Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak

Celtic Alliance

The Celtic Alliance is made up of the following worlds

Nuadh Eire
New Caledonia
Scotworld
High Wales
O’rieley’s World
McWorld

The Celtic Alliance does not have It’s own Navy but depends on each member world to contribute ships in case of war. The Capitol of the Alliance is on New Caledonia. The High Senate is more a meeting of ambassadors than a law making body. Even then the Celts are fierce fighters and invading one of their worlds brings down the wrath of all. The brief war between them and the celestial empire showed that they are no pushovers.

The Kashf al Mahjub

Al-Hujwiri, "The Kashf al Mahjub"

Since man is made of clay, he can never be completely pure. Since clay is basically foul, how can humans escape their basic nature? Purity does not lie in rituals, nor can human nature be changed by effort. Those who love God and remain conscious only of their Beloved attain purity.
-
Al-Hujwiri, "The Kashf al Mahjub"

Rabi’a the Mystic

Abd al-Wahid bin Zaid, in "Rabi’a the Mystic"

The ways are various, but the way to Truth is only one. Those who travel on the way of Truth must keep themselves isolated.

-Abd al-Wahid bin Zaid, in "Rabi’a the Mystic"

Failed Colony

During the first expansion of man into the galaxy the French colony fast-as-light vessel le Poulpe arrived in the new Aquitaine star system with its sensors malfunctioning from a micro meteor strike. The Le Poulpe crew therefore failed to detect a massive solar flare. The solar radiation and accompanying magnetic wave fried many of the ships crucial operating systems. The Crew heroically managed to get in orbit of the New Aquitaine prime.

Unfortunately the colonist still faced many problems after landing including the volatile weather. The first few years the colony was hit by several class five hurricanes, causing the destruction of what few supplies that they still had. Arguments in the colony caused the remaining colonists to split up as they abandoned the original colony landing site.

The colony’s technology level slid downwards as they lost the ability to generate electricity and to maintain any of the original colony equipment. Fighting also broke out between the various surviving factions. The factional fighting caused many groups to simply pick up and migrate to more isolated areas of the continent. This left the colony with a technology level similar to earth during the middle ages.

The colony was discovered by the survey ship the CSS Al-Sistani, while it was searching for suitable planets for colonization. After an initial survey the confederate government dispatched a science group of Anthropologists and Sociologists to survey the planets inhabitants.

The confederate government contacted the Frankish empire which refused to accept the planet. The Celtic Alliance later accepted New Aquitaine as a protected world.

The planet is still made up of feuding groups; the factions evolving into tribes and city states, and therefore the Celtic Alliance has decided not to upgrade the planets technology levels until a peaceful planetary wide government can be established.
The Celtic Alliance continues to this day to allow Confederate Social Scientist to study the planet.

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Quote of the day

"When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it."
-Bernard Bailey

Hadith

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Religion is very easy, and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded."--------- Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Hadith 38

Aliens?

Captain Jamal Arafat sat at one of the low tea stained wooden tables at the tea House in The Gagarin city star port. His neatly trimmed beard framed his brown weather beaten face, which was becoming sterner and sterner as he looked over his ship’s, The Ibn Battuta, repair requirements. The cost for repairs was going to be very high, much higher than he had expected. Jamal had known that when the gravitic phase inducer regulators had burned out that the repairs would take some time, but had not realized when they had burned out that they had caused a neutral power feedback loop which had turned the negative shift plasma coils into slag. Replacing them was going to be very costly.

Captain Arafat came to the sudden realization that there was someone standing next to his table. He looked up and saw someone who he immediately tagged as a local. This was because the man was pale skinned with a bushy brown beard and wearing the local fashion which looked to Jamal as long white lab coats with far to many zippers and buttons. The man looked at him with watery blue eyes and asked in halting Arabic if he was indeed Jamal Arafat captain of the C.S.S. Ibn Battuta? Jamal confirmed this and the man Introduced himself as “Valentino Tereshkova no relation” and sat down and started talking about aliens.

After listening to Valentino gush enthusiastically for about 5 minutes, Captain Arafat rolled his dark brown eyes and said “there are no aliens; man is all alone in the universe. We are outside of Jinn and Angels the only sapient race that there is.”

“But what about the ruins found on Saxony prime?” asked Valentino.

“The ruins on Saxony prime was a failed Chinese colony, Confederate archeologists have proven that.”

“The Memphis spotted on its sensors an Alien spacecraft which escaped from them at unheard of acceleration. That cannot be explained”

“Sure it can. Their sensors were malfunctions and they were chasing a sensor ghost.”

“Other ships have seen things or picked them up on their sensors which cannot be explained.”

“My friend I have picked up strange things on my sensors and seen things so bizarre it is a miracle that I have not gone mad. It is called malfunctioning sensors and optical illusions, not Aliens. Look, as a Muslim I believe in Man, Angels and Jinn. Only man needs a space ship to get travel between the stars. Now I realize that you consider your self a man of science and probably do not believe in the Quran, so I will try to explain this to you using science” he said. He then picked up the stained and chipped tea cup he had been drinking out of and finished off the last of the tea. Valentino offered to get more tea and Captain Arafat agreed. Upon returning with the cup refilled and a cup of his own Valentino sat back down and Arafat continued.

“In the 21st century there was a rather brilliant Zoologist on old earth, by the name of Siti Nurhaliza, who made a very simple observation. That out of eight planets in the solar system humanity knew that one had life and was utterly crawling with it. Every environment on earth that man had explored he found life, no matter how hostile the environment. Dr. Nurhaliza also noted that through time billions if not trillions of species had lived on earth. And therefore she concluded that life was most probably spread widely across the galaxy. Of course when man did start exploring our galaxy we discovered that Siti Nurhaliza was indeed correct. But let me get to your point of Aliens for you see Dr. Nurhaliza also noted that while earth had gone through several cycles of very different species dominating the planet and while their had been trillions of species on earth , in all different shapes and sizes; carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Some with horns or antlers, some with claws and fangs, some big and well armored, some small and quick, some with wings, some with flippers. And with all of these different methods come up with by different species to survive only humanity had evolved sapience to survive. So from an evolutionary stand point intelligence is way over rated and from that observation she concluded that while the universe was most likely teeming with life that we were all alone in the universe as far as intelligence went.”

Valentino stood up slowly and said slowly in low tones “yes, I see the point. Sorry about that.”

“No problem and thanks for the tea” and with that Mr. Tereshkova shuffled out of the tea house looking just a little befuddled.

Rumi

Rumi, "The Life and Thought of Rumi"

Knowledge has two wings. Conjecture is one wing. Conjecture alone is lacking and cuts short the flight. The one-winged bird continues to struggle, hoping to reach the nest somehow with one wing. And then wisdom shows his shining face. Delivered from conjecture, the bird now spreads both wings (and soars once again).

-Rumi, "The Life and Thought of Rumi"

Martian Ministry of Tourism

Next vacation think Mars.The red planet has a lot to offerSki Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the solar system. You can stay at the luxurious Ghulambad Ski resort and spa. The premier ski resort in the Galaxy.

Take a leisurely river cruise through Vallis Marineris or if you are looking for adventure Vallis Marineris also offer white water rafting. And for those persons who want an extreme vacation Parachute jumping is available off the Muhammed Ali memorial bridge which spans across Vallis Marineris. Remember Vallis Marineris is the largest canyon in the solar system.

So when planning your next vacation Think mars. The little red planet where everything is larger than life.

Hadith

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "If anyone has a female child and does not bury her alive (a pre-Islamic practice), or slight her, or prefer his (male) children to her, God will bring him into Paradise."
Sunan of Abu-Dawood, Hadith 2443

Off world games

Assalam Alaikum

Well we played the New Malaysia team and were stomped. I would like to say that it was because we were still not fully acclimated, but we were simply out played. The final score was 3 to nil. We made plenty of attacks on the goal but could not get the ball in. their goalie was phenomenal. The kids were bummed but were cheered up by the fact that they went further than any other junior team from New Kurdistan and now we have time to got visit the museum and to see the grand parliament in session.
Be home soon.

Salam

Modesty

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Every faith has an innate character. The character of Islam is modesty."Al-Muwatta, Volume 47, Hadith 9

The Prophet also said: "Modesty does not come into anything without adorning it."Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1253

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak

Letters from the Game

Assalam Alaikum

Big scare today. The game was scoreless until the final minute of the game, when Hamza actually headed the ball into the goal to make the winning point. OK to be honest I think that it was a freak accident. Mustapha was trying to score and his kick went wild and more bounced off Hamza’s head into the goal, but we won so who cares. After the Game we met 3 members of the New Kurdistan grand parliament delegation. They had actually come out to watch the game. They arrived before the half with their families and introduced themselves after the game. The kids were all impressed. After talking to the children they gave us passes to the Confederate museum of history and to the visitors gallery in the grand parliament. Hopefully we will have time to do both before we go home.

