---
The odyssey through the heavens was over. However, humanity ceases to change, constantly twisting and turning. The essence of humanity is war, and so they must always fight each other. Why is that? But these things don’t matter much – humanity has been around for only a million years, a blip in the timespan of the universe. But then humanity thinks that it is the greatest being among the cosmos. But what happens when two different humanities collide?

Rhapsody of the Stars
the next epic by Daniel Hawking
---

Sequel to “Discovery in the Solar System”. Set two years later, the UPA and Earth declare total war on each other. But when the red star rises again, what do the humans of the stars do?

This story takes place in 2147 AD, two years after “Discovery”. Life goes on…

Set to be several phases long. It should finish by the end of, say, May.

…hey, what’s up with the chapter numbers? Interesting.

-Chapter Guide-

New Moon: The Beginning of the End (Posted March 20, 2005)
New Crescent: The Descending Sword (TBA March 2005)
First Quarter: Fury of the Sword (TBA April 2005)
Waxing Gibbous: Red Storm Rising (TBA April 2005)
Full Moon: The Hammer of Luna (TBA April/May 2005)
Waning Gibbous:
Last Quarter:
Old Crescent:
Luna Novae:

Rhapsody of the Stars
New Moon: Beginning of the End

[24 March, 2147]
[Location: 20 kilometers above Saturnian Moon of Iapetus]

Doned Hopkins looked out from his window, gazing at the moon of Iapetus. Constantly a subject of great interest to human beings since the first sightings from Earth, it has a different coloration, depending on which side of the moon you see. It was made even more popular to look at by its showings in the old (yet still popular, almost 200 years later!) book 2001: A Space Odyssey. And now, the seeds of human colonization had begun as the great Perspex dome landed on the planet’s surface, covering the previously underground city, to guard from incoming meteorites. The Perspex dome suddenly reacted to a burst of energy from the internal fusion power reactor, gaining a blue tint and protecting the city from ultraviolet and other types of galactic radiation.

He sighed. It was two years since his journey to Persephone, the real odyssey among the Solar System. He made sure from his ship that the Perspex dome was deep enough into the ground, and set new coordinates. The two ships behind him, Detector and Constructor, dropped two more Perspex domes onto the moon, hitting without contstraints, and jetted off to the Galilean moons of Jupiter to dock again. “Take us back to Luna for repairs and Class-Foxtrot refit.” F-checks was just intake of subsistence and fuel.

Two years after the great journey, the UPA strengthened their guard. Persephone moved onward by about four AU, apparently oblivious to the constant political squabbling. Very few people noticed that every fifty hours or so, their television sets buzzed slightly. Even after all these years, humanity hadn’t changed.

But, slowly, people had begun to change. The first spaceborn humans, reaching maturity at about 2060, were found to be a bit smarter than normal Earthborn humans. But that didn’t change anything. Being born in 35% of Earth’s gravity was much less of a strain on the human body. But there was a major catch – these people would never be able to set foot on Earth again.

So the Spaceborn were exiled. That was fair enough. There might be serious racial problems encountered if they were to live on a planet together.

Doned Hopkins was an Earthborn, but spent equal amounts of time on both Earth and Luna. He was a true citizen of Luna, however, with all of its political benefits. Earthers still controlled all of the orbital platforms, however, but Luna needed one of those.

But there were rumblings. Mars was undergoing spectacular terraforming, with large ice blocks hitting the planet, with those blocks melting and providing water to the domed cities. It would be the second Earth, not the Moon. There were rumblings that the Martian government would secede from the United Planets alliance and join the Universal Protectorate. Not only that, the Martian government was rumoured to be full of UPA types. That didn’t concern Doned at all – if the UPA rose again in a major attack on either Luna or Earth, he and Discovery, although being (probably) the first ships on the scene, would be able to help a lot with six main turret railgun weapons. The Lunar Navy was still at the head of cosmofighter production – the other forces were still using modified EVA pods with small recoilless cannons and rockets mounted on them, unable to withstand G-forces like a cosmofighter, and relatively easy targets.

But Doned knew that conflict would come, and it would come soon.

Just a whole lot sooner than he thought.

[01 April, 2147]
[Location: Television Room of Discovery]

“I don’t believe it!”

”They’re seceding already?”

