Hyperspatial Travel
10-06-2006, 00:44
The Glimmer Drive, a remnant of what had once been, 'glimmered' the tiny ship into the system a flicker of blue showing it existed, as it had not a moment before, the tiny obscuring light preventing sight into that moment where reality and unreality melded to bring them back into the real universe.
All around them, more ships glimmered in, using the low-speed, low-yield drives, that were pitiable in terms of what had once been, in the bygone days of glory, but represented safety, and invisibility from the sight of the Interdictor. Strange, the lieutenant thought, as he manned his station, that such an unassuming name, created as to not inspire fear, nor doubts in the heart of the enemy, was now one with hatred and death.
They ghosted along, in the remnants of the Realm Shipyards, the vast shipyards that once built ships of all kind, numerous beyond the mind of the survivors of the vicious attacks that had decimated their nation to understand, the shipyards that had heralded the beginning of a new age.
An age that continued its deadly assault on all that lived even now, an age that had trumpeted out the fall of one of the dominions of men, one that had
been mighty, proud, indeed, overmighty, and overproud, mighty enough to engineer their own downfall, and proud enough to believe it would not be so.
It was.. devastation. Burnt-out hulks of ships littered the system, some mere scraps of metal, floating in the void of space, some nigh-complete ships with large craters showing where they had died, some ships intact entirely, apart from tiny holes in the sides, showing where the malicious spiders of metal had entered, slaughtering all inside, and desecrating the systems.
Not a ship remained to be commanded, indeed, the ships that remained were the legacy of an empire spanning millenia, that had ruled the stars with grace, and with power, that had finally orchestrated the final act of its play, a sorrowful end indeed.
Nevertheless, a risky expedition was sent out. It had not been commanded before, even though the New Realm possessed the capability to do such a thing, before the knowledge that the Interdictor had entered the war. The imminent conflict between the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, and the Galactic Empire did not bother the New Realm, after all, what were they to such a conflict? Once they would've been a power to behold, fleets plunging mercilessly into the fray, using their might to further their ends, to promote their ideals, and to show the universe their strength.
Now they clung to life weakly, their dominion shattered. Nevertheless, the Galactic Empire had welcomed the Interdictor as an ally. No doubt they were willing to pay the price of the Interdictor's friendship, which would inevitably be the destruction of the New Realm.
Fate had forced their hand, and they had very little choice left in the matter.
Nevertheless, they would not leave themselves unprotected. So they had decided to help in another way. The ancient shipyards were rumoured to contain a mass of ordinance somewhere in the system.. and recent data showed precisely where.
This system was frequented by enemy forces, so they were prepared to rush in, grab the weaponry, and rush out. It was a simple plan, at which point they would transport the mass of weaponry to a predestined location.
The lieutenant, named Khar, knew all this, as he was one of the prime parts of the plan. He was to move in with a team to the rumoured portal, hop in, and see where it led. Of course, if it had been disrupted, he would die.
Suddenly, a klaxon sounded. And again. He whipped his view over to his viewscreen, and saw several red dots. He grimaced. Suddenly, a voice sounded over the coms. "People! We've got Battlespheres inbound! We'll be within firing range in six seconds! PREPARE YOURSELVES!"
He tapped a point on the touchpad, and his frigate's shields came fully online, as did his weaponry. The VEC he had attached to his ship was perfect for momentarily disabling Battlespheres - You hit the bastards a thousand times in a row, and it did nothing. It took one powerful blast to take them out, and that was on a good day.
His voice sounded out, steady and calm, surprising himself. "Come on people... ready... firel!"
There were only six of the deadly spheres, and, as they closed to attack range, a bolt of red energy materialised in front of his ship. "Sonovab-". His voice was cut off as it rocked his entire ship, penetrating the shields, searing through the primary systems.
"Fuck! Get our shield on a different setting! MOVE! Another bolt will finish us, you worthless sons of whores!"