Salam

Confederate Junoir division soccer tournament

We have arrived on new Malaysia for the confederate junior Soccer Championship semi-finals. Our transport ship had trouble with its negative plasma’s magnetic containment field, so we were late in arriving, perhaps next time new Kurdistan’s ministry of sport will pay a little more for transportation and book on something which isn’t older than my grandfather. Arriving late on new Malaysia gave our team only 3 days to adjust to local planetary conditions. The Gravity is 1.15g , now I realize that this is only .05 more than back home but it makes the atmosphere thicker and it takes some getting used to. Feels like I am trying to breathe soup. Despite all this we won our first game against the team representing Tamazight. It was a squeaker; we won two to one scoring the tie breaking goal in the final minutes of the game. Abdulrahman kicked it in after faking out two defending Tamazight players. Give my salams to everyone back home.

Lunabad

1. 
   

   
   
   

Lunabad is the largest city on Earth’s moon. It is a megalopolis of 36 million people spread out over an area the size of New Hampshire. It still has a thriving mining industry but it also grows all of its own food and has a growing manufacturing sector.

Lunabad university is one of the top ranked university’s in the solar system. The city’s crime rate is one of the lowest in the solar system.

Any visitors to the Lunabad must see the city’s whirling dervishes perform, in the lunar low gravity they fly through the air.

In contrast to earth’s wealthy urban elites who live at the top levels of sky scrapers. Lunabad’s elite live at the lowest levels of the city where they are safe from stellar and solar radiation.

Ramadan

"It is the month of Ramadan in which the Quran was revealed, a guidance for mankind with clear teachings showing the Right Way and a criterion of truth and falsehood. Therefore, anyone of you who witnesses that month should fast therein, and whoever is ill or upon a journey shall fast a similar number of days later on. God intends your well-being and does not want to put you to hardship. He wants you to complete the prescribed period so that you should glorify His Greatness and render thanks to Him for giving you guidance."The Holy Quran, 2:185

Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan Mubarak

Hoping that everyone had a blessed Ramadan.

Terraforming Mars

A picture by the Martian Terra forming command of the early stages of the greening of Mars.

The Terra-forming of Mars by the Martian Caliphate was the largest engineering project ever accomplished in the solar system and brought about a huge expansion in the solar systems economy. Many historians note all of mankind was moved by this achievement to stride to do better. And while there was a some protest by the Red Mars movement who demanded that humanity leave Mars unchanged, calling for recognition of mars natural beauty; they were a very small minority.

Hadith

The Prophet Muhammad (SAW), as reported by Abu Umamah
Children of Adam! Distribute your surplus wealth in the name of Allah; it will earn you more merit. Do not hold it back. You must not be remembered for miserliness, so begin with those closest to you.

-The Prophet Muhammad (SAW), as reported by Abu Umamah

Eid Gift

Children delight in recieving a minature Rhino as an Eid-al-Adha. On New Kurdistan children often recieve Minature animals as gifts, many build there own little backyard zoos.

The Poor and Needy

"Indeed, man has been created impatient. When evil befalls him, he becomes despondent; but when blessed with good fortune, he becomes selfish. Not so, however, those who turn to God in prayer, remain steadfast in their worship, set aside a due share of their wealth for the needy and the destitute, and accept the truth of the Day of Judgment."The Holy Quran, 70:19-26

The prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) told his wife Ayesha: "If you love the poor and bring them near you. . .God will bring you near Him on the Day of Resurrection."Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1376

The Prophet also said: "The people before you were destroyed because they inflicted legal punishments on the poor and forgave the rich."Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 8, Hadith 778

Clones and Slavery

In the above undated photo we see some of the clones that were forced into slavery performing manual labor.

Confederate Internal Security in conjunction with several agents of The Brotherhood of the Golden Circle has announced they have made 38 arrests on New Kalimantan’s Small Equatorial continent. The charges are shockinly slavery and the illegal use of growth accelerators. While the press conference was short Confederate Interstellar News Network has learned that Dhakkar Corporation was running an illegal cloning operation and using the clones as slaves. The growth accelarators allowed them to bring the clones to physical maturity 4 times faster than through normal aging. The New Kalimantan Government has stated that they are bringing in experts to help and try to ease the clones into mainstream society. CINN will bring you more information as it is made available by authorties.

Honesty

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "When honesty is lost, then wait for the Hour (of Judgment Day)." He was then asked: "How will honesty be lost?" The Prophet replied: When authority is given to those who do not deserve it."Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 8, Hadith 503


The Prophet also said: "Anyone whom God has given the authority of ruling some people and he does not look after them in an honest manner, will never experience even the scent of Paradise."Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 9, Hadith 264

Mini Giraffes

A small girl on New Kashmir goes door to door selling miniature giraffes as pets. It has only been a year since the miniature animal craze has arrived on new Kashmir and already there are large numbers of backyard breeding farms. The Miniature giraffes and camels have proven to be the most popular animals.

Blue Sun Queen Part 8

“Admiral O’Brien we have incoming missiles “shouted the first officer of the battleship Slaugh Ron. She looked at the lidar screen and saw that it did indeed show missiles and Ships emerging from the largest gas giant in the new Persia star system. The blue fleet had positioned themselves so that the gas giant was between them and new Persia prime with the idea that by approaching from behind the gas giant they would be able to approach their objective undetected most of the way. Now it was obvious to Admiral O’Brien and most of the blue fleet officers that the entire operation had been compromised.

The long range sensors officer then informed her that they had detected the simultaneous opening multiple worm holes and that 2 confederate ___ carriers had emerged along with three battleships and several light cruisers. This cut off their and these confederate ships were moving to intercept them. Deciding that if she could not capture the Hyton crystal mines that she would destroy them, Admiral O’Brien ordered the blue fleet forward to New Persia prime at full speed.

Admiral Al-Sadr stood on the battle bridge of the C.S.S. Malikul Mawt listening to the fire control officers repeating the basmallah over and over again as they pressed the firing buttons for the ship’s missiles launchers. The Confederate ships concentrated fire on one Nuadh Eire ship at a time which allowed them to easily overwhelm the anti-missile defenses of the Nuadh Eire ships. In quick order the battleships The Amadaun, the Cuchullain and the Fragarach were destroyed; as the blue fleet made a desperate charge towards New Persia Prime it ran into the hundreds of Buraq fighters that stood waiting. In less than 24 hours from the beginning of the battle the invading blue fleet was destroyed.

The confederate fleet spent the next few days rounding up prisoners from the life pods that had managed to eject from the destroyed enemy fleet. Even though they had been told how young the enemy soldiers and sailors were many of the confederate officers expressed shock as they took in prisoners.

The confederate fleet in the new Persia star system was reinforced by three more battleships, the C.S.S. Issau, the C.S.S. Ayoub and the C.S.S. Musa, several days after the battle and then made 2 slides, the last bringing them into the Nuadh Eire star system to have a show down with the Blue Sun Queen’s forces only to find out that she had fled the star system with several dozen ships and several thousand of her followers. The confederates learned that when word of the defeat at New Persia arrived that it sparked an open rebellion among the population.

The Blue Sun Queen had been in power for less than a full year and yet had caused the deaths of millions on and off Nuadh Eire. With the Republic restored, the Oireachtas confiscated the Blue Sun Corporation’s entire asset and put all of their orphanages under direct government control.

Strep

I am sorry about failing to post very much the last two weeks i have been battling with strep and did not gt out of bed much. i should have the last part of the blue Queen story up soon.

Blue sun Queen part 7

Admiral Hassan Al-Sadr sat in his room on the Bahamut class battleship the C.S.S. Malikal Mawt with the latest best selling murder mystery from New Malaysia on his lap. While the Confederate navy knew where the blue navy was going to attack, they were still not sure of the exact timing of the attack. So Admiral Al-Sadr sat with the fourth and fifth fleet hiding in New Persia’s largest gas giant waiting for the signal to attack. He wondered if he would finish the book before the Blue navy arrived.

Confederate Carriers had ferried over 200 Buraq fighters to New Persia Prime and automated defense satellites had been deployed around both of New Persia Prime’s moons as they had vital mining colonies on them. A second wave of ships sat in the New Kurdistan Star System waiting to slide into the New Persia Star System and trap the blue navy.

The Confederate fleet had been waiting for six days on high alert, Admiral Al-Sadr was worried that the men would lose their edge and that Nuadh Eire intelligence would learn of the ambush that awaited them. He was two thirds through his murder mystery and was rather sure he knew exactly who had done it. He had cancelled the day’s combat drill and was realizing that his cabin was a mess. A half eaten plate of humus, chickpea dip, and pita bread cluttered the small coffee table. An open tin of his wife’s home made Kataifi Ashta, a delicate custard filled pastry, sat on his work desk. He knew he was eating too much because of the stress of waiting.

