20 – Opening Salvo
(Destiny – Vale’s quarters – 01.17.2020, 1702)
Vale kicked off his boots and sat down behind his desk. It was their third week aboard Destiny, which – so far – he was finding a bit of a mixed bag. Compared to Spera, their new home had its perks…
It was far less cramped, had a better facilities and had was well armed. But the integration of the two crews also came with issues. Colonel Young tended ask advice form the original expedition members. And the Nova Roma SG-Teams often got the short end of the stick when it came to off-world missions. It was a source of tension amongst the crew.
What also didn’t help, was that the original crew held all the leadership positions. As for Vale, he had spending most of his time getting up speed with the massive Ancient vessel. ~There’s only so such the paperwork can tell you.~ Especially since the Vicerant had repaired the entire ship as best as they could. With the result being that Destiny was now fully functional.
This meant that there were plenty of rooms and systems to figure out, which was keeping the former Spera scientists busy. But sooner or later, this work would run out as well. ~Which won’t be good for morale either.~ At the moment, Vale was writing all of this in his first report since arriving on the ship. Young probably wouldn’t be happy about it, but that wasn’t his problem. He had just finished his report and send it when somebody rang the bell.
“Come in.”
The door opened and Camille Wray came in. Spera had lacked an IOA representative, which had been fine with Vale. He was not exactly the biggest fan of the International Oversight Authority and it’s bureaucratic attitudes. They reminded him of the Senate back in the old days. Of course, that was not Wray’s fault.
“Miss Wray, what brings to my little corner of our really big spaceship ?”
“Well, it’s been two weeks and we haven’t even had a single conversation…”
“So, you decide to force this issue,” Vale said, while gesturing towards chair across from his.
“Look, Colonel…” Wray began as she sat down. “…I’ve read you’re file. And I’ve talked to several of your old crew, so I know that you’re not the biggest fan of the IOA. But I’m only here to help.”
“Help with what ?”
“I’ve noticed that there is tension between the original expedition members and the former Spera crewmembers,” She pointed to Vale’s laptop. “I presume that was the report you just send back to Earth.”
“Nothing gets past you,” Vale said as he turned the laptop around so that she could read his report. “So, what do you think we should do about this ?”
“Well, Colonel Young will not be happy about this. I’ll discuss this situation with him and we’ll take it from there.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
Wray nodded, got up and left. As soon as she was gone, Vale turned his laptop back and closed it. He had more reports to write, but those could wait. For now, he was more in the mood for dinner. So he headed out for the mess hall. When he got there, he found Chloe Armstrong, Eli Wallace, Cinara and Nikita Aranov sitting at a table. They were eating and talking. While Vale went to collect his dinner, they continued their discussion.
“So you’ve added everything to your documentary ?” Cinara asked.
“It’s a lot of footage,” Eli said. “I’m only a third of the way there.”
“Well, it’s been a rollercoaster,” Aranov said.
“What exactly is a rollercoaster ?” Cinara asked, while holding up a hand. “Alien girl, remember ? I really need to get up to speed with all this Earth stuff. And what kind of food is this ?”
“I’ll show you a picture someday,” Chloe said. “It’s mashed sweet potatoes, with some kind of beans, a vegetarian cheese burger and slices of something tomato-like. The Vicerant planted the garden with all sorts of edible and medicinal plants. Doctor Park is leading a team that’s working on figuring out what is what. Speaking of projects, rumor has it that the two of you are turning the Research Lab into Archeology HQ and that you are looking for members for a team.”
“The rumors are true,” Aranov began. “And since you’ve been studying Doctor Jackson’s work, you’re at the top of our list. So, are you interested ?”
“Sounds good to me. But do we have any artifacts to work on ?”
“There were several artifacts we brought along from Spera and another batch from Chaser. And we’re looking for places where we might be able to dig up Hal’Iry artifacts. But that….”
That was as far as he got before the alarm began blaring.
(Destiny – Bridge – 01.17.2020, 1740)
Matthew Scott was in the command chair, while Greer, Volker and Brody were manning the three forward consoles. Greer was the right console, while Brody was in the middle and Volker manned the left console. A minute ago, three Hal’Iry ships had entered sensor range. Based on their size and the energy signature of their weapons, they appeared to be warships. So Scott had sounded the alarm.
He was calculating how long it would take for the warships to reach weapons range when Colonel Young came in, followed by Eli and Lieutenant-Colonel Hailey. The last person to come in was Sergeant T’Zalo.
