Holding The Line: Chapter 142

Hey all, Raptor here.

As I said last time, we're taking a break from the fighting in Loki to look at what's happening in other parts of the universe, and we continue that theme with Part Five of the "Toeing The Line" series. This time around, we're going to follow the Confed reserve troops who have been sent to Nifelhiem to backstop the Combined Fleet when it retreats there. It also follows on from the story "Hades Rising", which was published in our last arc. This chapter was published by James Andrew "JAG" Greenhow, so please send any and all comments to him at Rambo.123uk@btinternet.com, not to me.

Best, Raptor

Holding the Line: Chapter 141

Today Raptor checks in with the next chapter of Holding the Line, "Maluk Tawus" (Part 141). Take some time to read it here! And now, Raptor...

As you saw in previous chapters, the plan to split up the enemy fleet in Loki had succeeded, but the cost had been heavy, and the survival of Battlegroup Valkyrie still hung in the balance. Being the sadist that I am, I'm going to keep you in suspense about how that turns out for a while longer. HTL is now going to take a break from the Loki fighting to look at what's happening elsewhere in the Universe. We start off with a story called "Maluk Tawus", written by Brandon "Avatarr" Alspaugh. Please send any and all comments to him at avatarr@sprynet.com, not to me.

On another note, the chapters that we've been posting here on the CIC have almost caught up with those that we're publishing on the Aces mailing list. That means that you guys will soon get chapters at the same time the Aces do, rather than getting delayed coverage. I've also realised that it's been an year since we started publishing HTL chapters in conjunction with the CIC. Time certainly flies when you're having fun. Here's looking forward to another year of successful partnership.

Holding The Line: Chapter 140

Here's Raptor with the usual:

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with "No Rest For The Weary." As you saw in past chapters, the crew of the TCS Endeavour had tracked down and destroyed an enemy carrier group with the help of the 8th Cruiser Squadron. During the battle, they lost one of their escorts and a destroyer from the 8th, along with several pilots. Now, the crew and pilots of the battlegroup are hoping for a chance to rest up and mourn their dead, but it's not going to be that simple. This chapter was written by Shaun "Iceman" Rashid, so please send any and all comments to him velacia@rogers.com, not to me.

http://htl.solsector.net/loki45.htm

Best, Raptor

Holding The Line: Chapter 139

Here's Raptor with the introduction to the latest release:

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with "A Gathering of Forces". As you've seen in the past few chapters, the Border Worlds fleet carrier groups have been drawing the attention of the Nephilim super carriers, and paying a heavy price for it. However, by drawing most of the Nephilim fighter cover and bomber support down on themselves, the Border Worlders have forced the enemy commanders to leave their own capital ships vulnerable.

As set in Admiral Hanton's plan at the start of the Tiger Hunt, this leaves the enemy carriers and dreadnaughts wide open to attack by the remaining elements of the human Combined Fleet. You saw in past chapters that the carriers Valley Forge, Endeavour and Yorktown have already attacked and destroyed their targets. Now, a mixed force consisting of the fleet's destroyers, corvettes, and torpedo boats go after their targets. This chapter is jointly written by Dan "Death" Poore, Alex "Ninja" Crislogo, and Greg "Sandman" Sands.

http://htl.solsector.net/loki44.htm

Best, Raptor

Holding The Line Chapter 138

It was delayed a bit because of the birthday fun, but for those of you waiting for the next Holding The Line chapter, here's Raptor:

Hey all, Raptor here

HTL continues with part 14 of the Tiger Hunt series, "Even Angels Fall." As you saw in previous chapters, the Border Worlders were throwing everything they had into stopping the Nephilim attack, even resorting to suicide attacks. These strikes have seriously weakened the Nephilim attack force, especially their bombers. However, the sheer mass and momentum of the enemy attack wave keeps pushing the Border Worlders further and further back. Now, they're right back to where their carriers are, fighting the engagement that'll determine if the Border Worlds Navy survives as a fighting force. This chapter is written by yours truly, so please send any and all comments to me.

http://htl.solsector.net/loki43.htm

Best, Raptor

Holding The Line: Chapter 137

Here's Raptor with the introduction to the latest chapter:

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with part thirteen of the Tiger Hunt series, "Dulce et Decorum Est." As you saw in the last chapter, the Border Worlds pilots who were fighting to protect their carriers had tried to ambush and destroy the remaining Nephilim bombers. The ambush failed, forcing them into activating a last ditch plan that they had hoped they would never have to carry out.This story picks up from there. This chapter is written by yours truly, so please send any and all comments to me.