“Why don’t they just attack already?” he asked the empty cabin

Ten minutes later while he was trying to clean up his work desk, there was a buzz on his intercom and the second officer of the C.S.S. Malikul Mawt started talking very excitedly and informed him that the Jabri’l spy satellites scattered through out the star system had detected the simultaneous opening of several worm holes and had identified the ships coming through them as the Blue navy. The navigation officer had plotted the route the blue navy was appeared to be taking and estimated that they would pass be passing by the gas giant that the confederate navy was hiding in, in a little over 12 hours.

Razi, “Kitab al-Muluki”

Razi, "Kitab al-Muluki"
Since reason is our most precious gift from Allah, we should do nothing to reduce its status or degrade it. Since reason should govern our conduct, we should allow nothing to govern it. Since reason is the sovereign over all human facilities, it should not be made subject to any other faculty.
-Razi, "Kitab al-Muluki"

Blue Sun Queen part 6

"Remain patient in adversity, for surely God's promise is true. And do not let those, who themselves have no certainty of faith, shake your firmness."The Holy Quran, 30:60

For weeks Muhammed and Bijan’s routine was the same, they woke up for fajr and made dhiker until curfew was lifted. Then they went out to have tea and breakfast in attempts to talk with soldiers whom were part of the occupation force in New Lhasa. They pretended to be trying to get help with learning Gallic, which wasn’t too hard as they were still learning the language, and would try to find out anything they could from the soldiers. While some of the soldiers were older men late 20s early thirties most of the soldiers including the officers were in there early and mid teens. Baby faced killers who obeyed orders without every questioning them. They bought them soft drinks and/or breakfast in exchange for Gallic lessons. Then one day at the teahouse nearest the blue army’s barracks Bijan heard two officers practicing phrases in Farsi.

Bijan walked across the brightly colored tile floor of the teahouse and up to the two soldiers. Their table was covered with the remains of their breakfast, several notebooks and two Farsi grammar books.

“Excuse me sirs, could I buy you fine gentlemen tea in exchange for speaking with me?” asked Bijan. This was a standard phrase used by young people in the city trying to learn the language of their conquerors.

“Sorry boy not today” replied the one who looked as if he was perhaps fifteen.

Over the next few days Bijan observed more and more of the officers practicing with Farsi phrase books.

“Are you sure it is Farsi?” asked Muhammed as he poured tea at the small granite top table in their kitchen.

“My Grandfather was a Farsi speaker. He was originally from Khorasan mining colony in the Farsistan star system, before he immigrated to New Malaysia.” Answered Bijan shoveling sugar into his tea.

“New Persia is the closest star system it would make some sort of sense, but New Persia is a member of the Confederation. The Blue Sun Queen would be mad to go to war with the Confederation.” Said Muhammed.

“The woman had her ovaries removed and all her eggs fertilized and had several hundred children born out of growth tanks. Does that sound like the actions of somebody who is sane?”

“I’ll get word to the embassy about our suspicions. It will be up to people higher up than us to act on this information.”

The spy satellites deployed through out the new Tibet star system along with spies on Nuadh Eire were able to confirm that the Blue Sun Queen did indeed intend to invade the New Persia star system.

Blue Sun Queen Part 5 (new Tibet)

Daily Muslim Reading
Reported by Abu Umamah
Once a person asked the Prophet, "What is true faith?"
The Prophet replied, "When your good endeavors bring you pleasure and your transgressions cause you anguish, you know that you are a person of faith."
-Reported by Abu Umamah

Later that evening Muhammed and Bijan sat down at their landlord’s dining room table with her and her daughters for a traditional Tibetan meal. Khangshar, as she insisted on them calling her, served Momos, dumplings stuffed with ground yak meat mixed with chopped onions, cilantro, ginger and garlic these were steamed then eaten with hot sauce. She also put out bowls of Tsampa, roasted barley flour with tea poured over it and just a tad of yak butter added all of which they ate with their hands. They drank butter tea with the meal and as it was summer ate Sikarni, a spiced sweet yogurt-pistachio dessert at the end of the meal.

All during the meal they talked about the events of the last several days. The girls were excited and scared. All of the schools in the city had been closed for the remainder of the week; the girls were please by this but their mother would not let them leave the house so they were feeling trapped. They discussed the fact that the Dalai Lama had fled new Lhasa and gone into hiding that he had called on the people to meet the invaders with non-violent resistance. While at the same time Generals Loten Namling and Tenzin Gonpo ordered the Army into the countryside evacuating all the military bases and had pledged to fight a guerrilla war against the invaders. Everyone at the dinner table expressed shock at how young the Fleet Admiral Megan O’Brien looked. They were sure she could not be older than 19 or 20 years of age. And yet from the video announcements made she seemed to be the person in charge. They were also surprised by how quickly the Blue Sun queen had launched an attack on them as she had only just consolidated power on Nuadh Eire. The evening broke up rather late with Bijan promising to teach the girls how to play Go later in the week. They all went to bed knowing that they had friends in the building.

While they slept several Confederate Abtu class recon ships slid into the New Tibet star System and very rapidly deployed hundreds of the newest version of the Jibra’il spy satellites through out the star system. The confederate ships then just as secretly as they had entered the system exited minus one, which stayed behind to monitor the spy satellites.

Blue Sun Queen (New Tibet)

Rumi, "Mathnawi" [IV, 1640]
If in the darkness of ignorance,
you don’t recognize a person’s true nature,
look to see whom he has chosen for his leader.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi" [IV, 1640]

Fleet Admiral Megan O’Brien of the Blue Navy, at 19 was younger than any of the ship captains left over from the Republican navy. Yet she stood on the bridge of the battleship HMS Slaugh Ron brimming with confidence for she knew that she was a daughter of the Blue Sun Queen and that she was born to lead. She walked across the bridge to the command chair and flipped her long bright red ponytail forward over her shoulder as she sat down. She knew that this was where they rolled the dice. Fleet Admiral Megan O’Brien’s stomach did a flip-flop as she ordered that a wormhole to the New Tibet Star System be opened. She looked about the bridge; every position manned by one of her younger brothers or sisters and said loudly “Victory is our destiny.” The bridge exploded into exploded into cheers as the fleet plunged into the wormhole and slid towards the New Tibet System.

After much pleading the palace guards got the Dalai Lama to flee the capitol as they were rightly convinced that the invading fleet would bomb the temple palace. The inhabitants of New Tibet watched in disbelief as the blue fleet easily destroyed the meager fleet that the New Tibet star system had. A fleet designed to stop smugglers and rescue merchant vessels; it was no match for the heavy cruisers and battleships of the Blue navy.
Muhammed Nasrullah and Bijan Khomeini from the balcony of the teahouse as Nuadh Eire transports bearing the logo of the Blue Sun Queen dislodged large numbers of heavily armed soldiers. They had arrived in the city by a nearly empty train six hours before The Nuadh Eire Assault troops had arrived. The two members of the brotherhood of the golden circle had left the large mountain retreat that their order maintained in the cedars district when the Dalai Lama had arrived. Their assignment a simple one, gather information on the activities and plans of the occupation force.
Everyone was shocked by the invasion as New Tibet and Nuadh Eire had excellent trade and diplomatic relations. The invasion was all the teahouse patrons were talking about. Muhammed and Bijan finished their tea and went to the small cramped apartment that they were staying in. Muhammed brought their clothes down to the small laundry on the first floor of the old red brick building next to their apartment building. Nasrullah got a whiff of their clothes and gagged; their first few hours in the city had been spent in the sewers taping into the communication cables.

Bijan sat down and opened up his laptop and started to check the different cable taps they had installed. Any and all conversations in Gallic would be automatically recorded and sorted by their A.I.
Both Bijan and Muhammed had been chosen for this assignment because the two of them could pass for locals in both appearance and fluency in Tibetan. The two had gone to university together back on New Malaysia. Neither of them could speak Gallic and were trying to studying it as if there were cramming for a final exam. The A.I. had not yet caught any conversations in Gallic yet, Bijan figured the occupation force was still only using their radios.

A knock at the door startled him out of his train of thought and after quickly hiding away his laptop he walked across the small living room and opened up the old worn out wooden door. A small middle-aged Tibetan woman wearing traditional Tibetan clothes stood there smiling it was Mrs. Khangsar Yangchen Dolma, which was how she introduced herself when they moved in followed by a quick but just call me Khangsar, she owned the building and as a widow with two small daughters the rent on the apartments was how she supported her family.
“Mr. Khomeini would you and Mr. Nasrullah like to come for dinner tonight? With all this bedlam going on the girls and I would rather have some company” she said.
“We would be honored,” replied Bijan“Great come by around eight” she said and with that walked back down the rickety stairs to the first floor apartment she shared with her two small daughters and three large cats.

During the first 72 hours of the Blue Sun Queen's coup all civilian communication and media channels broadcast the above image of the Blue Sun Queen so that the people of Nuadh Eire could see their new Queen.