”Looks like it. And they’re gearing for war too, look!”

“Oh God! Cosmofighters, cruisers, carriers, it looks like a 1943 battlegroup!”

The Martians decided to use April Fool’s Day as the first day of their new rebellion against the laws of Earth. Doned, too, thought that Earth was getting a bit tyrannical, and had decided to stay away from the “old planet”, deciding to live permanently on the Moon. Many shared his thoughts as well.

But several days later, the unthinkable occurred. “The Martians! They’re attacking Earth, and they’re backed by the UPA! I don’t believe it – but they aren’t trying! Maybe they’re just going to rake the planet?”

“You might be right, Richards. Aren’t they saying some things about being a ‘chosen humanity, destined to inherit the Solar System’?” Doned leaned back and floated past the spherical array. He looked at his location, just inside Venusian orbit. The Earth was about 96 million kilometers away. With good time… “Set course for Earth. Shield the fusion drive nozzles and ready the absorption disc. Ready the antimatter drive for use in no less than ten minutes! What the hell are we doing out here anyways?” Doned smirked. When he wanted something done, by God or however you call her, Doned was the Uncaring Fist of God/Allah/Buddha. No matter how many fingers that fist has.

-Rhapsody of the Stars will be back in a few moments after a word from our sponsors. Buy “Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD today! America – The Book by Jon Stewart and the host of “The Tonight Show” out in stores now! The Sharper Image Ionic Breeze Air Purifier, now only 200 Euros!-

=Real commercials. Go download spyware or something.=

[05 April, 2147]
[Location: 600 kilometers above Tycho Crater]
[Lunar Navy Headquarters – Orbital Platform]

“Initial scouting reports and the leylines both agree. There is a Martian attack force on the way to Earth. However, its scale is completely unknown. It could be anywhere from three to thirty ships, all of differing classes. They are probably going to attack the Earth itself and bombard the major cities. After that, they will either return to their planet or be killed, whichever comes first. Mars’ population is already over 500,000 so I think that they may be willing to sacrifice a lot of ships.” The head Admiral of the Lunar Navy was concerned about the incoming attacks.

“Of course. But we don’t have enough fleet captains. Isn’t that why we’re here?” Vice Admiral Jones was beginning to become worried. “What if they turn to us?”

“They won’t. The Martians’ beliefs are that they should purge only the Earth. They won’t attack the Moon.” Vice Admiral Dugalle was stagnant in his mindset.

“But we have to be prepared for every contingency!” Jones pulled out a dossier of one of the more distinguished space captains. “Look! He’s got the right mindset – he applies for weapons on his survey ship just to be sure! And we should be doing the same!”

“Mars has not declared war on us yet. That is all we can say.”

“Are we going to wait for them to declare war on us?” Jones was astounded.

“No, we won’t. Not anymore. Because we have a new secret weapon.” Admiral Chase brought up a schematic and wireframe images. “The beam cannon. It accelerates mega particles to high speeds and shoots them out the front. This is our first design, the 85cm ‘Gottfried’ cannon. Three ships in the fleet have sets of these.”

“Discovery, Nelson, and Roosevelt? I can agree with the two supercarriers, but did you really need to put it onto a Solar Survey ship?” Dugalle was astounded.

“It’s a very clever idea. They look almost identical to the current ‘Valiant’ railcannons, save the new barrel widths. The good Captain wouldn’t even notice until he fired.” Jones smiled.

“Then that’s it. We’re going to help the Earth Forces. They wouldn’t stand a chance otherwise.”

[April 07, 2147]
[Location: Tycho City, Lunar Capital]
[Time: 1:34 PM]

“Look, there they go!”

”Wow, that’s amazing!”

“What the hell are you talking about? People are dying down there!”

”Holy crap…”

The planetary bombardment of Earth had begun. High-caliber orbital railcannons of both Earth and Mars began to fire at each other, trying to knock each other out. One of the Mars ships fired rapidly at an orbital platform, knocking it out of low orbit.

“Look at that! It’s going to hit the planet!”

”Damn them!”

A voice sounded over the PA systems. “EVACUATE THE CITY. EVACUATE THE CITY. GO TO THE UNDERGROUND CITY IN AN ORDERLY FASHION. MILITARY POLICE WILL HELP YOU TO WHERE YOU WANT TO GO.” The voice repeated itself, and people agreed, going underground. Lunar Navy orbital ships began to undock from their berths. The two supercarriers Nelson and Roosevelt undocked and readied their launch catapults. Fusion and laser drives across the entire fleet began to ready.