“What do we have ?” Young asked.
“Three Hal’Iry warships on approach, sir,” Scott began. “Destiny has estimated their weapons and says we’ll be in range in…” He worked several buttons. “….three minutes, sir.”
“How much firepower do these vessels have ?”
“Based on the energy readings, a lot,” Brody said. “But at this range, I can’t get you any details.”
“I could take a stab at it,” Hailey said. “Narrow the aft the sensors and tune them to specific band we need to get that information. But I’m going to need help.”
“Do it,” Young said. “Eli ?”
“Oh, right. I’m the help,” Eli said with a nod.
Eli and Hailey set to work. One of the displays facing the command chair changed to show a picture of one of the warships, with a series of red dots indicating where the weapons were. There were eight particle weapons and two torpedo launchers. ~Four forward particles weapons and one forward torpedo tubes.~ The other four particles weapons and the second torpedo launcher were pointed aft.
“Looks like they’re turrets.” Eli said.
“Yes, they can turn ninety degrees to the left and right, with the barrel being able to move up to a forty-five angle.”
Then the warships opened fire with their torpedo launchers.
(Decimator – Bridge - 01.17.2020, 1744)
The bridge of the Decimator was a cramped, square space. There were control stations lining the bulkheads, with the only way in being a hatch in between two stations. The command chair was in the center of the room, with the Helm station in front of it. The helm was in a sunken pit, so that the Commander could see through the only window in the room. Which was a round porthole in the bow bulkhead. Said porthole was fitted with several circuits that could provide the commander with all sorts of data.
Sitting in the command chair, Middle Commander Fc-83-H was glad to have his science officer back. The research on the Alien Rings was complete, so he had been able to disband his makeshift science team. That was the good news. The bad news were his new orders. If it had been up to him and La-27-A, they would have simply let the Ka’Zinro leave the galaxy. They would simply fade into legend and that would be the end of it.
But the Leadership wanted the aliens wiped out and all three vessels destroyed. So, here he was. Taking a deep breath, he turned to his communications officer.
“Lower Commander, anything from the Crimson Claw ?” The Crimson Claw was the fourth warship in the group that had been following the target. It’s sub-light drives had failed several minutes ago several minutes ago and they were still working on the repairs. “Something tells me we’re going to need all the firepower we can get on this one.”
“Nothing so far, Commander,” The officer said.
“Sir,” The Helm Officer said “The target is turning to engage us.”
Then the target opened fire with everything she could muster. Which – it turned out – was a lot. She hit the Decimator with her main weapon, throwing Fc-83-H from his chair. He was getting up to his feet when one of the consoles exploded and then a support beam came down from the ceiling.
“Weapons officer, shield status !?”
“Down to sixty percent, sir,” The officer said. “And that was with just two…”
That was as far as the officer got before another shot from the main weapon hit. ~Bloody idiots, ordering this attack.~ Fc-83-H was about to give an order when another piece of the ceiling came down and the world went black.
(Destiny – Bridge – 01.17.2020, 1747)
Destiny’s shields were down to sixty percent. She had destroyed one of the Hal’Iry warships and disabled another. The last of the three ships had engaged its hyperdrive. There was a fourth vessel further downrange, but that was not their current problem. Young was sitting in the command chair. He turned to Volker, who had been doing the flying during this engagement.
“Get us out of here,” Young said. “How long to repair the shields ?”
“An hour and half, maybe two,” Brody began. “The Vicerant installed a program that allows for easy command input for the maintenance drones. They also found six additional Ancient units and brought a dozen of their own. Of course, the Vicerant versions are crude copies.”
“I’ll take what I can get.” He turned the chair to face Eli, who was sitting at one of the aft consoles. “Any ideas why they attacked us now ?”
“No idea.” He looked at Hailey. “But Colonel Hailey has an idea about that.”
“Based on the scans, the Hal’Iry use traditional hyperdrives, which means they travel in subspace,” Hailey said. “And that means they can ONLY attack us while we’re moving at sub-light speeds. Which is why they attacked us now.”
“That’s something. But they’ll be back.”
“And probably with more firepower,” T’Zalo said, who standing next to Eli at the side station. “You’ve read the report on the skirmish at the quarry. This is already an escalation, sir.”
“Yeah, we’re going to have to come up with a plan.”
Young leaned back in the command chair. He thought that T’Zalo’s comment was right on the money, which meant that they wouldn’t just need a plan. They would need really good plan. Or this would end badly.
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