Blue Sun Queen Part three

Ambassador Mansur Al-Zawahri Stood watching troop transports landing at various strategic sites throughout the capitol city from the embassyÂ’s rooftop garden. He wore the new dark blue with gold trim shalwar kameez that his sister had sent him from Kashmir prime. The Kashmir Tiger roses were in bloom, their orange and black flowers the size of dinner plates. Ambassador Al-Zawahri had brought them from his familyÂ’s home back on Kashmir Prime and had planted them himself. He had given several away in pots to the nodeceaseded Taoiseach and to several members of the Oireachtas, the legislative branch of Nuadh EireÂ’s government, he had recently been informed that all members of the Oireachtas had been placed under house arrest.

When the coup had started tintelligencence unit had to inform the Ambassador that the self-proclaimed Blue Sun QueenÂ’s, Dr. Karen OÂ’Brien head of the Blue Sun Corporation, military was much larger than they had ever suspected and while most of the soldiers appeared to be 14 or 16 years old the assault rifles that they carried were quite real and you would be just as dead if they shot you as you would be if shot by an older soldier. Also as they had feared top ranking miliofficersciers had apparently been bought off and many of them had been given various titles, Sir this, Baron that and Duke who ever, and put in charge of various regions of Nuahd Eire. One military base seemed to be a site of fighting but it was brief.officersciers loyal to the republic seemed unable to launch any type of resistance.

The Embassy grounds were jammed with over two thousand Confederate citizens whom had either been studying, Visiting or doing business on Nuadh Eire when the coup had been launched. There were also nearly a hundred locals whom had asked for asylum including two members of the Oireachtas and their families. All of the locals had made it to the embassy before the blue army had parked several armored vehicles around the Confederate embassy. While the embassy guards were on high alert and carrying loaded weapons, they assured the Ambassador that it seemed to them that the new blue army was trying to stop local people from getting to the embassy for sanctuary. They noted that the armored vehicles weapons were all pointed away from the embassy and that all confederate citizens had been stopped and questioned but allowed to continue on to the embassy.

After two days Ambassador Mansur Al-Zawahri and various other ambassadors were invited to an informal dinner and meeting with the Blue Sun Queen. Ambassador Al-Zawahri was told to inform her that the confederation viewed the change in power on Nuadh Eire as an internal matter of the citizens of Nuadh Eire and one that they should resolve on their own.

A tank grown child at play on a off world orphanage. Several million such children live in the Nuahd Eire Star System.

Blue Sun Queen part 2

Col. Tarik Mubarak and the rest of his twelve-man intelligence unit went painstakingly over all of the printed material, as well as all of the information on the PDA and in the flash drive. They were all puzzled at first for no one was using Seamus as an informant and none of the documents were Nuadh Eire government documents. All of the information that he had carried seemed to be business memos, business press releases, accounting information for various business, as well as building and star ship designs.

Over the next few days they started to piece together what the information was trying to tell them. It turned out that the Blue Sun Corporation owned all all of the companies that they had information on. They all knew that the Blue Sun Corporation had saved Nuadh Eire 23 years ago, from civil war over the abortion issue, when it had invented the growth tanks and its young president Dr. Karen O’Brien had come up with the fetus transfer procedure, making the entire point moot. The planetary government had wholeheartedly endorsed the procedure and the Blue Sun Corporation had overnight become one of the wealthiest corporations in the Star System.

The Blue Sun Corporation then branched out into running children’s homes and orphanages. The homes and orphanages were paid for through government grants and private donations. Tens of thousands of children were born from the tanks the first several years, in later years the numbers reached into the hundreds of thousands. The more children born meant more and more money for the Blue Sun Corp., which they invested into star ship building, weapons company, textiles and agriculture. The Confederate Intel unit was shocked to realize that the Blue Sun Corp. controlled nearly a third of the wealth of the Nuadh Eire star system.

The Intel unit brought in a forensic accountant who was able to start and find discrepancies in the books. At first they were thinking that it was a simple case of corporate fraud and that they should simply turn everything they had found over to the Garda Siochana, the Nuadh Eire planetary police, but then they came across evidence of acts that could tear Nuadh Eire society apart.

The Number of fetuses transferred into the tanks and the number of births were not matching up. They realized there was a small percentage of babies that did not survive to full term, but even with that factored in the numbers did not add up. They realized in horror as they went through more of the information that fetuses, which did not fall with in certain genetic parameters were being terminated. With the huge numbers of children being born every year from the tanks, the several thousand being terminated fell through the cracks and with most of the orphanages off world no one noticed the fact that none of the children there were suffering from any handicaps.

Lt Zainab Uthman noted as she studied the plans for one of the orphanages that the area marked as a playground looked an awfully a lot like the obstacle course she ran when she was at the advanced combat school on New Malaysia. She also noted the firing range that all the orphanages that the Blue Sun Corp. ran had.


Memo to Confederate Intel Command: Possibility of a private army numbering in the hundred thousands possible millions in the Nuadh Eire star system, Extremely High. Use for such an army could be for a coup attempt in a very similar vein to the clone conspiracy back on the earth in the late 15th century. We will continue to monitor the situation.

The Embassy Intel unit continued to find more and more information that led them to the conclusion that the Blue Sun Corp. was planning on seizing control of the star system. The cost over runs for the building of new warships for the navy seemed to be covering the fact they had actually built several more warships. And the most worrisome evidence was that many top ranking officers in the Garda Siochana and Nuadh Eire defense forces had their spouses on the payroll of the Blue Sun Corp.

An extensive report was written up by the Intel Unit this along with copies of all the information that Seamus had given his life to get them, was sent by diplomatic pouch to Confederate Intelligence headquarters back on New Malaysia. While waiting for a reply to come back, the leader of Nuadh Eire, The Taoiseach was assassinated on his country farm. The Coup had begun.

Dates

The Blue Sun Queen story happens approximatley 6 years after the end of the great war between the Confederation of Islamic Worlds and the Frankish Empire.

The Blue Sun Queen

Seamus Finnigan, star reporter for the New Belfast Times, leaned against the cold dingy red brick wall disappearing into the long shadows cast by the street lights. He had one hand clutching to his tattered leather brief case stuffed full of printouts and the other held an old green bandana against the gun shot wound in his side. His fingers becoming sticky as more blood seeped through the bandana. He knew that no periodical on Nuadh Eire would publish what he had found. They had all been bought out right or compromised in less than civilized ways.

He had been running and bleeding since they had ambushed him at Merchants Quay. Seamus knew it was a minor miracle that he had gotten away, but he had managed to give them the slip on the poorly lit streets of New Dublin and get on a cross town train. He also knew that he was very tired and had lost a lot of blood. It was only two more blocks and then across Clanbassil St. to make it to the Confederate Embassy. From the Confederate Embassy he could get an off-world news agency to publish his story, maybe something on New Caledonia or High Wales. He tried to block out the pain and stumbled down the road, leaving a small pool of blood on the pavement behind.

It was 4am when Seamus collapsed in the middle of Clanbassil Street. His dying gasp for help brought two of the Confederate embassy guards running out into the deserted street, they slung their G.A.R-17s grabbed Seamus and carried him quickly into the embassy grounds, to the embassy’s well equipped infirmary. While they waited Sgt. Hassan military training kicked in and he started looking for intelligence, he looked through the tattered and stained brown leather briefcase and he took Seamus’s flash drive off of his bracelet. That along with Seamus’s PDA he turned over to the embassy’s chief of intelligence, Col. Tarik Mubarak.
While Col. Mubarak started to go through the computer printouts they had found in Seamus’s briefcase, Seamus died on the operating table, leaving a lot of questions behind.

All the earth a place to pray

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Wherever you may be at the time of prayer, you may pray (there), because (all the earth) is a mosque."Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 2, Number 67

PRAISE GOD EVEN IN ADVERSITY

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "The first to be summoned to Paradise on the Day of Resurrection will be those who praise God in (both) prosperity and adversity."

Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 730

Assault part 9

Confederation forces fought their way to the gates of the capitol, paying for every meter with blood. Bahamut class battleships, outfitted with mass drivers, maneuvered into low orbit firing on the unity forces north of the capitol with devastating effect. Confederation troops, who could feel the explosions caused by the mass drivers from kilometers away, joked that next year they would fish in the lakes being created north of the capitol city. The destruction of the Unity forces north of the capitol left the Unity defenders with out hope of reinforcement. After three days of ferocious fighting the Unity defenders retreated into the city, abandoning the few armored vehicles that had not been destroyed.

The Unity defenders hoped to delay the invading confederate forces long enough for reinforcements to arrive from the southern continent. Unfortunately for the defenders any relief would have to be air-lifted to get to them in time to help and the C.S.S. Musa, a Zaratan class carrier’s Buraq fighters were destroying anything that the Unity tried to put into the air.

