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Topic: The result of boredom. (Read 10240 times)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
 Offline
Posts: 100
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One day I was bored and decided to write a small story.
Small story became a big story and I'm still not finished.
I'll be on vacation with my family for about two weeks, leaving on saturday.
I decided to post what I have right now. (Who knows, it might motivate me to finish it.)
It takes part in an alternate universe of the Starflight universe during the time of the old empire and the second wave. Any comments will be welcome and I'll have till tomorrow to help with any questions and hear those comments. So, have fun. (This is one hell of a big post, hope it doesn't annoy anyone.)
Defenders of the future’s past
Sparks flew from a broken conduit as the ship shook from the last violent explosion.
,,Report!” Captain Steven Cloudy barked as he watched the massive wreck of the helplessly tumbling Gazurtoid vessel whose engines had finally been blasted into pieces. ,,Main engines are destroyed, main shield generator offline, a hull breach on decks 3 to 10 and several smaller hull breaches on all other decks. Our armour is completely destroyed with the exception of several small pieces all over the ship. There are heavy power fluctuations and the ship has suffered heavy system damage. Main power core is offline and we’re down to batteries and backup reactor 3 which is moderately damaged. All other backup reactors are either destroyed, damaged beyond functioning, or their power conduits are broken so that they can’t provide power. Artificial gravity is going haywire all over the place, it’s probably safer to just shut it down completely. Those are the biggest problems to the ship, do you want to hear all the minor details?” Chief Engineer Jason Redburn responded.
,,No! Just try to get some power restored and shut own artificial gravity. We can’t maintain life-support like this. How long till we run out of power for life-support?” ,,Within five hours, less if backup reactor 3 breaks down. However, I can shut down life-support in non-critical areas, especially the places were we have an hull breach. If I also shut down the artificial gravity, I could stretch our limit to about two days.” ,,Do it. After that I want you to try to get as many of the backup reactors back online as you can.” He turned to the rest of the people on the bridge:,, All right, this ship is little more than a wreck, so get in your spacesuits in case life-support fails. Thylcknyss, see if you can get contact with an other ship.” The communications officer and only thrynn on board the ship shook his head:,, I’m sssorry captain, but the communication systemssss also ssseem to be destroyed.” The captain slammed his fist against the captains seat in frustration and cursed as a jolt of pain shot up trough his hand:,, Dammit! Unless we get lucky and any survivors of the fleet decide to try and salvage this ship, we’re going to be left behind!” For the first time in six hours the bridge was silent with the exception of the sparks flying of broken conduits and consoles. Then the doctor stood up. He was a small and silent man who was usually ignored after the crew had found out that it was very hard to maintain a conversation with the man:,, What about the ATAV’s? their communications gear is designed to communicate with the ship from the other side of a planet. Maybe we could use them to tell the fleet that we’re still alive.” Steven thought of the suggestion. If the ATAVS were still functioning they might just get out of this alive. If they were still functioning. The ATAV’s were all terrain assault vehicles designed for combat on planetary surfaces. They were equipped with shields, heavy armour, a powerful laser and twin missile launchers. They acted as the battleships of the ground forces. They could take a heavy beating, but could they’ve survived this? ,,Ok, sounds good to me. We will get in our spacesuits and try to reach them. We split up. Jason is coming with me to the ATAV’s, the rest of you will go with the doctor and try to help any survivors onboard the ship. OK, now let’s go!” They streamed of the bridge to do what had to be done.
,,Hold it sir, I’ll see if I can shut down Artificial gravity from here. This console seems to be still working.” Steven paused for a moment and watched as his engineers gloved fingers danced over the console. He’d thought it looked bad from the bridge, but it was nothing compared to the damage he had seen in the corridors. They’d not even traversed one of the twenty decks they had to pass on their way to the ATAV’s, but already had they walked past a hole in the outer hull leading to space and waded trough several compartments that were flooded now that the water storage tanks had ruptured. ,,Done.” Without the artificial gravity system holding them into place, every single bit of loose metal and plastic started floating along with the two men. They reached for the controls on their left arm and flipped the switch for the boots to attach them to the nearest wall using a combination of magnets and vacuum sucking. Suddenly they heard Thylcknyss’s voice in their helmets:,, Captain, artifical gravity hasss failed where we are.” The captain flicked another switch on his suit so that he could talk to the Thrynn:,, Don’t worry Thylck, We’ve shut it down to prevent any injuries from the systems malfunctioning. Have you found anybody yet?”,, No sssir, We have confirmed five death people. But we will keep looking.”,, Ok, we will continue to the ATAV’s. call me if anything happens.” He switched back to his previous channel so that he could talk to Jason:,, Let’s move on.” They continued their slow walk through the heavily damaged corridor. Steven went into a room containing one of the missile launchers and stopped as he gasped for breath at the sight before him. Next to another hole in the hull a large section of the ships structure had collapsed into the room, completely blocking it. Among the mess drifted the dead body of a young man, a thick beam had slammed right into his chest. He knew this man who was actually still more like a child. The young ensign had been assigned to his ship two months ago when they had last visited earth. He had constantly been talking about beating back the evil squids and the Uhleck that threatened the empire. Steven knew that in a war people died, but he had never come face to face with it. It was a shocking experience to say the least. ,,Here’s one of those nameless heroes that fight this war without ever being remembered.” Jason said as he pointed at the dead boy’s hand. In his hand he still clenched a lever connected to the manual launch mechanism. While the atmosphere was being sucked out into space and the ships structure was collapsing around him, he had made the ship fire the missile that disabled the Gazurtoid vessel before it could completely destroy its enemy. Steven swallowed as he fought back his tears:,, If we get out of here then I’ll remember him. That’s a promise.” ,,Anyway, we won’t be able to go on like this, we’ve had to turn back and look for another path ten times now. We’re never going to reach the ATAV’s!” Steven looked at the engineer who had obviously lost all hope:,, There’s another way.” Jason looked flustered:,, But where?” Steven pointed at the large gap in the hull:,, If we can’t get there from the inside, then we do it from the outside!”
Light from the nearby star danced across the hull of the ship, showing countless scorch marks, dents, holes and scratches everywhere. The results of six hours of battle were clearly visible to the two space suited figures who walked across it while avoiding floating debris. What they couldn’t do within the corridors, they now did within just a few minutes. Within 25 minutes they made their way to a hole in the outer hull around deck 20 and went back inside the ship.
They stopped in front of a large door. The captain pushed a small button next to it, but the doors refused to open:,, Dammit. Looks like there is no power here. Jason, see if you can open it manually.” The engineer quickly grabbed a screwdriver, removed a plate in the wall covering the wires that operated the door, noticed the problem and reconnected the broken wires. With a screeching sound of bent metal scraping against bent metal the door slowly opened.
The ATAV’s were surprisingly intact. Though all of them had a couple of scratches and dents, the worst damage that Steven could see from the outside was a ripped of tread on one of the four heavy combat vehicles. ,,You start on the right one and I start on the left one. See if their communications systems still work and if they do send out a distress signal immediately!”
The two men climbed aboard the ATAV’s and tried the communications systems.
The first one Steven entered had its console smashed by a chair whose bolts apparently couldn’t handle the shocks the vehicle had been experiencing during the battle. When he tried the second one a smile appeared on his face. It worked! He activated the console and started broadcasting on all available frequencies:,, This is captain Cloudy of the Warhammer class battleship “Governor”. All systems offline, unknown number of crew death. Requesting immediate help, I repeat, requesting immediate help.”
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
Offline
Posts: 100
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Ok, it was too big, so I'll split it into lots of replies.
The battle of Alpha Centauri was a victory, but a costly one. All of the huge Gazurtoid vessels were either destroyed or disabled. However, of the fifty heavy warships in the empire’s fleet, only ten survived. Six of those were heavily damaged and barely functioning, such as the Governor, three had taken light to moderate damage and only one was undamaged. The losses suffered were even worse for the lighter vessels that were in the fleet, with over two hundred destroyed vessels of all sizes and another two hundred damaged. The ships that had survived best surprisingly, were the small single to triple seated fighter craft, whose small size and agility enabled them to avoid most of their enemies fire. The remnants of the fleet returned to Mars in the sol system and parked around the empire’s main military command centre,
ESF-HQ. Repairs were made to all the ships that could still be repaired, some however were to heavily damaged and were scrapped instead so that their materials could be used for something else.
,,WHAT?!!! You’re telling me that you want to place the Governor in your private space dock and do with it whatever your sick mind can think of?! I’m sorry mister, but it looks like you don’t understand that there’s a war going on here.” Steven shouted at the aging man in front of him. The man went trough his thick white beard with one hand and responded in a tone that was much calmer than that of the angry captain who was standing in front of him:,, Oh, I do understand that we’re currently at war with what the public calls the second wave. I assume that you would prefer to get it repaired and put back on the frontlines? With all the respect, captain, but your ship is barely worthy to be called a ship in its current state and the cost of repairing it would be astronomical.” Steven calmed down a little. At least this freak in front of him knew that the empire was facing its biggest threat since the attack by the phlegmak and Numlox nearly four hundred years ago. ,,I know that the ship is more useful if it’s scrapped and its materials reused for other vessels. But this is just ridiculous! While we’re all in really big danger now of being turned into cosmic dust, you want to put what used to be one of the most powerful warships in the fleet in a private dock and do absolutely nothing useful with it!” The old man smiled while looking how Steven slowly started to get control of himself again:,, Tell me, captain. Do you believe that we can win this war?” Steven started to get angry again as he realized how easily the man managed to manipulate him:,, Ok, you got me, I think we’re all going to get blasted within just a few years at most like this. After that, considering the genocidal tendencies of our opponents, there will be no more Humans, no more Thrynn, and all the other races in the sector will also be annihilated. Except for those filthy blobs who seem to have managed to actually ally themselves with those Gazurtoid fanatics.” The old man nodded:,, Indeed, we of the institute also have little hope for a victory. Because of that we are going to send out colony vessels to construct underground colonies who will remain hidden and ensure the survival of the species in this sector. We have already sent one out and we’re planning on sending many more. I saw an opportunity in cheaply turning the Governor into a colony vessel with above average firepower which would make it capable to travel to a system that’s just outside Gazurtoid space. We suspect that the Gazurtoid will never look for sentient life on a planet that they’ve seen countless times. This ship will carry samples of all kinds of plants and animals and sentient beings of the Human, Thrynn, Elowan and Veloxi races.” Steven finally saw that there was more behind the man’s demand than just another stupid idea of a multi-billionaire looking for a new toy. ,,Then what are you going to call it?” The old man smiled as he stood up:,, Noah 2.”