But the Lunar Navy would only be on a state of heightened guard. When most or all of Earth’s fleet would be destroyed, they would move in. Or, if Mars attacks Luna, then the return fire would begin.

Meanwhile, a white ship called Discovery was speeding through the Solar System, trying to reach Earth in time for the fireworks…

[New Moon: End]

That was good, I got a little bored, but it was good, nonetheless. :=P:

Bah. It better be good. It stole four hours of my life >_>;;;

The later chapters are going to be much better. Trust me on this one.

But, for now, enjoy!

Rhapsody of the Stars
New Crescent: The Descending Sword

[07 April, 2147]
[Location: 3000 kilometers above India/China]
[Martian/UPA Advance Fleet, Laurentia]

“Aim Todesblock cannons and fire on my mark!”

”Incoming heat sources! Firing main thrusters!” An explosion rocked the ship. “Compartments 18D through 25D not responding!”

”Fire cannons!” The ship shuddered as no less than ten 65cm blasts left their barrels and sped towards an Earth Forces Everest-class ship.

“Impact confirmed! The Lhotse has been sunk!”

The war above the planet Earth was not going well for the Earthers. The Martians possessed powerful railcannons 250cm in diameter, firing them at Earth, causing massive damage in the two most populous countries in the world. About 50,000 people were probably dead by the railcannon pounding, with the crashing of a huge orbital platform another cause for destruction. Amazingly, Europe so far had been spared, as was America – but how long would it last?

The remaining Earth Forces were putting up a valiant fight, going down to almost the last ship to try and push back these Martian invaders. One Everest battleship hit a Pangaea cruiser, knocking both of them out. The combined wreck of the two ships hit an orbital platform, which went careening into the atmosphere as well.

“Sir! Incoming heat sources! It’s the American and European guard forces!”

”Right. Deploy all Typhoon fighters and have them attack the enemy ship!”

[American Guard Fleet, Kilimanjaro Command Deck]

“Fire Sledgehammer missiles! Aim Widowmaker cannons and fire at targets A through C! We’re going to beat them back!” The Kilimanjaro positively blasted through space, followed by several battleships and fourteen cruisers.

“Sir! Incoming cosmofighters at 124-45! Intercepting!” Railguns outside the ship began to fire, attempting to knock out the cosmofighters. The ship began to be rocked by explosions.

“Damn them! Bloody Martian and UPA sons of-“

“Incoming railcannon fire!”

“Dodge!” The Kilimanjaro tried to dodge upwards, but the railcannon hit right in the bow, knocking the ship around. Cosmofighters made quick work of the rest of the cruiser.

Even with the added might of half the Earth Forces fleet, Martian and UPA ships continued to attack the incoming defenders, which kept going down like flies.

[Overwatching Combat, 3000 kilometers above India/China]

The combat was fierce. Earth ships grouped together in a large formation, firing all their weapons at the same time like to disperse all their firepower. They managed to destroy two of the Martian rail weapons, but were almost decimated when the Martians flanked them in all directions. No Earth ships survived that attack. Now it was almost even in numbers, about 20 to a side, but definitely lopsided in combat potential. The Earth was frantically calling Luna for assistance.

[Lunar Headquarters, 600 kilometers above Tycho Crater]

“Well, they’ve done it. They’ve called for help. Dispatch the First Fleet over there immediately! Where’s the Discovery? We need all the help we can get!”

“The Discovery is currently approximately 845,000 kilometers from Earth. They will be here very soon. They already have confidential orders. But it will be a potent psychological weapon and a powerful physical weapon as well.”


-You’re watching Rhapsody of the Stars, the nine-part miniseries right here across Aralonia Networks!-


[18:12 Universal Time]
[Solar Survey 01, Discovery Main Deck]

“Whoa! They’re seriously wiping out the Earth forces!” Doned and his crew watched on both the overhead screen and the spherical array.

“Yes, it appears to be a mainly one-sided battle. Single ships are being destroyed, but work in groups and you’ll take out the enemy. How far are we away from Earth?”