Like most of the Tiger Hunt series, this chapter was written before the September attacks last year. I thought long and hard whether to release it,both on the Aces list earlier this year, and on the CIC now, as it deals with a suicidal attack and why someone would carry out such an attack. In the end, I decided to go ahead because I feel an attack carried out by soldiers against a military target, suicidal or not, is a very different thing from a terrorist attack. Still, I think it's only fair to warn people in advance so that they can choose whether to read it or not.

Best, Raptor

http://htl.solsector.net/loki42.htm

Holding The Line: Chapter 136

Here's Raptor with the latest chapter of Holding The Line:

HTL continues with part twelve of the Tiger Hunt series, "The Thin Blue Line." As Phalanx's group smashes the second enemy force, the rest of the Border Worlds fighters are still trying to hold back the force threatening their carriers. They're now being forced back closer and closer to their ships. This chapter is written by yours truly, so please send any and all comments to me.

http://htl.solsector.net/loki41.htm

Best, Raptor

Holding The Line Chapters 134, 135

Oops. Apparently Raptor got the URL to last week's Holding The Line chapter wrong, so here's the correction.

Hey all, Raptor here.

I'm sure that some of you must have felt a sense of deja vu when you found yourselves re-reading chapter 133 (The Tiger Hunt, Part 9) in the last update instead of the promised chapter 134. The reason for that is that I sent the CIC the wrong URL. Because of that, I'm releasing both chapters 134 (The Tiger Hunt, Part 10) and chapter 135 (The Tiger Hunt, Part 11) this time around. Sorry about the mix up.

HTL continues with part ten of the Tiger Hunt series, "The Art of War." As you saw in the last chapter, the Border Worlders had been ripping chunks out of the attacking Nephilim force, but then learned of a second force coming after them. They had to split their fighters, with the bulk of the Border Worlds pilots sent to destroy the second Nephilim force, while the smaller Border Worlds group kept delaying the first attack group. This chapter looks at the pilots fighting the delaying action, and is written by yours truly.

http://htl.solsector.net/loki39.htm

At the same time, part 11 of the Tiger Hunt series, "Classics Never Die" looks at the strike force of Border Worlds fighters and bombers that were sent to crush the newly arrived Nephilim group. While much more powerful than the force that is fighting the delaying action, the strike force will need to achieve complete surprise if it is to have any hope of success. This chapter is written by Yu Fei "Phalanx" Leung. Please send any and all comments to him at phalanx@cats.ucsc.edu.

http://htl.solsector.net/loki40.htm

Best, Raptor

Holding The Line: Chapter 134

The latest instalment in the Holding The Line Fanfic is online. Here's Raptor with his introduction.

Hey all, Raptor here. HTL continues with part ten of the Tiger Hunt series, "The Art of War." As you saw in the last chapter, the Border Worlders had been ripping chunks out of the attacking Nephilim force, but then learned of a second force coming after them. They had to split their fighters, with the bulk of the Border Worlds pilots sent to destroy the second Nephilim force, while the smaller Border Worlds group kept delaying the first attack group. This chapter looks at the pilots fighting the delaying action, and is written by yours truly.

http://htl.solsector.net/loki38.htm

Holding The Line: Chapter 133

Here's Raptor with the usual:

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with part nine of the Tiger Hunt series, "Cloak and Dagger." As you saw in the last chapter, the Nephilium super carriers were short on fighter support because those fighters were hunting the Border Worlders, allowing the Confed ships to attack the carriers more easily. We now switch back to the Border Worlds pilots and crews who've got the unenviable job of keeping all those fighters busy. This chapter is written by yours truly, so please send any and all comments back to me.

