May 15th, 003 SDE, Valoria Institute of Advanced Technology
The Admiral stepped into the office. She had been waiting for a report on this subject for a little over a month. It was supposed to take a week for analysis, but the Institute scientists had finally reported that they had sothing. Looking around at the ssy office, the Admiral addressed the younger female in the room. "So about the nace armor, what did you find?"
"It's a lot more advanced than we first thought. Those energy fluctuations? Well they were a lot more significant than we thought. We found a high correlation with structural fields, but not a perfect match. There were anomalies that required accounting for before we could make any conclusions. In the end, we determined that we're looking at a highly localized structural field being run through the alien armor plating but not of a form I'm familiar with."
"A structural field? You an they are using ship's power to make their plating tougher?"
"Yes, but their thod is far superior to anything we have. We calculated a field strength several hundred orders of magnitude greater than what is typical on a modern starship. The only defensive system that cos close on a modern ship would be her shields. The alien battleship has a defensive structural field similar in strength to a champion class battleship's main shields. A bit stronger actually."
The admiral blinked, "Then why haven't we gotten through?"
"Ah, well I can answer that. Their defenses appear to be regenerative in so fashion. As near as we can tell, the field can recover strength even while under fire. Unlike modern shields they apparently don't need to reset the field. This ans their defense field is a function of available power. I do believe we can now asure the strength of their defenses."
"Interesting. So we might have been doing more damage than we thought."
"Oh, you were. That antimatter volley hitting their flagship at checkpoint 34 did a lot of damage, that was a major field fluctuation. Indicating a field strength drop of nearly forty percent."
The admiral blinked, that wasn't a small hit. Not by any asure of the word. A couple more hits like that and they would have been doing real damage. "So it's regenerative, any weaknesses?"
"None that we can find. I'm not even sure where to start. Structural field technology like this is centuries ahead of anything we have, but if I had to guess a highly focused energy burst might penetrate the field. Only other option is to overwhelm it with a lot of high impact energy blasts in a short period of ti in order to overwhelm the regeneration. That is the only way to defeat it without relying on them running out of power."
"I'll relay this to the fleet. In the anti keep working on a weakness." She frowned, "Think an ion cannon would have any kind of effect?"
"Not really, I don't think this field would care about ionization."
The admiral left the room a while later with a lot on her mind. They had made progress in understanding the nace's defenses, but there was still a lot left unknown. Yet now she had a glimr of hope that the alien battleship wasn't quite as invulnerable as they thought. Even better, she now knew that they had hurt it. It had been pretty demoralizing to see it seemingly shrug off heavy hits like that antimatter bombing run, but now they knew it had done sothing. Even if it hadn't looked like it at the ti. If that did sothing it was a simple matter to figure out what to do.
October 3rd 003 SDE:
Countryman sighed as he stepped off the lift. The last few months have been difficult for everyone. They had been attacked multiple tis by Valorian fleets. The Valorian militarization was also intensifying border conflicts in the area. Long range sensors had witnessed multiple skirmishes between the Valorians and the minor powers in this region. The Wovnar had so far avoided the fighting and were perhaps the only friendly power in the region. There were a few systems in Wovnar territory that could serve to provide shelter for a ti, but the Wovnar tech base was too different to provide a reasonable source of resupply. Worse, their presence in a Wovnar system seed to draw attention if they stayed too long. Countryman didn't particularly want to embroil them in a conflict not their own.
Limited opportunities to resupply had led to rising costs for things aboard ship. Essentials like food remained at reasonable credit values, but it was getting harder for people to obtain luxuries. They had managed to salvage or harvest enough deuterium to keep the reserves at an acceptable level. He knew from recent reports that they had recently fallen below fifty percent of capacity. At this rate they would be out of fuel by the end of year, maybe a couple of months after that. Longer if they managed to score a decent haul of additional fuel.
A short walk later Countryman entered the bridge to find Greyman already there reviewing the logs. "Up early today? Anything interesting happen during the night?"
"From what I can see and was told not really. There is one Valorian convoy on long range sensors. We also received a comm burst at 0400 hours detailing Valorian fleet movents for the next week. The VCS Bountiful Treasure is in the area again, this ti with a full combat group including multiple battleships and several fleet carriers. From the sound of things they are going to be hunting for us."
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Countryman sighed, "Another hunt? Wonderful, it seems we are still rather popular. You ntioned a convoy? What are they carrying?"
"Based on our intel? They are primarily transporting refined deuterium from a refinery in grid 23-11 to the outpost we passed three days ago."
Countryman smiled, "Defenses?"