In a corridor bustling with activity from Institute personnel two people were talking.
,,Don’t worry, you’ll be much safer there than you’ll be here. They won’t find you on this planet that those Institute people for some reason have decided to call Arth.” ,,But it’s right next to Gazurtoid space. What if we run into one of their ships? We’re not flying a warship.”
The woman said as she looked trough a window and watched droids and engineers crawl over the hull of the massive ship that was docked inside the hanger. Steven sighed, how much he hated to just tell his wife and children to step on a colony vessel and go to a new planet where they might die, he couldn’t let them stay home, it was too dangerous. He was sure that someday, the empire would be defeated and all people who lived on Earth would be killed. He forced a smile on his face and tried to look much more confident than he actually felt:,, Don’t be so afraid of that. They may have changed the name, removed basically all weapons, replaced the computer with a model that’s more geared towards containing thousands of blueprints for machines and the history of the empire than one that’s geared towards blowing up stuff, but the Governor is still one hell of a tough ship. She’ll get you there safely, I promise.” The boarding claxon sounded trough the corridor. ,,Ok, this is it. Just go now and take care of the children for me will you. I’ll come and visit the colony someday, I promise. His wife smiled weakly:,, Steven, you know that you shouldn’t make so many promises. Some of them are just impossible to keep.” The smile disappeared as she finally said what had been on her mind ever since she heard that she and her children would become some of passengers onboard the Governor, now called the Noah 2:,, You’re leaving again, aren’t you? I mean, you’ll take command of a ship again and go fight against the Gazurtoid and the Uhleck. Why can’t you come with us? I’m sure there’s still room somewhere.” ,,I’d love to, but I can’t. As long as there’s still a chance that we’re going to win this thing and they’re willing to put me back on a ship, I’ll have to fight for the empire. Now go before it becomes too hard for us to say goodbye.” Steven watched as his wife walked trough the airlock and turned around for one more time before disappearing into the ship. It would be the last time he would see her.
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
Offline
Posts: 100
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The door buzzed to announce that someone wanted to enter. But there was no response from the person who had used this room for the last two weeks. The door buzzed two more times without receiving a response before it finally opened, though not with permission from the person who lived here. ,,Look Steven, you can’t keep sitting here forever to drown in your self-pity.” Jason said as he entered the room, the tool which he used to override the doors security systems still in his hand. Steven looked up, his despair clearly visible on his face. It was one week ago that contact had been lost with the Noah 2. Its last message told that they were under attack by the Gazurtoid and had taken damage. It was assumed that the vessel was destroyed. ,,Leave me alone.” He said and returned to stare in front of him without seeing anything. Jason however, put away the small multipurpose tool he was carrying, grabbed Jason by his arm and lifted him up rather ungentle. ,,You’ve been sitting here for a week now and it’s been long enough. It’s time to put you back on your feet and give you something to do before you simply die because you forgot to eat.” Jason managed to drag Steven all the way to a hanger on the other side of the station, helped by the fact that Steven wasn’t really trying to resist the grip of his former engineer. As they entered the hangar a man who was standing on a platform turned around to look at the newcomers.
,,Hello, it’s good to see that you’ve had time to come, captain.” The old man who had wanted to turn the Governor into the Noah 2 a few months ago said. ,,I actually dragged him over here, sir.” Jason responded, finally letting go of Steven’s arm. Steven looked at the old man who had indirectly caused the death of his family. He wanted to put his hands around that thin neck and squeeze really hard, but he felt too weak for it. ,,What do you want from me this time?” he said instead.
,,First of all, I’d like to tell you that I’m sorry about what happened to your wife and children, but I need your help.” Steven laughed, an unnatural laugh completely devoid of any happiness:,, You want my help? First you cause more damage than a fleet of Uhleck warships, and now you want ME to clean up your own trash?” The old man shook his head:,, you don’t understand captain, what happened to the Noah 2 could not be foreseen. I also don’t need you to “clean up my trash” as you put it. Instead, I’m presenting you with an opportunity.” ,,An opportunity? What is it this time?” ,,Bill Blakes is the name by the way. I want you to take command of one of the Institutes latest projects.” Steven looked at Blakes, filled with rage as he snapped:,, NO! I’m not going to put even the edge of my toe on one of those damned Noah colony vessels of yours! Forget it!” Blakes shook his head. He had never married so he couldn’t know how the man felt, but it was painful to see the damage it had apparently done to what he thought was a fine captain. He took a deep breath and finally responded:,, It’s not part of the Noah project. The vessel I’m talking about is docked inside this hangar. Please take a look.” Steven walked to the edge of the platform not quite knowing whether he wanted to take a look or not. The ship he saw was very different from any ship he had seen before. It was very small and graceful with four engine booms and more guns than he had ever seen on a ship twice as big. ,,Beautiful, isn’t she? It doesn’t have a name yet, but I’ve classed it as an Institute light strike cruiser. I first came up with this idea a couple of years ago. The ship I designed turned out to be a bit too lightly armed for what I intended so I put a blueprint of it in the Noah 2’s database where I classed it as a heavy scout. This is perhaps a mistake since it was more powerful than many bigger ships if fully equipped with class 5 technology and as a result definitely not what you’d expect of a heavy scout. I decided to try again not too long ago and this is the result.” Blakes commented when he saw Steven’s surprised look. Steven struggled for a few moments to get over the shock of seeing a ship that was so radically different from anything he had ever seen before. ,,Um, I haven’t decided anything yet, but could you tell me a bit about what this thing can do?” ,,Of course.” Blakes happily responded, knowing that he had already half convinced the captain:,, She’s equipped with the latest in drive technology. The engines are rated as class 7 and they all include a Tesseract device to dramatically increase their fuel efficiency. Its engines give it more acceleration power than any known ship in the sector and its range is as large as that of a Warhammer.” Jason quickly interrupted Blakes with a question of his own:,, I thought you said that it has got class 7 engines and some devices to increase its fuel efficiency? The higher the rating of an engine, the less fuel it uses. Even if it has got four of them, I can’t see how it’s range is only as long as a Warhammer. I would’ve expected it to have a longer range than a scout.” Blakes turned to the engineer:,, That’s a very good question, mister Redburn. Its engines are indeed more efficient with their fuel than any other ship currently serving in the empire. However, this ship is designed for combat, not exploration. It simply doesn’t carry enough endurium to get so far. Now I shall continue my explanation of the ship’s capabilities if you don’t mind.
Now where was I? Oh, yes. Its manoeuvring thrusters enable it to do some extreme acrobatics, even at high speed. Its shields are class 5, something which is normally only found on the heaviest ships, such as the Warhammer class battleships with which you are familiar. The firepower on this ship is what I’m really proud of. The main guns are the two forward firing rapid pulse phasors which you can see on the sides of the bridge section. There are two class 2 lasers on the front of each of the four engine booms which are powered by any energy that’s left over when the engines are running at full power, something which you can expect in a combat situation. It’s got two class 2 turrets mounted on the top and the bottom of the ship that normally fire backwards to cover the rear of the craft, but they can also swing around to fire forward. Now, the missile launchers. There are 2 Photon torpedo launchers underneath and close to the sides of the ship.
Placed on the rear tail of the ship and situated between the engine booms is a Buzz bomb launcher. Buzz bombs are rarely used on a ship since you have to fly quite fast to avoid detonating them yourselves in a combat situation and it’s quite rare that an enemy is right behind you and fast enough for pursuit. But I decided to add them anyway, just to make sure that it could do anything you might want a warship to do, which includes making minefields. The armour is something experimental and called Adaptive Modulating Damage Controlling Phase Armour, AMDCPA or adaptive armour for short. This armour should be able to repair itself from any damage suffered and in fact adapt to whatever hit it so that an other strike by the same weapon would do less damage! The ship is controlled by an advanced version of a mechan computer and is called an Advanced Neutrosive Tachyon Processor, or ANTP for short. It has already passed the self-conscious test of professor Ekalim and can therefore officially be called an artificial intelligence! It also carries an advanced fighter. Do you have any further questions captain?” Steven immediately came with his response. Blakes had been quite thorough with his telling of the ships capabilities in a combat situation, but he had forgotten about one very important thing:,, What about its crew?” Blake was quicker with his answer than expected, but he was the main designer after all:,, The ship provides excellent facilities for a standard crew but it can’t handle any passengers. There’s actually a bit more room for the crew on this ship than on your old one. Its standard crew consists of a captain, communications officer, engineer, science officer and a pilot for the fighter. All other duties such as navigation are performed by the ship’s ANTP. So what do you think?” Steven smiled, the first real smile in a long time:,, I like it! I’ll take it but only if I’m allowed to have my old bridge crew.” Blakes nodded:,, That can be arranged, but your doctor, Chief Pearcy, will take command of another Institute ship within a week. The ship is an Institute heavy missile cruiser but I don’t remember its name.
Your communications officer volunteered for the Noah 2 mission, so he won’t be available either, but we can always find someone willing to take that station. Also you never had a science officer on the Governor, so the Institute will provide you with one. Now, since you’ve decided to take the ship, it needs a name, so feel free to give her one.” Steven thought for a few moments and his face got grimmer as time passed. Eventually he looked up and responded in a grim tone:,, The Gazurtoid have taken my family and killed countless others, I’ve seen many of my crew being buried. They’ve gone too far.” Jason interrupted:,, So, what is it gonna be? How will you call her?” ,,Vengeance.”
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
Offline
Posts: 100
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Steven turned back to Blakes:,, How long will it take for you to get the crew ready, the ship all fuelled and me back in the position of captain?” Blakes smiled as he responded:,, The ship can leave anytime you want, the only thing I have to take care of is to register you and the crew and of course I’ll have to see if a science officer is willing to become part of the crew.” ,,Good, do you know by any chance were I can find doctor Pearcy?”
Blakes shook his head. ,,I do know where his new ship is.” Jason said. ,,I can take you there if you like. It is huge, more than half as big as an Gazurtoid Scout. I’m sure you’re going to get second thoughts about taking the Vengeance once you’ve seen her.” Steven smiled at the thought:,, Then what are you waiting for? Just take me there so I can get those second thoughts!”
