Stellar_Magic

Han Solo watched the holographic rendition of the battle and felt his heart grow heavy, "We're loosing..." He glanced up at the communications officers then over to Leia, "All units are to fall back to the evacuation zone. We'll try and save as many as we can." Only the grim silence answered him as he bent back down to watch the fight continue. * * * Kyp Durron whirled his lightsaber as a barrage of golden plasma bolts from the last Droideka'kar in the area glanced away. The green blast of a dark trooper's cannon sliced apart the piece of equipment. Then Kyp felt them, a growing presence and turned to look upon a line of infantry wearing crimson and silver armor crossing the smoldering battlefield. All at once the ignited their own lightsabers, a venertable wall of red blades, sith warriors. Kyp knew his force was all but spent, down to its last reserves, he had but one choice left, "Fall back, suppressing fire!" The sith stood fast against the barrage of fire, and some of them returned fire with plasma carbines of Raporan vintage, but most merely reflected the blasts from their blades and kept moving forward as the howl of wolvkils echoed across the field. A horde of Vagaari troops poured forth, lead by hundreds of their war hounds, and right behind them, another line of Raporan infantry began to move forth. * * * Boba watched as the GFFA forces began to pull back along his flanks, if he didn't fall back as well they would become exposed. With the Rapora strafing his lines and mining the sky above his men were falling fast, along with heaps of raporan droids and young warriors. The Raporan legion was already proving to be much more then he believed his forces could handle, drained as they were. But his forces were too heavily engaged, they would have to divert their attention. He would have to through Alpha group straight into the Raporan meatgrinder, and he didn't think any of them would survive. * * * Melina Thompson fell back across the field blasting away at the Rapora, keeping a hot masking fire to ensure their ability to move. Still it was tough going, leaping from crater to crater and dodging plasma bolts, but they were making it. Then Melina climbed up over the last crater and found herself face to face with another line of Rapora warriors. Her hands were to far to grab her blaster, and they were ready, they were waiting. Slowly as an icy fist of fear smothered through her heart she raised her hands. Her soldiers followed suite, all but two. The two Jedi. Slowly Lowbacca stood and motioned to the Raporan squad leader, a clear challenge. The Rapora accepted, slowly the warriors closed ranks around the two to watch the duel that was about to begin. * * * Commodore Athien stepped out of her shuttle and onto the deck of the Guardian Shield Class Star Destroyer Thrawn's Hope. There at the bottom of the ramp stood her father with a slight proud smile balancing on his lips. But his red eyes told another tale, and she knew then that the UDA fleet was about to go into its greatest test. Breaking the blockade over Ord Mantell.

Rogeo Trej, our hearts and prayers go out to you and your family. Okay guys lets end this battle...

So what exactly is this?

Chaos theory is primarily an application of Quantum Physics to everyday occurances. As a TOE its really week in that it does not unify any of the forces into one single force. The ultimate goal is to make it so that every single particle or force is actually made of one thing. In the case of string theory, strings...

It's become something of a Rapora Wars tradition. I love the lightsaber... Now about the current battle. The Imps are getting smacked down on by the Sith, the Mandalorians are being cut to pieces by Raporan Legionarries, Zekk and Fury are engaging in a duel... Darth Tuvax will act as a liason between the Sith forces and the Rapora troops engaging the Imperials. Off Topic: How did this thread ever become 50 pages!

The Flagship of the Imperial Remnant is a Sovereign II Class Super Star Destroyer. For some reason the other players had the GFFA build an Eclipse class Star Destroyer, and I'm not going to stop hunting that thing until its dead... It shouldn't exist!

GAT, love your new Sig, but I've got a question. Who's the German commander? It's not Rommel... Guderian? Rundsted? Durnitz? (I probably misspelled all of them)

Yeah well, I don't own HW 1, just HW 2 and I got that for the Warlords mod. I do however have a copy of Star Trek: Bridge Commander... Unfortunately the Jade Scimitar have appeared yet on that game. Though I could do some stuff with the other SW craft which have appeared. Just a note: due to the popularity of the Rapora Wars RPG the Rapora will be included as one of the factions in the series. You old school fans may remember the merry chase one of them gave the Voyager crew at one point.