“We are well within Lunar orbit, sir. Readying target profiles for UPA ships.” An Information Center crewmember was busy typing in commands on his unit.

”Roger that. Aim ‘Valient’ cannons on my mark and-“

“Sir? They’re not ‘Valients’.”

”What?”

“They’re Gottfrieds. Laser weapons.”

“Impressive.” Doned whistled. “But they won’t do anything if we don’t spool them up first. Warm up the cannons and ready them for firing.”

“Sir?”

”What the hell do you want this time?”

“They don’t need readying.” The crewman grinned sheepishly.

“Damn! Well, then just aim them! Or are you going to tell me that they home into the target? Oh wait, we need to choose targets! No, it does that automatically. God damn it, will you let me give out orders or not?” Doned shook his head and looked out the main windows. “Distance to target!”

“Distance is now 17,000 miles. Whoa, that’s an interesting scene – Oh my god, that platform’s going to hit the planet! Holy – they’ve already dropped two of them! The Earthers better put up a better fight!”

“Deploy five-milligram antimatter charge now!”

The ship shuddered forward as the explosion went off. All ships in the Earth System noticed this, and instantly turned their systems to the incoming ship.

[Martian/UPA Advance Fleet, Laurentia]

“What the hell was that!”

”Captain, incoming high-speed track on bearing 174-292! It’s coming in from the American bearing!”

”I know that! Evasive maneuvers! It could be a nuclear missile!”

”Holy crap!”

[European Guard Fleet, Mont Blanc]

“Sacre bleu! What was that explosion? Did a nuclear weapon go off?”

“Non, it appears to be a space ship of some sort. Not well armed as well, it has but two railcannon turret aboard. It’s coming in at high speed, over 15000 kilometer pour heuere! Aiming weapons at Laurentia!”

“Then be ready to get L’Inferno out of the way!”

[Solar Survey 01, Discovery]

“Fire Gottfried cannons at Laurentia!”

The ship didn’t shake one bit. Four beams lanced out from the two double turrets on the Discovery, leading the Laurentia perfectly, impacting the ship. The Laurentia glowed red around those impacts, then blew open and punctured the whole way through as the beams continued through space, hitting another main orbital cannon and puncturing that as well.

Madagascar, another Pangaea-class ship, opened fire first, with the rest of the UPA fleet following suit. “Hit them with everything we’ve got!”

The Discovery sped out of its effective fire zone, taking a few long-range potshots just for the heck of it. Not a single railcannon blast hit the ship, but there was no way to slow down.

“Sir! More enemies detected across the leylines! There’s an even larger force heading towards the Atlantic Ocean on the other side.”

“My God!” Doned was momentarily shocked, but recomposed himself in time. “Then we’ll intercept them. Use the gravitational well of Earth to slow us down into a stable orbit! Water tankers from the Moon are going to catch up with us soon, and are going refuel out craft for maneuvering. Slow down and rendezvous with the Lunar fleet! We cannot let them attack California!”

Doned smiled. _Grandfather, Grandmother, I will protect your resting site! No matter what happens! I will bring back honor to the name of Hawking!_

[New Crescent – End]

---
On January 1st, 2147, the population of India was 1.6 billion people. The population of land-based China was 1.2 billion, partly due to birth control, partly due to the emigration of many Chinese citizens to their colony on Farside.

…Oh, I forgot to tell you that the OP to this story is “Pride” by HIGH AND MIGHTY COLOR, and the ED to this story is “Life Goes On” by… someone. They’re the second OP and ED of “Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY”.

The acronym LSS stands for Lunar Star Ship. As if that wasn’t obvious.

…and when I refer to Luna in this story, I do not refer to Lunamaria Hawke, but to the Moon, just to let you guys know.

Oh man gah. Two chapters in two days. Holy crud. Enjoy!

Martians... o_o

Well, this was a more interesting chapter, it seemed pretty exciting in the beginning...umm.....I'm not in a good mood, so I'll just say "Good job."

Rhapsody of the Stars
First Quarter: Fury of the Sword

[07 April, 2147]
[18:48 Universal Time]
[Battle Over the Atlantic Ocean]

“Sir! More enemies detected across the leylines! There’s an even larger force heading towards the Atlantic Ocean on the other side.”