Jason was right. It was a huge and impressive ship, even bigger than a Warhammer. As a result, it didn’t fit inside even the largest hangar of the station and was instead parked next to the station in open space and kept in place with two gigantic docking clamps that had been constructed just for this ship while a large number of airlocks extended from the station to the ship. It had been nothing more than a small piece of shapeless superstructure when he first came to the Institute station a few months ago to see the modifications that would be done to the Governor. The Institute engineers had done miracles to construct the ship in such a short time. It looked just as revolutionary, if not more, than the Vengeance. It consisted of a saucer like front end, followed by a short and narrow neck which connected it to a cylindrical main body. Attached to the body were three beams that supported the long cylindrical engines. The front of the saucer section contained numerous missile launchers and a small number of laser turrets were scattered across the ship. Steven halted an engineer who came out of an airlock:,, Excuse me, but can you tell me where I can find doctor Pearcy?” ,,doctor Pearcy? Sorry, but I don’t know a doctor Pearcy. I do know a captain Pearcy though. He is on the bridge of this ship. Just consult one of the consoles that are onboard for a map.”,, Thank you.” Jason and Steven entered the ship trough the airlock the engineer had come out of. Inside they found the ship crowded with engineers, robots and other people. Many parts of the walls and ceiling were removed so that an engineer could access the complex machinery behind it to conduct tests or add a new component. Steven was surprised by all this activity, he’d suspected to find a small number of engineers conducting simple tests at most. He commented about this to Jason. ,,Don’t you know this? It’s standard procedure during wartime on ships to construct the bare essentials and the outer hull first and then start adding all the not so necessary stuff, such as weapons. They’ll continue adding new components till mere moments before launch. And it’s quite likely that it won’t be completely finished even after launch and that the crew will add the last components while in space.” With the help of the few consoles that weren’t being used or non-functional, they managed to find the bridge.
They found Pearcy talking in plain air. To Steven’s surprise the small man also received an answer from a voice that reminded Steven of a nurse he once met in a hospital:,, Doctor, it appears we have guests.” Pearcy turned around and showed a surprised face as he saw the guests:,, Captain? It’s good to see you again. You’re looking well. I was fearing for your mental wellbeing after…never mind.” He said as Steven’s face saddened. ,,Please don’t talk about that. You have an impressive ship, captain.” Pearcy smiled, his command of the ship had seemed to change him and made him a lot more talkative and happier:,, Please, call me doctor. I may have the rank of captain now, but I always was and always will be a doctor. And yes, she is very impressive. I don’t know the details of what it can do, but I do know someone who can do it better than anybody else.” He turned back towards the ceiling:,, Why don’t you introduce yourself and tell our guests a little bit about you?” ,,Greetings, I am Enterprise.” The voice of the nurse responded. ,,As you may have already noticed, I am not a human being, I am called an ANTP, though you can see me as an artificial intelligence. At this moment, the ship is not fully functional, but I can give you a brief description of its specifications as stated in the primary bleuprints. The engines are class 6 and provide full power to the rest of the ship. I have 50 backup reactors, which is twice the number found on a Warhammer, the class of ship I am designed to replace. I have class 7 shields that create a 360 degrees rotating protective field around my structure. My fuel reserves allow me to cross this sector without refuelling. My sensors are highly powerful and capable of detecting even the smallest anomalies. I am designed to accommodate 200 crewmembers, the same number as the Warhammer. My primary purpose is border defence, scouting and heavy combat. To provide the necessary firepower for combat, I am equipped with nine forward firing photon torpedo launchers which are placed on the front side of the bridge section. I am also equipped with two class 5 Linear stream long range laser turrets and several class 3 laser turrets. My last weapon system is a Buzz bomb launcher situated just above the main hangar on the rear end of my structure. My armour contains an advanced Chronotrium web that provides the ability to adapt to energy discharges and heat. It is commonly called adaptive armour by the crew. Doctor, there’s an incoming message from ESF-HQ. Priority 2. Would you like to hear it?” all communications were given a certain priority, priority 5 was the everyday talking between ships about the latest news, random gossip and other non-important things. Priority 4 was used for standard ship operations. Priority 3 was used for messages dealing with a threat to a single ship. Priority 2 was a serious threat to multiple ships or even a solar system. The worst was priority 1. Priority 1 meant a serious threat to the empire and the rest of the sector. This priority was given to the increasing attacks of the Uhleck and the Gazurtoid. Pearcy suddenly snapped to attention and fell back in his role as captain:,, Go ahead, let’s see what they have to say.” ,,I will now play the message.” ,,This is ESF-HQ to any ship in the area. A fleet of pirate vessels have warped in and boarded three ships that were at the moment only manned by a few engineers. All of them were Warhammers who where being repaired and refitted after returning from the battle of Alpha Centauri several months ago. Two of the stolen ships are not fully repaired and as a result only as powerful as a Meltdown class heavy cruiser. One however, is a fully functional Warhammer equipped with the latest in weapons systems, including a class 5 linear stream laser cannon, a powerful weapon that can fire a long sustained burst. Extreme caution is advised upon encountering these three vessels which seem to be heading for new Scotland. If you encounter these ships, I advise you to do everything you can to escape. All fluxes will be heavily guarded to prevent the stolen warships from easily getting to the other side of the sector. Also, all military vessels are ordered not to engage with the pirates unless you seriously outnumber and outgun them. We have already send a request to the Institute to provide their fastest ships to track them down. When they find those ships, they will call over the 3rd fleet to disable and recapture the vessels.
That is all.” Pearcy turned to the others:,, What do you think of that? Those pirates are getting bolder by the day. Now that they’ve got three Warhammers along with the rest of their fleet, they have the most powerful non-military fleet in the empire!” Enterprise interrupted Pearcy’s complaints:,, Doctor, I just received a message from Institute Starport. We are to prepare for departure within an hour. In the meantime efforts on installing weapons systems and the rate at which the fuel tanks are being filled shall be increased. Our mission is to locate the stolen Warhammers and distract them long enough for the 3rd fleet to arrive.” Pearcy looked at his guests:,, You better leave while you still can. I don’t like this, she’s not ready! At the moment, we only have got one of our photon torpedo launchers, and only the upper Linear stream turret! We just can’t handle a fight yet. Please, just leave.” ,,Ok, good luck, doctor.”
Steven answered and he and Jason left.
When they looked through a window at the Enterprise, they saw that all the workers were now located near the front of the ship where the photon torpedo launchers were. ,,I’ve got a bad feeling. At most, they’ll be able to install one photon torpedo launcher. I guess that they’ll load a few launchers onboard and try to install them within flight. Even if she’s completely finished, she won’t be able to take on three Warhammers. They shouldn’t send her in alone.” Jason said. ,,Then why do they do that?” ,,It must be because she’s the fastest ship in the fleet. There’s no ship ready that has got that kind of thrust.” Steven suddenly turned to the engineer:,, But what about the Vengeance? That guy said that she has class 7 engines! Besides, we’ve got four of them while the Enterprise only has got three. And finally, it has more guns than a Warwind class light cruiser, a ship that is more than twice as big! We have to help the doctor, come on!” He said as he stormed down the corridor with Jason on his heels. ,,But how are you going to fly it, captain? You’re not registered yet, so how are you going to convince the ship’s …” ,,If that bunch of wires doesn’t want to help, I’ll just have to do it manually. I have flown a shuttle before, I don’t see what kind of difference there would be between a shuttle and a ship. It’s probably nothing but a big shuttle.” ,,Yes, but this big shuttle has got much more complex machinery and makes a shuttle look like one of those antique rockets we used more than a thousand years ago before we got super-photonic engines.”
They arrived at the airlock leading to the Vengeance. In front of the airlock stood Blakes. ,,I know what you’re trying to do, captain.” ,,Then if you know that, then why don’t you get out of the way?” ,,Take me with you!” ,,Why? You know that it’s going to be dangerous.” ,,I want to be there, hear the humming as its power cores power up for the first time. I want to feel the vibration as its thrusters fire for the first time and push it out of the airlock. I want to see the first flash as it goes past the speed of light for the first time. Besides, you need me! This ship is my life’s work, my dream, my ambition! The Noah’s were nothing compared to this. I designed it! I watched it grow from a small idea in the back of my mind to the most advanced ship in the fleet! I know more about it than any other human being!” Steven looked at the scientist:,, Fine. You’re in, but I want you to do something helpful while onboard. Do you understand?” Blakes smiled with enthusiasm:,, Yes, off course! I’ll take the science station, from there, I’ll be able to do anything you might want. Your engineer is more than capable enough of handling the engineering station without too much difficulty.” They suddenly felt a slight vibration. ,,That must be the Enterprise, she’s leaving.” Jason said.
,,Ok, then let’s go. Blakes, you lead us to the bridge. I want to leave as fast as possible, we might be able to catch up with her.” ,,Off course, captain.” Blakes said as he entered the airlock. ,,But I must tell you, we won’t be able to launch for the next two hours. We have to wait till they finished topping off the fuel tanks. But this way please.”
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
Offline
Posts: 100
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They entered the Vengeance. From the inside, the ship looked clean compared to the Enterprise. Not a single small pipe was visible, everything neatly sealed away behind plates. ,,Hmm, I thought it would look different.” Blakes muttered as they entered the bridge. The bridge was different from any other bridge, just like the rest of the ship. There were three seats, all pointed at the main viewscreen, with a large console in front of them. The bridge was a bit cramped, but much more spacious than one found on a military ship of the same size, since there were a few seats less. ,,Oh hi dad, who are those two weirdoes you’ve brought with you?” A voice that resembled the translated voice of a Spemin much more than Steven would’ve liked said. ,,Oh, well, the man on the left is Jason Redburn, your engineer, and the other man is Steven Cloudy, your captain.” Blakes answered. ,,Your left or mine? Nah, doesn’t matter, one of them has got tools. So, hi dudes, My name is Anton. Ant from ANTP and on to make it sound like a human name. I am the latest and most amazing miracle in computer technology you’ve ever seen, so make sure you keep those eyes in their sockets before they plop out in amazement. Oh yeah, in case you were wondering, I changed the design. Thought it would be nice to have all the consoles here be able to perform any function you might like, so you can perform communications, science, engineering, medical, navigation and command duty from any of the three consoles you see here. Man, you dudes are so lucky to have me, all the other people are going to be so jealous!” ,,Anton is the ANTP and can be considered Enterprise’s younger brother. He’s got virtually unlimited memory storing power, so you won’t have any problems with running out of storing space for the rest of your life.” Blakes explained ,,Sorry to interrupt you, dad. But the fuelling is completed. So, everybody take your seats and let me handle the launch, I’m an expert at flying this thing and blowing stuff up with it in the simulator. I can’t wait to try out all the little gizmos inside it.” They all sat down in the seats that Blakes showed them. Jason sat on the left chair, Blakes on the right and Steven in the middle. ,,Umm, Anton. How do I activate these consoles?” ,,No problem, dude. There you go.” Anton said as the consoles came to life, showing a myriad of information. ,,I’d like it if you called me captain instead of this dude thing.” Steven said slightly irritated. ,,Sure thing, captain dude.”
