Ma-tek
23-02-2005, 04:59
IDSS X-41, nr. AST-471889-F, Tyelca Tuo Controlled Space
WARNING!
PREMATURE EXPLOSION MAY OCCUR DURING THE UNARMED STATE, UPON EXPOSURE TO RADIOACTIVE ELEMENTS OR COMPOUNDS
BE SAFE! DO NOT EXPOSE THIS KILL VEHICLE TO SUCH MATERIALS
WARNING!
Well, that was explicit. Technician Phalange - a bizarre name amongst a nation of bizarre names born of a mixing of languages not in the least compatible - shrugged his shoulders in preperation of lifting the bulky item.
Of course, he wore a waldosuit. He wouldn't be able to move the two-tonne prototype otherwise.
Gently - even though he did not actually need to be gentle - he manouvred the kill vehicle into its holding mount. "Last one," he called out gleefully. It was always happy to finish a job without anything exploding. Very satisfying, it was, to not end up a smear on the back wall of the loading bay.
Very satisfying indeed.
* * *
Bridge, IDSS X-41
The bridge was small, compact. This was a testing vessel, modular in design, created so that she might be ripped apart and put back together in different combinations.
She was a Testing-class vessel, in other words. And she did exactly what it said on the tin.
It was not exactly a plum job to be working on her - at least not as her captain. One had to hold the rank of Lieutenant Commander - and there were frankly far more interesting jobs out there.
Of course, if one were a theoretical weapons fanatic, it was the perfect job.
Lieutenant Commander Alyssa DuValren was just one such person. Born of immigrant parents, she was however a patriot - as her parents had been. Of course, her parents had died in the One Day War, fighting for Ax-turath - foolishly - but Alyssa was a different sort of patriot. She believed in the state - not in fanatical worship of political figures, or ideology. She merely loved the People of her nation, loved the land, and was devoted to its protection.
This was part of that.
She also, admittedly, had a fascination for things which made other things go boom. She laughed crazily at an advert on one of the trimensional stations which advertised a new computer game with the slogan, "Make things go boom."
She loved firepower, loved everything to do with weapons. Couldn't get enough. And this one was the plum.
The Commonality had never gotten the hang of shielding a device against particulates at c-fractional speeds; more than 0.12c and the object fried pretty fast, died even faster. So, with classic Iluvauromeni determination, they had sidestepped the issue...
And that's where the T-missile came in. Known affectionately as 'The Stone' - because it reminded some of the way a stone skipped off of the surface of a pond - the T-missile would make millions of tiny Transitions all the way to its target.
Sometimes it would appear beyond a shield and impact the hull at as much as ninety percent light speed; sometimes it would appear directly inside the vessel. Sometimes it would miss entirely, though.
In fact, it missed very often. That was the frustrating thing about the Project (with a capital P); but that was not all that was being tested.
The Project was geared towards reshaping the current working fleet into a stronger whole. This vessel contained two phases of that plan: first, it contaiend a working Barrier device - one of only two in existence. The other was in Menelmacar, but the Menelmacari no doubt had forgotten it by now, as they had shields which were not at all similar in design.
The Barrier had been devised thousands of years ago.
Only now was it understood how it had been built.
It was staggering, in fact. Some technologies had simply vanished out of existence; others had remained in artifacts. Nobody could explain the phenomenon - unless the Tumnoreans were simply holding out on the Commonality.
Which was eminently likely.
She wondered what sort of ships they had - or even if they had any - and dismissed the thought. It didn't matter, really.
She gave the necessary commands-
* * *
The missile came out of nowhere. The asteroid AST-471889-F looked harmless enough, but a small speck on its surface irised open to reveal a missile tube. The tube spat the missile at what would have been hypersonic velocity at Earth-norm atmospheric pressure-
And a bright rainbow-like flash sprung into being. The missile disintegrated appropriately.
A second speck irises open on the surface; an E-cannon whirls into view. This particular model is capable of tearing through a fifty foot thick titanium block in under one second at full power, at this range; it's madness to fire at this proximity.
Yet again the rainbow wall flashes into being; it grows alarmingly bright, brighter still-
The E-cannon spins down before it overheats, having fired for fully four seconds.
* * *
Applause rang out on the decks of the warship...
[OOC: Kinda got interrupted and lost the thread. This will be more about character development...
But I forgot what I was doing. So consider this a mere introduction to Alyssa, for now. The tech in the background isn't really important, but does represent the bleeding-edge of CSF research.