After two days of attempting to negotiate surrender, the Confederate assault troops were given their orders and attacked the city blasting the airlocks and simply cutting through the city’s walls. Fierce house to house fighting raged for 5 days and while the Unity troops had the will to fight, they found themselves out of ammunition and low on bottled air and filters. And so they finally surrendered. The leader of the Unity of Saints, who went by the title of prophet, was captured and announced the unity’s surrender.

The surrender was recorded and broadcast all over the planet. Soon confederate ships were being dispatched to all Unity controlled star systems with recordings of the Unity of Saint’s prophet surrender. In one bold remove the Unity of Saints was removed as a military threat.

“Omar can you give me a hand over here? I need and Hamza to bring those welders over to gate station 4, so they can get started on repairing it” said the captain.

“Sir why can’t we just get a bio-lab to create a retro-virus we can give these people so that they can be enhanced and able to breathe the air here? Can’t be that hard, they possibly even have the original retro-virus used on Hausa World that enabled to breathe back home and here on Zarahemla prime still sitting in storage in some lab somewhere.” Asked Hamza.

“The saints have some type of religious beliefs that do not allow them to gene-modify themselves. Their cattle are in the fields around the city so they obviously know how to do it. We cannot enforce our beliefs on them it just isn’t right.” Replied the captain, “Now get those welders over to gate station four, so we can get this city depressurized.”

Assault part 8

Confederate Armored vehicle fires at Unity para-military forces in support of confederate assault troops.

Soon they had new orders, ground radar had triangulated where the sporadic rocket fire that was hitting them was coming from, but as they still could not find the mortar teams, Omar was told to take his men and spot the rocket launchers. Moving carefully through the forest looking out for booby traps and Unity Para-military snipers, an hour later they started taking fire, they could also hear the whoosh of the out going rockets.

“Hamza’s hit,” yelled Jakir as he returned fire at the Unity defenders.

“I ‘m alright” shouted Hamza after rolling behind a tree, “Alhamdulilah I’m alright, but the laser spotter is broken.”

Omar fired two grenades from the under slung grenade launcher on his G.A.R-17 and made a mad dash towards Hamza. While Hamza zeroed in on the Unity defenders and started putting 14mm rounds into them, Omar tried to see if he could fix the laser spotter. He quickly came to the irrefutable conclusion that he could not. The laser spotter had been hit by a round meant for Hamza and had broken in to two pieces, electronic components inside were shattered.

Omar looked at Hamza and announced “It looks like the spotter has given its life for the Confederation. We don’t have another one, do we?”

“Nope”

“Didn’t think so. Alright we have to come up with another plan.” Said Omar glancing around the huge tree he and Hamza were using as cover. He had come to realize that in the last few minutes that the Unity return fire had significantly dropped off. “Look I took out the machine gun they had with my grenades, how many do you think you have you gotten?”

“I put down maybe 5 or 6.”

“Alright listen up; I want you to get over there with Jakir. You two will fire all 5 of your grenades in rapid succession and then start firing 3 round bursts. Hussian and I will charge them. If there are as few of them as I think we should be able to over run them and then hit the rocket tubes.”

“And if there isn’t a few of them but a whole company back there guarding the rocket tubes, then what.”

“Then it nice knowing you and I die with wudu”

“Right, right”

The plan went off perfectly as there turned out to be only two unity defenders left. They moved up towards where they heard the rockets firing from. They crawled up a small hill which the rocket tubes were set up behind and fired down on the Unity unit killing them all before they could get off even one shot. Eight hours later the Confederate Assault infantry was able to hook up with the armor units that were waiting to press on to the capitol city of Zarahemla Prime and all of the Unity.

Assault part 7

The pod hit the ground with a heavy thud, the iris door spun open and the straps holding Omar in the pod released. Omar activated his body armor’s chameleon skin and as trained moved twenty meters away from the pod took and took cover before activating his locater, so that he could find the Lt. When he picked up the Lt.’s signal flash he locked its location on his map read out and started moving towards it, as it was the units rally point.

Moving cautiously through the forest it took him only a few minutes before he came upon the rally point. The Captain was there giving out assignments.

“Omar get over “ordered Captain Khalid, “don’t have a mortar with you?”

“No sir”

“You did not happen to see any of the mortar teams when you were making your way here, did you”

“No sir”

“Alhamdulilah! Where are those mortar teams, listen Omar I want you to grab Hamza, Takir and Hussain and try to get up to the road. Hamza has a Laser spotter and we got Jinn Bombers entering the atmosphere now. They are going to do us a fly over. There is a Unity armored column coming down the road and you guys are going to spot it for the bombers, alright.”

“Yes sir”

Omar found the other men and they started towards the road. Hamza explained to him that something with the drop pods navigation systems had malfunctioned and they were twenty kilometers south of where they were supposed to be. So, while they had been screaming through the atmosphere hoping their feet did not burn off, the drop ships had unloaded the armor in the right place. The eyes in the sky had discovered that there was a Unity armor unit between them and the confederate armored unit whom they were supposed to be scouting a path towards the capitol. They could hear gunfire erupting south and west of them as Unity Para-military forces engaged the invading confederate army.

It wasn’t long before they saw the enemy tanks moving down the road towards them. Hamza trained the laser spotter on the second tank as Takir made a radio flash signal to the Jinn attack bombers. 10 seconds later the whole road seemed to explode as hundreds of bomblets rained down on the armored column. They never even saw the Jinn bombers.

Assault part 6

Drop pods photographed by a Unity Officer in command of a AAA unit.

12 hours later they emerged from the wormhole and slid into the Zarahemla star system, and while the confederate 4th fleet finished wiping the Zarahemla defenders from the sky, the Assault group traveled through the star system to take position in orbit of Zarahemla Prime. As every minute ticked by Omar and the other men felt the tension rise. Men cleaned their weapons, made dhiker, or read to try and pass the time. As they got closer and closer to their objective, more and more of the men made dhiker.

The order was given, Omar and the rest of his company assembled outside of their drop pods with all of their equipment. The captain then ordered them into their drop pods and then added, “Remember your training and you will survive. Remember Allah and you will be victorious regardless of the battle’s out come.”

Omar got into his drop pod and strapped himself in. He read the engraved plate, which was just above the go no-go lights in his drop pod. It was a hadith and read ‘The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) once saw the corpse of a woman who had been killed during a battle. He disapproved of it and forbade the killing of women and children.’ It was a final reminder to the assault troops of how they were expected to conduct themselves during combat. The green go light came on and Omar feeling his stomach doing flip-flops recited the basmallah as he pressed the launch button.

The steering rockets fired and he felt the drop pod hit the atmosphere. The pod started to heat up for a short time and then the jerk of the main shoot being deployed, activated automatically by the pod’s altimeter. During this stage Omar knew he was most vulnerable, for even with the pod being invisible to radar and as the heat shield fell away, invisible to infrared the pod could still be seen by the naked eye. The shoot was sky blue but the pod was a dark grey. Attempts at painting them just had the paint burn off during entry.

Assault part 5

After several days of leave spent mostly playing soccer and computer games, Omar and Hamza reported back to base and assembled with the rest of the third assault division in a huge cavernous hanger. When General Al-Jaber walked into the hanger 20 thousand men snapped to attention. The General walked slowly across the stage to the podium, looking out at the faces of men whom he was about to order into combat. They are so young he thought.

At the age of 63, General Al-Jaber was old enough to be the grandfather of most of the men in the 3rd Assault Division. He still kept his 2.1 meter frame in trim fighting shape by jogging and swimming every day, but even with that age had caught up with him some what and took out the reading glasses, that he hated that he had to have, to read his speech notes.

“Assalam Alaikum” Said General Al-Jaber.

“Alaikum Assalam” replied 20 thousand soldiers.

“Bismillah Rahim Raham, five months ago military vessels belonging to the Frankish Empire attacked the Confederation, but they were not being content with destroying the military sites in the New Palestine star system. Oh no, they also nuked the eight largest cities on the prime planet. Now since that time we have fought two major battles and several smaller skirmishes, with raids going back and forth. The last major battle was a major attack by the Franks on New Kelantan and gentlemen, the Franks were crushed. All of the Frankish capitol ships participating in the raid were destroyed. A complete victory for the Confederation. Now the Franks are still in the fight and they have just finalized an alliance with the Unity of Saints. An Alliance, which we shall nullify with one bold strike. You will leave this assembly gather your gear, for in 6 hours you will be taking the elevator up to a top of the line Crocotta class assault troop transport” the General paused looking up from his notes at the sea of faces and exclaimed “Takbir”

20 thousand voices replied “Allahu Akbar”

“Takbir”

Allahu Akbar”

“Takbir”

“Allahu Akbar”

“You are dismissed.”