As the gigantic doors that protected the inside of the hangar from space opened, a small vibration could be felt as the power core came humming to life. As the doors came to rest, the ship fired its manoeuvring thrusters and flew out at a gentle pace. The small ship attracted a lot of attention from the tourists that hung around the starport in passenger liners, shuttles and all kinds of public vessels. These tourists came here to see the Enterprise, whose size was already legendary. This day, they got a lot more than what they’ve hoped for. First the massive Enterprise left on its first flight, and less than two hours later, a much smaller but not any less strange looking spacecraft was launched. ,,Hey captain dude, we’re clear of the safety zone, so will you finally let me activate my main engines?” Steven sighed, the ship was good, but its computer was simply annoying. ,,Follow the Enterprise and accelerate to maximum speed. Try to catch up with them, they’ve already accelerated to super-photonic speed.”
,,Allright, fasten your seatbelts, dudes, I’m gonna see if it’s as fast as dad said it was.”
The vengeance disappeared in a flash of distorted colours as it accelerated beyond the speed of light.
,,I found the Enterprise, captain. We’ll catch up with them within 25 minutes.” Blakes said as he triumphantly looked up from his console, which at the moment was configured to perform science duty. ,,Good. Now, I suppose you know a way of hailing them without having a communications officer onboard?” ,,But of course, It wasn’t in the original design, but if Anton didn’t made any mistakes…” ,,Are you trying to tell me that I don’t know what I’m doing? Man, first you’re officially called the most advanced computer in the galaxy, and then they start doubting your abilities.” ,,I’m not trying to say that, Anton. But I just need to figure everything out first, now that you changed the bridge. Now where was I? Oh yes. Captain, all I need to do is change the console to communications duty and I can do everything a communications officer can do. Here you go, I’m hailing them with the super-photonic wave array.” Within seconds, the main view screen lit up, showing the spacious bridge of the Enterprise. ,,Captain? How did you get in a ship? Look, we’re rather busy, we have to be ready in case we receive further orders from ESF-HQ and I can’t hold two different conversations at the same time.” Pearcy said a bit surprised as his view screen suddenly lit up to show the bridge of the Vengeance. ,,Hold on, doctor. We’re here to help.” ,,Help? I hate to say it, but from what our left over sensors tell me, your ship is really small. Now if you were in command of a Warhammer I might let you help, but you’ll need our help more than we need yours if we get in a fight.” ,,Now wait a minute, dude. I hate it when people are trying to say that I don’t have any firepower. In case you didn’t notice, I outgun my big sis by at least 50% at the moment, so who is the weak one around here?” Pearcy stepped back in surprise:,, Who said that?” ,,I’m sorry doctor, but please forgive my younger brother for being so rude. Anton, we are tracking the stolen Warhammer’s tachyon trails, so I didn’t had the opportunity to scan you enough so that I could recognize you.” ,,Wait a minute. Let’s see if I’m still following you. Enterprise, are you saying that captain Cloudy’s vessel is also controlled by an ANTP?” ,,That’s correct, doctor. That voice and personality can only come from the second ANTP, Anton. The ship Anton is controlling is an Institute light strike cruiser. It is equipped with two rapid pulse phasors, which are similar in firepower to our Linear stream laser turret but a bit more effective against shields because of the fluctuating properties given to the beams. It also has eight class 2 lasers and two photon torpedo launchers. Its shields are class 5 and it’s protected by adaptive armour. It has got four class 7 engines, but a small fuel tank. It also has a fighter onboard. It can be safely assumed, that Anton outguns us by a considerable margin.”
Pearcy turned back to the people on his view screen:,, Ok, I think it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if we accepted your help.” ,,Good, then can you allow us to dock? We went trough the design for the Enterprise and noticed that there is a large docking platform on top of the main hull. You’ll have to drop to sub light, because according to Blakes, we’ll have to swing our lower engines upwards, so that we can land without ripping them off. This deactivates our main engines as a safety measure, so we can’t perform a super-photonic docking procedure.” Pearcy thought for a while:,, Good, it doesn’t look like we’re going to lose their trail anytime soon, so we’ll drop to sub light. But as soon as you are docked, captain, we’ll head back to super-photonic flight.”
The Enterprise raced trough space, slowly closing in on her prey. On top of the ridge on the main hull, just in front of the connection point for a turret that wasn’t fitted yet, the comparatively tiny Vengeance was nestled, like a mouse sitting on the back of an elephant.
,,Ok, is everybody here? Good. You may have noticed our guests. Allow me to introduce them to you. From left to right. Bill Blakes, designer of the ANTP and the ship that docked with us. Steven Cloudy, he was my captain when I served onboard the Governor, a Warhammer. Jason Redburn, he was the chief engineer onboard the Governor. Now, The reason why they are here is because they know more about the capabilities of a Warhammer than anybody else I know. Also, the ship they used to follow us is even more advanced than the Enterprise and until we get the chance to finish her, the Vengeance outguns us with ease.
And last but not least, we now have two ANTP’s taking part in this meeting, Enterprise and Anton.” ,,Hey dudes, how is it going?” ,, Off course we’ll first try to communicate and see if they surrender, but if that’s not the case, we’ll need some kind of plan to take them down. Now. Captain cloudy, could you please begin?” Steven stepped in front of the large screen that made up one of the walls of the Enterprise’s large briefing room. ,,Good, You all know a bit about Warhammers, and now it’s our job to try to teach you a little bit more about them. Enterprise, could you please give me a picture of one?” ,,Certainly, captain.” On the large screen appeared a rotating image of a Warhammer. ,,A Warhammer is the most powerful ship serving in the fleet at the moment. It is designed to be able to withstand the beating that a Gazurtoid vessel can dish out but it still needs to outnumber the Gazurtoid at least two to one if it has any hope of winning. The Enterprise could take on a Gazurtoid in a one on one if she was fully finished, but even then she wouldn’t be able to take on three Warhammers on her own. The main weaponry of a warhammer consists of class three laser turrets with three class five lasers pointed forward. The latest version also carries a Linear stream laser turret. This Linear stream laser turret luckily consists of only one barrel and therefore only half the firepower as the one found on the Enterprise, since its engines can’t provide the necessary power for a twin-barrelled version. It also has three photon torpedo launchers. These are probably unloaded though, since the ships were being repaired but they may be operational on the fully repaired one. Jason, could you give them some information on what to go for?” Steven stepped back to allow Jason to take over his position near the screen. ,,Good, the Warhammer may not win a price for good looks, but its armour is a really tough nut to crack. Its engines are class 3 because that type is both relatively simple to maintain and repair, compact and offers decent power and speed. Because of the amount of armour around the engines, they are easy to hit but hard to destroy. The Warhammer does have some weaknesses which we may exploit though. First of all, its bridge is situated in a sphere on the end of a short cylindrical neck. This neck can be shot away, thereby forcing the vessel to be controlled manually without any centre of operations. Trying this would put you right in front of its forward firing weapons though and is not advisable. Then there are three cylinders connecting the two main hull sections. Destroying these would not help anything though, because the engines would still keep the two pieces together without any considerable loss in fighting capability, it would only become very hard for the crew to get from one part to the other. This is the target that I suggest.” The screen zoomed in on one of the engine booms to reveal a small device protruding from the thick layers of armour. ,,This is a super-photonic flux controller. It stabilizes the Tachyon streams that emanate from the engines and directs them away from the ship. If this is destroyed, the engines will be automatically shut down to prevent the uncontrolled Tachyons from doing severe damage to the ship. Without its engines, its firepower will drop to 10%, 20% if they shut down any non-vital systems. Its backup reactors won’t be able to support the shields, so these will drop also. The ship will lose 25% of its overall engine power with each flux controller that we destroy. Captain, could you please tell our proposed plan of attack?” Jason stepped back to allow Steven to step back in front of the screen. ,,To be able to target this relatively tiny target, we will have to approach from the side. A Warhammer luckily does not carry any turrets on the sides since the engines would block their view, but it does have two turrets placed both on top and the bottom of the ship that face sideways. The Enterprise is too big to hide within this blind spot. So here’s what I wanted to do. The Enterprise shall distract the Warhammers by shooting at them with all the weapons she has while doing as much damage as possible. Hopefully the Warhammers shall break formation and concentrate on the Enterprise, who can handle their guns for a while before her shields are drained. In the meantime, the fighters will try to sneak into the blind spot and take out the flux controllers while the Vengeance tries to take out their weapons from point blank range. The more weapons the Vengeance knocks out, the longer the Enterprise will be able to hold out, and the longer the fighters can try to take out their targets. If the Enterprise’s shields are drained, we’ll break of our attack and get out of their weapons range. From that point we will keep close enough for them to feel threatened, but too far to attack, until the 3rd fleet arrives. Also, since the Enterprise isn’t equipped with her full compliment of fighters, one of you will have to use the one onboard the Vengeance.” Steven was interrupted by Enterprise:,, We are approaching the target’s hyperspace threshold.” Super photonic engines warped space around them so that they could accelerate past light speed. Whenever a vessel travelling at super-photonic speeds approached an object whose mass was at least ten tons, the gravity of it would cause the warped space to collapse, thereby sending the ship back to sub light. The only gravitational field that didn’t affect it was the gravity of the ship itself, since the engines were fine-tuned to it so that the gravity didn’t interfere. The only way for multiple ships to travel in close proximity to each other at super-photonic speeds was to either have one dock with the other and shut down its engines, or by fine-tuning the engines so that they didn’t interfere with each other. Doctor Pearcy stood up:,, Ok. Captain, please go to the Vengeance and start checking the systems. Professor Blakes, could you show one of my pilots were your fighter is? All other pilots will have to go to the hangar and start their flight checks. As for all the other officers, please go to your stations. Enterprise, I would like you to inform the rest of the crew to get ready for battle trough the intercom. That’s all, now go!”