“My God!” Doned was momentarily shocked, but recomposed himself in time. “Then we’ll intercept them. Use the gravitational well of Earth to slow us down into a stable orbit! Water tankers from the Moon are going to catch up with us soon, and are going refuel out craft for maneuvering. Slow down and rendezvous with the Lunar fleet! We cannot let them attack California!”

Doned smiled. _Grandfather, Grandmother, I will protect your resting site! No matter what happens! I will bring back honor to the name of Hawking!_ “Where is the Lunar fleet?”

“Sir, they are currently about ninety thousand kilometers away. Leading them are the two ships Nelson and Roosevelt. They are dispatching fighters now – look, here they come! Wow – it’s a sheer cloud of silver! I’d hate to be those damned Martian types now!”

Doned grinned again. “How long until we arrive?” He sat back and waited.

“About fifteen minutes. They have asked us to stay slightly behind the other ships in the fleet. It gives us a clear firing arc as well.”

”Splendid. Rendezvous with the fleet and take up position. Meanwhile, input this program into the magnetic coil units. It should increase the power. Give me full fire control over the beam weapons immediately.” A screen swung out from under an arm of his chair, a keyboard and joystick coming out from the other. He smiled again. The fury of the sword would be swift and deadly.

“Program inputted. Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Yes. The mathematical computations should be correct. If I’m right, then the plasma should be focused in the correct manner. If I’m wrong, well, it’s been nice working with you. But we’ve gone through worse things – the antimatter propulsion system, for example.” Doned winced a bit. “Alert me when we are within eighty-five kilometers!”

“Yes, sir!” The crewmembers began to banter on, playing blackjack and the like. But Doned leaned back. He played several symphonies of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. He was at peace for now.

[19:23 Universal Time]

“Are we going to blast them yet?”

”No, dammit, shut up – the Captain’s asleep!”

“I don’t want to die!”

“All hands, level-one battle stations! Launch the missile pods immediately!”

“Yes, sir!” Doned leaned back and watched as one, then another, then another, in a succession of up to twenty “cargo containers” that sped forward to about a kilometer in front of the enemy formation. The Martians thought that these were just debris. But debris doesn’t activate after several seconds, unleashing over one thousand micromissiles into an enemy formation. After the enemy was under the initial disarray of the random attack and explosion of light, the rest of the Lunar fleet opened fire. Then another group of Lunar ships, on the other side of the UPA group opened fire. The first target was another orbital cannon – that was quickly dispatched.

Doned activated the cameras. There were two main commands on the joystick – the hat view controlled the left-side turret while the main joystick controlled the right-side turret. He flipped open the fire button on the top – for the left weapon – and aimed the left turret. “Stand by. Firing left turret weapon!” He depressed the fire button.

This time, a very strong plasma blast left the ship with ten times the power of the railcannon. This double green beam punctured an enemy ship completely on contact, going through it and even managing to disable one of the Martians’ orbital cannons. “Damn! Nice shot, Captain! Confirmed – the Madagascar has been sunk!”

“Good. That was a good test run. Returning magnetic polarity to normal – I don’t want to risk further damage to the beam cannons. I’m reactivating the auto-fire systems.” Doned activated the public announcement systems across the ship. “This is Captain Hopkins. We are going to be accelerating at a fast rate. Please buckle up and attach any floating objects. That would not be pretty. Thank you.” He sighed.

“Sir? What are you suggesting we do?”

“We are the fastest ship in the fleet, aren’t we?”

”Yes, sir. Even without the antimatter drive.”

“And we do have some of the most powerful weapons in the fleet save an antimatter bomb, right?”

”Yes, sir.”

“And we even have an antimatter bomb of sorts, right?”

”That is true, sir.”

“Where is the location of the largest weapon in that enemy fleet?”

“At the back, sir.”

”The last question – do we have piton anchors?”

”Yes, they were equipped with the last- Ah. Clever plan.”

“Good. Activate the fusion drive units! Ready beam cannons for rapid fire! Load all railguns and spool up the magnetic drives! We’re going to blast through the enemy formation at high speed!”

=Commercial Break=

[Location: Lunar Headquarters]
[Time: 19:26 Universal Time]

“They’re readying for combat. I like their plan – like that ‘zoom and boom’ technique of the Second and Third World Wars. Clever.” Jones smiled to himself.