Playing the unmodded game that sort of record isn't all that uncommon around here. I've done it a few times but it kind of took the fun out of the game until I got my hands on RebEd, then the game was better then ever.

Thanks Jahled, but Photonucket just started working again so I don't need it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/StellarMagic01/scan0011.jpg You know I'm thinking about trying to figure out another way to do this, I'm not all that good at making faces or people.

Perhaps I should go into a little more detail as to the situation with the Empire of the Hand because they haven't made a recent appearance in the RP. During the evacuation of Nirauan Admiral Voss Park was killed, along with a sizeable proportion of the garrison there. The actual size of the Empire of the Hand really isn't fully established, and compared to the United Defense Alliance they aren't going to be as effective against the Rapora. SOCL, You've given me an idea, the remnants of the Chiss Consortium and Empire of the Hand really need to open a second front on the Rapora to give the GFFA and Empire a chance to rebuild and take a breath. Perhaps the UDA will send some of their forces to support the effort.

OOC: You Mandalorians are about to taste the ruthless efficiency of a Raporan Legion. IC: They marched forward, the slow methodical marched of drilled and trained warriors, their armored forms lined side by side in a formation as ancient as the race which made them, a battle line. Before the Raporan main body a scraggly line of troops sprinted forward, these rapora wore little armor, equipped instead with a number of plasma carbines, and six lightdisks. These were the skirmishers, warriors trained to soften up the foes for the main body. Just before the main body there was a single line of warriors arrayed side by side, these were the apex of the formation, the primary guardian of the soldiers behind them. Each one carried a deflector shield which was emitted from a meter long conventional shield. Only the most powerful of blasters could penetrate such a shield, DL-44s, A280s, and the like. Still they reduced the effecitveness of their fire, and would enable the Rapora to get within their preferred fighting distance with little to no casualties. Directly across from the Raporan line was the Mandalorian force, upon seeing the Rapora arrive they'd reformed into a battle line of their own, the first rank lay on the ground facing the enemy, the second crouched, and the third stood. Each group had a clear field of fire. But even with the reforming the Mandalorians had gaps in their lines. Gaps the commanders had tried to plug with walkers and tanks, but gaps that remained. The Raporan Commander Krask Dralcar rode along the line of his troops on a massive Vrak hound, a genetically modified version of a vornskr the creature stood over a meter and half tall and three meters long. Clasped in the pocket of the saddle for the creature was the staff of cycles, the symbol of Raporan might and belief. The regiments under his command knew that to loose the staff would be the greatest of dishoners, resulting in the certain death of many of the officers. Krask halted his Vrak hound and smiled looking over at the Mandalorian lines, he turned to his fellow Rapora, "Comrades...Friends, today we go into battle against worthy opponents, Mandalore's children, warriors of strength and courage. Each of you is worth a regiment of them, each of you is stronger then them, and each of you the greater warrior. So, let the song of blood flow through your hearts, feel the heat of energy in your souls, and remember if you die today you shall be reborn greater then before!" The shrieking and bloodcurdling cheer that echoed from the Raporan ranks was such that even Boba Fett felt his spine shiver at the sound, "I've fought many warriors, but these are the first ones that shall truly be a test of Mandalorian metal." Krask tapped his head band comlink and snarled, "You may fire at will!" Seconds later the roar of Salyar Artillery shells rattled across the field of battle smashing into the Mandalorian lines, wiping out whole platoons of troops with ease. The Rapora started forward, a slow steady movement dictated by the beat of a common conscious. They began to close the distance... 300 hundred meters... 200 meters and they began to recieve sporatic fire... 100 meters and the Raporan main body halted. The Skirmishers dashed forward closing within 50 meters before stopping. There they hurled their lightdisks. The spinning disks soared across the space slicing through those troops which were crouched or standing. Cutting them down like a scythe through wheat. The Mandalorians had kept up their fire cutting down two thirds of the skirmishers before they had fallen back behind the main body. The Raporan shield bearers disengaged their shields and the Main body rushed forward and opened fire as the battle became a wild melee.

