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Opening story post. I'll put more stuff in here, like a TO&E and fluff mechanices as we go.

“History is unfolding before us all. Fire in the sky heralds Valor’s fall, bringing with it the seeds of change. From them will spawn the choosers of the slain, great birds and monsters, ancient warriors with their blades, windstorms, the first among fighters and its steed. Hidden by shadow they shall gaze upon your works, ye mighty, and despair.”
-- Poor Yorick, May 5th, 102 P.A.

TIROL ORBIT: MAY 14TH, 2044 A.D.

Captain Hafesi sat back in his command chair and tried once again to not think of any of the many things that could go wrong with the Valeria and her troops. ‘Not that the old girl needs my help to have something go haywire, but I don’t want to be left out of the battle to liberate Earth.’

The Valeria floated amongst the gathered ships of the United Earth Expeditionary Fleet, assembled for a third and hopefully successful strike to liberate humanity from the Invid occupation. The massive Ikazuchi-class carrier was one of the early models, lacking the advanced technologies and refits common to the more modern, smaller cruisers that dominated the fleet. That same obsolescence and extra size allowed it to carry the entire 23rd Mechanized Division without needing to split the brigades up across multiple vessels.

Of course, some wags in the fleet joked that part of her design included “Murphosensor Bombs”, given the bad luck that seemed to follow Valeria around more closely than any element of the Fleet Train. She’d seen enough renegade Tirolians, alien pirates, lost ruins, Zentradi hardliners, Invid experiments gone rogue, and traitorous UEEF forces to qualify the entirety of Task Force 5 as a statistical anomaly.

‘But we’ve always pulled through, even when that bastard Edwards tried to ambush us. This is just another planetary assault. Yeah, just keep thinking that, Ibrahim.’

“Signal from the Flag, sir. Execute Fold Jump.” Lieutenant Commander Edward Archer’s voice interrupted Hafesi’s reverie.

“Very well then, Commander Franklin, jump us to Earth.”

“Aye Captain. All sections, report status for jump.” The executive officer was a recent transfer, but he seemed to be fitting into the Valeria’s family readily enough.

“All brigades ready. Drop shuttles are loaded and waiting for arrival.” Brigadier General Mondesi’s voice radiated confidence from his position on the lower decks.

“Air wing ready, all Veritechs manned and in launch positions.” Commander Victoria Archer’s precise speech over the intercom retained her English accent despite over thirty years in United Earth military service.

“Weapons status boards are green, all missile tubes loaded and particle beams show no power fluctuations.” Lieutenant O’Conner never looked up from the screens showing the status of the massive weaponry at his command.

“Protoculture levels nominal, sub-light engines on-line. All support systems functional.” Chief Engineer Collins was typically brusque in his response, preferring to remain deep inside the ship with his treasured reactors.

Franklin turned to the captain. “Sir, all sections report ready, Fold drive is powered and coordinates are locked in.”

Hafesi smiled. “Very good then. Helm, active Fold drive on my mark…Engage!”

With the touch of a button, the complex machinery in the bowels of the carrier began to twist and fold space-time in a fashion still not entirely understood by the humans who had wrested the technology from its Tirolian creators. As with any complex and highly advanced technology, there was a certain risk in using the fold drive, even in the hands of a qualified reflex engineer like Chief Collins. But despite the not quite understood science behind the fold engines, they remained the only way for humanity to achieve FTL travel. And even in the worst possible conditions, the probability of a third-generation fold engine such as Valeria’s suffering even a minor misjump was so slight as to be non-existent.

Naturally, the Valeria made a certainty out of that slight chance.

Above Occupied Earth the point in space that would have been the Valeria’s position was bathed in the energy wake of the Regis and her Invid as they left the planet, destroying half the REF fleet as they went. The remnants of the Expeditionary Force listed the Valeria’s fate as ‘Destroyed – No Survivors’, along with the rest of the ships and crew lost that day.

They were wrong.

RIFTS EARTH ORBIT: MAY 14TH, 102 P.A. (2388 A.D.)

Space-Time twisted and warped as esoteric energies tore into it, until reality finally reached the breaking point. From a single tiny point in space, a burst of electromagnetic radiation and light slowly coalesced into the form of the Valeria. The series of events following her return to normal space-time happened far too quickly for most organic minds to follow.

In the first couple of seconds from the initial incursion the Fold Drive suffered “catastrophic failure” – engineer-speak for “melted into slag”. In the third second after incursion, killer satellites in orbit around Earth acquired the carrier and opened fire.

