Oblivion

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sonofccn
Starship Captain
Posts: 1657
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 4:23 pm
Location: Sol system, Earth,USA

Oblivion

Post by sonofccn » Fri May 15, 2009 12:35 am

Okay here is something that's been rattling around my brain the last couple of days. Any thoughts, suggestions or critiques are welcome

I. Prelude of oblivion:

"Spectral scanners are going crazy!" One officer shouted as Null-holes as they had quickly been dubbed ripped their way into existence.

The open portals like festering sores in the fabric of reality, a description possibly more accurate then Commodore Cody wished to think about as his ship was buffeted by a force as yet undetermined. The forever morphing fluidic edge of each portal ringed with…things. The best description he could think of were worms, long translucent worms which seemed to reach out and grasp the solid realm with a blind hunger. He knew of no worms however that could burn through the armored hull of a frigate and pull the stricken craft back into the vortex as had already happened twice to vessels daring to get too close to the null-holes. All contact ceasing almost the instant a ship crossed over, the distorted fragments received consisting of inhuman shrieks of terror.

"We are reading another three vessels emerging." The officer said gripping his station to keep from being flung from it.

"Composition?" Deth Bardess asked walking across the bridge despite the buffeting it was receiving, stepping over a Servitor which hadn't been as lucky.

The clockwork man flaying his limbs in the air uselessly as his simple engrained mind struggled to come to grasps that he was now flat on his back and his whole center of gravity had changed.

"One missile boat and two needles." Came the reply as the Visualizer shifted to focus on the latest additions to the growing fleet battle.

The bulbous cylinder shaped missile boat instantly started living up to it's code name. Pods extending from either side and unleashing a hellish amount of nuclear tipped missiles. The spinning chamber a blur as it unloaded it's stockpile and then retracted with mechanical precision, a few quick eyed individuals like Deth noticing the open ports reversing direction one hundred and eighty degrees before vanishing back inside their berths, where they were hastily reloaded and the process started all over again. The six particle cannons affixed to the ship's prow also adding to the carnage. A Vigilance class frigate shuddering as it's ray shields were fully demolished from such a salvo. It's point defense lasers weaving a deadly tapestry around it's self shielding off the slower missiles but the sheer volume pounded their way through.

"Do we have any more torpedoes!" Cody demanded from his command seat.

"We're still holding two in reserve!" Tong shouted from his station.

A Primape he wore his Republic uniform ill fitting around his bulkier and hairier and had more then once complained about not being allowed to use his feet to operate the controls but as a Tactical officer there were few finer.

"Lock one onto the missile boat!" Cody demanded as Tong helped direct the cruiser's cannon fire on one of the sleeker needle shaped warships.

"Aye sir!" He replied locking on to the target.

The heavy missile spat out of the dominating cruiser at high velocity as the missile boat curved around the injured frigate like a shark and unleashed a second volley of it's cannons. The struck side of the hull glowing incandescently as the ribbons of energy lanced down to the core of the vessel. Cody physically wincing as he imagined the onboard crew vaporized either from the energy itself or the breeched reactor undoubtedly struck. A cascade failure rendering the six or ten nuclear missiles which slammed into the hull redundant but this race didn't seem the type to count the odd missile. The mortally wounded vessel exploding spectacularly in the airless void of space, the hull splitting into thirds briefly before the whole thing was atomized. The expanding debris cloud obscuring the heavy missile as it soared through it, the missile boat giving no signs of detecting it or at least caring. A passing needle ship apparently did firing a low yield laser beam as it zipped past but thanks to the high density ray shielding rendered the shot inert despite the respectable dwell time the beam was on target. What happened next couldn't be seen but every bridge officer was familiar with. As soon as the hull of the target vessel passed through the ray shielding the "cap" of the missile would detach and the breeching charge inside it would detonate. A directed spray of super heated plasma cutting a hole just as the missile sled, with it's fusion warhead housed within, expended the remainder of it's fuel in a ramming maneuver. The heavily armored bomb would then be shoved into the vessel like a spike from a railgun at which point it would go off in all it's glory.

"Torpedo detonated sir." Tong replied as a miniature star flashed in existence behind the floating debris cloud.

The star shinning for several seconds before dieing out, it's fuel expended, a backlash of plasma shooting out in all directions from the circumference of the nuclear inferno milliseconds before total dissolution. While larger then even Cody's cruiser it was a tiny blip in expanse of space of course. The cubic volume it had occupied had been almost nonexistent, not even a threat to the needle ship which had been the nearest vessel to the incident. The ray-less ship requiring a heat-ray carving up it's hull followed by an atomic shell which detonated against it's naked hull before it joined the fate of the frigate and missile boat.

