Dontgonearthere
19-11-2003, 03:59
"Sir, coming up on DGNTC-3 'Pax III', slowing to .5 lightspeed" The chief
navigator looked up from his station.
"Very well, alert me when we enter orbit" Captain Marshal
In his quarters Marshal stared out the window as the stars from long streaks to fast moving dots, to the normal, barely moving points. In the distance (He could only identify it with the computers help) Sol glimmered.
It had been a bad day, the ship had been caught in a gravity well of an
unusualy large asteroid, which wasnt supposed to be there. A launch of five fighters to investigate resulted in five brief but spectacular firebursts as the ships exploded, an attempted sensor probe failed, and finnaly, an unmanned drone had been sent out. This had been destroyed as well, so, since the object was:
A. Killing things
B. Not apparently sentient
C. Not responding to being hailed
and D. Apparently something no good could come of
It was turned into dust. After a brief scan of the rubble and a dispatch of nanites, who recovered the small amount of valuable minerals the ships continued. After that an engineer had misaligned the laser cannons of a starfigter, rather badly, normaly the onboard computer would alert him to this, but he either ignored it or didnt hear, since half of the number twelve hanger had been turned black. Fortunatly most of the men were on break and only one other fighter had been damaged.
He hoped that nothing else would happen today.
beep beep beep
Damn.
"Yes?"
A brief burst of static, then: "Sir, this is Long Range sensors, we have a
problem, please come to the bridge."
"Right away"
He sighed, what now?
He arrived on the bridge and What Now? stared him in the face.
He blinked. What Now was still there.
"W...w..w...w....wha-?" He stuttered.
What Now was Pax III. What Now was Pax III with no oceans, or for that
matter, surface. Most of the planet was an open wound, tiny bits of the
crust hung on like scabs, shifting visualy with no support, they made a slow round of the planet, while the crew of the ship watched in fascinated horror.
"Sir...sir? Do you have orders?"
The sensor officer tapped his shoulder, and he jerked once or twice.
He turned around.
"Comm officer, send an emergency distress signal, inform all who care to hear that there is something very, very unwelcome in the galaxy."
The message goes out to everybody with a comm in the next few systems.
This is a warning to all who recieve this message, repeat, this is a warning.
Ships of the DGNT Empire have arrived at the world of Pax III, a small colony of roughly five million people, which no doubt, none of you have heard of until now. Upon arrival the planet was discovered to be stripped of its crust, right down the the mantle. After a sensor scan, no other ships were detected within the area, though there was a particle trail it vanished roughly 200km out from the planet.
Suggesting all ships and planets receiving this message go to high alert and relay as far as possible
The computer set to rebroadcast every five minutes.
"Now, I want to send a message to G'oaway, mark Urgent FYI, give it a priority push into the system on all levels that it is needed."
The comm officer entered the settings, then the captain inserted his IDcard into the small slot.
"Captain Marshal of the Silencer-5, urgent: the colony at Pax-III is gone, and the planet is stripped to a depth of roughly 6 miles, no remains to be seen, though a few strips of land remain. Please respond. Also, we
request the support of a Watcher class ship in order to track the perpitrator of this action."
navigator looked up from his station.
"Very well, alert me when we enter orbit" Captain Marshal
In his quarters Marshal stared out the window as the stars from long streaks to fast moving dots, to the normal, barely moving points. In the distance (He could only identify it with the computers help) Sol glimmered.
It had been a bad day, the ship had been caught in a gravity well of an
unusualy large asteroid, which wasnt supposed to be there. A launch of five fighters to investigate resulted in five brief but spectacular firebursts as the ships exploded, an attempted sensor probe failed, and finnaly, an unmanned drone had been sent out. This had been destroyed as well, so, since the object was:
A. Killing things
B. Not apparently sentient
C. Not responding to being hailed
and D. Apparently something no good could come of
It was turned into dust. After a brief scan of the rubble and a dispatch of nanites, who recovered the small amount of valuable minerals the ships continued. After that an engineer had misaligned the laser cannons of a starfigter, rather badly, normaly the onboard computer would alert him to this, but he either ignored it or didnt hear, since half of the number twelve hanger had been turned black. Fortunatly most of the men were on break and only one other fighter had been damaged.
He hoped that nothing else would happen today.
beep beep beep
Damn.
"Yes?"
A brief burst of static, then: "Sir, this is Long Range sensors, we have a
problem, please come to the bridge."
"Right away"
He sighed, what now?
He arrived on the bridge and What Now? stared him in the face.
He blinked. What Now was still there.
"W...w..w...w....wha-?" He stuttered.
What Now was Pax III. What Now was Pax III with no oceans, or for that
matter, surface. Most of the planet was an open wound, tiny bits of the
crust hung on like scabs, shifting visualy with no support, they made a slow round of the planet, while the crew of the ship watched in fascinated horror.
"Sir...sir? Do you have orders?"
The sensor officer tapped his shoulder, and he jerked once or twice.
He turned around.
"Comm officer, send an emergency distress signal, inform all who care to hear that there is something very, very unwelcome in the galaxy."
The message goes out to everybody with a comm in the next few systems.
This is a warning to all who recieve this message, repeat, this is a warning.
Ships of the DGNT Empire have arrived at the world of Pax III, a small colony of roughly five million people, which no doubt, none of you have heard of until now. Upon arrival the planet was discovered to be stripped of its crust, right down the the mantle. After a sensor scan, no other ships were detected within the area, though there was a particle trail it vanished roughly 200km out from the planet.
Suggesting all ships and planets receiving this message go to high alert and relay as far as possible
The computer set to rebroadcast every five minutes.
"Now, I want to send a message to G'oaway, mark Urgent FYI, give it a priority push into the system on all levels that it is needed."
The comm officer entered the settings, then the captain inserted his IDcard into the small slot.
"Captain Marshal of the Silencer-5, urgent: the colony at Pax-III is gone, and the planet is stripped to a depth of roughly 6 miles, no remains to be seen, though a few strips of land remain. Please respond. Also, we
request the support of a Watcher class ship in order to track the perpitrator of this action."