Kesitov Star System
Ghost Region((Darkspleen x Sigma collab)
The little strike craft flew ahead of the Augustan flotilla, occasionally darting off to the side to “investigate” what inevitably always turned out to be just another asteroid. After a few moments the craft would simply declare “ROCK” before returning to its original course.
Not long after leaving the ruins of the asteroid base the flotilla came upon another buoy. Playing a familiar message. “WARNING!” A familiar masculine voice began. “You are now entering a restricted military zone. Reverse course and-”
“This is the GRNS
Witch of the Void. Disregard the previous message. All civilians take heed. This is a safe zone.” There was a slight, but noticeable pause. “For now. Head to zone Alpha-Charlie-18 and ensure that your ship’s IFF is functional and activated. If you are a military vessel with orders no greater than Priority Grey, you are hereby ordered to head to zone Alpha-Charlie-18 and report in for new orders. I repeat, this is currently a safe zone.”
Notably the buoy had begun repeating its message without the section about being overdue for maintenance. The strike craft, for its part, completely ignored the buoy’s existence.
The Augustan comms officer, after much prodding, had eventually gotten a name of sorts out of the craft. It had proven to be a thirty character long string of hexadecimal that meant nothing. Perhaps sensing the poor comms officer’s frustration, the strike craft had given an alternative.
“OTHERS CALL ME NOSEWISE!”
Nosewise seemed to have some location in mind for its destination, but thus far the attempts to elicit an answer had simply been answered with “WHERE WITCH IS?” and “OTHER ROCKS!”
It had become apparent, however, that Nosewise was leading the flotilla deeper into the system towards the star. And during the flotilla’s time with Nosewise the so called Swimmers had chosen to stay out of sight. They were certainly still nearby. The flotilla’s psionic rangers could feel a sense of… curiosity from the beings that followed them out from seemingly just out of sight. There had always been an undercurrent of hunger under that curiosity, but as time went on that hunger grew and grew and grew.
THEY HUNGERED.
All the while the flotilla followed nosewise across the system, deep in the bowels of the
Courageous in the sick bay, the Hawthorn siblings alongside the chief medical officer were poking and prodding at an asteroid fragment, particular one of the projectiles used by the Swimmers in their first “encounter” so to speak. The chief medical officer, a Doctor Zandin, pulled a small tool from her coat pocket as she prodded the surface. “Nothing unusual about the rock itself.” She commented. “Except…” As she pulled away the tool, a string of black mucus formed between the two surfaces. “As you can see, the sample, and previous others were coated in some kind of mucus.”
“We in any danger, doc?” Darius asked, concerned with the amount of unknown alien material brought abroad.
Zandin nodded her head. “I mean, there is always risk, but besides the gross factor, the mucus isn’t toxic.” She paused as he placed the tool down. “In fact, I think it serves a tactical purpose.”
“Loogies? Tactical?” Elisa said plainly, a little dumbfounded at what the doctor just said.
“The mucus has…properties that had acted as a sort of stealth lair, it’s how the rocks managed to hit the haul without our sensors even detecting them before impact.”
“Hmm.” Darius mumbled, a little intrigued with what the doctor had to say. “So not only do these things eat starships for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but secrete stealth goo as well...” Elisa said, a little concerned as she learns a bit more about these “swimmers”.
The doctor, on the other hand, was veeery intrigued by these creatures. “The more we know, the better prepared we can be.” She said, Darius nodding in agreement. “By the way. How are your headaches going?”
“Still pounding like a bitch.” Darius bluntly replied. “I can still feel something out there, it's certainly curious by our presence, in an inhuman sort of way that is.”
“Not to mention, it FEELS hungry.”
Elsewhere on the bridge, the Comms Officer, a lieutenant Maxwell, attempted to what seemed like a conversation with Nosewise. Getting tidbits of information that may be useful. “What is Republic?” Maxwell asked via code, the fact a civilization was able to flourish in pure isolation for millennia was in itself a topic worthy of delving into.
There was a long pause before Nosewise responded. “DON’T KNOW. NEVER SEEN. SOMETHING GOOD? WITCH THINKS SO.”
No luck there sadly, perhaps the crew of the Witch will be forthcoming. “Let’s try something else…” She thought to herself as transmitted another code. “Sounds good. Yes. We close to Witch? Yes?”