Fortunately, the Valeria’s computer brains were unaffected by the disorientation of Folding and responded instantly to the automated weapon platforms that angrily protested the sudden close appearance of 1.4 million tons of unknown starship.

Dispassionately cataloging the numerous hostile objects in orbit even as bomb-pumped X-Ray lasers and hyper-velocity railguns carved at her forward hull, the Valeria began to systematically destroy them one by one with her considerable array of weapons. Nine seconds from incursion, all nearby hostiles had been reduced to rapidly expanding vapor clouds while the enormous vessel had only suffered a few relatively minor hull breaches.

However, missile platforms further out had more than enough time to complete firing solutions upon the invading starship. Silently, eight deadly missiles launched from their tubes and burned towards the Valeria with lethal intent.

The networked computers that made up the “mind” of the Valeria were nowhere near close to being a true AI, but they came close in sophistication and programming. In an attempt to fool the hostile satellites, the Valeria deployed countermeasures and a pair of decoys. At approximately twelve seconds from Incursion, the Valeria moved to protect one of the decoys as if it was the carrier herself.

At fourteen seconds from Incursion, the eight missiles streaking in toward the Valeria became confused. Their relatively simple guidance systems were overwhelmed by the garbled sensor readings from the carrier’s countermeasures. Relying solely on optical sensors, the missiles suddenly found themselves confronted with three seemingly identical starships. With less than a fraction of a second to decide, the missile’s targeting systems selected the most likely of the three as their target…

Fifteen seconds after incursion, the first missile slammed into the decoy the Valeria was protecting and detonated in a 100 kiloton nuclear blast, enveloping six of the others in its fratricidal explosion. But Valeria’s luck struck again as the last missile came in. Firing later than the other seven because of a micrometeor strike that had damaged the launching mechanism, the sole remaining missile lost sight of its primary target as it vanished in a nuclear fireball. Resorting to its limited protocols, the missile switched to the next available target…

Spiraling randomly, the missile evaded the Valeria’s point defenses and impacted on the carrier’s main drive system. The detonation following impact was every bit as powerful as the missile’s long-dead designers had hoped. What they hadn’t planned on was the sheer durability of a UEEF warship, as the explosion “merely” deformed the main thrusters and forced the drive system into an automatic reset. With the drive offline, the great ship could no longer maintain her position in the planetary gravity well.

At sixteen seconds past incursion and before most of Valeria’s crew could regain their senses, the mile-long ship began to enter freefall into the planet’s atmosphere.

From the surface, it seemed as if a fiery spear had been hurled down from the heavens to impale itself upon the Earth. The spectacle lit up the sky over all of North America as the crippled warship descended towards its final resting place...

So...Valeria is a mile long...and is supposed to be an Ikazuchi?!

Its a good start chief, reasonable reasons for why such a ship has to land on Earth, a respectable understanding of just how much tougher Robotech/Phase World starships are compared to MiO/Anything on Earth not Related to Aliens (and many of them too, come to think of it), and a fairly powerful force to start with. I might think a Tokugawa class would be better, much closer in size to the mile long mark than the less than a half mile long Ikazuchi, and also a better candidate for a large unit landing ship than the more or less carrier the Ikazuchi ends up being.

I also presume you intend to go a bit more into the 23rd at some point, so we have an idea what sort of unit they are, equipment wise. I am suspecting something with a lot of larger ground mecha in it.

The Valeria is a "Block I" Ikauzuchi. Older and larger than the more modern ships that comprise the bulk of the Fleet. Order of Battle for the 23rd Division will be available shortly. It's primarily a Cyclone division though.

Not bad Alex, not bad at all

Looking good thus far. Though I probably would have slung the misFold as a result of battle damage, an unexpected ship in-Folding at the same time they were jumping out, or an (un)fortuitous alignment of planets in the Tirolian home system.
Otherwise, not bad.

Hope to see more soon!

UES Valeria TO&E

UES Valeria Carrier Air Group
27th Interceptor Wing
4 Squadrons, total 68 VF/A-6I Alphas, 4 VF/A-6H Alphas
50th Bomb Wing
4 Squadrons, total 20 VF/A-6I Alphas, 4 VF/A-6H Alphas, 48 VF/B-9 Betas
11th Fighter Wing
4 Squadrons, total 32 VF/A-6I Alphas, 12 VF/A-6Z Alphas, 4 VF/A-6H Alphas, 16 VF/B-9 Betas, 8 VEF-10 Betas (EWAR model)

23rd Mechanized Infantry Division

Divisional Assets
“Betty”, Horizont-class Drop Shuttle
“Scarlet”, Horizont-class Drop Shuttle
“Clark”, Horizont-class Drop Shuttle
“Fred”, Horizont-class Drop Shuttle

231st Mechanized Brigade
232nd Mechanized Brigade
233rd Mechanized Brigade
234th Mechanized Brigade

Each Mechanized Brigade is composed of four Mechanized Infantry Battalions and one Armored Battalion.

