Otagia
22-08-2005, 21:43
Floating in deep space, Marduk was at peace. His quantum synapses were not firing, letting him rest in silence. How long he had layed there, he did not know. In this state, knowledge itself was beyond him. And thus it would be until QUETZAL awakened him for war.
Finally, Marduk could feel himself rising, his synapses relinking, and firing again. His body rose from its stasis tomb, stepping out into the vaccuum. In his mind, if it could be called that, Marduk could hear the instructions of QUETZAL, and he obeyed.
Marching from the stasis facility, Marduk followed the whispers of QUETZAL, following them to the landing facility, boarding the ship awaiting him. And there he waited.
_________
Above the hangar, two figures waited in a monitoring station. Screens displayed the space above the planet, where a variety of weapons platforms waited. Studded with weapons, there was enough firepower there to level the planet.
"So, Admiral, are you ready to see what Project Atropos can do?"
Admiral Simmons smiled. "Doctor, if its anything like what your team did with Marduk, the ONS is sure to love it."
"We do our best. Alright, QUETZAL, launch Marduk and the Jacta Alea Est as soon as he's ready. Testing will begin shortly.
As he spoke, the two-hundred meter vessel slowly rose out of the hangar, flying under its own power out of the atmosphere.
"We're quite proud of our work here, Admiral. The Jacta is armed with some of the most advanced weaponry we have, quite a bit of it inspired by Marduk. Plasma sheath, gravitic poppers, SCCAMs of course, and quite a few other toys we came up with just for it. The armor is Singularity Forged Steel, just like Marduk, only this armor is five centimeters thick."
"Five centimeters? Isn't heavy capital ship grade SFS only a single centimeter?"
"Hey, the Navy wanted the best money could buy. Ald Rhun delivered. Oh, the Jacta has arrived at its destination."
Looking at the screen, Simmons could see that the ship had already arrived at the defense platforms.
"The hell...? How did it get there that fast? Necroscopes?"
"Hah! You underestimate her speed, Admiral. We've rated her at 10,000 G's of acceleration."
"Ten THOUSAND?! My god, how does the crew... oh. I forgot. No crew. Marduk is kept in a Slaver stasis field, correct?"
"Of course. Don't want him damaged. Now, to begin the tests. Attention defense stations: You may open fire on the Jacta."
_________
High above the planet, Marduk could feel the defense platforms around him. Through the sensor probes he had deployed, he could feel the warmth of the automated platforms, the points of intersection of their atomically welded armor plates. And now, he could feel their weapons coming on line.
Hundreds of missiles flashed towards the Jacta, singularities marking them as SCCAMs. Marduk could sense shields on some of them, and tagged them for targeting with poppers. Finding his range, he opened fire, cutting down swaths of missiles. Micro-singularity poppers opened, devouring missiles, and detonated, spraying atomic fire across the heavens, burning other SCCAMs out of existance. Point defense lasers raked across the skies, winking out before they hit any of the holtzmann shielded anti-PD SCCAMs. Within microseconds, the wave of missiles had been annihilated.
But it was not over. Sensing a change in pace, Marduk channeled more energy into his mirror shields. Angling them wildly, he managed to catch the incoming laser beams on them. Deftly rotating the Jacta, Marduk returned the beams, blasting through the armor of the attackers. Within a second, the stations were crippled, their weapon systems deftly removed.
Sensors indicated that the attackers were now harmless. Heeding the call of QUETZAL, Marduk moved back down to the hangar.
__________
The scientist grinned. "So, you like what you see?"
Simmons stood there slack-jawed. "That lasted only a couple of seconds, at most! Sir, I'm going to need to requisition the recording of that test. The Board needs to see these..."
Finally, Marduk could feel himself rising, his synapses relinking, and firing again. His body rose from its stasis tomb, stepping out into the vaccuum. In his mind, if it could be called that, Marduk could hear the instructions of QUETZAL, and he obeyed.
Marching from the stasis facility, Marduk followed the whispers of QUETZAL, following them to the landing facility, boarding the ship awaiting him. And there he waited.
_________
Above the hangar, two figures waited in a monitoring station. Screens displayed the space above the planet, where a variety of weapons platforms waited. Studded with weapons, there was enough firepower there to level the planet.
"So, Admiral, are you ready to see what Project Atropos can do?"
Admiral Simmons smiled. "Doctor, if its anything like what your team did with Marduk, the ONS is sure to love it."
"We do our best. Alright, QUETZAL, launch Marduk and the Jacta Alea Est as soon as he's ready. Testing will begin shortly.
As he spoke, the two-hundred meter vessel slowly rose out of the hangar, flying under its own power out of the atmosphere.
"We're quite proud of our work here, Admiral. The Jacta is armed with some of the most advanced weaponry we have, quite a bit of it inspired by Marduk. Plasma sheath, gravitic poppers, SCCAMs of course, and quite a few other toys we came up with just for it. The armor is Singularity Forged Steel, just like Marduk, only this armor is five centimeters thick."
"Five centimeters? Isn't heavy capital ship grade SFS only a single centimeter?"
"Hey, the Navy wanted the best money could buy. Ald Rhun delivered. Oh, the Jacta has arrived at its destination."
Looking at the screen, Simmons could see that the ship had already arrived at the defense platforms.
"The hell...? How did it get there that fast? Necroscopes?"
"Hah! You underestimate her speed, Admiral. We've rated her at 10,000 G's of acceleration."
"Ten THOUSAND?! My god, how does the crew... oh. I forgot. No crew. Marduk is kept in a Slaver stasis field, correct?"
"Of course. Don't want him damaged. Now, to begin the tests. Attention defense stations: You may open fire on the Jacta."
_________
High above the planet, Marduk could feel the defense platforms around him. Through the sensor probes he had deployed, he could feel the warmth of the automated platforms, the points of intersection of their atomically welded armor plates. And now, he could feel their weapons coming on line.
Hundreds of missiles flashed towards the Jacta, singularities marking them as SCCAMs. Marduk could sense shields on some of them, and tagged them for targeting with poppers. Finding his range, he opened fire, cutting down swaths of missiles. Micro-singularity poppers opened, devouring missiles, and detonated, spraying atomic fire across the heavens, burning other SCCAMs out of existance. Point defense lasers raked across the skies, winking out before they hit any of the holtzmann shielded anti-PD SCCAMs. Within microseconds, the wave of missiles had been annihilated.
But it was not over. Sensing a change in pace, Marduk channeled more energy into his mirror shields. Angling them wildly, he managed to catch the incoming laser beams on them. Deftly rotating the Jacta, Marduk returned the beams, blasting through the armor of the attackers. Within a second, the stations were crippled, their weapon systems deftly removed.
Sensors indicated that the attackers were now harmless. Heeding the call of QUETZAL, Marduk moved back down to the hangar.
__________
The scientist grinned. "So, you like what you see?"
Simmons stood there slack-jawed. "That lasted only a couple of seconds, at most! Sir, I'm going to need to requisition the recording of that test. The Board needs to see these..."