"One squadron of heavy cruisers and about thirty destroyers are running escort. Why? You aren't thinking of hitting the convoy?"
"Considering it, yes. Considering our reserves and the limited opportunities we have had to refuel lately it might be worth it."
Greyman frowned, then shrugged, "I guess you are right. If the manifests are right we don't need the entire convoy either. Even just one transport would buy us several months of distance at current rates."
The pair were discussing how, when suddenly Misaki interjected, "SIR! That convoy we are tracking is under attack. Multiple ships, signatures are Voskar."
"Voskar?" inquired Countryman not sure why they would be attacking a fuel convoy, but they weren't a race he knew that well. The Voskar had already attacked them in the past without any provocation. "Intercept course, maximum warp. All hands to Battlestations, charge all particle cannons, load forward torpedoes. All pilots to standby status."
A chorus of responses ca as he gave his orders. The Coto and the Umikaze adjusting course as well. Perhaps this was a mistake, or it was the right course. He would find out soon enough.
A couple of hours passed before the Enterprise arrived on the scene. As they ca out of warp it was a scene of chaos. Multiple transports lay adrift, less than 40,000 kiloters from the Enterprise two Valorian cruisers sat. Their hulls shattered as burning fuel and oxygen leaked into space. Several destroyers were engaged with Voskar stealth cruisers. Right before their eyes one such stealth cruiser took a direct hit from Valorian plasma torpedoes. Its shields buckled instantly and the hull beca a brilliant flash of light for several fractions of a second. When the light cleared the ship was gone, nothing remained but molten debris and shattered bulkheads.
"Keep an eye on the combatants," said Countryman as he picked a nearby transport. Marking it on his console as transport number three.
"Set course for transport three, one-third sublight power. Prepare boarding parties, and deploy fighter escorts."
"Aye sir, deploying fighter escorts. Marine contingents have been alerted, boarding parties will be ready shortly."
"Misaki full scan of transport three, I want to know her full status."
"They have taken moderate damage, shields are down, main power offline, sublight drives destroyed. Minimal power on all decks, and damage to life support systems has rendered all decks below deck two uninhabitable. Primary storage tanks are intact and I'm reading a full load of refined deuterium."
"How does her warp reactor look?"
"Stable, there is so damage to the power transfer conduits, but the reactor itself is intact and online."
"Fuel levels?"
"About 80%,"
Countryman smiled, "Add it to the list of targets. The boarding parties are to secure as much fuel as they can and transfer it back to the Enterprise."
"I'll make sure they take a few engineers with them."
His orders given Countryman settled to keep an eye on things. The battle at large wasn't sothing he was too interested in, but he did notice that the Voskar seed focused on a larger transport that he dubbed Transport 23. A ship that the escort fleet seed especially intent on protecting. To his knowledge, this was just a fuel convoy, and there wasn't supposed to be anything more than fuel on these ships. Yet it seed that perhaps there was sothing more valuable on that particular transport.
Turning back to Misaki he ordered, "Scan transport 23, high-intensity full scan. Report anything unusual."
"Scanning, standard class four Valorian fuel carrier. Hmm, that's odd, she is missing half the usual fuel tanks. In their place appear to be shielded cargo bays. Give a mont," she paused in her reporting and then spoke again after a mont, "I'm not sure, but they seem to be heavily loaded with weapons, configuration unknown."
A secret weapons shipnt? Hmm, no wonder this convoy was attacked, "Detailed scans, I want as much detail as you can get on those weapons."
"Would you like to organize a boarding party? I think the Coto could board the ship and capture samples."
Countryman glanced at the battle, "Not at this ti. I'd rather not stay too long."
"Aye, sir."
"If an opportunity presents itself, have the Coto attempt a boarding action, but otherwise focus on sensor scans."
The orders were acknowledged and monts later the first reports from transport three ca in. His landing party had successfully boarded the transport without any opposition. Initial resistance was very light, only a few scattered damage control teams which were lightly ard and poorly coordinated served to offer any resistance after getting aboard.
Countryman monitored the reports as they ca in. The minutes passed slowly but the battle kept distant from them. Just as the away team reported that their main objective was secure, transport 23 made the jump to warp speed. Escaping the combat zone, a mont before one of the Voskar ships had been destroyed. Likely the one maintaining the jamming field, given the obvious escape on transport 23. The battle however seed to keep going.
A minute after that, the away team reported they had completed all objectives and were returning to the ship. A couple minutes after that, without any undue incidents they had secured a new supply of deuterium and stole so extra antimatter from a Valorian ship. The mont he was told all craft were secure he gave the order to resu course.
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