Each Mechanized Infantry Battalion is composed of three Cyclone Companies, one Battloid Company, and one Veritech Squadron.

Each Armored Battalion is composed of three Battloid Companies, one Cyclone Company, and one Veritech Squadron.

Veritech Squadrons consist of 18 Veritech Fighters. Battloid Companies consist of 18 Destroids, Battloids, or Veritech Hover Tanks.

Cyclone Companies consist of three platoons with a total of six VM-9L Silverbacks, three VM-9H or VM-9E Silverbacks, three VR-041M Cyclones, Six VR-038R or VR-057 Cyclones, and ninety VR-041H or VR-052F Cyclones.

The 54th Armored Battalion (231st Brigade) deserves special mention as the battalion is composed entirely of pre-Malcontent Uprising Zentradi loyalists. As such, the fifty-four ZBR-10s and eighteen VF-1Rs of the battalion are the deadliest fighting force in the division.

Total pre-Impact UEEF troop strength:
288 VFA-8 Logan Fighters (The 23rd Division was at the bottom of the barrel for new Veritech Fighters)
120 VF/A-6I Alpha Fighters
72 VF-1R Valkyrie Fighters
64 VF/B-9 Beta Fighters
12 VF/A-6H Command Alpha Fighters
12 VF/A-6Z Air Superiority Alpha Fighters
8 VEF-10 Beta Electronic Attackers (Bomb Bay replaced with VEF-1 EWAR gear, hardpoints carry HARM)
54 ZBF-10 Bioroid Interceptors
36 MBR-12 Condors
36 MBR-07 Spartans
36 VHT-1A1 Spartas Hovertanks
18 VHR-2A1 Myrmidon Hovertanks
15 ADR-04 Defenders
9 MBR-04 Tomahawks
8 SDR-04 Phalanxes
4 HWR-00 Monsters
312 VM-9L Silverbacks
78 VM-9H Silverbacks
78 VM-9E Silverbacks
2,808 VR-052F Cyclones
1,872 VR-041H Cyclones
156 VR-038R Cyclones
156 VR-041M Cyclones
156 VR-057 Cyclones

Note: All ASC and Macross-developed mecha have been refitted to use Protoculture cells.

Total shipboard crew + divisional personnel: 8,100

Nicely done

usually with Land, air, space, and naval units it works the other way around. the early Block/Flight models tend to be lighter and smaller than later Block/Flight's, because later builds are usually designed with more and better electronics, armor, weapons, and other systems. it's part of a natural 'feature creep'. when minituarization allows the same systems to be made smaller, they tend to just use the extra space to cram in more systems rather than redesign the entire vehicle from the ground up to be smaller. infact they often add an extension to make it longer, giving more room for yet more systems.

Good job! Can't wait to read more story now!

So, are we going to have more?

“Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
“Ma’am, I don’t think we’re even in Oz anymore.”
-- Lieutenants Archer and Rockwell entering the ruins of Salt Lake City, May 15th, 102 P.A.

VALERIA CRASH SITE (KING’S PEAK, UTAH): MAY 15th, 102 P.A.
-- Sixteen hours after Impact

Ibrahim Hafesi looked around the conference table at the assembled officers. “Commander Franklin, please start the briefing.”

The XO nodded and stood at the head of the table, activating the wall projector.
“Sixten hours ago the Valeria suffered a malfunction of some kind within the Fold drive. After the defold was completed, the entire mechanism melted down. By itself, that would be a serious matter, but the damage was compounded by hostile fire from what the computer logs indicate were automated platforms that engaged us as soon as we arrived. The final attack on Valeria was the detonation of a one hundred kiloton nuclear weapon on the main drive. This resulted in a cascading system failure that caused Valeria to lose orbital control and re-enter the atmosphere.”

He flashed a deck plan of the crippled warship onto the wall screen.
“As a result of the crash landing, decks eleven and twelve are completely destroyed. You’ve all obviously also noticed the ten degree list to starboard. What you may not have noticed is the fact that the ship’s spine has fractured aft of the Alpha hangers. The rear half of the ship is at a one point five degree angle to the forward half. Even with repairs to the engines, Valeria will never fly again.”

While not unexpected, the declaration still cast a pall over the room. The Valeria had been their home for years. To hear her death warrant so bluntly put was unsettling.

