Apocalypse
A Love Story
GalCiv2 Forums
Caveats:
I) The following work is based on DA Apocalypse scenario played out to a sucessful conclusion. Extensive head scratching, references to the game log and way too few saves were resorted to in order to stay true to the plot.
ii) This work is protected by all the applicable copyrights. Any plagiarism, stealing etcetc will not be tolerated. Yeah , this means you David Weber , and you John Ringo 
iii) This work contains mature situations, sex , extreme violence and not so nice language. If you can't deal with it, shut off your notebook and get out of the bathroom.
iv) Negative critique will have the desired effect. I will stop posting further updates and start a prolonged sulk.
Apocalypse
(A Love Story)
Prologue
Alan Bradley stood at more or less attention, while fighters rumbled overhead in parade formations. He, along with a couple of hundred other dignitaries of all races was on a reviewing stand while the parade sloowly ground on. He felt good though. The sky was spotless without a cloud in sight. The gentle breeze cooled many a fevered brow, or some equivalent part (in case of of some of the allied races), and best of all, the Dread Lords were gone. Every single one of the bastards was blown to bits , killed, spindled, mutilated and most definitely dead.
The long nightmare was finally over.
Chapter 1
Feb 8, 26 Outpost 3
After a month of frenetic activity, fourteen hour days, bad food and little or no sleep, Colonel Alan Bradley manage to free up a precious few hours to meet up with his baby brother Jack.
They were sitting in a ramshacle bar in the starport, drinking beer while trying to catch up. The planet, officially Outpost 3, had nothing save the initial colony, couple of xeno labs and a starport, but starports always had bars. While talking, they were idly observing the bar scenery. In Jack's case, the scenery was also observing him. Jack was a captain in TSN and looked every inch of it. Tall, bronze skin, square chin and steely glare in his blue eyes all conspired to to activate the scenery attack reflexes. The blonde two tables over seemed to be affected particularly badly, much to her dates' disgust. Alan felt only mildly exasperated. Not that he had not had his fair share. But ever since his wife Becky died, he just had not felt the urge to date. Instead, he worked.
“I don't get it. Why can't we build some real ships. Mount some disruptors, or quantum drivers, Hell, I'd even take phasors. Couple of fleets of those and we will pound those bastards into oblivion. We have the technology, so what's the problem?”
During his little speech, Jack got quite animated, which seemed to inflame the blonde even more.
Alan knew what bugged Jack. A captain without a command is like , to put it crudely , tits on a boar.
“Well it's like this Jack” he started his standard speech.
“Yes we do know how to build phasers, and warp drive, and even disruptors. But we can't build them until we have the machines that can build them. And to build those machines, we have to build machines. And so on and so forth. The bottom line is it's gonna take couple of years before we are there”
“And in the meantime, we do nothing. We sit on our thumbs until the Dread Lords come and pound us into dust?” was Jack's sarcastic rejoinder.
“No, of course not” Alan was trying to be reasonable (and calming)
“What do you think I've been working on for the past month. We've launched four colonies because all the projections indicate we'd need resources of at least five planets in order to deal with Dread Lords”
“So where are they going, anyway?” Jack asked, somewhat mollified.
“Thindor, Weber and two to Markus ”
“Seems kind of silly colonizing Markus and Weber when there are closer inhabitable systems”
That was still a sore spot for Alan. He'd argued long and hard to colonize Cassius instead of Weber. Cassius was much closer and less exposed than Weber, but the powers that be decided otherwise. It appears that Torians felt that Cassius belonged to them and PTB's (Powers That Be) in the interest of keeping their little alliance going, agreed.
“Yeah, I agree, but I did not make that call” was Alan's only reply. He really did not want to get Jack all foamed up about the so called Allies. For one, he wanted to finish his beer in peace and quiet and he feared that if Jack got excited, he'd have to rip the blonde off of him. Beer flying all over the place. Nooo way.
“On a more positive side” he continued. “We are mushrooming labs and factories all over the planet. Within a few months we'll start building the Eye, and then..”
“We can start the Dance” Jack finished for him. Jack's face took on a dreamy expression, at the thought of having an Eye of the Universe backing him up. Unparallaled visibility afforded by the Eye, would permit any Terran ship to see the Dread Lords way before being seen. That same visibility would permit Terran hunter killers to intercept the Dread Lord troopships and then deftly “dance” away.
That was the theory at least. Practice was somewhat different in that the hunter killer crews had lifetimes measured in weeks. Dread Lords were not totally stupid and sometimes clustered around their troopships. When that happened, the hunter killers went in for that final run.
“I am going to volunteer for HK duty” Jack said abruptly “And I'm going to get it”
Alan only watched him in dismay. “Jack , that is a very bad idea. You will be needed for the push after we build up” he tried with a sinking feeling in his gut.
“Hell no, that won't happen for years. You said it yourself. In the meantime, I'll be killing Dread Lord troopers.”
For the rest of the afternoon Alan tried to talk Jack out of it, all the time cursing himself for opening up his big fat mouth. It did not work, of course.
Thus ended the afternoon, with Jack cheerfully sauntering off ( with the Blonde in tow), and Alan slinking off to his quarters.