,,Check shield projector grid.” ,,Checked.” ,,Rapid pulse phasors.” ,,Checked.” ,,Engine lasers.” ,,Lasers 1 to 8 are all fully operational except for number 3 who seems to have a small fluctuation in the power grid.” ,,See what you can do about it , but we don’t have time to conduct any big repairs on it. Allright. Anton, you take over from Jason with the checking. Check photon torpedo launchers.” ,,They’re both functioning perfectly, captain dude. There are 25 torpedoes in each launchers ammo storage.” ,,check Buzz bomb launcher.” ,,There are 50 Buzz bombs loaded, captain dude.” Steven and Anton kept checking all the vital systems for another 40 minutes without noticing any real problems. Steven leaned back from his console:,, That finishes our checklist. Let’s see if I can figure out how to get Blakes on the Intercom.” After a few tries with all the different buttons he found out how to change the console to communications duty. A few more button presses later and he made contact with a communications console that was located inside the small hangar onboard the Vengeance. He only had to wait a few moments before Blakes responded:,, Yes, captain? How may I be of service?” ,,I just called to ask if our Pilot has found his new fighter.” ,,Oh, he has found it. He’s currently looking at the controls, since he isn’t used to a light fighter. He’s always flown a heavy bomber before he was transferred to the Enterprise that carries medium fighters, so a ship that relies totally on speed and agility to bring its twin lasers to bear instead of firing missiles from long range requires a little getting used to.” ,,Good, tell him to shut the cockpit, we’re about to breach their hyperspace threshold. After, that, please come back to the bridge, I’ll tell Jason to come too.” ,,Off course captain, I’ll be there in just a few minutes.” Jason and Blakes arrived almost simultaneously at the bridge and sat down.
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
Offline
Posts: 100
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,,And, how’s that laser doing?” ,,I’ve taken a look and done what I could. It will probably hold out for a reasonable number of shots, but it looks like some of the wires that connect the ship with the cooling boosters are damaged. It would take a few hours to replace them, so I just tried to make sure that they don’t fuse as fast. There also seem to be some problems with the beam focussing field, so its beam will be a bit more diffused than should be and when the focus field projectors fail, it will start firing something more like a big wave than a beam and damage our own ship. I can’t do anything about that without getting out, and everybody knows that exiting a ship that’s travelling at super-photonic speed is just suicide. That’s all, the rest of the systems seem to be working just fine.” ,,Good. Blakes, what do you want us to do when we’re in combat?” ,,I will watch the status of the shields and try to rotate any weak spots away from enemy fire. It’s a completely new way of fighting. Instead of turning the weakened side away from the enemy by turning the whole ship and probably losing a good firing position, you just turn the shield without changing the direction the ship is pointing. Think of the tactical advantages such a ship would have over older designs like those Warhammers. It’s just..” ,,Allright, we got the point. Now, could you please continue, we only have a few minutes before we arrive.” ,,Ahem, mister Redburn can watch the status of the ship and warn when there are any problems. You, captain, can keep a general tactical overview by switching your console to command duty and coordinate our efforts with the other ships. Anton will handle the ships weapons and manoeuvring.” Blakes turned to his console:,, Looks like we’ll arrive in 60 seconds!” Steven quickly switched his console to command duty:,, Ok, everybody. Get ready to release the clamps as soon as we’ve dropped to sub light! Anton, tell our pilot to get ready for launch immediately.” ,,Allright, dudes. Fasten your seatbelts, this is gonna be one hell of a bumpy ride!” The ship rocked suddenly as the Enterprise breached the hyperspace threshold of the three Warhammers and was forced back to sub light.
,,Everybody, launch immediately! Hail those pirates!” Pearcy’s voice could be heard trough the speakers onboard the Vengeance’s bridge. ,,I’m flying away from Enterprise and entering formation. Our little pilot is as free as he can be, dudes.” Steven saw several icons appear on the tactical screen of his console. Three were three red boxes representing the Warhammers, one was a big blue triangle representing the Enterprise and the Vengeance was represented by a smaller green triangle. He saw several tiny red triangles emerge one after another from the rear of the Enterprise and move into a wedge formation behind the Vengeance, together with a red triangle that represented the fighter launched by the Vengeance. All in all, it wasn’t a very comforting sight. There were ten fighters, one light scout sized vessel and one huge Battleship sized vessel facing off against the three Warhammers. There were a large number of fighters, but they couldn’t do much damage to their massive armour and had to take great precision at taking their shots while avoiding the heavy fire from the Warhammers. Also, a scout sized vessel was basically a really big fighter with reduced acceleration and agility whose firepower was more meant to keep attackers at a distance while running away to the minimum range at which space could be warped again for super-photonic flight, than to attack battleships with. The Enterprise was even larger than a Warhammer, but only a little and therefore probably couldn’t handle even two Warhammers. Steven however, knew something that the Pirates didn’t knew. The Enterprise was supposed to be more powerful than two Warhammers, but she wasn’t finished and had a lot less firepower than even one of the Warhammers. The Vengeance on the other hand, was anything but a small and weak scoutship that should be running like hell right now. The Vengeance actually had more firepower than the Enterprise and thanks to its small size and high manoeuvrability and speed it posed a serious threat to a Warhammer in a one on one. This was what their plan was basically about. They hoped that the Warhammers would mistake the Enterprise for the biggest threat, until they would notice the amazing amount of firepower coming from the Vengeance. While the Warhammers were concentrating on the Enterprise or the Vengeance, the fighters would attack the engines, something which would look useless, until the pirates would notice all their systems shutting down after losing their flux controllers. For a few seemingly endless seconds the two fleets faced each other without acting. Then, the Warhammers all opened fire on the Enterprise.
,,Take the ones on the sides first, that way you only have to deal with the firepower from one of them, we’ll head for the left one!” The fighters broke into two groups as the Enterprise opened fire with two photon torpedo launchers and her linear stream turret. Within seconds, the black emptiness of space was transformed into a chaotic mess of beams and photon torpedoes with the fighters and the Vengeance weaving through it while moving towards their targets. Two of the fighters exploded when they were caught by a laser beam before they could get into the blind spot. On the bridge of the Vengeance, Steven watched the view screen and instinctively grabbed his seat as his ship narrowly avoided a laser beam. ,,We’re approaching to point-blank range.” Blakes said as he started scanning the large Warship that floated in front of them. ,,Good. Anton, think you can hit the targets I’ve given you?” ,,No problem, captain dude. I’ll blow these suckers sky high before they know what hit them!” ,,Fire!” The Vengeance let loose with a salvo of four photon torpedoes while simultaneously firing its engine guns and the two turrets that had swung forward. Less than a second after this Barrage started, the two pulse phasors opened fire, sending pulse after pulse into the Warhammer’s shields that lit up as they tried to handle the enormous amounts of destructive energy being unleashed. For a few seconds, the crew of the big Warship was surprised by the sudden violence that was being send at them. They quickly recovered and directed all of their available firepower at their nimble foe. But it was too late, as pulse after pulse rained down upon the ship, its shields were quickly beaten down and exposed the vessel to the fire coming form the Vengeance. Just as the Warhammer’s crew started to fear for their lives, the Vengeance stopped its attack and looped out of the range of their weapons. ,,Their shields are down and we’ve suffered minimal damage in return. Our shields will be back at full strength within just a few seconds.” ,,Excellent.” Steven said as he turned away from Blakes and turned his attention to Jason:,, How is that laser doing?” ,,Not good, it looks like the cooling boosters have failed and the beam focussing field projectors are about to blow up from the heat. If they blow, we’ll also lose the laser that sits right next to it from the explosion.” ,,Then let’s shut it down. Anton bring us back around, knock down the little bit of a shield that they managed to put back up again and knock down its guns, starting with those that are firing at the Enterprise!” ,,Got it, captain dude.”
The Vengeance turned around and accelerated back towards the Warhammer that had diverted its attention back towards the Enterprise, not noticing that the shots fired from the little fighters were constantly trying to hit the same area. They did however, kept an eye on the small ship that had beaten down their shields so easily just a few moments ago and immediately started firing everything they had in the direction of the Vengeance that easily avoided the shots and took full advantage of the fact that not all of the Warhammer’s weapons were functioning and therefore unable to make its barrage as dense as should be. This time however, the Vengeance fired in short bursts instead of a full barrage as it tried to hit the Warhammers weaponry. Explosions of damaged weaponry shook the ship as it was repeatedly attacked by the Vengeance. Within just a few passes, all of its weaponry had been disabled. Only a few seconds later, one of the other Warhammers lost power as its flux controllers were destroyed by a precision bombardment from the medium fighters missiles.
,,Our shields are down and they knocked out our weapons! I want all three of the surviving fighters to focus their attention on that last Warhammer! Vengeance, knock down those damned shields so that they stand a chance!” ,,You heard the doctor. Anton, get us over there and knock them out!” The Vengeance made a sharp turn and shot towards the remaining Warhammer as the Enterprise backed of under the constant barrage of heavy weapon fire striking the unshielded hull. With the Enterprise gone, the Warhammer focussed its attention on the next biggest threat. The Vengeance fired at its prey while throwing itself into all kinds of hard manoeuvres to avoid the weapon fire coming from the Warhammer. But even a ship controlled by one of the fastest computers in the universe couldn’t completely avoid the intense fire from the Warship. Just as it broke into a steep climb after severely damaging the Battleships shields, it got caught by the white hot beam coming from the Linear laser cannon. Its shields lit up brightly as they absorbed the cascading flow of energy that washed over it. Then, they collapsed allowing the beam to cut out a large area before dissipating as the result of the high power drain on the engines.
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
Offline
Posts: 100
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,,Dammit! What is going on?!” Steven shouted as the ship spun out of control and they were all subjugated to high g’s before the Inertial compensators managed to compensate for the harsh manoeuvre. ,,We lost control over the engines! They’ve shut down, but there’s also some heavy damage to the ship.” ,,Blakes, how could this happen?” ,,There must have been a problem with the shield projector grid. The shields were holding just fine and I was rotating the damaged area away from the Linear stream, but the projectors must have malfunctioned after which the shield started rotating so fast that the projectors couldn’t keep up and we’ve literally thrown our shields away.” ,,Jason, try to get us back under control. We’re a sitting duck and we’re right in front of that thing!” ,,Hey captain dude. Those fighters have all been destroyed when that Warhammer suddenly banked towards them and rammed them. They’ve also just accelerated to super-photonic speed.” ,,They did? Fine, just open a channel with the Enterprise.”
The view screen lit up and showed the heavily damaged bridge of the Enterprise. ,,Doctor, how are you doing?” ,,The ship has taken some heavy damage, but miraculously no one has been heavily injured. We have attached the boarding clamps to the Warhammer that’s lost its weapons, but we’ll have to wait for the 3rd fleet to bring any boarding troops. We won’t be able to follow that ship while still attached to the Warhammer, but even if we could, we wouldn’t be able to fight them. They must have noticed the fleet approaching and decided to bug out while they still could. But I saw that you got hit, so how are you doing?” ,,I think that my engineer can tell you a whole lot more about it than me. Jason?” ,,It looks like we’ve just had a classic situation of experimental equipment being put into action without any proper testing and breaking down. Apart from the fact that our shield projectors threw of our shield at the worst moment, We’ve also suffered heavy damage to one of our engines. But I think that we can get going again quite fast if we get some help.” Steven turned towards his engineer as a plan started to form in his head:,, How fast is fast?” ,,An hour and a half at most.” ,,In that case, doctor, I want to get every engineer that has a spacesuit to get over here and help us out. That way, we’ll be able to hunt down that last Warhammer before it can escape.” ,,Are you sure about this, captain? That Warhammer hit your ship pretty badly.” ,,Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
Apart from an attempt of the pirates to board the Vengeance, which was quickly halted when they nearly got hit by a pulse phasor, the repairs had gone smoothly and now all the Enterprise’s engineers were flying away from the small ship and returned to their own.