http://htl.solsector.net/loki38.htm

Holding the Line: Chapter 132

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with "Wins And Losses", as the battle in the Loki system rages on. As you saw in the last chapter, the TCS Valley Forge had gone down fighting, and taken an enemy dreadnaught with her. In the meantime, the light carrier TCS Endeavour confronts an enemy super-carrier. This chapter is written by Shaun "Iceman" Rashid, so please send any and all comments to him at velacia@rogers.com.

Holding the Line: Chapter 131

HTL continues with the last chapter of the last part of the "Further Down The Spiral" saga. As you saw in the last chapter, the Captain had managed to regain control of the Valley Forge from his treacherous XO, in the process revealing that both were part of a group that had planned to continue the work of the Project. Captain Vandermann rebelled against the needless sacrifice of his crew, but the situation may be too far gone to be salvaged. This chapter picks up from there, and is jointly written by all the Valley Forge writers. Please send any and all comments to them.

Holding the Line: Chapter 130

Here's Raptor with the introduction to the latest in the series :

HTL continues with the third chapter of "Further Down The Spiral" Part Three. As you saw in the previous chapters, the Forge's pilots and crew had taken on the enemy dreadnought in a pitched battle, while the Captain had been imprisoned on charges of murder. Now, events come to a head both on and off the ship, as the Valley Forge plunges towards the disaster that Jed Wright alluded to in his meeting with the reporter. This chapter is written by all the Valley Forge writers, so please send any and all comments to them.

On another note, the mailing of HTL chapters via the Aces Club mailing list has been rescheduled slightly, so that they will go out every three weeks rather than fortnightly for the next four or so mail outs. This will allow me to align the chapters on the mailing list with those published here, so we can start publishing stories simultaneously on both within the next three months.

Last, but certainly not least, the new HTL archives hosted by the CIC are now up. The new domain, htl.solsector.net, will be the permanent home of the archives. It will eventually be the repository for all published HTL chapters, and for now holds all chapters up to the end of FDTS 2. You can access the archives at http://htl.solsector.net.

Holding the Line: Chapter 129

"Further Down The Spiral" continues here on the CIC. Here's the introduction to the latest chapter.

Hey all, Raptor here

HTL continues with the second chapter of "Further Down The Spiral" part three.As you saw in the last chapter, retired TCN veteran Jed Wright had begun telling a journalist of the last hours of the TCS Valley Forge, and her fateful battle against an enemy dreadnought battlegroup. This chapter picks up from there, as the battle intensifies in ferocity. This chapter is jointly written by all the Valley Forge writers, so please send any and all comments to them.

Holding The Line: Chapter 128

Here is Raptor's introduction to the latest chapter in the Holding The Line series.

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with the third and final part of the "Further Down The Spiral" saga, as the TCS Valley Forge and her crew continue their battle to take out an enemy dreadnought. This part of the story is a whopper, and so has been split into four chapters. As you saw in previous chapters, the Forge's pilots had found the enemy ship and weakened its escort battlegroup with their earlier strikes, but the hardest part of the fighting is still ahead. We also learned that the Captain and First Officer were part of the Movement, a neo-Black Lance group, and that the Captain had been arrested on suspicion of murder. All these threads come together in this final stretch of the saga. This chapter has been jointly written by all the Valley Forge team, so please send any and all comments to them.

Best, Raptor

Holding the Line: Chapter 127

Take some time to read the latest chapter of Holding the Line, titled "On Deadly Ground". You can find it here. Here's Raptor's introduction...

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with part eight of the Tiger Hunt series, called "On Deadly Ground." We're now going to take a break from the Forge's battle against the Nephilim dreadnaught and take a look at the Border Worlds forces distracting the Nephilim. As you saw in part seven, the Border Worlders had deliberately revealed the position of their carriers to draw the Nephilim fighters towards them, and away from the capital ships targeted by the rest of the Combined Fleet. The major drawback to that plan though, is that the flight wings from three different super carriers are now poised to descend on the Border Worlders. This chapter picks up from there, and is written by yours truly, so please send any and all comments to me.

