August 27th, 004 SDE:
Countryman stepped off the lift, and into the short hall leading to the bridge. On his left was the conference room, on the right his office, and straight ahead was the bridge. His mind however was on the recent repairs and refit. They'd finished the work yesterday and spent the night clearing out the camps. They'd managed to finish just in ti as well, since the local weather forecast indicated another blizzard would be sweeping through today. A pretty bad one from the sound of it, and no one wanted to be caught out in that.
From what he could tell, the mood around here had generally improved as well. There did seem to be sothing going on with the pilots, but he wasn't entirely sure what. Sothing involving the locker rooms, but they'd been made unisex four years ago. The inclusion of privacy screens and so ti to adapt seed to solve the problem. The only recent change was the introduction of an improved skin suit, they were a little racy, but that was par for the course with nanofiber technology. As Countryman recalled, the latest upgrades to the skinsuit took advantage of knowledge gained from their trades with the Wovnar. Of course they were still unpacking the data they gained on biotechnology, but they'd found a few uses for the new knowledge.
Reaching the blast doors he stopped to speak briefly with the guards before heading inside. The bridge seed fairly calm, with Greyman talking with the night shift commander and several of his officers taking their stations for the day shift. He settled by the door for a mont and simply watched. They were still on track for the launch after all.
It wasn't long before Greyman ca over, "Night shift seed to have passed largely uneventfully. With the extra ti they ran a bunch of diagnostics for us. All systems read blue across the board, in fact, he says the engines look to be running about as well as they did when we left spacedock four years ago."
"Oh? Finally found all the little gremlins have we? Nice to hear that."
Greyman nodded, "Looks like it. I'm just happy the ship is in one piece again."
Countryman took his seat, "So am I, this has been a nice respite, but I sure wouldn't want to live here. How about you?"
"I'd like to find soplace a tad warr, if you could manage it."
"Well I do know a colder location, I'll see about finding a warr one."
Misaki looked up from her console, "New contacts, grid seven. Three Valorian frigates and two destroyers have entered the system. Recon Flight Four is requesting additional fighters."
Countryman blinked, "I guess our ti is about up. Standby all engines, confirm final check."
The bridge moved into a frenzy as all the final checks were made. People were accounted for, systems were double-checked, and then the report he was waiting for ca. "All hands accounted for, all equipnt stowed and secured, systems are blue across the board. We are ready for take-off."
"Excellent," said Countryman as he started giving the orders to take off. The engines started to hum as the ship shifted off her landing struts. At the sa mont all across the ship, the blast plating over the viewports and airlocks slamd shut. Providing an extra asure of protection, as they prepared to lift off. They were finally leaving this frozen wasteland of a planet and Countryman could honestly say he wasn't going to miss it.
98 kiloters Southwest of the Enterprise:
The commander looked up, it had been a few days since they'd had the misfortune of landing on this miserable frozen planet. She'd seen signs of alien vehicles more than once, so she knew they weren't alone. The nace was definitely here as well, but she wasn't entirely surprised. Especially after being forced to abandon her ship, it may have been only a frigate but it had been her ship. Now it was nothing more than wreckage, destroyed by nace fighters. So part of her wondered about her luck, as her ti in the Velosa cluster hadn't been pleasant. At least not since running into the Spectre Queen, it had taken hours to fix the damage and while she was looking for the Queen's base, she'd been hit by a plasma storm. Forcing her to find sowhere to shelter for repairs, only to find the nace was already in the system she was thinking of using for temporary shelter.
Now she was stuck on a frozen wasteland of a planet with no ship and limited shelter. Nearby one of the crewn she'd linked up with ca out from behind a ridge, comnting "I don't like the look of those skies, I think we are in for another blizzard."
"Agreed, we should get back to the shelters. I just hope our supplies don't run out."
The young woman replied, "I saw a river down that way. I'd like to..."
A sudden roar drew their attention to the Northeast. She watched in astonishnt as a large mass rose into the gathering clouds. There was no mistaking that image, a massive elongated saucer, huge underslung nacelles separated from the main hull by a set of armored struts, and that sweptback tower that linked to a half-disk superstructure at the rear of the vessel. The commander had seen it several tis, but she couldn't help standing there, mouth agape, as it slowly rose into the sky.
It didn't seem possible for a capital ship that size to be on the surface, yet apparently it had been on the surface. Sohow the nace had landed a fucking battleship. No wonder they couldn't find it, who in their right mind would have thought to look on the surface of so random planet for a battleship? That was like searching a desert for a naval vessel, it just wasn't right.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The young woman watched it as well, but suddenly shivered and pulled her along. "Co on sir, we need to get back to the shelters. No point worrying about that."