,,Good luck captain, you’re going to need it.” ,,Thanks doctor. Anton, go after that Warhammer as fast as you can.” As the Enterprise kept a firm hold of its prisoner, The Vengeance shot after its prey.
Blakes turned towards Jason after Steven left towards the little kitchen to get something to drink:,, Are you sure about this? I mean, we nearly got killed last time!” ,,Now don’t worry. I’m sure that he has a plan, he just needs to work out those little details that mean the difference between succeeding and ending up as space dust.” Jason smiled when he saw the panicked face of the scientist who until now had never even been in a fight. ,,Besides, you forget that he managed to keep the Governor going for six hours against a bunch of Gazurtoid. A Warhammer is a lot less dangerous than a squid.” Silence descended back on the bridge as Jason turned back towards his console to check how the hastily repaired engine was holding. Blakes looked over the design of the Warhammer for the tenth time and got increasingly worried. With the shields running at 50%, a Warhammer would turn them into molten metal within less than a minute. Steven came back on the bridge and put down three cups of coffee.
,,Captain, excuse me for asking, but do you have a plan?” Steven looked at the scientist while his mind started working at top speed:,, Off course I have a plan. A good plan.” ,,May I hear that plan than?” ,,Well, um…..It still needs some work on the details, but I wanted to approach from below so that that big turret can’t hit us again and then I wanted to knock out its shields while approaching and drop a few Buzz bombs on the Linear stream laser cannon when we passed over it. The problem is, We’ve lost half of our engine guns and the pulse phasors are down to 75% output. We won’t be able to knock out their shields on our first pass and we can’t afford to do multiple passes since our shields are also damaged.” Blakes now got really worried:,, So you basically hope for a miracle, right? Oh dear, I knew I should have stayed at home today.” When Steven sat down and grabbed his coffee, even Anton had stopped his enthusiastic talking about how advanced he was and that without him they would have been in a much worse situation.
Blakes leaned back from his console with an expression on his face that suggested that he had just found the most perfect paradise in the galaxy:,, I’ve got it! This just can’t go wrong!” Steven looked up as the silence on the bridge was suddenly interrupted:,, What can’t go wrong?” ,,Let me explain. Do you know about nebulas?” Steven nodded:,, Off course I know about them. If possible, all battles against the squids would be fought inside a nebula, it’s the only place where we can use missiles freely.” ,,Exactly. A nebula consists of gas and other stuff that is packed much more densely than the surrounding area. However, there is also a phenomenon called an ion storm. Ion storms are powerful storms of supercharged ions and capable of inflicting heavy damage to a ship, especially the ships systems. The Institute is working on a way to create a weapon that fires these storms to disable enemy ships, but we can’t seem to focus the storm enough to use it without hitting ourselves and anything that’s too close as opposed to just our target. Something else that nebulas are known for is the fact that for some reason, shields just don’t work in there. The Institute has also been working on a way to overcome this problem, but without success, the Uhleck seem to do it though. What most people don’t know, is that the shield failure is also caused by ion storms. Inside a nebula you’re constantly flying trough an ion storm, it’s just that in most places it can’t do anything more than knock out the shields while at some places it is powerful enough to take out all the systems before completely destroying the ship. Here’s what I wanted to do. I want to take a photon torpedo, remove the warhead and instead mount an improvised version of our ion storm gun. Then, when we get close, we fire it, the torpedo knocks out their shields and we will be able to fire directly at their hull.” Steven thought for a while:,, It’s the best plan we’ve got, so let’s get on with it. Blakes, you lead us to the torpedo storage area and tell us what to do. Jason, you come with us, we could use your talent. Anton, you’re in charge here, please don’t do anything stupid. That means, approach them so slow that they won’t notice and don’t get close until we’re finished!” ,,Aw, come on. You hurt my feelings, captain dude. I wanted to play with them.”
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
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,,So, what do we need?” Steven said as the robotic arms carefully lifted a torpedo out of the heavily armoured storage bay and put it down on the rack that folded to clamp it into place.
The torpedo itself looked like a cylinder and was about as big as an average human. ,,First of all, we’ll need to remove the warhead.” Blakes said and looked as Jason opened the torpedo with the robotic arms and took out the spherical warhead. A torpedo was basically a set of powerful engines and a cannon that brought itself on a course towards the target before running out of the little bit of fuel it had. Once it had run out of fuel, it would launch the warhead. The warhead would then fly on a straight course in the direction the torpedo was travelling with much higher speed than the torpedo and detonate when it got close to the target. ,,Now, we need a power source that has got enough power to fire the ion storm. Several batteries from the spare spacesuits would do it. We’ll also need a superconductive rod, some wires, a microwave oven, and the rest we can just take from the warhead.” ,,Good, I’ll go get it. Jason, you help Blakes with the pieces gathered from the Warhead.”
After three hours, the torpedo had been modified and put in the ammo storage on the place where it would be the first torpedo to be fired. In the meantime, the Vengeance had been closing in on the Warhammer and was now half an hour away. ,,Captain, they’re gone!” Steven looked at the startled scientist:,, What the hell are you talking about, how can they possibly be gone?!” ,,They just disappeared from our scanners. Wait a moment. I’m detecting high amounts of energy and some peculiar fluctuations. It’s a flux!” ,,A flux? Why didn’t you warn me that they were heading for a flux?” ,,Because it’s not on the map, captain dude. If you look at my sensor logs, it appeared just at the right moment to let them trough.” ,,Great, what are the odds of something like this? Fine, head to maximum speed and take us in, I don’t want to give them a chance to escape like this.” ,,But captain,” Blakes interrupted:,, We don’t know where it leads. We could wind up on the other side of the galaxy!” ,,Now don’t you worry about this. In all these years, none of the races we’ve had contact with has ever encountered a flux that leads further than a couple of light years The worst that can happen is that we wind up in Uhleck or Gazurtoid space, and in both cases we’ll run like hell back trough the flux and let those pirates get blasted into smithereens. Now let’s go after them.”
The Vengeance accelerated to full power and quickly reached the flux. Without hesitating, the ship flew into the chaotic mess of distorted colours where space and time where bent in unknown ways. Just a few seconds later, it reappeared on the other end of the flux. Travel trough a flux was a matter of seconds, but in the same time you would travel many light years.
,,Now, try to find that Warhammer!” ,,I’ve got them. They’re about 0.6 light years from our current position.” ,,After them!” ,,hang on to your seat, captain dude. Here I come.” Within just a few minutes, the Vengeance overtook the Warhammer and both ships dropped to sublight when their hyperspace thresholds were breached.
,,Maybe we should hail them first. They might want to talk and then we wouldn’t have to resort to violence.” Blakes said as his confidence in his idea quickly faded when he noticed again how big a Warhammer was. ,,No, They didn’t want to talk to the Enterprise and they’re definitely not going to talk to a small and damaged ship when they’re the ones who damaged that ship in the first place. We’re just going to play this the mean and sneaky way. Anton, do it.” ,,You got it, captain dude!” The Vengeance accelerated towards the battleship, carefully making sure that it stayed behind the large ship while approaching at high speed. Laser fire danced across the weakened shields of the Strike cruiser. ,,Shields are almost gone! Captain, please stop this madness!” ,,No,” Steven said while looking at the display that showed their distance:,, Anton, fire.” A torpedo emerged from one of the launch tubes and fired its warhead towards the Warhammer. Before the battleship’s crew could respond, the warhead had already crossed the distance and detonated.
A bright flash erupted and the glow of the shields faded as soon as it appeared. ,,Shields dropping. 50%, 5%. They’re gone!” ,,Good. Anton, fire everything you’ve got.” ,,Finally!”
The Vengeance opened up on the Warship while suddenly breaking into evasive manoeuvres to avoid its fire. The deadly energy struck the unshielded hull now that the shields had been knocked out. On its first pass, the Vengeance knocked out the Warhammer’s rear turrets and strafed its upper area. As it passed over the Linear stream cannon, it dropped a buzz bomb from its rear. The heavy cannon exploded as the buzz bomb destroyed its systems while the cannon was preparing to fire. ,,That should be enough. Time for part two of the plan.”
The Vengeance turned around and attacked the Warhammer once more. The Battleship’s bridge was completely destroyed by the hail of weapon fire coming from the strike cruiser.
With its centre of command gone, the Wrahmmer was defenceless. The Vengeance leisurely destroyed the Warship’s remaining weapons and its engines before powering down its combat systems. ,,That cleans up this mess. Let’s hop back trough that flux and inform them that we’ve got a Warhammer ready to pick up. Blakes turned towards his console. Suddenly his face worried:,, Captain!” ,,What is it this time, Blakes?” ,,The Flux, it’s gone!”
,,Gone?! First it suddenly appears and now it suddenly disappears? I’m no genius at maths but even I know that the odds for something like this are astronomical. How the hell can a flux suddenly appear and how can it suddenly disappear?” ,,Well, it appears that this flux is rather unstable, it’s still there.” ,,First you say it’s gone and now you say it’s still there? What are you saying?” ,,It’s still there, but you won’t be able to jump through it. This may be how a flux is born. It appears to be going trough some sort of cycle between being active and non-active. It also appeared to be stabilizing which would mean that the times between being active and non-active are decreasing till it will eventually be active at all times.” ,,And how long are we going to have to wait for it?” ,,Um….Give or take a thousand years.” ,,A thousand years? I guess that that means we’re going to have to fly back the conventional way. Where are we anyway? Blakes, start checking our position. Hmm…That’s funny, I can’t remember seeing that nebula, at least not from this distance. It looks so big, I bet we could get there within an hour.” ,,Hate to disappoint you, captain dude. But it will take at least three days to get to the edge of it. We’re currently about fifty light years away from it.” ,,Fifty light years? Then how big is that thing?!” ,,Bigger than the Empire.” Blakes turned away from his console, now looking really worried. ,,So, Blakes. How long will it take for us to get back to the Enterprise?” ,,Over two hundred years.”
