edmond said

Haymaker nodded and said. "Talmark is in, this is the best chance we have to make Aschen pay."

Kaeso Titurius Aquila. "I cannot speak for A'reseya, but I can speak for myself and the rest of the Fourth Legion, we will join you since you plan to destroy the Aschen."

Ambassador Hurken said. "How do we know, that you're any better than the Aschen? I'm sorry to point this out, but you're just as advanced as them, how do we know you don't want to "poison the medicine" too?"

"Simple, we are not a planet of people, we're five ships with barely enough people to keep our civilization running for more than two or three generations, we need your people as much as you need our weapons for war." Edmond said not missing a beat.

Ambassador Hurken took that in and realized how precarious a position the Terrans were in then nodded. "All I can do is tell my leaders of your offer when the gate reopens."

"That is all I ask." Edmond said.

Orbit of Talmark, TFS DD-136 Fremont [unknown] {January /1/2002}

Lt. Commander Edmond Tromblay was looking through paperwork as he waited for… there was a knock at his door. "Come in." Ensign Amelia Ironside entered the room.

"Sir reporting as ordered." Amelia said with a salute.

"At ease, Ensign." Edmond said then asked. "I've been looking over several files when I saw something interesting in yours, is it true you were looking to become a Federation net field correspondent?"

Amelia nodded and said. "Yes sir."

Edmond said. "Then today's your lucky day. You are now in charge of setting up new network for our little fleet. Call it whatever you want, but we will need one to keep everyone informed do you understand?"

Amelia was bursting with excitement. "YES SIR!"

Edmond nodded and said. "Dismissed." And Amelia skipped out of his office.

TFS DD-163 Walker, bridge, 7 days after the first Federation council [unknown] {January /4/2002}

"Ma'am we have the Aschen ship on sensors." Lieutenant Junior Grade Jaime Serco said from his seat at the helm.

"Excellent, as soon as we're in range, fire at their engines and com's." L.T. Mayo Shinya said, waiting for the slight bounce of the turrets firing. Since the council, Mayo had also been given command of Cindy Lin DD-120 and the CV-1034 Doolittle. She had also been given the mission of cutting all space traffic within the Confederacy space and that was exactly what she was going to do, but unlike what Edmond had thought she was going to do, she did it through privateering and not plain old destruction.

Instead of destroying the ships she found, she was going by the stratagem of injuring it and taking it over, then send the whole ship back to Talmark. Her command had already taken in three Aschen vessels loaded with minerals and food stocks, not to mention the tech they had found on some of the ships. Her little fleet now sported salvaged shields from the Aschen freighters.

Once the ship reached Talmark they were emptied and the supplies not needed for the military were sold. Then the ship was torn apart to be studied and melted down. That would seem like a bad idea at first glance but they had already created a dry-dock slash space station out of the severed halves of the TFS DR-50 Teddy Roosevelt by connecting them with long curved beams running from the port of the forward section to the starboard of the aft. She had heard recently, that the first beams and plating were coming out of the Gettysburg, so the first new corvette was only few weeks away thanks to the supplies she took and the modified CHAZ units from the Gettysburg that were being used for construction.

Mayo felt a slight bounce run though her ship and smiled sweetly. "Prepare boarding parties."

To Be Continued

Federation News Network

Psychic powers

The acceptance and integration of psychic powers is prolific in the Federation to the point of commonplace. While such talents are considered rare and special, there is no denial of their existence or doubt as to their effectiveness. People with psychic abilities are given special roles to serve in the Federation, generally within the boundaries of governmental and military work.

This acceptance does not come freely. The work that psychics are expected to perform can be harrowing, especially for those who choose to join SICON as part of Military Intelligence. The only branch of SICON that accepts identified psychics, Military Intelligence makes use of their special abilities in very intense and extremely draining ways. There is a high risk of burnout in Military Intelligence for a psychic. Mental collapse and endangered physical health are only two of the risks faced by military psychics.

When someone is recruited to be a Military Intelligence Psychic they our immediately given an officer rank no matter what they were before and are given better and more widely varied training than the other branches equivalents. Though some psychics are identified as children, most are found later after they join the military. In fact this situation has been named a "snatch and grab" by the Mobile Infantry as psychic is removed from the field so fast that it often leaves the squad either under manned or with a rookie.

Civilian psychics have a special place in the Federation. While they live under extraordinary scrutiny to make sure their gifts are not used improperly, they are given preferential treatment during job assignments and positions in administration. Any psychic wishing to work for the Federation in a governmental capacity can do so. Positions are always open for such civilians. There are even jobs in the government that can provide an alternate route to citizenship.

There are four main branches of psychic powers. Some people can have two but it is a rarity and one power is usually much weaker than the other. There are others but either they are just an off shoot or a refined version of one the following power mentioned.

Telepathy: Psychics with a talent for this collective are, logically enough, called telepaths. They possess an expanded ability to generate and detect mental energies. These energies are imprinted at the cortex level with thoughts, images, and other cerebral activity. By focusing on specific parts of this stream of nigh-endless data, a telepath can "read" another person's thoughts, send information or even cause thoughts to occur in the minds of those nearby.