Another bolt cascaded towards his ship, and he threw his hand up in front of his face, as if to stop it. He felt nothing, and saw only a slight waver on hs viewscreen. "VEC target alpha, boys. Good job.". As he said it, a giant lance of energy spewed out from the cannon underneath his ship, and ripped through one of the incoming Battlespheres. "Haha! Take that you child-killers"
Another Battlesphere fell, and he looked at his viewscreen. The Refound Hope had been destroyed. It was only a gunship, but it was still valuable, in fact, he had sixty-two, now. "Damn!". The Valiant Prayer, one of the newest cruisers was down. "What the-". The Valiant Prayer held the commander of this mission, and that meant.. he was the ranking officer, due to his experience.
He looked again. Sixteen enemy craft. "Those sons of bitches. Take them! NOW! DROP ALL POWER FROM PRIMARY SHIELDING!". His voice roared throughout the New Realm fleet, as craft faithfully dropped their shields, bolts of energy ripped through four more enemy craft.
Then through five. Then through eight. Then nine, then eleven, then-
Another ship had fallen. A frigate. That was two valuable craft in a single attack, and a gunship. If enough craft were lost, he'd have to flee. And he didn't want those men dying for nothing. The ship was rocked once more, and he was thrown against the wall, luckily caught by a personal inertia drive. His men wouldn't be so lucky. For a moment, the room was dark, and then lights flickered back on, attended
Sixteen. There were no enemy craft left. He looked at his ship sensor. He'd taken a ninety-six percent casualty rate, on a frigate with only a hundred and fifty men. That meant he had six men left, all of them pilots. Of course, casualties included unconsciousness, but he doubted anyone who was a casualty would be back up before the mission.
He spoke. "This is Acting Commander Khar speaking. Drop Truespace flares on my mark... one, two, NOW!". Every ship dropped tiny blue flares that would make it impossible for either Interdictor craft, or his own, to find this area for hours, possibly days. If he was going to recover the ordinance, he'd have to do it with the forces he had. It was good, though.
He had six superfreighters, and eight cargo haulers. Each one could carry in the millions of cubic metres of metal, and they could easily carry the compressed weaponry the Realm had used.
Scrap that. Seven cargo haulers. One had been punctured during the battle, and wouldn't be able to carry cargo without several hours repair. "Support Frigate teams, move in and repair that hauler! We're going to need to carry every gram of missiles we can!"
He frowned, and prepared to land..
One hour later
Khar stood up, and sighed. "We're ready to enter. The last of the minefield is cleared away. Move in. We're ready to recover the weaponry.
He watched as a pair of sealed doors were blown open, gusts of fire burning up the last of the trapped oxygen within the station. He closed his eyes momentarily, and where he was shimmered, distorting, stopping as he was teleported over to the station.
He felt himself inside a suit, and felt the effects of zero gravity. He hadn't done this for some time. He kicked off lightly, and floated over to another wall. He pushed off again, his two aides following him. Another pushoff. And another. And another.
He was diagonally making his way up the corridor, until he got used to zero-gravity.
As he did, he pushed himself gently into the middle of the corridor, and activated his boosters, positively screaming down the centre of the corridor. The twisted metal that made up this place was easy to navigate, his suit doing most of the work for him. Flickers of electricity could be seen along the corridor occasionally, although they were the remnants of the station's working power supplies.
The nondescript corridor went on for perhaps a minute, until they came to a door, barely distinguishable from the corridor. "Open it". One of his men flicked a switch on the wall, and the door juddered open perhaps an inch. Khar sighed. "Use the cutters". The suit the man was in nodded in assent, and a wrist-cutter was used. It seared into the door, cutting out one of the door-halves in a few seconds. Khar smiled, and said, kindly "Very good.
Let's move". Khar swung around the door, and...
Into darkness. He felt surprised, and, as gravity overtook him, afraid. For a second he fell, and then he hit the floor. His suit cushioned him from most damage, so his legs weren't broken. He looked around, switching vision modes until he could see the room properly. Only it wasn't a room. It was a
cavern...
...It was littered with containment chambers, mass-packing sealed storage units... it was the horde for which he had been searching.. He opened up a link to the fleet. "We've found it, boys. By my estimate, we're on the third moon of Julio, in some kind of.. hollow..
Well, beam us up. We're done here."