“It may be clever, but it’s stupid as well! The ship, it could snap in half during the motion transfer! And it-“

“The Discovery was built to be able to withstand two times the gravitational force that it would experience.”

The good Vice Admiral sighed. “Very well then. Launch the attack. How goes the production of the Lohengrin?”

Jones smiled. So there would be even more good news today. “The Lohengrin cannon will become operational in an hour. That will be the point when we are closest to the battle.”

[Location: Battle of the Atlantic Ocean]
[Time: 19:34 Universal Time]

So far, the Lunar Navy was winning, but barely. A Drake-class light cruiser was a perfect match against a Kirov-class of the UPA, while the team tactics and cosmofighters of two Ptolemy ships could round up two, possibly three Pangaea-class cruisers. But the only thing to match the orbital UPA railcannon platforms were the two Nelson-class carriers and their massive cosmofighter complements. The battle could go either way.

Broadsides between two ships were being exchanged often, while two pockets of UPA ships exchanged long-range fire with a carrier battlegroup.

“All hands! Level one battle stations! Control stations one and two, take manual control of railguns A1 and A2! Divert thrusters to speed right through that resistance pocket over at 042-023!”

“Yes sir!” All of the crewmembers were hyped up on adrenaline and ready to do their job.

“Fire main rocket thrusters to attain a calculated speed of ten thousand kilometers per hour! Ready to launch five-milligram antimatter charge when we’re in the middle of the formation!”

“They’re firing the orbital cannon from the back! Crap! There goes the Amundsen. Weapons have targeted enemy cruisers. Ready to open fire, sir.”

“Open fire!” All of Discovery’s weapons opened up immediately, piercing two Kirovs and instantly detonating them. Small railguns opened up all over the ship, dealing small damage to the UPA ships, but still softening them up.

“Incoming enemy cosmofighters from 5 by 1 o’clock! Range 3500 meters, but they’re definitely gunning for us!”

”Re-engage targeting system to target them and knock them out of the sky! Equip turret B2 with high-explosive rounds! Fire and evade!” The ship constantly lurched around and through while on its… death run? _I won’t let us die! Not yet…_ Doned frowned a bit and looked ahead. “Come on!”

Discovery downed two of the incoming fighters. Some of Nelson’s fighters played interference and knocked several more out, but backed away after several minutes. She was in the middle of the enemy fleet, ready to detonate charges while traveling at about 9800 kilometers an hour. “Fire charge in thirty seconds! After that try and slow back down to a speed of 7000. We do not want to increase speed to the point that our ship snaps in two!”

“The orbital cannon’s firing again!” The orbital railcannon fired off another shot, speeding past all the UPA ships and into the atmosphere. “Crap! It’s going to…”

But Doned knew already. “It’s going to hit near the Bay Area, isn’t it?” He looked at the incoming orbital gun. The explosion of antimatter went off, severely damaging a Laurasia-class cruiser.

“Incoming heat sources!”

“Dodge!”

”They’ve missed, sir!”

”Holy crap!”

“Nothing’s happening…”

“Come on, where are you?”

“I see one!”

“Damn!”

“No! The Pythagoras has been sunk!”

“Fire piton anchor now! Give me manual control over the antimatter detonation and launch! Twenty-milligram doses, all of them! Immediately!” He looked back at the orbital cannon, and braced for impact. He pulled the launch triggers for each antimatter charge every three seconds until the ship stopped turning around. He sighed. “Brace for impact!”

“Sir? What are you talking about?” Everyone ducked anyways. Doned winced, then depressed the red thumb button.

[Play ending theme – Life Goes On – Mika Arisaka]

[New Quarter – End]


---

The dishonoring of the name of Hawking will be covered eventually. Like sometime this summer. >_>;;;

Oh, the Martians in my story are humans, but Martians. They have evolved (slightly), being able to live longer and losing a bit of the pigment in their skin. Everyone’s pretty much a light shade of brown.

…my PSP has kept me from the computer. And problems (coughrealityofEntwinedisdyingduetobackstabby”friend”cough) have arisen in reality. Le sigh…

Martians...well, you have a more creative mind than I do...or maybe it's the fact my story is based on reality so I can't add magical creatures...especially not at where I am now... o_o

This was a nicely written chapter, a bit more interesting...umm....good job. :content:

.... @_@

Dude. They're human beings. Just the low gravity of Mars (40% of Earth's gravity) has evolved them to the point that they are a bit whiter than normal humans. They're NOT magical creatures.