“MAYBE? WITCH GONE FOR FOUR DAYS. LOOKING FOR BLACK KNIGHT.”
There’s that name again, Black Knight, another friendly ship perhaps? “Black Knight friend too? Where Black Knight?”
“NOT FRIEND. BOSSY. IF KNEW WHY SEARCH?” Nosewise paused for a moment before adding “WITCH THINKS BLACK KNIGHT AMONGST ASTEROIDS BEYOND THE STAR.”
Looks like a new lead was presented to the flotilla. She swiveled her chair to face the captain. “You got that, sir?”
Captain Hood nodded. “That I have.” He said. “You heard the clanker, people, our objective is somewhere on the other side of that star.” The captain paused as he adjusted himself. “Ask our friend if it can take us to the Black Knight.”
Maxwell nodded as he sent the message. “We go to Black Knight, yes? You lead us, yes?”
“WHY? LOOK FOR WITCH. WITCH BETTER! WITCH NICER!” Out ahead of the Augustan flotilla the little strike craft began to veer from side to side.
Maxwell thought for a brief moment, before a light switch went off in her head. “But if we find Black Knight, we find Witch, yes?” That might make Nosewise more cooperative.
Nosewise seemed to contemplate this for a moment. “MAYBE.” After a few moments Nosewise added. “LARGE AREA.” Another pause. “SEARCH TAKE FOREVER.” Another even longer pause. “WITCH WILL PROBABLY JUST FIND US IF WE MAKE ENOUGH NOISE!” The strike craft began emitting a new pulsing signal. It wasn’t a particularly strong signal, far weaker than the signal the asteroid base had been sending out, but probably as powerful a signal as the strike craft could make.
“Orders?” Maxwell looked to the captain, nosewise seems very insistent on meeting the Witch. The captain pondered before giving the order “…We might as well humor it. “He said. “Have all three ships emit a signal similar to nosewise, maybe making enough “noise” per se will work and draw out the Witch.” After some time passed, all three ships followed nosewise’s lead and began to emit a signal, theoretically, their close proximity should make a big enough ‘blip' for any ship close enough to detect.
And a response did come. Somewhere in the asteroid belt ahead of the flotilla, perhaps a few hours away, a pulse similar to the one Nosewise had emitted came into being. It was obviously degraded, having to travel from inside the asteroid belt and through all the gasses and debris of the star system, but there was no doubt that some spacecraft was responding. And whatever the spacecraft was, it was far more powerful than Nosewise.
The Swimmers had, of course, continued to shadow the Augustans, always just a little bit behind, their hunger hard to miss to those with psionic talent. But where there had once been curiosity, curiosity directed at the Augustans, there was now intent. Intent directed elsewhere. The movement couldn’t be observed by the Augustans’ sensors, at least not yet, but all on those ships could somehow feel the Swimmers accelerating. They didn’t accelerate directly at the Augustans. Instead they gave the Augustans a wide berth as they overtook the flotilla and continued on towards the source of the new pulse.
The hawthorn siblings, after their little visit from the sick bay had briefly returned to the bridge around the point where the signals were collectively emitted. Sensing the departure of the Swimmers.
“Sir, we have a new signal! Just on the other side of the star, in the asteroid belt.” A bridge officer announced. Hood nodded. “Good, good, we have another trail that lead us to more answers.” Before he could even give an order, Darius briskly approached him. “Captain, wait!” He yelped.
“You have to know; the Swimmer’s presence is starting to fade.” Darius announced.
“And? That’s good, right?” The captain was a little confounded at Darius’ interruption, and probable objection.
“…Not exactly.” He replied. Elisa stepped forward. “Sir, they’re fading, but they’re heading for the origin point of the new signal.” The realization set in for the captain. “Shit, we’ve compromised their position.”
Without haste he gave the order. “All ships! Full speed for the new signal!” He ordered. “We’ve potentially put the crew of the Witch at great risk, it’s a race against time people!”
The Augustan crews could do little more but sit and wait as their ships sped towards what was presumably the
Witch of the Void. The unidentified ship let out several more pulses before going quiet. And so the flotilla traveled in relative quiet for almost two hours before the situation changed.