Steven cleared his throat and continued. “As a result of the attack and the crash we have two hundred dead, and another three hundred injured, one-third of them seriously. Engineering was the hardest hit, with fifty dead and most of the rest suffering from some degree of radiation poisoning. However, given our current status, the crew losses should not impair operations.” The Commander sat down, making room for the next briefer.

Captain Daniels stood up and delivered his briefing without looking at his notes.
“Troop casualties were proportionately the same as those suffered by the ship’s crew. However, we suffered over a thousand dead and another eight hundred and ninety-seven injured in the attack and crash. While all of our formations suffered casualties, the most severe was the total loss of the 2341st and 2342nd battalions.” Everyone in the room winced. Those had been slated to be the lead formations for the assault and had been stationed in the now-destroyed bottom hanger bays. Daniels cleared his throat and continued. “The most severe injury from the crash was Corporal Issac Archuletter from Major Zeroun’s recon teams, who shattered his spine and is paralyzed from the neck down. Doctor Hibachi says it’s extremely unlikely that he will regain any voluntary muscle control. Accounting for both dead and wounded, most of the division is at eighty-five percent capability. The 234th Brigade, however, is at fifty-eight percent.”

Colonel Sam Dawkins gripped his mug tightly as he was reminded again of how badly his troops had suffered before looking up to see the next briefer.

Captain Isavia self-consciously brushed at the lavender hair, which along with her picture-perfect features marked her as one of the many native Tirolians who had joined the UEEF after her homeworld had been liberated from the Invid. “As far as material losses go,” she began, “the drop shuttles Clark Gable and Audrey Hepburn were unable to launch from deck 12 before impact. Both shuttles were destroyed, along with the 2341st battalion. Combined with the inability to remove material from decks 11 or 12, and breakage on the remaining ten decks during the crash, divisional assets are at 72.39 percent, along with the drop shuttles Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, and the Valeria’s air wing of one hundred forty-four Alphas.”

Lt. Colonel Alfonzo Franks stood up next. “Shortly after impact, we deployed AWAC to give us an idea of what’s going on.” He paused. “As you may have guessed, they have found nothing. No sign of the Invid, no sign of the Fleet…Hell, we haven’t even seen anything to indicate we’re not alone on this rock.”

“Aside from the nuke-toting killsats in orbit, that is.” Colonel Dimitri Koslov snarked.

“Err, yes sir, aside from those.” Franks sighed. “Our landing site seems to be King’s Peak in the old Utah province of North America. I said ‘seems’ because the northern face of the mountain appears melted, and the mountain itself is a good forty feet shorter than what our records indicate. With static on all radio bands and no sign of reaction to the crash, I suggest sending recon teams to scout the area.”

Major Zeroun Tralna grunted. “I suppose that’s my cue.” The one-armed Zentradi tossed some maps onto the conference table. “I plan to send three teams to what should be Provo, Salt Lake City, and Rock Springs with orders to make contact with the locals but try to avoid combat. They’re all close enough by Cyclone that we can keep the fighters back here.”

Ibrahim exchanged a look with General Mondesi and nodded. “Approved, Major. We’ll have the rest of the division get started on a base camp.”


CHI-TOWN, IMPERIAL QUARTERS, MAY 15th, 102 P.A.

There were only three men in the ornate conference room that could hold up to a dozen. They were clustered around a holographic image projected from a device on the table. Currently that image was of the Valeria plummeting through the atmosphere. Karl Prosek, Emperor of the Coalition States, self-proclaimed protector of mankind was not happy. “So you’re sure this isn’t a pre-Cataclysm artifact?”

His son, Joseph, shook his head decisively. “Father, look at the size of that thing. A ship that large would have been mentioned in the historical archives, regardless of nation. If America hadn’t built it, they would have at least mentioned it. It has to be alien.”

The third man ignored the first two as they debated. Dr. Desmond Bradford was entranced by the image before him, advancing and rewinding the footage captured by high-powered telescopes. Suddenly, he stopped the playback and zoomed in on a section of the hull. “Well well. Isn’t that interesting?”

Both Proseks turned towards him. “What have you found, Desmond?” Karl asked.

The doctor gestured towards the zoomed-in image. “Read it yourselves, gentlemen.”

Joseph leaned in. “UES Valeria, SDCV 05? What in the world….”

“How many aliens do you know that use American for their written language, young Joseph?” Desmond smirked.

“So it is a pre-Cataclysm artifact then?” Karl looked relieved.

“No, I agree with your son in that regard, old friend. The prefix is all wrong, for one thing. ‘UES’? If it was an American ship, it would be USS, like those old carriers in Norfolk. For another,” Desmond paused, “it was still under power and controlling its descent. See here, where the path alters? And here, where the ship slows down? No, the ‘Valeria’ still had a crew before it crashed. It’s probably Rifted in from an alternate Earth.”