Omar and Hamza crowded on to the elevator car with a thousand of their fellow soldiers, combat armor on and packs on their backs. They would have their G.A.R.-17s issued to them once they got on board the C.S.S. Cairo, The Crocotta class assault ship which would transport them.
Once they and the rest of the assault divisions were loaded onto the transports, each platoon gathered around its Lieutenant who then ripped open their sealed orders and read them to the men. The Confederation High Command was making an attack on Zarahemla prime. The 7th fleet would slide into the Zarahamla Star system first and then they, 250,000 assault troops being escorted by 2 Bahamut class battleships and 4 Quyata class heavy cruisers, would come into after most of the Unity system defense ships had been destroyed or disabled. The assault ships were then to establish a low orbit and the assault troops would go down in drop ships. The soldiers also learned that the assault troops from Hausa world had been chosen to make the assault on Zarahemla Prime for a very special reason. Zarahemla Prime’s air was of a similar composition as Hausa world, 50% Carbon Dioxide. As all of the Hausa had been genetically modified generations ago so that they could breath the air, they would not have to wear any special type of respirators. The Unity defenders would be wearing such devices, as genetic modification of human beings was illegal in the Unity. All the cities and towns on Zarahemla Prime were domed.

86 hours after receiving their orders the lead battleship, the CSS Kuwait led the assault group to their slide point and opened up a worm hole which the group slid through to the Zarahemla star system.

Assault part4

When they got off the train, they were hustled on to a bus with other recruits and in short order were driven to the training base, where they met training Sgt. Abdulkhareem. A man whose 2.2-meter tall frame seemed to bulge everywhere with muscles and he howled at them in a thick New Daura accent pegging him as an off worlder. He seemed to spend the entire training time either in their faces or behind them kicking their butts.

“Listen up, I am not your friend, I am not your mama, I am not your daddy, I am your training Sgt. I will be training you how to be Confederate Assault troops, the greatest type of soldier there is. I will train you how to use all sorts of different killing devices and in battlefield tactics. But most importantly I will teach who the enemy is, so that when you go into battle you will not hesitate, because if you hesitate you die”, roared training Sgt. Abdulkhareem.

Over the next several months Omar, Hamza and the other recruits learned how to use the G.A.R.-17; gauss assault rifle, as well as the V.R.F gauss gun. They learned to use grenades, mines, and seemingly every confederate infantry weapon in use. Spending hours each day on the firing range, with the hot sun beating down on them.
When it rained, as the military did not want to run the firing range in the downpour, they did physical training and practicing marching in formation. The military did not seem to care how wet they got.
They practiced hand-to-hand combat, knife fighting and use of the garrote until every muscle ached and they could do the movements in their sleep.

“Drop the garrote over his head and around his neck, partial twist of your body and pull. Done correctly the enemy’s head will come off”, barked Training Sgt. Abdulkhareem white teeth gleaming.
Omar and the other recruits could hear training Sgt. Abdulkhareem in their sleep howling at them, “Wrong, now you are dead. Do it again!”

After graduation from the weapons school they went straight to drop school. They did parachute jumps and specialized HALO jumps for 3 weeks, then after a week of classroom instruction they went up the space elevator, they climbed aboard the C.S.S. West Wind, loaded into drop pods and made their first orbital assault insertion. They made one more drop and then had their graduation ceremony.
Omar’s Mom and sisters came with Hamza’s parents and brother. They all remarked how they looked older and seemed more mature. Mostly Omar and Hamza just felt tired, but they also felt confident in their new abilities and skills.

Assault Part 3

Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, reported: A person came to Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) and said: Who among the people is most deserving my companionship (of a kind treatment from me?) He said: Your mother. He, again, said: Then who (is the next one)? He said: It is your mother (who deserves the best treatment from you). He said: Then who (is the next one)? He (the Holy Prophet) said: It is your mother. He (again) said: Then who? Thereupon he (The Prophet (peace be upon him)) said: It is your father.

“YOU DID WHAT!!!” yelled Khadija, Omar’s mom a tall thin woman wearing a black and gold outfit, at him.

“Hamza and I went down to the recruiter’s office and signed up.” Replied Omar nervously; this was not going at all as he had seen it in his mind. He had envisioned hi mother crying and grief stricken but proud, not blazing with anger.

“When you say recruiters, you mean you have signed up as dutronic robotic gardening equipment salesmen.” Said his mother with just a hint of sarcasm.

“No mother, Hamza and I went and signed up with “

“I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BOY, I AM NOT STUPID.”

“Hamza and I …”

“I don’t care what Hamza does, I am not his mother. Now I forbid you to join the military. I have just lost your father, I am going to need help with your sisters,” she said gesturing to the 3 little girls who were sitting quietly on the living room’s old and worn couch.

“Mom, we already signed up. We are to report back to the recruiting station next Thursday to ship out for training.”

Khadija collapsed into the big black leather chair next to the couch, her head in her hands. It seemed that her anger had evaporated away and with it her strength. Her husband of twenty-four years dead and now her only son going off to fight in a war that had taken her by surprise. This was not how her life was supposed to be going, she thought. She had been inquiring about brides for her son and had expected to have him introduced to a few prospective brides when her husband had returned in 6 months. Now all her plans were shattered.

Khadija had Omar home for ten days and she made the most of it. Cooking all his favorite foods and letting him spend his days drinking tea and playing mancala with his sisters and friends. Omar figured he had gained two kilos by the time he reported to the military recruiter’s office, where they were given train tickets.

Assault part two

It is narrated on the authority of Tariq b. Shihab: It was Marwan who initiated (the practice) of delivering khutbah (address) before the prayer on the 'Id day. A man stood up and said: Prayer should precede khutbah. He (Marwan) remarked, This (practice) has been done away with. Upon this Abu Sa'id remarked: This man has performed (his duty) laid on him. I heard the Messenger of Allah as saying: He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand; and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue, and if he has not strength enough to do it, (even) then he should (abhor it) from his heart, and that is the least of faith.

Hamza plucked his red tinted glasses off his face and turned to his best friend, since 2nd grade, and stuttered” Omar, cousin I am so sorry, I mean I am sure that he wasn’t there. He was probably in the field. You know how he is always out getting rock samples.”

“Omar isn’t your dad on New Palestine”? Asked Zainab a young co-ed that Omar and Hamza had in their Neo-Quantum Trigonometry class.

“Yeah his dad is on New Palestine, teaching geology at the university at Ramallah by the Sea. Now could you give us a moment.” Replied Hamza who now had taken Omar’s arm in his hand and was directing him out the door. More of their classmates started to offer words of sympathy or encouragement.

Omar’s tall and lanky frame came to a sudden halt. Causing an un-alert Hamza to almost trip over him.
“The time stamp on the pictures show that it was a weekday morning. He is teaching classes mornings during the week. He was there when Ramallah by the sea was hit.” Stated Omar adding “We are at war Hamza, and I am going to go down and to the military recruiter’s office and sign up.”

“We will sign up together” said Hamza with a big smile braking across his face., “because there is no way I am going to let you go off and get all the glory.”

When they got there they found the recruiter’s office was full.

Story

If you haven't read the first part of the story Assault it is actualy after the Islamic expressions post. and i do urge you to read it. i hopefully will post more tonight.