I've been swamped by recent demands on my time so I haven't been able to add much of anything... But I've got a new image of Commodore Athien for you guys. EDIT: Stupid Image Bucket, I can't log on right now so no image

I don't play online, never did (My connection to the internet is shakey at best) now that there's a delay between now and the next game I have one thing to say... bring out the mods baby! I've got a copy of the multiplayer source code and I think it would be possible to make JKA much more enjoyable then the original and I've been tinkering with all sorts of modifications for a long time, maybe at some point we could assemble a modding team for it and make something really interesting.

I'd have to agree with Jahled on one of the possible reasons for the dumbing down of the films, the over reliance on Special Effects. We've seen again and again that it takes really exceptional actors and directors to use special effects that remove all outside props and background. The only group in my mind that has been able to tell a story quite well with such effects is the Lord of the Rings bunch, and thats partial because they use the effects pretty sparingly.

The next episode: Star Trek vs. Star Wars: Shattered Space Part II The Borg detector slid slowly through space, green emissions trailing from a half a dozen open wounds. Onboard the Borg was confused, their connection with the hive had been interrupted, and now, now its transmissions were different, encoded in a more advanced algorithm, a sudden change in the fabric of the Borg’s existence. Changes and updates were far from uncommon, but this one was leap, a massive late which the receivers on the detector could barely pick up. And then there were the anomalous readings from all over, whole worlds were offline, the stars seemed to have shifted in places. Large blank areas now existed in the enormous mass of Borg space, an unforeseen development in the history of the collective, only comparable to Species 8472’s sudden appearance. The final straw had been the sudden appearance of the ship, the ship which even now cruised along in its wake, scanning it after resisting assimilation. The ship was small, a mere two hundred meters in length, but it had displayed a fierceness the Borg had not found often and bristled with weaponry. Then the Borg aboard received a single, and suddenly it had a mission… and a target. * * * Janeway nearly broke into a run as she hurried down the corridors. She would have run had she not been the captain, but for the sake of the crew she restrained herself. Just being around Mara was giving her the creeps, and perhaps it was giving Mara the creeps as well for all she knew. As she stepped into the sick bay she hid a grimace, maybe she didn’t want to know why Mara was so similar to her. The Doctor glanced up at her as she stepped into the room then handed her a data pad, “The results of the genetic comparison.â€

A diversionary attack on Adumar would be quite useful. *hint hint* Thats exactly why, if you could think of another way to put everyone in an absolute panic PM me.

Yeah Trej, the Unified Field Theory and the Theory of Everything are synonyms, both aim to describe all forces together in a single force or particle, string theory is supposed to do that.

Garik will soon be contacted by Thrawn for the joint attack on the Raporan fleet over Ord Mantell. With those two combined fleets a real fight will face the Rapora, but in the end the GFFA, Imperial, Mandalorian, and UDA will be able to evacuate. Perhaps some of you remember a comment from a while back about Thrawn's final fate.