Though erratic and unpredictable in its infancy, the science of telepathy has become very precise through the diligent efforts of Federation research and the sacrifices of numerous people with the telepathic gift over the centuries of applied psychic experimentation. Trained telepaths can extract images, implant false sensations and even kill with overloads of intense pain. While only military telepaths are officially educated in how to use their gifts violently, a few civilian telepaths develop the talent on their own.

Clairsentience: Both a blessing and a curse for those psychics skilled in this collective. The power of clairsentience allows for remote vision and hearing of distant places. This is far more useful than it might sound on the surface, as a "sensor" can detect the location of things far outside the range of any machine and is not affected by any form of mundane shielding. As a sensor is the only real defense against the abilities of clairsentience, they are a military asset too valuable to be discounted and a barrier against the threat this collective represents.

Clairsentience research goes back to before the Disorders that gave rise to the Federation. In those days, the "remote viewing" projects were driven by the desire to locate enemy installations and weapons of mass destruction so that the viewing side could strike them with precision and in secrecy. None of these projects came to any useful conclusion, primarily due to lack of internal government acknowledgement and proper funding. In the Terran Federation, clairsentience has received both and the results have been extremely beneficial. In truth, clairsentience is one of the primary tools for ensuring the longevity and effectiveness of both SICON and the TF. Section Four – Remote Surveillance is one of the most highly regarded sections of Special Services.

Psychometry: Classically understood as the ability to sense impressions and images from objects due to the psychic energies left behind on them. This collective is a great deal more than that in practice. The same sensitivity that allows for this so-called 'object reading' also allows a psychometric to turn the power inward and gain command of their own deepest cognitive functions. Psychics trained in psychometry have the ability to control their deepest mental recesses and access capabilities that would be considered superhuman in others.

This collective has been seen in humanity since its earliest history, though rarely in its full capacity. Eidetic mental function, quicksilver calculations, and child prodigies are all examples of this ability in its weaker forms. In fact, the first form of psychometry gives the users of the collective their nickname – "memory men". Anything a psychometric does, sees, or experiences, can be called up as clear as if it was occurring again. This is a great asset in reconnaissance and command.

Probability Control: The rarest and most difficult to control of all psychic collectives, This power was not even accepted as genuine until 200 years before the discovery of Arachnids on Pluto. These powers are very subtle and rarely generate any provable phenomena outside of purely laboratory conditions. Their tendency to inexplicably fail for even the most experienced of psychics still leave some researchers unconvinced as to their true existence. For those that use them, mentalists called "lucky men", their existence is undeniable, despite their difficultly to prove.

This does not make their power any less impressive when it does work. Though the vernacular for the collective is probability control, it works more like a hyper-mathematical ability to calculate odds and determine the right actions at the right time to shift events in favor of a desired outcome. This would be called luck by some, but it is largely understood for the psychic ability that it actually represents. While its most advanced forms fall slightly outside this simple framework and are very difficult to quantify, those mentalists with the power of probability control can sometimes make even the most improbably occurrences come to pass.

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Cookie

This chapter is where I got my first beta, before I learned beta meant more than spell checker so please welcome Cookie influences for much of the coming chapters. Say hello Cookie.

Cookie: Heyo guys! Hope you enjoy this story as much as I am: 3.

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Soap box

Well time again for a look in to the stars for another meeting between Starship Trooper and some poor sci-fi series… unless it's Warhammer 40k then it Starship Troopers who are the poor sci-fi series like everyone else. Anywho have been thinking and decide I do read rewrite merge and like quite a bit of it. The reason I implied otherwise is the first one that comes to mind when I think on it was a bad rewrite merge in my mind (it could be good but I couldn't get over this) because well I'll just say it has a star gate character be something they could not because they died half a dozen times if not more including one or two ascension. Any who we're off to the stars so we did a movie franchise and show franchise let's do a game franchise that right were doing StarC-Mass Effect (do not do what your reader expects, for then you do not become boring) so what do we got here. You can do a large cross over here like I did with Stargate but… well from what I have seen a rewrite merge (again where you shrink down the scope of the federation to couple hundred or thousand light years) maybe best. Like Halo (down the line) you get this massive military power unlike Halo the power is equal to the mass effect universe the ships are to scale to ships of mass effect universe but each fleet has 500 to or ships so they have great numbers on their side. The guns are almost a match but when you have nukes that can clean house without destroying the environment though radiation you're allowed to be a little week in guns, plus they do have laser weapon, ship based, gun platform based, dog based, and under slung on some rifles. But the big advantage is power suits/armor, marauders and exosuits, (will get to them) you can shoot at the guys in front of as much as you want an entire platoon just jumped jetted to surround you including walking tanks. (Again I'm just writing this in vain hope to inspire someone to write their version so I can read it… though if someone asks for help from me in that project I gladly help but I manly know mass effect from cross over work so I can only help you with research for SST )

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