Flashes of light could be seen from inside the asteroid belt. Energy weapons. From the looks of it there were only a few batteries of warship size, however there were also signs of numerous smaller energy weapons being used. Strike craft perhaps? If that was the case there were a lot of them.
Nosewise, having noticed the signs of battle, signaled the flotilla. “I GO.” The strike craft increased its speed, pulling away from the flotilla. “FRIENDS. STAY SAFE.”
Ahead the flashes of weapons fire reached a crescendo. Small explosions could be made out, although the combatants themselves were still hidden behind the haze of the star system’s gasses and asteroids.
The time has finally come, it seems. Survivors of the Ghost Nebula have been found, and the flotilla may very well be the first living beings outside the region to lay eyes on these Swimmers that have been stalking them for so many hours. “This is it people!” The captain exclaimed. “Warm up all weapons, get ready to engage the enemy.”
Within the
Courageous’s hanger bay, seven pioneer strike craft burst forth, moving into a delta formation alongside the their mothership and the two corvettes, they may not amount to much in turning the tide, but the extra firepower, no matter how small, could always be of use.
From the seemingly empty space between the Augustan flotilla and asteroid belt came a barrage of space rock. This time, however, the projectiles came at a much higher speed, fast enough to do some damage if they struck. This increased speed, however, did seem to cause the stealth mucus covering the rocks to come off in small bits, enough to give the Augustans a decent chance to see them.
In the distance the first actual sighting of the combatants came into view. A pair of strike craft, similar to Nosewise but obviously more advanced, streaked into view, chased by… a monster. The creature reached out towards the craft with its long tentacles, swiping at one of them. The craft dodged to the side at the very last moment before flipping end over end to fire back with its own beam cannons. The beam attack landed, cleaning severing one of the tentacles off. One of the remaining seven tentacles swatted the strike craft with enough force to slam it into a nearby asteroid. The second strike craft darted deeper into the asteroid belt as its comrade disappeared into a ball of fire.
Elsewhere a squadron of fighters could be observed darting around and harassing a creature the size of a destroyer. It struggled to hit any of the fighters with its tentacles and after a moment it spat a glob of plasma out. The plasma struck one of the fighters and the craft was engulfed in an explosion.
Particle beams speared out from the depths of the asteroid belt, heralding the arrival of the strike crafts’ mothership. The mothership was obviously some kind of dedicated carrier. It possessed numerous hangerbays, most of which were currently closed. It had several weapons batteries, particle beam cannons, that seemed undersized for a ship of that size, perhaps serving as some form of mix of CIWS and battery. It was also very heavily armored for a carrier, perhaps as heavily armored as one would expect a ship of the line to be. And it very much needed every bit of armor it had.
A creature the size of a destroyer had attached itself to the carrier, its tentacles wrapped around the warship and squeezing. The carrier tried to hit it with its CIWS, missing the body of the creature but severing a tentacle. A squadron of fighters swooped in and fired their beam weapons at the creature, wounding it but failing to dislodge it, as they fled from another creature the size of a corvette. The carrier switched targets to the corvette sized creature, its particle beam cannons scoring several clean hits on the creature’s body. The creature spasmed, shuddered, and then went still.
The carrier rolled as it neared an asteroid. The movement was graceful even if the carrier was slow. The carrier continued its roll until the body of the creature wrapped around it was between it and the asteroid and then it fired all of its maneuvering thrusters, slamming itself into the asteroid and smashing the creature in the process. The carrier continued moving forward, leaving the creature smeared and dead along the side of the asteroid.
Two VLS bays opened on the carrier out of which two missiles emerged. The missiles quickly changed course towards the Augustan flotilla. The Augustans wouldn’t have been blamed for thinking they were under attack, but once the missiles had made it halfway to the flotilla they flipped end over end and unleashed their packload back towards the way they had come. Their payload turned out to be the equivalent of grapeshot or a shotgun blast. Thousands of small fragments of metal burst out and flew back towards the asteroid belt. Hundreds of these projectiles found new homes in the bodies of nearly invisible creatures. The same creatures that were hurling rocks at the Augustans. The same creatures that had been stealthily moving closer to the Augustans.