He felt the peculiar wrenching feeling as he was beamed up to the craft, and he quickly stripped out of his suit, and looked at his viewscreen. "Get the weaponry. Now."
It was over in a matter of minutes. Peculiarly anticlimatic, as the weaponry was gathered up, antimatter weaponry, nuclear weaponry, FTL-enabled torpedoes.. it was the treasure horde of a hundred years of pride and hatred, the hoarded wealth of ages gone past. However.. something was wrong. It seemed strange that the enemy would let them waltz in, take weaponry to destroy their newfound allies, and waltz out.. He sighed. And yelled in alarm. Enemy contacts... everywhere... hundreds of them..
A message came across the wide-band receiver, which echoed in a inhuman, emotionless voice through his speakers. You are to be cleansed. You are the children of the Enemy. You are to cease to exist. He swore. Hundreds of enemy contacts... what the hell?!
He laughed. If they were going to go out.. they had thirteen ships carrying their weaponry, and with some three million warheads of various types.. they were sure as hell going to go out with a bang. "Superfreighter Two, your controls have been terminated remotely. You're going to die for the Realm. Congratulations."
He shut off the coms to that ship, ignoring an exclaimation of surprise. "Move the fleet out. Now. Superfreighter Two will engage the majority of enemy contacts in nine seconds.
We're gong to be long gone by then. We've got to get these supplies to the allied forces.
Move out!"
Red blasts screamed towards the fleet, threatening death, and hatred.. Then.. they were in Truespace. "Move! It'll be a few minutes at best before they follow us! We're going to have to go to Zegenthis!"
In the system itself.. an explosion of cataclysmic proportions had just taken place. Enough firepower to decimate a few planets, and with a fair bit left over had just been released.
Enemy Battlespheres that had been attacking were suddenly cut down by a mass of firepower.. but most left the system without issue, following the New Realm ships...
Emergency Transmission, GFFA secure channels
"This is Acting Commander Khar speaking. We're under attack by GE-aligned forces, in [co-ordinates transmitted]. The system appears to be secure, and we've activated an old FTLi field, as well as some fortified moonbases, and orbital stations, although we can't hold out for very long. We're holed up with several million nuclear and antimatter warheads and missiles, and we're hoping to be able to transfer them across to allied forces ASAP."
All around them, more ships glimmered in, using the low-speed, low-yield drives, that were pitiable in terms of what had once been, in the bygone days of glory, but represented safety, and invisibility from the sight of the Interdictor. Strange, the lieutenant thought, as he manned his station, that such an unassuming name, created as to not inspire fear, nor doubts in the heart of the enemy, was now one with hatred and death.
They ghosted along, in the remnants of the Realm Shipyards, the vast shipyards that once built ships of all kind, numerous beyond the mind of the survivors of the vicious attacks that had decimated their nation to understand, the shipyards that had heralded the beginning of a new age.
An age that continued its deadly assault on all that lived even now, an age that had trumpeted out the fall of one of the dominions of men, one that had
been mighty, proud, indeed, overmighty, and overproud, mighty enough to engineer their own downfall, and proud enough to believe it would not be so.
It was.. devastation. Burnt-out hulks of ships littered the system, some mere scraps of metal, floating in the void of space, some nigh-complete ships with large craters showing where they had died, some ships intact entirely, apart from tiny holes in the sides, showing where the malicious spiders of metal had entered, slaughtering all inside, and desecrating the systems.
Not a ship remained to be commanded, indeed, the ships that remained were the legacy of an empire spanning millenia, that had ruled the stars with grace, and with power, that had finally orchestrated the final act of its play, a sorrowful end indeed.
Nevertheless, a risky expedition was sent out. It had not been commanded before, even though the New Realm possessed the capability to do such a thing, before the knowledge that the Interdictor had entered the war. The imminent conflict between the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, and the Galactic Empire did not bother the New Realm, after all, what were they to such a conflict? Once they would've been a power to behold, fleets plunging mercilessly into the fray, using their might to further their ends, to promote their ideals, and to show the universe their strength.
Now they clung to life weakly, their dominion shattered. Nevertheless, the Galactic Empire had welcomed the Interdictor as an ally. No doubt they were willing to pay the price of the Interdictor's friendship, which would inevitably be the destruction of the New Realm.