Not that you'd know that, unless you were looking.]
WARNING!
PREMATURE EXPLOSION MAY OCCUR DURING THE UNARMED STATE, UPON EXPOSURE TO RADIOACTIVE ELEMENTS OR COMPOUNDS
BE SAFE! DO NOT EXPOSE THIS KILL VEHICLE TO SUCH MATERIALS
WARNING!
Well, that was explicit. Technician Phalange - a bizarre name amongst a nation of bizarre names born of a mixing of languages not in the least compatible - shrugged his shoulders in preperation of lifting the bulky item.
Of course, he wore a waldosuit. He wouldn't be able to move the two-tonne prototype otherwise.
Gently - even though he did not actually need to be gentle - he manouvred the kill vehicle into its holding mount. "Last one," he called out gleefully. It was always happy to finish a job without anything exploding. Very satisfying, it was, to not end up a smear on the back wall of the loading bay.
Very satisfying indeed.
* * *
Bridge, IDSS X-41
The bridge was small, compact. This was a testing vessel, modular in design, created so that she might be ripped apart and put back together in different combinations.
She was a Testing-class vessel, in other words. And she did exactly what it said on the tin.
It was not exactly a plum job to be working on her - at least not as her captain. One had to hold the rank of Lieutenant Commander - and there were frankly far more interesting jobs out there.
Of course, if one were a theoretical weapons fanatic, it was the perfect job.
Lieutenant Commander Alyssa DuValren was just one such person. Born of immigrant parents, she was however a patriot - as her parents had been. Of course, her parents had died in the One Day War, fighting for Ax-turath - foolishly - but Alyssa was a different sort of patriot. She believed in the state - not in fanatical worship of political figures, or ideology. She merely loved the People of her nation, loved the land, and was devoted to its protection.
This was part of that.
She also, admittedly, had a fascination for things which made other things go boom. She laughed crazily at an advert on one of the trimensional stations which advertised a new computer game with the slogan, "Make things go boom."
She loved firepower, loved everything to do with weapons. Couldn't get enough. And this one was the plum.
The Commonality had never gotten the hang of shielding a device against particulates at c-fractional speeds; more than 0.12c and the object fried pretty fast, died even faster. So, with classic Iluvauromeni determination, they had sidestepped the issue...
And that's where the T-missile came in. Known affectionately as 'The Stone' - because it reminded some of the way a stone skipped off of the surface of a pond - the T-missile would make millions of tiny Transitions all the way to its target.
Sometimes it would appear beyond a shield and impact the hull at as much as ninety percent light speed; sometimes it would appear directly inside the vessel. Sometimes it would miss entirely, though.
In fact, it missed very often. That was the frustrating thing about the Project (with a capital P); but that was not all that was being tested.
The Project was geared towards reshaping the current working fleet into a stronger whole. This vessel contained two phases of that plan: first, it contaiend a working Barrier device - one of only two in existence. The other was in Menelmacar, but the Menelmacari no doubt had forgotten it by now, as they had shields which were not at all similar in design.
The Barrier had been devised thousands of years ago.
Only now was it understood how it had been built.
It was staggering, in fact. Some technologies had simply vanished out of existence; others had remained in artifacts. Nobody could explain the phenomenon - unless the Tumnoreans were simply holding out on the Commonality.
Which was eminently likely.
She wondered what sort of ships they had - or even if they had any - and dismissed the thought. It didn't matter, really.
She gave the necessary commands-
* * *
The missile came out of nowhere. The asteroid AST-471889-F looked harmless enough, but a small speck on its surface irised open to reveal a missile tube. The tube spat the missile at what would have been hypersonic velocity at Earth-norm atmospheric pressure-
And a bright rainbow-like flash sprung into being. The missile disintegrated appropriately.
A second speck irises open on the surface; an E-cannon whirls into view. This particular model is capable of tearing through a fifty foot thick titanium block in under one second at full power, at this range; it's madness to fire at this proximity.
Yet again the rainbow wall flashes into being; it grows alarmingly bright, brighter still-
The E-cannon spins down before it overheats, having fired for fully four seconds.
* * *
Applause rang out on the decks of the warship...
[OOC: Kinda got interrupted and lost the thread. This will be more about character development...
But I forgot what I was doing. So consider this a mere introduction to Alyssa, for now. The tech in the background isn't really important, but does represent the bleeding-edge of CSF research.
Not that you'd know that, unless you were looking.]