Remember Yoda was fighting droids which have similar (if not greater) liabilities then clones. Perhaps I should explain why these clones would have such liabilities in initiative, flexibility, and predictability. First lets start off with initiative. The films demonstrate an intense requirement for direction that is only logical in a need for micromanagement of the force. In AotC we see clonetroopers being personally lead by Jedi in roles equivalent to platoon commands or smaller. Each of the clones requires direction to engage the enemy... Remember the scene where Anakin and Obi wan yell at the pilot to shoot down Dooku, if he had initiative he would have used his other weapons against the speeder bike (how bout some more blaster fire boys?) At the least he would have reported seeing Dooku or being out of missiles before hand. Yoda has to personally direct the weapons fire of the artillery batteries, surely any seriously trained officer would have directed his attack on those vessels at the start of the engagement. Also connected with initiative you argue that the units will unquestionably obey orders. In order to have a unit that does this the organism must no longer retain an idea of self or must have more fear of dishonor or punishment for disobedience then of death. In the case of these clones we find that only one of these reasons seems to fit very well, the loss of a sense of self. This loss also removes from the being the capacity for imagination and initiative. You simply can't have it both ways. Thank you for making my point, why did russian losses grow to such insane numbers? Because they weren't allowed by the command structure to demonstrate initiative, any deviation from the norm was supress resulting in kill to loss ratios for the germans that are nearly equal to Modern American combat statistics. Predictability, well here we go because as I stated earlier clones have been stripped of initiative and humanity. In a sense they have become automations, and like all automations they react the same way every time to every threat. You might be able to argue that personailty differences could create the needed unpredictable nature, but as I'm about to explain there are no personality differences in fresh clones, and because of the way personalities are formed there would be all but no difference in aged clones. Lets see personality is created by two things, life experience and genetics (Nature and Nurture) because all the clones use basically the same genes (ARC troopers, gunners, and commanders would use different genetic changes then the average soldier) and are given an identical or nearly identical training regime their personalities would be impersceptably identical. By the time these units enter combat their personality has become fully formed and therefore all but unchangeable. Now on to some of your rebuttles with the officer pool. General Veers was obviously a capable officer, but can the same be said of the vast majority of imperial officers. Veers may have been a unique case, and probably was considering the performance of imperial forces in other battles in the OT. It also seems to me that the officer pool wouldn't be all that well trained, most of the Jedi and Clone officers have disappeared by the OT. This loss would be roughly equivalent to Stalin's purge of the Red Army in the 1930s and 1940. (Which is why the Germans won so many victories until 43.) You simply don't have the sources of knowledge to teach the next generation of officers. Sure you've got the imperial academy, but they're defecting in droves and who exactly is doing the teaching?

You know something about this debate scares me, and that is no one has brought up the liabilities of using clones in a combat situation. You say that having the same abilities and the unwavering ability to take orders is a benefit, unfortunately in combat situations the opposite is true. With your stormtroopers I'd expect the Empire to have fallen shortly after Yavin and never attacked Hoth. Here's why. Firstly, your clones require a significantly trained, seasoned, and experienced pool of officers to use effectively. If an officer of lesser skill was in command the troops would follow however misguided or stupid orders which they were given, resulting in the death of the clones. (Just think about russian casualties in WWII when their troops weren't allowed to retreat, or were shot for disobeying orders.) Not only that but the timeline for the stories strongly suggests that no such body of trained and seasoned officers existed before the begining of the Empire (All the officers appear to be either clones or Jedi) meaning that the officer pool would have an overall lack in real world training and understanding of combat. Secondly your clones are predictable, and the one thing that is most certain to ensure survival in combat is a level of unpredictability. This is especially true when it comes to fighter pilots. As Gunter Rall wrote about his experiences in World War II he said that many of the pilots which you'd think would survive fore a long time did not, and those that did survive for a long time and became aces were of a different sort. He said that acrobatic pilots were often easily shot down because their maneuvers were to precise and predictable, and that wingmen had a greater chance of being shot down because their flying was dictated by the leader. Because your clones are all trained the same way for the same jobs they act the same way in combat. If you use a tactic against them and it works, it will work almost exactly the same because the clones (especially if their unemotional) will react in the exact same way. To counter this stormtrooper regiments would require enlisted personnel to ensure their effectiveness and keep them from being jumped or ambushed with the same results every time. Secondly enlisted men would act as something of a check on stupid moves by their officers, and preventing more casualties in suicidal attacks on fortified positions or walkers. In short, for stormtroopers to be effective 'Shocktroopers' they require a diversity in thought, loyalty, and in this case genes.