So, this is essentially humanity at this point in time, from chronological advances:

1. Earthborn Humans, or "Earthlings" (Homo sapiens sapiens) - Born on Earth, raised on Earth.
2. Spaceborn Humans (Homo sapiens cosmos) - Born under lower gravity of the Space Stations. Donatello Hawking (son of Daniel and Julia Hawking) was one of the first Spaceborn.
3. Lunaborn Humans (Homo sapiens luna) - Born on the Moon, not used to high gravity.
4. Marsborn Humans, or "Martians" (Homo sapiens mars) - Born on Mars under the Communist society. (All hail Mater Rossiya! =P)
5. Outer Humans (Homo sapiens astera) - Born outside the orbit of the Asteroid Belt.

Happy now? They're all subdivisions of the species "Homo sapiens".

I need to make a map of the Solar System and politics and stuff X_x;;;

I know they're not magical creatures. I never said they were magical creatures. Do you want me to be more specific or something? Well I'm so sorry if I can't help but have an inferior mind. -_-

Rhapsody of the Stars
Waxing Gibbous: The Calm Between Storms

[07 April, 2147]
[Battle Over The Atlantic Ocean – Aftermath]
[Bridge of the Discovery]
[20:17 Universal Time]

“We’ve lost sixteen Drake ships as part of the high-speed attack force as well as two Ptolemy ships. The carriers have not suffered any damage. There are numerous damaged Drake and Ptolemy ships. These are being sent back to Tycho as we speak.”

“That’s good for us, then. How many of them escaped?” Doned looked out his window to the destruction around him.

“Two Laurasia cruisers, seven Kirov destroyers, and three light frigates. All of them had suffered light damage of some kind. There were many more damaged ships, but our Drakes took them out easily.” The lieutenant was reading off all of the information from a tablet computer.

“And what of the orbital cannon systems?”

”Seven different orbital cannons had been dispatched to Earth. All of them had been destroyed, one of them in our spectacular antimatter swing maneuver – which was visible from Lunar headquarters. We may be able to salvage one or more cannons using parts from other cannons, but…” He frantically used his stylus to poke at the screen to bring up newer data.

“Good enough. The UPA’s main fleet building facilities are in the Outer Rim Territories, however. How are we going to get all the way over there?”

”You’re the captain, sir.”

Doned turned around. “That’s exactly right.” He activated the large touch-screen and laser pointer and started to draw and compute several tracks on the changing flat solar-system map. “Using a high-energy track, we can be at the outer system in a month. But we must avoid as many civilian casualties as possible. They aren’t building any more ships on Mars, as far as we know. We can avoid the Red Planet, but not the Outer Rim.” He sighed. When would all of this be over?

No. It was in human nature to fight. But whether with words or weapons, we must always have to fight for peace.

Doned knew that, and he knew it well.

[30 April, 2144]
[Asteroid 253 Mathilde]
[UPA Shipyards, Nova Kiev]

It is not uncommon to see an amalgam of every language imaginable. Latin had once been the language of the stars – and so, it remained as such for these times. Therefore, a combination of Russian and Latin was inevitable.

Nova Kiev was once an Earth robotic outpost, but was overtaken even before the war by a small landing fleet of Laurasia cruisers and short-range mobile attack pods. Now, it was the construction site of a large, white weapon. Hiding in the Asteroid Belt had its advantages – it was not easily found, albeit being a catalogued asteroid. It was relatively small, and it hid among numerous other objects as well. Any sort of building there would not be easily found.

Admiral Vasilenovich of the UPA instantly saw the value of such a base. A small shipbuilding facility was already there, but they needed something… bigger. Enough to hold a supership more than a kilometer long – as was the design of the latest Rodinia-class battleship.

“We need something that is capable of transporting over one-hundred and thirty fighters and mounts a large plasma fusion weapon.”

“We already have the orbital cannon platforms. Should they be enough?”

“Never. We must remember the Rodinia… by building a ship in its name.”

So began the construction of an immense ship. People on Luna noticed immediately and put heavy surveillance on the base.