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
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Posts: 100
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,,What the hell?!! Two hundred years?! Then what are we supposed to do in the meantime, take a nap? Great, I suppose we can go in stasis, but we don’t have the fuel to get this far. Allright everybody, buckle up. We’re going to pay that Warhammer a visit.” ,,Excuse me? What do you mean?” ,,We’re going to hop into a spacesuit, take some heavy engineering tools as weapons and take their endurium to use as fuel. I know it’s dangerous, but we don’t have any guns so we have to use what we do have. Got any better ideas?” ,,I’m not going, thank you. I would just get in the way. Jason should be enough help. But if you insist on going, you might as well try something better than spacesuits.” ,,Like what?” ,, Power Armour.”
It sure was a big difference compared to a simple spacesuit. A sensor suit detected every little movement he made and transferred it to a computer which analyzed and increased these movements by using the small servo’s that were embedded inside the suit. He could quite literally rip apart a sheet of titanium while wearing it. As if that wasn’t enough, there was also a layer of thick armour providing protection from all kinds of threats. It had a weak shield, antigravs and small thrusters. It also contained some heavy firepower from the integrated weapon systems. ,,Tell me, Blakes. Since when does a ship this small carry enough heavy gear to conquer a small city?” ,,Well, I wanted to include the best equipment known to the Institute and make sure that its crew could handle any situation. Please don’t tell me you’re not happy with this.” ,,Oh, I’m happy allright, but I’m afraid that we’re now suffering from having too much firepower instead of too little. Never mind that. Jason, let’s move out. If possible, use the flechetteguns mounted on the wrist of the left arm of this thing and use tranquilizer darts. I’d like to put them inside stasis, not turn them into a pile of dust.”
The airlock opened and the two power armoured men flew towards the Warhammer that floated two kilometres away. The airlocks had been sealed, but it was easy enough to enter the ship trough the gaping hole where once the bridge had been. The moment they entered, they came under fire by the pirates. ,,Just stop this pointless stuff.” Steven said as the glowing points of several lasers danced harmlessly over his suit. REAL lasers, not the Tachyon weapons used by ships and large vehicles that were commonly called lasers. It was all over within just a few minutes. Apparently, all the pirates had massed near the bridge since that would be the most logical place for any boarder to try to enter. ,,Anton, dock with the Warhammer. Blakes, as soon as you’ve docked, I want you to help Jason with transferring endurium. I don’t care where you try to put it, just take every little bit there is. I’ll go hunting for stasispods to put these bastards in.”
They had been carrying endurium from the Warhammer to the Vengeance for two days before they finally had everything. Now the corridors and unused crew quarters were littered with the crystalline lumps that powered the ship’s engines. A few hours ago, Anton detected an unidentified spaceship heading their way. They’d been ready to fire if needed, but luckily it turned out that they had nothing to fear from the alien ship. Now, Steven was talking to their captain, a large snail-like being wearing a blue uniform. ,,What I would really like is a map containing information on the local beings and if possible, fluxes.” ,,Trading maps are for sale at the price of 150 shyneum pennies at which they can be bought.” ,,Hmm, I don’t have any shyneum pennies. Is there any other possible way to buy it?” ,,If you sell raw resources for us to buy, a trade we can make and do.” Steven looked at his crew:,, Any idea of what we might sell?” Blakes shrugged:,, Well, I suppose we can sell our furniture and the lights in the corridors among things, but that might harm us more than it’s worth.” ,,We have got something to sell.” ,,What is it, Jason?” ,,What about the Warhammer? It’s big and everything that might be better kept away from them has already been blown to pieces. The only advanced technology they might get from it is a better fridge.” ,,Sounds good.” Steven turned back towards the merchant:,, If we would sell our larger ship to you, what could we get for it?” The merchant thought about the offer for a few seconds. It wasn’t common to get the chance to buy a ship, even if it was damaged. And definitely not one as big as this one. Surely his reputation in the Humna Humna society would rise. All he needed to do would be to try to negotiate a deal that would be reasonably fair as to keep future trades possible. ,,200000 shyneum pennies we will give and offer.” How much do the map and the repair materials we asked cost?” ,,The total value would be 700 shyneum pennies it would be worth.”
Steven smiled:,, Consider this a deal. Say, do you have anything else to sell?”
In the end they had bought a large map that showed them everything they might want to know, materials to repair the ship with, a circular Humna Humna all-terrain vehicle, a humna humna translator and some general advice on where to go. They were ready to leave while the humna humna vessel would wait for some help in towing away the Warhammer to arrive.
,,So, where shall we go first?” ,,You don’t want to go back immediately, captain?” ,,No, we’re going to be late anyway, so we might as well do some sightseeing.” ,,Hey, captain dude. I heard that there’s a race here that has turned depression into a way of life. I’ve got to see that. Can we go there?” Steven smiled at the thought:,, It’s as good as any idea. Go ahead.” The Vengeance flew away, ready to explore this new sector.
,,Why don’t you just blow me up? Everybody else does. No need to be nice.” Steven sighed in annoyance. Anton surely wasn’t exaggerating when he said that the Dweenle were really depressed, and annoying. ,,No, really. This is the worst day in my life. If only I could go to the eye, then I could go back to the past where we were happy.” Steven suddenly focussed his attention again on the alien. ,,The eye? What is it?” ,,Why would I tell you? It would only make me feel bad. The eye is a gate to the past. It is at 244, 149. But I don’t see how that might be useful.”
,,Thank you. Goodbye. Anton, get us out of here. Let’s see that eye.”
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
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Posts: 100
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The trip had been uneventful and they would reach the eye within just a few more hours.
,,Captain, why do you think this eye is so important?” ,,It’s quite simple, Jason. If we can use it to travel back in time, we will be able to get back home early. After all, we will probably wind up at a time where we aren’t even born! If we really get lucky, we could travel home at sublight without having to use the engines to keep us going, it would save a lot of endurium.”
Suddenly the ship rocked as it decelerated to a full stop relative to the weird ship in front of them.
Before any of them could respond, it had already fired its weapon at them. The blast struck the unshielded hull just a few metres from the bridge and made the direct area glow as it absorbed the heat. ,,Anton, get those shields up! Jason, did we suffer any damage?” ,,No, not a single bit, it looks like that Chronotrium web actually does have its uses.” Jason said, a bit surprised. ,,Aren’t you forgetting anything, captain dude?” ,,What else do you think I should do?” ,,Something like, blow them to pieces!” ,,No, don’t you dare to fire! Blakes, scan them and try to figure out if they’re a threat. Anton, why are you keeping us right in front of them?” ,,Because it will take over an hour for them to break trough our shields. These guys are pathetic.” ,,Pathetic or not, just take us to that eye.” The Vengeance easily outran the alien vessel till it was far enough to go back to super-photonic flight.
,,Now, whose territory is this anyway?” ,,According to the map we bought from the humna humna, We’re in the territory of the Ng-Kher-Arla. Let’s see, do not approach before the last ten cycles of the large cycle, then this area is inhabited by the hostile Ng or the strange Kher. Looks like we were a bit early.” ,,Okay, We should be getting close to the area. Blakes, put that map away and instead try to find that eye, whatever it is.” It only took a few seconds before the sensors registrated something interesting:,, Captain, I think I found something. It looks like a flux, only this one is simply off scale. I don’t suggest to enter without raising our shields, I’m afraid we would be crushed like an Elowan in a hurricane.” ,,This looks like what we’re looking for. Anton, raise shields to full power and take us in.”
The Vengeance entered the abnormally large flux and quickly started to rock as if it was passing trough an exceptionally strong ion storm. Just as its shields were about to fail, despite having every single bit of available energy redirected to power the shields, it reached the other end. Only to be greeted by the sight of countless Plasma bolts that were more than twice as big heading its way.
,,Oh my god! Anton, get us out of here!” The Vengeance shot away like a bullet out of a rifle as it spun itself a way through the deadly storm. As it was about to shoot away at super-photonic speed, one plasma bolt managed to strike, ripping trough the unshielded hull as if it was made out of paper and completely tearing of one of the engines.
,,Jason, damage.” ,,Not good, that plasma bolt completely tore of the upper right engine, we’re limited to 50% thrust if we don’t want to cause our field to be unstable and non-symmetrical.” ,,Dammit, we’ll need to find a place to hide and repair whatever we can. Where the hell did those Uhleck come from?” ,,If I may suggest, there is a star nearby. I don’t detect any ships there. It might be safe.” ,,Fine, Anton go towards it.”
The heavily damaged Vengeance limped into the system, looking for a place to hide where it could lick its wounds. It was decided to head for the innermost planet, a lifeless, cratered rock where no one would want to live. However, it looked as if its luck had now completely run out, as a Uhleck warship raced towards it.
,,Oh great. Anton, turn around and get out of here!” The Vengeance started to make an attempt at running away when the already heavily strained engines finally gave up, letting it float around powerless while waiting for the destruction which surely would be swift. However, fate had other plans.
,,Captain, I..I.. don’t believe it, they are hailing us!” Blakes said as he saw the impossible happening. ,,What?! They only talk by shooting at anything that moves and doesn’t move! I always thought they didn’t even had communication gear. Put them on screen.” Soon enough, the screen showed the bridge of the large warship that now hung above the Vengeance. Something that looked like a floating green head started talking:,, Greetings, unknown beings. This is no time to be here. Go now, or surely our doom will also destroy you.” ,,Who are you?” ,,We are the Leghk. Soon we shall be gone, destroyed or united with our brothers by the beast, after which we shall be slaves for eternity. But, our sensors show that your ship is damaged. We shall bring you to our hiding place. There we shall aid you in repairs. After that, we shall send you out, away from this place and hope that you will never forget the Leghk and their failure.”
Whew, that's the last one. I didn't know I had this much. Oh well. To Be Continued I guess.
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
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Posts: 100
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I managed to write a litle bit more. I think that this is quite a nice place to end with before going on vacation, it really makes the whole thing beg for more. Well, here goes.
,,What is this place?” Blakes said in amazement as they followed the Leghk inside their hidingplace. ,,These are the halls of visions. Once, they told us of the brightness the future would bring, but now we see only darkness. You claim to be from the future. We apologize for setting this plague loose upon your families and homes. But, please follow me, I’m sure that the elders would like to see you.” They followed the Leghk into a large round chamber.
There, ten Leghk were floating around. The one in the centre floated towards the newcomers to greet them:,, We are the elders. The last who have not yet succumbed to the beast. Though your claim sounds like the truth, we must have proof. Your ship and race is unlike anything we’ve seen before, yet that is not enough. We shall use the halls to see for ourselves, the future that awaits you.” The Elders floated towards the centre, and began the ritual that would allow them to see, the future.