Darth Avarice fumed as the reports continued to stream in, it wasn't going as she'd hoped, and if it wasn't going as she'd hoped it was going much worse then the Timeless One would have liked. Avarice was becoming painfully aware of this problem, "Yes my lord, our forces continue to advance but the battle has become an engagement of attrition, we've lost many warriors already." The Timeless One frowned, his cloak blowing in some unseen wind, "The enemy has surprised you." "Yes my lord," Avarice said meekly. "You have four more hours, any longer and Commander Clawdar will have an appointment with you." Avarice felt her guts freeze for an instant, Clawdar was the commander of the Timeless One's personal guards. He was also an executioner, "I will have victory within that time my lord." "Be sure you will," The Timeless One answered as his image faded away into darkness. Avarice spun ,"Order the veteran regiments forward, also inform the Vagaari that they'll be next if their assaults fail." The Aklasp commander turned to them, "It seems like overkill." Avarice felt a slight smile pass her lips, "They've given us a bloody nose, I intend to ensure our victory is complete and that we've shown the true strength of our resolve. Even if we have to march over a rampart of our own dead." A black clad warrior flanked by two men sheathed in what looked like a pair of fully enclosed metal suits stepped into the command post, "Darth Avarice, Mage Valen awaiting orders." Avarice smiled much more brightly, "Excellent, it is time the Sith return to their former glory, you may advance your regiment." "As I live and die commander." * * * Zekk glanced over to Melina Thompson's position, "Alright, ready your weapons!" The troops around him hastily made sure their equipment was ready. He drew his lightsaber and ignited it, "Lets go!" All along the UDA lines soldiers stood and opened fire, the force under Zekk's command rushed out of cover in a sweeping move to engage the enemy. The Rapora were ready for them. Light disks careened into the formation of soldiers. The commandos in the force were especially hard hit when a Raporan strafing run blasted into their lines. Then they were among the enemy, blasters and lightsabers flashing. Lowbacca watched as Zekk was surrounded by six Rapora warriors. The Rapora lit their sabers and attacked as one force. It would only be a matter of time till he was cut down. Then suddenly they backed away forming a circle and Darth Fury stepped into view as he drew his lightsaber, "Are you a match for a sith Jedi?" * * * Boba Fett watched as the Raporan troops directly to his front broke and ran, their formations breaking apart. He stopped and watched in shock, "What warriors are these, I thought the Rapora were a race of warriors." A cheer went up through the ranks, but moments later halted as the Rapora stopped and reformed, and two more regiments of troops left the treeline. A chill went down Fett's back as he saw that these warriors were decorated with unit markings not unlike those he'd seen on aged warriors, the reality of what they'd just faced began to settle in, "Rally! Rally, we just licked their first wave." His chest tightened, the battle had been too easy until now, now it was aged veteran against aged veteran, warrior against warrior. "Let us how them out metal." * * * The Imperial lines had detierated into a stalemate, until now. Two new regiments were arriving. One Raporan, and one sith. Their black figures barely in the destruction. Acolytes and Mages, Warriors and Soldiers, over five hundred warriors, each an equal to a Jedi, and each as devoted to victory as the Rapora. They waited as the Rapora reformed and prepared to return to the advance.

Its an excellent documentary, if you haven't seen it do so.

Krummel smiled as Turahk's holographic image snapped into existance before him, "You're a little late for the party..." Turahk scoffed, "I could have your head if you..." "They're alive, and cornered. You'll get your chance."

Unless I beat them to the punch...probably isn't going to happen but who knows? (I think the Skywalker Family tree still needs pruning) No wonder I got a bad taste in my mouth when I read that was coming... oh well. If its like Starship troopers expect it to die fast. On the EU in general, its a big galaxy guys, the authors could go back and populate the timeline with n number of sector battles and small scale conflicts. Unfortunately it seems most of the writers enjoy making their characters really epic. I'd like to see some more small scale actions instead of the massive war machines we always see in every book. The only series that seemed to even come close to approaching that was the X-wing series, and then they got blown way out of proportion. I'd like to see some novels about Alliance Infitrators or something, the EU could broaden out a bit so we'd see something other then bad stuff which continually appears. The big problem with the EU is that the authors try to make every single conflict into a Galaxy wide crisis, they aren't people, it takes a lot to really destabilize our earth, why not the New Republic?