A couple of notes about Border Worlds tactics and fighting styles: I'm working on the theory that the Border Worlders, having older and fewer ships and fighters than Confed does, would have trouble fighting a conventional fleet action. Instead, I would expect that they use their better knowledge of the "terrain" and their unconventional tactics to good effect. I would also expect them to be pretty ruthless when they had to be, as they showed in WC4 by destroying the transports filled with infected Telamon refugees.

Best, Raptor

Holding the Line: Chapter 126

Without further delay, here's the latest chapter of Holding the Line. Here's Raptor's intro:

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with the third part of "Further Down The Spiral 2", as the Forge crew intensify their battle against the enemy dreadnaught battlegroup. You saw last week that the Forge pilots had launched a preliminary strike to weaken the dreadnaught's escorts, but had encountered heavy resistance. This week, that battle moves into high gear. This chapter is jointly written by all the Valley Forge writers, so please send any and all comments to them.

As I said last time, the HTL crew have been getting together with the CIC staff to set up an HTL archive based at the CIC. Setting up that big an archive will be likely to take some time though, given how busy the CIC staff are and the commitments we all have in real life. To see us through till the CIC Archive is operational, Neo has kindly uploaded his files to a temporary archive site on one of his own accounts. This contains all HTL chapters up to the end of FDTS 2, which coincidentally is this week's chapter on the CIC. The temporary archives can be found at this address:

http://www.ninja-turtles.net/HTL

Best, Raptor

Holding the Line: Chapter 125

Back to being nice and regular, the syndicated version of Holding the Line reaches Chapter 125. Here's Raptor...

Hey guys, Raptor here.

HTL continues with the second part of "Further Down The Spiral 2", as the TCS Valley Forge and her crew continue their battle against a Nephilim dreadnaught battlegroup. Having located the enemy, the pilots and crews are now preparing for the first strikes. This chapter is jointly written by all the Valley Forge writers, so please send any and all comments to them.

In other news, the problems the HTL archives have been having lately have had one very positive spin off. The HTL crew are working with the CIC staff to set up an archive based at the CIC. This is something that we're very excited about, as it expands on the successful syndication of HTL chapters via the CIC, which as introduced a lot of new readers to our project. We'll keep you updated on the progress of this as the archiving effort moves ahead.Best, Raptor

Holding The Line: Chapter 124

After missing a beat (my fault!), the CIC's syndication of Holding The Line is back -- with Chapter 124! Here's Raptor with the intro...

Hey all, Raptor here.

HTL continues with "Further Down The Spiral 2", as the trap in the Loki system closes in on the Nephilim. Last time, we saw the Endeavour group moving to engage its target. This story follows the TCS Valley Forge and her crew as they try to do the same. This story is broken down into three chapters, and is jointly written by all the Valley Forge team. Please send any and all comments to them.

Some of you may have tried to access the HTL archives over the past week and gotten a "404- file not found" message. The reason is that the entire domain where we're based, Lancer Games, is currently down for renovations. I'll post a message on the CIC when the archives are back up and running. In the meantime though, my apologies for any inconvenience.

Best, Raptor

Holding the Line: Chapter 123

Here's Raptor to introduce Walking Wounded (heyyyy), the latest posted chapter of Holding the Line. You can read it here.

Hey all, Raptor here

HTL continues with a story called "Walking Wounded", written by Shaun "Iceman" Rashid. This story is set aboard the light carrier TCS Endeavour, one of the ships assigned to the Combined Fleet in Loki. As you saw in past chapters, the Border Worlders were drawing the attention of the Nephilim fleet while the rest of the human fleet moved into position for the kill. This series follows the Endeavour's crew as they try to eliminate their target. Please send any and all comments to Shaun at velacia@rogers.com, not to me.

Best, Raptor