Fate had forced their hand, and they had very little choice left in the matter.
Nevertheless, they would not leave themselves unprotected. So they had decided to help in another way. The ancient shipyards were rumoured to contain a mass of ordinance somewhere in the system.. and recent data showed precisely where.
This system was frequented by enemy forces, so they were prepared to rush in, grab the weaponry, and rush out. It was a simple plan, at which point they would transport the mass of weaponry to a predestined location.
The lieutenant, named Khar, knew all this, as he was one of the prime parts of the plan. He was to move in with a team to the rumoured portal, hop in, and see where it led. Of course, if it had been disrupted, he would die.
Suddenly, a klaxon sounded. And again. He whipped his view over to his viewscreen, and saw several red dots. He grimaced. Suddenly, a voice sounded over the coms. "People! We've got Battlespheres inbound! We'll be within firing range in six seconds! PREPARE YOURSELVES!"
He tapped a point on the touchpad, and his frigate's shields came fully online, as did his weaponry. The VEC he had attached to his ship was perfect for momentarily disabling Battlespheres - You hit the bastards a thousand times in a row, and it did nothing. It took one powerful blast to take them out, and that was on a good day.
His voice sounded out, steady and calm, surprising himself. "Come on people... ready... firel!"
There were only six of the deadly spheres, and, as they closed to attack range, a bolt of red energy materialised in front of his ship. "Sonovab-". His voice was cut off as it rocked his entire ship, penetrating the shields, searing through the primary systems.
"Fuck! Get our shield on a different setting! MOVE! Another bolt will finish us, you worthless sons of whores!"
Another bolt cascaded towards his ship, and he threw his hand up in front of his face, as if to stop it. He felt nothing, and saw only a slight waver on hs viewscreen. "VEC target alpha, boys. Good job.". As he said it, a giant lance of energy spewed out from the cannon underneath his ship, and ripped through one of the incoming Battlespheres. "Haha! Take that you child-killers"
Another Battlesphere fell, and he looked at his viewscreen. The Refound Hope had been destroyed. It was only a gunship, but it was still valuable, in fact, he had sixty-two, now. "Damn!". The Valiant Prayer, one of the newest cruisers was down. "What the-". The Valiant Prayer held the commander of this mission, and that meant.. he was the ranking officer, due to his experience.
He looked again. Sixteen enemy craft. "Those sons of bitches. Take them! NOW! DROP ALL POWER FROM PRIMARY SHIELDING!". His voice roared throughout the New Realm fleet, as craft faithfully dropped their shields, bolts of energy ripped through four more enemy craft.
Then through five. Then through eight. Then nine, then eleven, then-
Another ship had fallen. A frigate. That was two valuable craft in a single attack, and a gunship. If enough craft were lost, he'd have to flee. And he didn't want those men dying for nothing. The ship was rocked once more, and he was thrown against the wall, luckily caught by a personal inertia drive. His men wouldn't be so lucky. For a moment, the room was dark, and then lights flickered back on, attended
Sixteen. There were no enemy craft left. He looked at his ship sensor. He'd taken a ninety-six percent casualty rate, on a frigate with only a hundred and fifty men. That meant he had six men left, all of them pilots. Of course, casualties included unconsciousness, but he doubted anyone who was a casualty would be back up before the mission.
He spoke. "This is Acting Commander Khar speaking. Drop Truespace flares on my mark... one, two, NOW!". Every ship dropped tiny blue flares that would make it impossible for either Interdictor craft, or his own, to find this area for hours, possibly days. If he was going to recover the ordinance, he'd have to do it with the forces he had. It was good, though.
He had six superfreighters, and eight cargo haulers. Each one could carry in the millions of cubic metres of metal, and they could easily carry the compressed weaponry the Realm had used.
Scrap that. Seven cargo haulers. One had been punctured during the battle, and wouldn't be able to carry cargo without several hours repair. "Support Frigate teams, move in and repair that hauler! We're going to need to carry every gram of missiles we can!"
He frowned, and prepared to land..