"The Crusader is taking damage!" Lt. Janet Wesly reported." Two needle ships are firing on her and rupturing their hull.

"Bring us about!" Cody ordered with a snarl.

The normally jovial commander both enraged at the Crusader, a fellow Constitution class cruiser, being assaulted and leaving ruthless enemies alive. The other needle ship which had emerged from the Null-hole limping away spewing atmosphere and reactants from where a Heat-ray had raked over it but limped away none the less. The ship vanishing from the Visualizer just as a shockwave nearly threw everyone to the deck plating. The klaxon for hull breach sounding as the ship tumbled over on it's port side. Deth barely managing to choke out a yelp as the Servitor crashed into him. The droid pleasantly asking him in the English Gentleman accent if he desired any tea or other refreshments as the two tumbled across the bridge.

"Report!" Cody screamed, the restraint straps cutting into his flesh as the ship tried to correct itself."

"Massive exotic energy disturbance detected." Moxie, the ship's calcutron, answered uneededly.

"Another Null-hole opened up sir…at a million Kilometers from our position. I mean roughly half a million miles sir." Tong said correcting his terminology.

"Impossible. We've had vortex open up a quarter mile from the hull and they didn't toss us that much!" Cody said fearing the spectral scanners had been misaligned.

"It's…it's big sir." Which was all Tong could say, the Visualizer showing everything else.

"My God!" Cody said in an awed voice.

Deth looking up from below the still delighted to serve Servitor could only whistle at the massive Null-hole. He wasn't fully sure of the scale of it, the swirling nature of it's perimeter making it's exact size ever changing anyway, but he could sense it was big. The void large enough to allow passage of something nearly as monstrously huge, a solid sphere. The protoplasmic tendrils, microscopic in comparison, twitched and twirled around it as the giant ball of rock exited the unnatural realm. The rear side of the sphere was aglow from the exhaust from an untold number of engines of sizes rivaling a Republic Assault cruiser. The Null-hole thankfully retracting back into itself once the object cleared instead of depositing another foul war machine into an already cluttered system.

"Read out!" Cody demanded as the planetoid moved at a snail's pace away from it's entrance point.

"The circumference is over one thousand miles. It is being propelled at three hundred miles per second via an Orion derivative based propulsion, possibly Heliosian in design. I am reading large quantities of nickel and iron in it's crust as well as a few other precious metals and granite like rock. Spectral scanners are also reading massive colonization both on the planetiod's surface as well as deeper structures but an energy damping field similar to what is employed by the warships are shielding the instillations." Tong answered watching as the moon like body drifted through the raging battle, as untroubled by it as a whale would be plankton.

"They fly moons?" Deth asked the quiet bridge." That can't be possible!"
"Nothing we can do. Wesly, what is the Crusader's status?" Cody said fully realizing that even if his ship was in prime condition with it's full compliment it wouldn't even scratch the giant floating into their midsts.

"Sir?" The officer said staring at the orbital body.

"The Crusader we were supposed to deliver aid. What is their status and exact location for bombardment fire."

"Their gone sir. The Crusader…broke up." Wesly replied tapping back into the frantic com traffic going across the battle.

sonofccn
Starship Captain
Posts: 1657
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 4:23 pm
Location: Sol system, Earth,USA

Post by sonofccn » Fri May 15, 2009 12:38 am

Chapter II more or less


While it was true the Techkatta had long ago delved into augmentation to improve their species and as consequence had drastically altered themselves to being almost unrecognizable to their ancestors, with images of beauty reflecting this shift, Clan leader Dayios couldn’t help but find the Selenoughts to be completely repulsive. Their drab brown exoskeleton, their vomit green multi-faceted eyes, the snake like appendages they called feelers, it was as if they had been bred to cause revulsion in him. It was almost enough to make him wish he had never agreed to the coalition. That feeling growing higher as one of the repulsive creatures turned and stared it's sick green eyes at him and began chattering in their inane buzzing voice. It was an embedded chip, one of many augmentations, the only thing enabling him to transform the useless noise into a coherent message.

<The Swarm losses are greater then predicted.> The creature threatened him as if he was the sole arbitrator of fate.

"Some element of risk can not be eliminated. My Soulrenders are suffering as greatly as you are." Dayios answered smugly, a live feed now available to him now that they had exited that void tunnel.

The sound of his voice reciting the closet approximation of the Selenoughts speech now a familiar constant instead of disorientating as it had been at first. The four assembled "leaders" of the insect race turned and conversed briefly, Dayious attempting to busy himself staring at the crude and slow to update holographic display.

<There is truth in your statement but losses to the Swarm must be balanced with gains.> They replied a few moments later.

" I would think this system would be sufficient gains. Just scan the primary planet, it's rich in minerals and ores. The others in this system are just as richly blessed. Your hive will grow by leaps with this wealth and outshine the rest of the Hegemony."