Islamic Expressions

Islamic Expressions
There are a number of different collections of Islamic terms and common expressions. Here is a collection that I have found to be most useful to explain common expressions and terminology used by Muslims.
ALAYHIS SALAM-'Peace be upon him', a formula used after the name of a prophet
AMEEN-The Arabic expression meaning 'Please accept.' Used at the end of prayers and supplictions.
ASSALAMU ALAYKUM'Peace be upon you' the greeting of the muslim[the reply is 'wa alaikumus salam' which means 'and peace be upon you. The fuller version reads, 'assalam u alaikum wa rahmatulahi wa baakatuhu' which means 'peace be upon you and the blessings and mercy of Alllah' the reply is 'wa alaikumus salam wa rahmatulahi wa baakatuhu']
ALLAHU AKBAR-The Arabic expression meaning 'Allah is greater.' Also called the takbir
ALLAHU ALAM-An Arabic expression meaning 'Allah knows best'
AL HAMDU LILAH WA SHUKRU LILLAH-The Arabic expression meaning which means 'Praise belongs to Allah and all thanks to Allah'
AMMA BAAD-An expression used for separating an introductory from the main topics in a speech; the introductory being usually concerned with Allahs praises and glorification. Literally it means 'whatever comes after'
ASTAGFURALLAH-The Arabic expression meaning 'I ask forgiveness of Allah'
AUDHU BILLAHI MIN ASH SHAYTAN AR RAJIM-The Arabic expression meaning 'I seek protection in Allah from the accursed satan.'
AZZA WA JAL-A formula used after the mentioning the name of Allah meaning 'Mighty and Majestic is He'
BARAKALLAH FIK-An expression which means 'May the blessings of Allah be upon you.' When a muslims wants to thank another person, he uses different statements to express his thanks, appreciation and gratitude. One of them is BarakAllah
BISMILLAH AR RAHMAN AR RAHIM-The basmala. 'In the name of Allah, the all Merciful the all Compassionate.'[this is also translated as in the name of Allah most gracious most merciful]
FI AMANALLAH-Valedictory phrase meaning 'In Allahs protection'
FI SABILILLAH-The Arabic expression meaning 'In the way of Allah', 'For the cause of Allah' [also used to mean 'for the love of Allah']HADHRAT/HAZRAT-Literally 'Presence'; a term of address roughly equivalent to 'Your Honour'
HASBALA-The Arabic expression, 'Hasbunallah wa nimalwakil' meaning 'Allah is enough for us and an excellent guardian'. Usually known as 'Hasbi Allah'
HAWQALA-The Arabic expression, 'la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah' which means 'There is no power nor strength save (expect) by Allah'
INNA LILLAHI WA INNA ILAYHI RAJIUN-This is something which a muslim expresses when he is afflicted by a misfortune, the meaning of which is 'We are from Allah and to Him are we returning.' It is taken from an ayat (verse) from the Quran (ch 2 vs 156).[this is usually said upon hearing of the death of an individual]
INSHALLAH-The Arabic expression meaning 'If Allah wills'[this is usually said when referring to a situation in the future e.g. inshAllah I will go to the grocery shop tomorrow etc]
ISTIGHFAR-To ask the forgiveness of Allah, especially by saying, Astagfuralah, 'I seek the forgiveness of Allah'
ISTITHNA-Exception, saying 'InshAllah', 'If Allah wills'
ITAQILLAH-The Arabic expression meaning 'Fear Allah' - i.e. To fear to do something (i.e. a bad action), knowing that Allah is always watching.
JALLA JALALUH-The formula said after the name of Allah meaning 'Great is His Majesty'
JAZAKALLAHU KHAIRAN-This is a statement of thanks and appreciation to be said to a person who does a favour. Instead of saying 'shukran' (thanks), this phrase is used. It means 'May Allah reward you with good.
KARAM ALLAHU WAJHAHU-'May Allah honour him', a formula used when Ali ibn Abi Talib (RadiAllahu Ta'ala anhu) is mentioned
LABBAYK-'At your service', the talbiya or call of the pilgrim to his Lord in the hajj.[the full talbiya is 'LabbaykAllah huma Labbayk, LabbaykAllah sharee kalala Labbayk, innal hamda, wa naimata lakawulmulk la shareekala' which means "Here I am O Lord, here I am, Oh Allah, here I am. Here I am. You have no partner. Here I am. Surely all praise, grace and dominion is yours, and you have no partner."]
LA HAWLA WALA QUWWATA ILLA BILLAH-The meaning of this expression is 'There is no power nor strength save in Allah'. This is said by a muslim when he is struck with calamity, or is taken over by a situation beyond his control.
LI WAJHILLAH-Literally, 'For the face of Allah', meaning in order to obtain the pleasure of Allah, purely for Allah himself.
MA SALAMA-'With peace', a formula for ending letters
MASHALLAH-A phrase literally meaning 'What Allah wishes', and it indicates a good omen[example of usage, I get an A in a test, my mother would say MashAllah]
MALWANA'Our master', a term of respect[usually used in the context of referring to the Prophet , also however used in the context of referring to a learned individual e.g. scholar or imam, a concept I am not too keen on supporting and Allah knows best]
RABBANA WA LAKAL_HAMD-'Our Lord, Praise if yours', said after rising from ruku after saying 'sami Allahuliman hamidah'[which means 'Allah listens to the one who praises him']
RADIYALLAHU ANHA-The formula 'May Allah be pleased with her' used after a female companion[usually abbreviated as RA or RAA]RADIYALLAHU ANHU-This is an expression to be used by muslims whenever a name of a companion of the Prophet Muhammed is mentioned or used in writing. IT means 'May Allah be pleased with him'[usually abbreviated as RA or RAA]
RADIYALLAHU ANHUM-The formula, 'May Allah be pleased with them', used after a group of companions[usually abbreviated as
RA or RAA]RAHIMAHULLAH-The formula, 'May Allah have mercy on him'
SALLAHU ALAYHI WA SALLAM-'May Allah bless him and grant him peace', the formula spoken after the mentioning of the Prophet Muhammed [usually the following two sets of abbreviations are used for this phrase (pbuh) which means 'peace be upon him' and is the technical reply for all Prophets or (saws) the correct suffix when referring to the Prophet Muhammed ]
SAMI ALLAHU LIMAN HAMIDAH-'Allah heard him who send praise to Him', said by someone praying when he rises from ruku (unless he is following an imam in prayer)[if he is following an imam in prayer he says 'Rabana wala kalhamd' only]
SAYYIDUNA-'Our Master', a term of respect. Literally means 'Lord' or 'Master, or 'Leader'[usually used to refer to the Prophet Muhammed , however many people use it to refer to learned man / scholar, a practise I am not keen on - and Allah knows best]. It is also frequently used to denote a descendant of the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)
SHUYUKH -Magestic plural of Shaykh, literally meaning 'Old man' - an honorific title widely used to denote scholars, as well as tribal chieftians and notables.
SIDI-Colloquial for 'Sayyidi' or 'Sayyiduna' - My 'Lord/Master/Leader' - an honorific term - especially popular in North Africa.
SUBHANALLAH-'Glorified is Allah.' To honour Allah andmake Him free from all (unsuitable evil things) that are ascribed to Him, (or 'Glorified be Allah')
SUBHANAHU WA TA'ALA-'Glorified is He and exalted,' an expression that muslims use when the name of Allah is pronounced or written[this us usually abbreviated as (swt)]
TA'ALA-'Exalted is He', an expression used after the name of Allah is mentioned[i.e. Allah Ta'ala meaning, Allah, exalted be He]
TAAWWUDH-Saying, 'I seek refuge in Allah...' (audhu billahi minash shaitan nirajeem)
TABARAKALLAH-The formula 'Blessed is Allah' [usually used in the context of when one hears good news]
TAHMID-Saying the expression 'alhamdulillah', which means 'Praise belongs to Allah'
TAKBIR-Saying 'Allahu akbar', which means 'Allah is Great'
TALBIYA-Saying 'Labbayk', which means 'At your service' during the hajj
TAMJID-Glorifying Allah
TARDIYA-Saying one of the expressions which begin with 'radiyallahu....'
TASBIH-Glorification, saying 'SubhanAllah', which means 'Glory be to Allah'
TASHMIT -Uttering a prayer for the sneezer which thes the form, 'yarhamuk Allah' which means 'may Allah have mercy on you'[when a person sneezes he says, Ahamdulillah (Praise be to Allah), a person who hears the sneeze says 'yarhamuk Allah' and the sneezer replies 'Yahdikumul-lah wa Yuslih balakum' which means 'May Allah give you guidance and improve your condition.']
ULAMA -Scholars, or learned men. Especially applied to religious scholars, but often used also for those learned in other branches of knowledge.
WAJHULLAH -'The face of Allah', meaning for the sake of Allah, irrespective of any reward in this life, purely for Allah'
ZAWIYA -Lodge of religious order or fraternity.

Assault

The Amarya Zazzau University Student Union cafeteria was filled with the sound of students talking about the latest soccer match, exams, what they were going to do this weekend and the smells of rice and lamb. While the cafeteria was co-ed, male and female students sat at different tables. Male and female students would talk to each and occasionally romances started in the cafeteria they always sat at different tables, no one was really sure if this was a university rule or just tradition, but it was always done.

Suddenly one of the students whom were watching one of the vid screens on the wall shouted for every one to be quite. Soon everyone in the cafeteria was glued to the broadcast.

CINN NEWS FLASH CINN NEWS FLASH CINN NEWS FLASH
The Frankish navy has made a surprise attack on New Palestine. Initial reports are telling us that the orbital shipyards at New Palestine have been destroyed, along with all orbital defenses and system defense boats. CINN has just received word that the attacking Frankish fleet also dropped thermo-nuclear bombs on several cities on New Palestine. The list we are reading to you now are of the cities that we know have been hit, but it is not to be assumed to be a complete list. Arafat city, New Jericho, Ramallah by the Sea, and Druze Colony. The Confederation military is calling up all reserves and canceling all leaves. You are to report to your unit right away. In planetary news The Hausa world Military High Command is also calling up all reserves and canceling all leaves. If you are in the military you are to report to your unit commander immediately.

The Picture is our first visual of the Nuclear strike on Ramallah by the sea. It was shot by the medical transport vessel Um Musa as it descended towards the planet.