But time passes by, and memories fade…

[July 08, 2147]
[Minor planet 253 Mathilde]
[Time: 21:43 Universal Time]

"It's time."

"Ready the plasma drive units!" The ship’s captain stood up. “Let’s get moving!”

"Scramble fighter groups VF-24 through VF-37 on the double!" Another captain was yelling into his mike as well.

"Get the jamming signals online!"

"Initialize plasma fusion cannon power conduits for ranging tests!"

"Begin forward movement! Accelerate to 1000 km/h in fifteen minutes!"

"Yes, sir!" All over the ship, people began to comply to their orders.

"This is Caribia bridge. Amazonia bridge, please respond." Radio operators were chit-chatting over the wires.

"Amazonia bridge responding, the Rodinia systems are online."

"All systems responding, copy. Caribia conduits deconnecting!"

"Copy, Amazonia conduits disconnecting as well. Rodinia underway!"

The great white ship had begun to detach from the docking ports that had held it for many years. The Amazonia and Caribia were finally moving again under their own power after three years, albeit being attached as command decks to the top and bottom of the Rodinia. The immense plasma fusion thrusters fired up, sending the ship forward at an apparently slow rate. But any rate is fast enough for a ship one kilometer long.

[Farside Lunar Observatory]
[22:05 Universal Time]

"Hey, Joe, get a look at this! Mathilde's showing massive albedo fluctuation!"

Joe continued checking the observatory’s asteroid-finder plates. "There's a UPA base there. Of course there's albedo fluctuation!"

"But it's almost a square kilometer in size! And it’s… moving?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Joe left his seat and walked over to the screen.

"Get a look for yourself!"

Joe checked the screen and increased the resolution to maximum. He was shocked, as was his partner. "Call the Lunar Security Agency! The UPA's on the move again, and they've got that huge… thing moving!"

[Endeavour Command Deck]
[22:39 Universal Time]

“Maneuver into position approximately 23000 kilometers behind that ship. We must not be seen. Activate passive LIDAR and SONAR readouts ASAP while accessing all the leylines.” The commander silently tapped in several commands for the ship.

“Yes, sir. We’re going to have to maneuver around them to get a perfect picture of the ship, but it’s confirmed. It has two Pangaea-class heat signatures close to it, however, with 17 Kirov signatures nearby, with numerous other small craft. We’re zooming in on the ship name now. Anyone know how to read Cyrillic?”

“It says Rodinia, comrade.” One of the Russian crewmembers recognized the writing immediately.

“Thanks, Borossovich. Send a report to Luna Base. Identify new ship as Rodinia-class long-range attack ship.” The commander began to relax in his chair.

“Cosmofighters! Incoming!” One of the radar operators frantically turned around.

“What?” The commander looked at the screen, and sure enough, there were numerous contacts heading towards them. “Activate railgun systems immediately. Ready the plasma drive! We have to try and escape – we are the fastest ship class in the galaxy! We can get away from them! If we don’t… relay information to Luna!”

“Yes, sir!” The few railgun turrets scattered all over the ship were beginning to intercept their targets. Weapons fire began almost immediately. One cosmofighter unit went down, then another, and another. Endeavour was one of the Discovery-class ships, albeit missing the antimatter drive. Therefore, it possessed one of the best targeting computers, some of the best weapons…

Including two high-caliber linear railcannons. “Aim the railcannons at the enemy ship! If anything, we can damage it before it gets anywhere close to Luna!”

“Aiming weapons at the upper engine block. Firing!” The two 115cm railcannons fired, sending two powerful yellow shots lancing through space. They were right on target.

Suddenly both shells began to drift off to the right a bit. They positively missed, then went into a half orbit around the Rodinia, then shooting out at a higher speed towards the Endeavour.

“What the hell was that? Evasive maneuvers! Get a chaff cloud up there!” But it was far too late. Both railcannon shells went right through the Endeavour’s bridge, destroying the white ship.

[Waxing Gibbous – End]

---
Allright, allright, I’m late, I’m late! Geez. I get it already. So I forgot to finish writing the chapter. I lost the original, which was beginning to look more and more like a “Tsunami Relief” story.

So, enjoy what you have now. I won’t have time to write for another few weeks – going on a trip to the Washington D.C.! Operation Longshot is a go!

Well, later, and Yasuragi no tame ni!