,,Virtue, Hyperion, form up and cover their rear!” A man shouted as he watched the gigantic space ship that filled his view screen. A small arrow shaped vessel appeared from the lower left corner, firing every single weapon it had at the monstrosity as flames trailed behind it where once an engine had been. The ship collided with the giant and exploded as its power core was breached, sending the power of endurium into the larger ship’s shields. A stream of Buzz bombs came in, following the ship that launched them and added their own power to the lightshow. But the shields held and the ship fired several more plasma bolts, destroying some more of the tiny little ships that swarmed all over it. ,,Who was on that one?” The man asked as he turned towards his communications officer, an old thrynn who was bleeding from several wounds as shrapnel had tore into him when the bridge suffered a direct hit from a plasma bolt. If their shields had already been down, they would have been dead. ,,ISS Horizon, Captain wasss Jack Cloudy, mixed crew.” ,,Everybody, get in front of that thing! Don’t let it get the Victory! We can’t stop now!” The Captain said as he directed his view towards the Crystal Planet that the fleet was approaching. The Crystal Planet was causing all suns in the sector to flair. Just a few more days and it would be the turn of the sun that was orbited by their own planet. Their only hope was to have the Victory land on the Crystal Planet using its artefacts of the ancients and destroy the Control Nexus with an old black egg. They hadn’t expected to encounter this. The moment they entered the system, they came under fire of the largest ship ever seen. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Giant had managed to reduce their fleet to less than half of its original strength without suffering a single scratch. All the ships got in front of it, shielding the Victory with their hulls. Whenever one of them was destroyed by the hail of plasma bolts, another would take its place. Quickly, the fleet dwindled in numbers, and finally, no ship managed to get in front of the behemoth’s guns. The Victory was torn apart by more than ten plasma bolts. The moment that happened, The whole fleet froze for a moment. The old man covered his face with his hands and started crying as he muttered:,, Forgive me, please forgive me. I have failed. Please, Arth, forgive me.”
The image that floated in the chamber disappeared and the Leghk turned back towards their guests. Their leader once again spoke first:,, Tell me, what is this Arth?” Steven didn’t know what to say, he tried hard to listen, but only one thought echoed trough his mind. Jack Cloudy. Jack Cloudy. He must be my descendent. They’re alive! Finnally he managed to focus his attention on the Leghk:,, Arth is the name of a planet where we sent our Noah 2 colony. The Colony is an attempt to allow some of us to survive, even if we’re destroyed.” ,,One of the possible futures shows the death of Arth at the hands of the Crystal Planet. This planet is already there in your time.” ,,Then I have to get back and destroy it. I can’t let them die for nothing.” Steven answered as he pointed at the place were just a few moments ago the Leghk’s vision had floated. ,,No, that won’t be the solution. Destroy the planet, and they are destroyed by the ship. Destroy the ship, and they can destroy the planet. The ship is powerful, yet in one future, it is destroyed. Go now, for every second, that future becomes less possible.”
They had all assembled around the Humna Humna vehicle when one of the Leghk came forward. ,,One of our kind is onboard your ship, he will help you with your task. We also loaded a number of younglings inside stasis pods. These halls have been discovered and we shall soon be destroyed. Our last free brethren shall attempt to destroy the beast, but they will fail. Go, and know that you now carry the last hope of the Leghk.”
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
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Posts: 100
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Allright, I'm back, so start cheering or shouting ,,OH NO!! NOT AGAIN!! AAAHH!!"
I've written a bit, not much but I'm trying to get things going again. Here goes.
As they launched from the planet, they noticed the flashes of a battle in the distance. ,,Looks like we’re leaving just in time. Anton, why don’t you try to take us to a nice and calm place while I’ll go get our guest over here so we can ask him a few things. Oh, and one more thing. Blakes, could you make sure Anton actually follows my order? While I’m at it, Anton, could you tell me where to look?” ,,No way, captain dude. You just hurt my feelings so I’m not going to tell you where to look, find that floating balloon yourself.” Steven sighed and wanted to put Anton back in place but decided that it would be useless anyway and left the bridge to look for the Leghk who was supposed to be onboard while thinking to himself that Blakes definitely was not good at raising either children or sentient computers. He found it eventually when he came past the cargo bay and noticed that the door was open.
The Leghk was floating near a large group of small metal tubes and seemed to be checking each one of them. Steven looked at it for a while and then walked up to the creature to ask it what it was doing. ,,I’m checking the stasis pods, where our children sleep. Here they’re safe from the thoughts of the beast and they will sleep until we find a place where they can wake up and life.” ,,I’m afraid to disappoint you, but I’m not an explorer and I have some other things to worry about, how to get home in time to prevent my people to be all killed by a bunch of squids for example.” ,,Regrettable, but we already knew that. These children will remain onboard till your task is done, or till our souls pass on. However, you should know that your task no longer has anything to do with these beings you call squids. Instead, your task is to challenge one of the beasts minions and destroy that which threatens your children’s children. You will have to defend the future’s past. Now I shall go to the bridge of your ship, where I shall explain everything and tell you everything you might need to know.”
When he arrived back on the bridge with the Leghk close behind him, the first thing Steven noticed was the planet that filled the screen. ,,Umm, doesn’t that planet look a lot familiar to the one we just left?” ,,It is the same planet. Anton wanted to go to the nearest nebula, but I thought it would be safer if we would just hide behind the planet and wait for the outcome of the battle, after which we would either leave calmly or run for our lives. I don’t like the idea of cruising through an unknown nebula in an extremely hostile area of space without any shields.” ,,Who said we would be without any shields, dad?” ,,Well, did you forget your first lesson about nebulas? No shield functions when travelling through one.” ,,Except me off course.” ,,Do you know something the rest of us don’t?” ,,Yep, while you were looking at that big expensive TV, I had floating balloons all over the place.” ,,Ah, yes, I suppose it would be best if I filled you in on the little….modifications we made to your ship.” The Leghk said, interrupting the discussion that had started. ,,At first we did what we promised, repair your ship. However, we were intrigued by the actions of your computer. It’s the first time we met such a sophisticated design which wasn’t made by our own race. We are familiar with sentient computers. So we decided to go one step further. Instead of asking for the blueprints required to repair the damaged systems, we asked for the blueprints of the entire design. It took some persuasion, but after we received those blueprints, we immediately noticed it was a flawed design.” ,,What?!!” Blakes angrily shouted with a red face. ,,Please don’t feel insulted, professor. You have made an impressive ship, considering the level of development your race has achieved in your time. However, there was room for improvement, it just needed resources and technologies that wasn’t available to you. We took the liberty to enhance the design and remove the flaws.” ,,Are you saying you upgraded the ship, adding new parts and systems?” Jason said with an intrigued look. ,,I assume that’s how your race would call it. We have changed basically every system safe for your computer because trying to do so would most likely cause severe damage to it’s personal characteristics.” ,,Can’t get much worse, they should have done that.” Steven muttered. ,,I HEARD THAT!!! You monster!” ,,If I may continue. I would like to tell you the biggest changes we’ve made which you would consider important during combat.” The Leghk continued, apparently undisturbed by the noise from Anton who was now very convincingly crying through the speakers. ,,We removed your rear explosives emplacement and its ammunition and replaced them with a Leghkian device that allows the ship to make random teleportational movements during sublight movement. It can be found on all our warships. We also removed your forward explosives emplacement and their corresponding ammo and replaced both with miniaturised high power plasma bolt acceleration weapons. These require more power than any of your other weapons, so you won’t be able to use them in combination with those weapons. Our last modification was to replace your shield system with a Leghkian design. It allows higher damage absorption along with your ingenious rotating design and efficiently negates low power ion storms, allowing their use even while inside nebulas. If you would like, I’m now willing to answer questions.”
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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jack_cloudy
*Many bubbles*
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Posts: 100
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,,Well, I’ve fought Uhleck before, not often off course otherwise I wouldn’t be here. They seem to use the same ships as you do. Then why don’t they jump around like that thing you put in place of our buzz bombs is supposed to do? And what the hell is this beast you’re constantly talking about? And Anton, stop the damn crying, it won’t help you a thing and is driving me nuts!” ,,You meanie, think I would still listen to you, captain dude?” Anton said and continued crying. ,,AARGH!” ,,That was a very interesting demonstration of emotions, I will now answer your questions. The beast is how we call a creature otherwise known as the UHL. We discovered it some time ago, and after many attempts, we managed to communicate with it. We were shocked when we learned of its total disregard of life and how it despised us. It said that our thoughts hurt it, and for that we would pay the price. I’m afraid our own arrogance is to blame for our downfall. It took over the minds of our people, turning them into slaves. Only those with the strongest mind remain. This is the truth behind the race you know as the Uhleck. They are Leghk, enslaved by the UHL. Our scientists who have not yet succumbed to it, believe that if the UHL is destroyed, our enslaved brothers shall be free once more. But the UHL still exists in your time. Then it’s too late, they are then part of it. Destroy the UHL at that time, and you will destroy their minds with it. We first tried to destroy its core and failed, we now know that some of us tried to escape by creating a path into the future. This is how you came here, and this is how you shall leave. Now I shall answer the question of why your Uhleck don’t make any teleportational movements. The device we use for that causes the ship to phase into another dimension. The UHL loses contact with them in that dimension, causing them to become free again. This makes it useless for the UHL. Unfortunately, we don’t know how to remain inside that dimension, or we would flee there. It also needs a special kind of fuel, limiting the number of teleportations. Would you like to ask any other questions?” ,,You said my task was to destroy that things minions. Do you mean that you expect us to take on that fleet of psychopathic murderers out there?”
Allright, now I've put myself into a bit of a problem. :(The Vengeance needs some more upping before the final showdown with the great evil of the story, and I thought of putting an alien wreck somewhere on a planet and make them crash in the neighbourhood. Problem is, I can't let them use the teleportation device to jump right in front of a plasma bolt for example. I've been using impossible odds too much allready. (remember the suddenly appear and dissappear flux with the Warhammer that just happened to go a LOT further than any other known flux?) So, does anybody have suggestions?
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,,That was the worst and most boring movie I’ve ever seen. Lousy special effects.” Sergeant ironhead. The real reason why the alien brain on Cydonia was destroyed while in the middle of displaying a message telling the X-com operatives not to fire.
Hoe meer zielen, hoe meer vreugd! (yes I'm dutch)
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. I've been trying for a while to get there, but I always fail. I'll try to get some more up here when I come back from vacation or if I have time, tommorow.