One hour later
Khar stood up, and sighed. "We're ready to enter. The last of the minefield is cleared away. Move in. We're ready to recover the weaponry.
He watched as a pair of sealed doors were blown open, gusts of fire burning up the last of the trapped oxygen within the station. He closed his eyes momentarily, and where he was shimmered, distorting, stopping as he was teleported over to the station.
He felt himself inside a suit, and felt the effects of zero gravity. He hadn't done this for some time. He kicked off lightly, and floated over to another wall. He pushed off again, his two aides following him. Another pushoff. And another. And another.
He was diagonally making his way up the corridor, until he got used to zero-gravity.
As he did, he pushed himself gently into the middle of the corridor, and activated his boosters, positively screaming down the centre of the corridor. The twisted metal that made up this place was easy to navigate, his suit doing most of the work for him. Flickers of electricity could be seen along the corridor occasionally, although they were the remnants of the station's working power supplies.
The nondescript corridor went on for perhaps a minute, until they came to a door, barely distinguishable from the corridor. "Open it". One of his men flicked a switch on the wall, and the door juddered open perhaps an inch. Khar sighed. "Use the cutters". The suit the man was in nodded in assent, and a wrist-cutter was used. It seared into the door, cutting out one of the door-halves in a few seconds. Khar smiled, and said, kindly "Very good.
Let's move". Khar swung around the door, and...
Into darkness. He felt surprised, and, as gravity overtook him, afraid. For a second he fell, and then he hit the floor. His suit cushioned him from most damage, so his legs weren't broken. He looked around, switching vision modes until he could see the room properly. Only it wasn't a room. It was a
cavern...
...It was littered with containment chambers, mass-packing sealed storage units... it was the horde for which he had been searching.. He opened up a link to the fleet. "We've found it, boys. By my estimate, we're on the third moon of Julio, in some kind of.. hollow..
Well, beam us up. We're done here."
He felt the peculiar wrenching feeling as he was beamed up to the craft, and he quickly stripped out of his suit, and looked at his viewscreen. "Get the weaponry. Now."
It was over in a matter of minutes. Peculiarly anticlimatic, as the weaponry was gathered up, antimatter weaponry, nuclear weaponry, FTL-enabled torpedoes.. it was the treasure horde of a hundred years of pride and hatred, the hoarded wealth of ages gone past. However.. something was wrong. It seemed strange that the enemy would let them waltz in, take weaponry to destroy their newfound allies, and waltz out.. He sighed. And yelled in alarm. Enemy contacts... everywhere... hundreds of them..
A message came across the wide-band receiver, which echoed in a inhuman, emotionless voice through his speakers. You are to be cleansed. You are the children of the Enemy. You are to cease to exist. He swore. Hundreds of enemy contacts... what the hell?!
He laughed. If they were going to go out.. they had thirteen ships carrying their weaponry, and with some three million warheads of various types.. they were sure as hell going to go out with a bang. "Superfreighter Two, your controls have been terminated remotely. You're going to die for the Realm. Congratulations."
He shut off the coms to that ship, ignoring an exclaimation of surprise. "Move the fleet out. Now. Superfreighter Two will engage the majority of enemy contacts in nine seconds.
We're gong to be long gone by then. We've got to get these supplies to the allied forces.
Move out!"
Red blasts screamed towards the fleet, threatening death, and hatred.. Then.. they were in Truespace. "Move! It'll be a few minutes at best before they follow us! We're going to have to go to Zegenthis!"
In the system itself.. an explosion of cataclysmic proportions had just taken place. Enough firepower to decimate a few planets, and with a fair bit left over had just been released.
Enemy Battlespheres that had been attacking were suddenly cut down by a mass of firepower.. but most left the system without issue, following the New Realm ships...
Emergency Transmission, GFFA secure channels
"This is Acting Commander Khar speaking. We're under attack by GE-aligned forces, in [co-ordinates transmitted]. The system appears to be secure, and we've activated an old FTLi field, as well as some fortified moonbases, and orbital stations, although we can't hold out for very long. We're holed up with several million nuclear and antimatter warheads and missiles, and we're hoping to be able to transfer them across to allied forces ASAP."