Quran

Qur'an, Al-An'am, Surah 6:163-164
I ask whether I should seek any god besides God--when he is the Lord of all things. All people will reap the harvest of their own deeds; no one will bear another’s burden. Ultimately, all of you will return to your Lord, and he will resolve your disputes.
-Qur'an, Al-An'am, Surah 6:163-164

New Kurdistan badlands Marathon

Based roughly on the quote from Caliph Umar, that all Muslims should learn to ride a horse, shoot a bow, and swim, the New Kurdistan badlands marathon is one of the most grueling races in the C.I.W. The race kicks off with an archery contest. The score in the archery contest determines the racers starting position in the 2nd stage of the race. The 2nd stage of the race is horseback riding. The competitors race their horses through over 100 kilometers of difficult terrain.

The third stage of the race is the swimming and competitors swim must swim across the Shin Derayace, a one-kilometer swim. Racers emerging from the water immediately are in the 4th and final stage of the New Kurdistan badlands marathon. The 300-kilometer foot race through dangerous desert terrain.

The temperatures in the New Kurdistan Badlands can shoot up to 40c and plunge to –4c at night. Nor does bad weather stop the race. In the 178 years the race has been run flash floods have killed 27 racers.
The race starts every year after Eid-al-Fitr. In fact the first non-Kurd to win the race Abdulrahman Muhammed of New Malaysia, arrived on New Kurdistan two days before the start of Ramadan and walked the course twice before Eid. Many series competitors now do this; even some non-racers will do it. Walking the course during the day and reading Quran and performing Tarawih prayers at night. They call this performing Abdulrahman’s quest.

Some racers have started to pick up the tactic of running at night, navigating by the stars and sleeping during the day. Some racers from new Tajikistan, whom lay out during the day allowing their skin’s chlorophyll to rebuild their bodies’ energy reserves, have used this tactic very effectively. A tactic made even more effective by the fact that the racers must carry all their own food and water. There are only four water stations along the racecourse, not including the lake they must swim.

The entire race is broadcast 24 hours a day for the entire 15 days it normally takes the last runners to make it to the finish line, on New Kurdistan channel seven. During the race much of the planet will be glued to the coverage cheering on their favorite runners. All along the racecourse you can see the channel seven monitoring drones hovering above the ground. They also allow race officials to monitor the race for safety concerns and to make sure there are no rule violations. On occasion racers have tried to bury food and water supplies in violation of the race rules.

The Flu

Hi everyone sorry about not posting anything this week i have been down with the flu, but as i am finally feeling better i hope to be able to post some pictures and stories this up coming week. now i just have to get ready for the kids getting out of school for the summer.

Salam

Lupursus

Dear Abdulrahman

Assalam Alaikum

We went to the Planetary zoo. It was Huge. They have a Monorail to help visitors get around. We saw the pair of Lupursus that they have there. The male is the black one with the green stripes and the female one is the pink and black one. They can run up to 80 kilometers a hour and they weigh 300 kilos. The most dangerous thing about them is they have no fear of man.

We also saw a really nice Walid Monkey habitat. It donned on me while we were looking at it that I have never seen Walid Monkeys outside a zoo, even back home. So Inshallah, when we get back as soon as I can I am going to take the mag-train down to the southern Hutan park and observe some Walid Monkeys in their natural Habitat.

Give everyone our Salams and Inshallah we will be Home in 3 weeks.

Wassalam

Your Cousin
Muhammed

Floaters and South Islands

Bismillah

Dear Abdulrahman

Assalam Alaikum

Well we just got back from our fishing trip. It was great. We caught a lot of the local fish, one of which has tentacles. I even hooked this massive thing called a horned trout. It must have weighed a hundred kilos, almost pulled me off the boat. After fighting it for 45 minutes, seemed like days, it managed to tear out of the hook.

We fished in an area called the southern teeth. It is called that cause of the shape of the little islands that that dot it, and it is in the southern ocean. The Captain said that if we had been fishing out there in the winter we would have seen chunks of ice in the water. But while we were there it was warm and plenty of sunshine. Oh and I am 2 shades darker now.
Alhamdulillah, we saw the giant floating fishers, in my last picture you can see two of them. They were enormous, the size of those advertising zeppelins you see flying at sporting events back home. The captain told us that they suck up water in drinking tubes that they drag in the water and that special bacteria that live in them break the water down into hydrogen and oxygen. The floaters absorb the oxygen into their blood and that the hydrogen goes into their balloon sack. I ask about storms and apparently the lower themselves into the water during storms. Also their skin has some special property, which redirects lighting strikes down into the water.

Well Jamila and I are going to go to the new Benjarmasin Zoo and Aquarium tomorrow. Should be a blast, the hotel clerk told us that they have a mated pair of Lupursus there.

Oh yeah, last night we went out and had a local dish which was battered fish served over rice with some sort of yogurt sauce. It was delicious, so we bought a cookbook. So when we get back we will be cooking a big dinner for everybody.

Wassalam

Your cousin
Muhammed

Formation of the Confederacy

Even though the Chattergee-Haque fast as light drive had allowed humanity to settle over a thousand star systems by 1800A.H. because the Drive was limited to the speed of light and the vast distances between star systems, Interstellar government was impossible and each star system was on its own. Even trade between star systems was out of the question.

Then on the Planet Kalimantan Prime in the year 1837 A.H. all of this changed. Professor Hassan Nashashibi of the university of New Benjarmasin completed the greatest invention in transportation science since the wheel, the Nashashibi Worm drive or as it is more commonly known as Worm Drive. The Worm drive powered by a Sun burst fusion reactor allowed man to travel distances in mere hours that had taken years by opening up a worm hole between two points in space.

The first trip was to the nearby star system of New Malaysia. The Authorities on New Malaysia were amazed by this new star drive. The First Citizen of New Malaysia, Zainab Muhammed, quickly got the crew of the ship to agree to carry back several representatives of New Malaysia, who upon arriving on Kalimantan Prime negotiated a trade agreement and a mutual defense pack. This was followed several months later by a technology exchange program. This was the beginning of the Confederation of Islamic Worlds.

Within several years the Confederation had all the ethnic Malay worlds and had devised a standard treaty for each world to ratify to join the Confederation. Afterwards The Confederation sent representatives to New Kurdistan, Turkmen Prime and dozens of other predominantly Muslim star systems. The urge to reconnect with humanity and the prospect of trade and new technology and all but a very few joined.

Soon ships with worm drives were sliding into star systems nearly everywhere that Humanity had settled. At first the Confederation exclusively had the worm drive, but this was not to last for more than a dozen years. Scientists on New Guangxi by carefully monitoring star ships every time they activated their worm drives were able to conclude how the drive worked and in seven years they successfully tested their own worm drive. The leaders of Vert were not so subtle and simple seized one and reversed engineered the worm drive. Later agents of Nuevo Amazonas were able to steal plans for the worm drive from Vert Prime. With the Genie out of the bottle scientists and engineers were able to compare notes and even more powerful and efficient worm drives were built.

This of course also led to the formation of the Celestial Alliance, the Frankish Empire, the Nuevo Federation, and numerous smaller interstellar groups like the Shiite systems Alliance, the Unity of Saints and the Federation of Free Worlds.
The invention of the worm drive also led to a huge amount of trading in technological and scientific information and the 3rd expansion of humanity into space.

Vacation Pictures

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim

Hey Abdulrahman

Assalam Alaikum

Just got to New Samarinda, The Hotel here is great, I actually have a whirlpool in my bathroom and the view from my balcony is of the Imam Hassan Memorial flower garden. The Garden looks spectacular from up here. Your Mom would love it. Remember when we were in school, all those times she had us digging flowerbeds and planting flowers.
Well here are some pictures I took while on my extreme backpacking group trip. We were in the Kalimantan Prime northern national park. There are no facilities at all in the park, not even trails. If trails start to form the park officials will put that area of the park off limits until it recovers. That and they only let five thousand people into the park every year. We got to spend two weeks hiking and camping.

The park is over 20,000 square kilometers and the terrain was formed by glaciers that pushed through the area over ten thousand years ago during New Kalimantan’s last ice age. Most of the fauna that we saw was bipedal, kind of neat huh. We saw a herd of Kiki deer must have been three or four hundred of them, they were so graceful, we all just watched them run by nobody remembered to pull out a camera. There is also a species of predator called a Lupursus that lives in the park, but we never saw one.
Part of our gear were these neat collapsible kayaks, they were so cool. We used them to cross a couple of lakes and we went down a river in them and rode some small rapids.
Thinking of buying one for myself.

Of course the park is closely monitored and if we would have found ourselves in any real danger we just have to activate our emergency transponder and one of the park ranger spheres would have swooped down and rescued us. I got a few pictures of them as well, they are the big gold globes in the pictures. They were cool o watch to as they simply glide through the air silently. They are silent as no to disturb any of the wildlife.

We are going to do some shopping and sight seeing in the city but next week we are going deep sea fishing. And get this the captain of the boat is giving us a discount cause we are from off world. I love this planet.

Wassalam

Your cousin
Muhammed

PS give my Salams to your family and tell Aisha that Inshallah she should be getting a post card from me soon.