<The primary planet is infested with bipedial vertebrates, scans confirm billions of them.> One replied whose name Dayios didn't even want to attempt and tax his translation matrix recklessly.

"Of course. It's rich in biomass, fifteen billion fresh lifeforms. The old and weak will of course be eliminated but my clan stands to gain five to ten billion fresh slaves. Billions to tend to the machines, to feed them and repair them. Daytron will enter a new Golden age and the clans will bow before Clan Dayios once and for all." Dayios said gleefully rubbing his two cybernetic arms together.

<Your desire to contaminate the purity of your Swarm is puzzling. Do not speak of it in our presence again. The balance and purity of the Swarm is paramount and supercedes even the Queen wishes.> All the bugs said, twitching their feelers in a move similar to a shudder in other species.<Your presence here risks that balance but is tolerated for now.>

"Then we should focus on the mission at hand. Once our fleet secures orbit we can began lowering transports. Remember we want the insolent curs on this planet so keep your planetary bombardments short and precise. Everyone you kill recklessly is one less slave for us."

<The Swarm analyzed a trader captain's cerebral matter that had visited the Primary planet in the recent past. The Swarm is now aware of the planet's defenses. Your desire to salvage the biomass will cause further Swarm losses. The Swarm predicts the losses as acceptable but infinity is fluid. The Swarm will not suffer losses greater then gains, should the scenario occur the biomass will be exterminated.>

"Of course. I wouldn't dream of it any other way. I'm sure this venture will be more profitable for our two species then we could hope."

***
"Hull breaches detected. Twenty-one and counting alien objects detected within pressurized environment." Moxie warned needlessly as the cruiser shuddered from the bombardment.

"We know!" Cody shouted over the dozens of klaxons screaming across the bridge.

The attacking vessel visible on the Visualizer as it fired it's cannons/rocket tubes. The guns were housed within the sleek silver hull with only a slight raised nodule to house the exit point providing additional protection to them from attack. The large caliber shells shooting out of the dark berths, their tail ends illuminated by an incandescent glow which fluctuated in brightness as the rocket sailed towards them. The magneticly propelled shells of the cruiser passing past the rockets, a perverse salute shared between two munitions of war, before both slammed into their respective targets.

"Emergency bulkheads are closing across the ship. The Aft section has been fully cut off!" Tong replied as the ship shuddered again, the hull warping as the high velocity slugs tore through it cleaner then heavy torpedoes could have.

"Have you dispatched our report to Central!" Cody demanded as the enemy vessel exploded apart, two cylinder shaped vessels closing in for the kill.
"I've attempted sir." Wesly replied as both lights and gravity failed around them." I can't confirm the message was sent."

"We've lost primary power. Emergency batteries are kicking in!" Tong replied clawing at his station to pull him back there.

"We can't project ray-shields." Deth whispered as he clawed his way out from under the Servitor.

"Defense Heat-rays will also be of limited endurance. You still functional Moxie?" Cody asked still strapped to his seat.

"This unit is functional. The central computing device has remained undamaged." Moxie replied.

"That a girl. How much longer can we keep the PD guns running?"

"Nine point five minutes at current expenditures. That is assuming all power is diverted from emergency backups." Moxie replied as the two cylinder ships attacked with beam weapons.

"Do it, shut down life support." Cody ordered undoing his restraints.

"Sir with the loss of atmosphere across the ship I can't promise you we can breath for ten minutes." Tong answered as the dim glow of the lights shrunk to almost nonexistent.

"We won't be breathing this air for long. Sound Omega klaxon. We're abandoning this ship." Cody said, voice cracking slightly as he said it.

"Abandoned the Iron Hand?" Deth asked swirling in the darkness towards his commanding officer.

"I gave an order. Don't tell me I'm going to have to start repeating myself." Cody replied with his trade mark grin, through the veil of shadows could not conceal the tears in his eyes.

"Yes sir!" Tong replied with all the stoic mannerisms a Primape officer was expected to posses.

"Head to New Swabia. The colony is going to need every last uniformed man it can get." Cody said quietly." Moxie, ready for your final orders?"

"This un- I am ready." Moxie replied after a slight pause that could have been from damage.

"I need you to maintain the defense grid, keep their missiles off our pods and transports. I'm counting on you to get my men planet side safely. Do you understand?"

"I will comply Commodore Cody. Please disembark the space craft." Moxie answered as the crackling Visualizer showed both missiles and rockets exploding in a shower of metal fragments.

"Thank you." Cody replied as he looked around at his bridge crew, many of whom he served with for years." Well let's not miss our dance."

"We are right behind you, Commodore." Tong answered releasing himself from his station and pushing away.

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