"Right," she comnted as she let herself be led down the path. Yet she couldn't help but look back at the retreating image of the flying ship. Already it was looking smaller, getting further from them. Soon she wouldn't be able to see it. "I guess we'll have fewer patrols to worry about now."
Valorian Destroyer; Grid Seven:
The commander was leaning over the console, watching as new data ca in from the probes they'd sent into the system. This was one of five remaining targets that they'd been assigned to search. So far nothing, but the honor of the third fleet was on the line and like many of her fellows she wasn't going to be happy until they found so sign...
"Sir! Graviton spike on scanners, location: second planet."
A probe was closing there now, "Give a visual!"
Visual ca in seconds later, and she watched astonished as a large mass erged from the gathering clouds on the surface. A curse escaped her lips, as she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that the ship they were looking for could apparently land and then take off again. She'd known they were fast, but the engine power for that was sothing else. That Titanium hull of theirs wasn't light, although there were heavier materials to build a ship out of.
Yet so part of her knew they didn't have ti to think about this. "Signal the fleet, and set course for the planet, best possible speed."
The crew nodded, and carried out her orders. Monts later the entire flotilla was enroute to intercept the hostile battlecarrier.
Her comm officer looked up, "Fleet reports battlegroup 37 will enter the system in thirty minutes, additional elents will take longer to reach the system."
"Understood," was her reply. Hopefully they wouldn't need the entire fleet to take the one ship down. Her mind flashed to the other two, and how they'd exploded with such force. The range of those shockwaves had been unreal. She shuddered, how much bigger of a detonation would this ship unleash? She didn't want to find out.
EFS Enterprise:
A furrow along the hull glowed bright just a mont before a high-intensity energy beam lanced out. Striking the Valorian destroyer that had just entered range. re monts after leaving orbit, they'd been intercepted by the Valorian Flotilla. Sothing that didn't surprise Countryman since he'd tasked the deployed recon flights with keeping an eye on the alien vessels.
On the monitors, he watched the beam punch through their forward shields, penetrate multiple decks and out the other side of the vessel. He blinked, Ruri had done better than he thought, that kind of firepower was in line with what he'd seen the Teketh do to her foes. That was a substantial improvent, he'd seen them doing more damage in the tests, but seeing it in practice was sothing else.
The Valorian shields flickered, as an entire section ruptured. A mont later the shields failed just as pulsed fire from the main guns slamd into the ship amidships. Each round punched through the side and exploded, multiple fires erupted and the lights on the ship flickered.
"Heavy damage to target, reading multiple power failures, they've lost shields and are venting atmosphere, ergency systems failing."
"Target is launching escape pods."
"Target the other destroyer, take her out!"
"Aye sir, target locked, firing at will."
A mont later, the beam array lit up again. A strong blue energy beam tore into the second destroyer with an equally deadly effect. Her shields flared but failed to protect the vulnerable hull beneath. The energy tore the hull apart as if it was tissue paper and sections ruptured in a matter of seconds before the beam ripped out the other side of the alien ship.
Her shields flickered and then failed entirely, and under Kaori's direction several pulsed energy shots tore into the hull after that. Entire sections ruptured as the bolts explosively tore them apart. Leaving a crippled warship before it really had a chance to fight.
Countryman smiled, Ruri had really leveled the playing field, he really felt he was commanding a battleship now. This was the kind of firepower they had needed for the last two years. Hell if they'd had this kind of firepower five years ago, they might have still had Earth.
One of the Frigates moved over the top of the hull, firing her torpedoes. The Energy Web activated and absorbed the energy burst with little difficulty. A mont later several pulse cannons fired raking his hull. Countryman wasn't that worried and ordered Kaori to return fire.
Multiple turrets rotated and fired on the frigate. Her shields flared as a hail of high-energy particle bolts slamd into them one after another. Several penetrated to tear into the hull. Each penetrating round exploded shortly after impact, rupturing the hull and tearing sections.
A second later, the frigate was moving out of range, but she was in bad shape with multiple plasma fires and heavy internal damage.
"More escape pods sir, two destroyers down, and one frigate. Remaining vessels are retreating."
Countryman turned away from the screens, "Ignore them, helm set course out of the system and prepare to recover all scouts."
"Aye sir, setting course zero one two mark three eight. Standing by to recover recon flights."
"Kaori keep an eye on those frigates, if they get any ideas you have permission to take them out."
"Aye sir!"
Countryman leaned back and let the crew work as he waited for all the deployed craft to be recovered. It wasn't too long before they had recovered their ships, but long enough for the two frigates to get ideas. That didn't go well for them, and two more wrecks were left behind when they departed the system minutes later.
Reviews
All reviews (0)