The Emperor cursed. “Any idea where it may have landed?”

His son examined the maps. “Somewhere beyond the Great Barrier Wall, father. Too far for our rapid response teams to go after it.”

Karl nodded. The reshaped Rocky Mountains had certainly become a barrier to large-scale transit since the holocaust. ‘Of course, that works both ways.’ He thought, feeling safer about everything. “Very well, alert Fourth Army that hostile invaders using alien technology may try to enter Kansas from the west. Desmond, anything we gather will of course be sent to Lone Star for study. That will be all.”

Both other men nodded, and all three left the room. Each wondering what this new arrival could mean for their dreams.

Ya update! Please don't take so long to update next time. Great read.

Great...the CS already has the intelligence edge and set policy, which amounts to 'shoot first and take their technology'. All the crash survivors need to make their day suck more is corpse-possessing entities/zombies or vampires.

Well, the Coalition's leaders aren't *stupid*, and they have the capabilities to see a giant starship crashing down. But yes, the crash survivors will not be enjoying their new home for the first few weeks/months.

Well at least there are some nice places that will help them out, like Azola.

you mean Arzno?

Seriously, the single greatest ally the Valeria could have?

Th eRocky Mountains.

The CS is in no way ready to deploy across such a divide in strength enough to deal with such a massive vessel. They would be hard pressed to deploy teams of elite troopers over such a barrier and at such distances for any thing more rigorous than a look see. And unless we are talking about nabbing a Cyclone or some smaller items, getting hold of any of this new groups tech is very likely not going to happen. If they want any success in this area they need to wait for the tech to come to them or taking a long view approach and setting up a base camp of a significant size just their side of the Rockies.

Much as the author has done really.

In fact if they don't take the time to prep such a mission properly, and give it the necessary support, it would end up being the CS giving examples of their tech to the downed ship and its crew instead.

Just out of curiosity, what degree of R&D capacity does the Valaria normally come with, or even still possess? In the RPG they have an entire OCC for that sort of thing, but there isn't rally a similar capability represented in the series. None of their scientists would be running around on something like a troop transport...well, except for Louis.

Yep them.

I LOVE IT!!!! I like the fact that they ended up outside of CS reach and the fact that the ship was "unlucky". Keep it coming!

Pleas update soon! And a big one too!

To be honest, the New West is pretty hostile to the CS in it's entirety. I doubt any sizable force would be sustainable in the region given the strong black market presence, Naruni Enterprises, Native Americans, bandits, meddlesome do-good adventurers and various Mega-damage level monsters. The UES on the other hand, have the advantage of being new to Rifts Earth and no one really knowing what to make of them. The Native Americans will likely leave them alone unless they take hostile action, bandits are going to steer clear of the them, and the only things that might deliberately attack the UES forces are supernatural predators that don't know any better.

Also, don't forget that adventurers are likely going to flock to the UES crash site for a chance to build friendly relations, look for salvage, or offer services, so the UES isn't going to be alone when crossing over that mountain if the CS do manage to set up a base of operations. This includes Cyber Knights, mercenaries from Arzno and other areas, Gun-fighters, rogue Scholars and scientists, curious vagabonds, gun-slingers, mining borgs hoping to find work, d-bee adventurers of various types, spies from the Coalition States, an off beat Naruni Dealer or two, black market entrepreneurs, etc. Heck, there will probably be a boom town formed nearby along with a curious Erin Tarn.

Being new to Rifts Earth is like being an American tourist in a Mexican Flea Market.

Except Mexican stall owners don't actually EAT American tourists....and the fleas aren't the size of horses, armor-plated, and suck ALL a person's blood...

Am liking this story so far! Many years ago, I had put together a potential crew/mecha/capital ship compliment of the "missing" RDF/REF (sorry I still can't bring myself to use UEEF consistently) Factory Satellite, and also sketched out upgrades to REF Alpha Fighters using Rifts technology... ahh those were the days!

Alex Knight love your work so far SICK AWESOME MAN!!!!

Pins and needles! Pins and needles!

*Embrashing the Force while waving hand in front of auther* You will update and it will be long......right????

Come on man update! Please!

I don't think he's going to update any more.

Alex Knight take you time man love the work man!!

I hope you are right.

Very interesting idea. I used a similar idea years ago to bring ROBOTECH into Rift's. I still have them in my games causing their own style of havoc.

Would love to see the info and back story on this. But sadly, I think this story is dead.