Detected, the creatures dropped all attempts at stealth, five corvette sized tentacleD monstrosities appearing where but a moment ago had seemingly been nothing, and sped towards the Augustans with tentacles outstretched.
In one moment, the Augustans were venturing to their destination, and in another moment, had found themselves right in the middle of a battle. The swimmers that had been stalking them for hours at last revealed themselves, flowing through space at an alarming rate as they charged towards the flotilla
“Scatter! Fire everything!” The captain blurted out, no instructions were even needed in this case, it’s pretty damn clear who’s friend and who’s foe. The trio of ships and their fighter escort scattered into the void, the space becoming a target-rich environment. The duo of starlance corvettes break off into two directions as their light guns blindly fire towards the general direction of the attacking swimmer pod. The
Courageous herself turned to face the stalkers head on, her forward guns blasting out beams and launching missiles, all the way they were pelted by waves of rock fragments from the swimmers.
Attacking pod themselves had scattered, one of the corvettes, the
Intrepid, to be their first target as they hurled plasma bolts at her, much to the shock and surprise of those onboard. “They shoot fucking plasma now?!?!” Elisa blurted out as she and others saw the scene unfolding. The shields had failed, the ship was scarred with scorch marks; parts of the hull breached. A pair of swimmers moving in for the kill as they wrapped their tendrils on both ends of the ship, violently pulling it apart, the horror of seeing their fellow augustans sucked out into the vacuum of space, their screams silenced. Their fresh bodies picked apart by the tendrils.
A similar fate would befall the
Outlander as she charged towards the swimmers, attempting to avenge her sister ship, her forward guns blasting off in a fury, scoring some hits as blood jetted out into space. Colliding with one of the creatures until both smash against a larger asteroid. The
Outlander turning into a small blaze of light. The ranger fighters in the meantime, distracted one other swimmer as they swarmed it like angry insects.
The
Courageous meanwhile resumed her attack, firing off its heavy guns and missiles as it charged head first against one of the swimmers.
The carrier, for its part, was still engaged with the remaining destroyer sized Swimmer. It was an elegant dance between the two. The Swimmer was faster and more agile, yes the carrier always seemed to know exactly how to turn at the last moment or use an asteroid as a shield in order to keep the Swimmer away. All the while a squadron of fighters harassed the swimmer, chipping away at it with their beam weapons.
Two more squadrons of strike craft had emerged from the asteroid belt, one made up of the same fighters as the first squadron while the second made up of slightly larger craft. Both flew towards the embattled
Courageous.
The carrier fired off another missile, aimed at two of the corvette sized Swimmers that were bunched together. The missile detonated shortly before reaching the Swimmers, letting out a hail of metal fragments. One of the Swimmers was badly mauled by the attack, the other avoided most of the fragments by hiding behind the first. Both turned their attention away from the
Courageous and towards the carrier.
The seemingly last heroic stand would be cut short as friendly fighters, and ordnance lit the Killzone ablaze. Two of the swimmers turning their attention away to a new target, giving the
Courageous much needed breathing room as it joined into the fray as her own fighters and allied fighters charged towards the targeted swimmer, the impressive beam weapons of the ghost region survivors shredding the beast apart.
The squadron of heavier Ghost Region strike craft opened fire on one of the Swimmers that had taken out the
Intrepid, opening fire with a barrage of rockets and beam lasers. The shredded that Swimmer as well, allowing the heavy attack craft to turn their attention to the Swimmers that were even now heading towards the carrier. They were soon joined by the second squadron of Ghost Region strike craft, after they had helped the
Courageous with its kill.
The carrier, for its part, had turned towards the
Courageous, intent to join up even if that meant heading straight into the tentacles of the two corvette sized Swimmers. The carrier still had to make evasive maneuvers as the last of the destroyer sized Swimmers tried to grab it. All the while the last squadron of strike craft continued to fire away on the destroyer sized Swimmer, which seemed to not care about them at all.
The
Courageous and her fighter escort joined in the attack, the pioneers tasked with slowing down or eliminating the corvette-class swimmers. While the
Courageous herself was thrust on full speed towards the destroyer-class swimmer, aiming the heavy guns and firing off another wound of missiles and directed-energy fire at the behemoth.
The sight of the now dead swimmers that drifted all around them had alleviated the fear and dread somewhat. They can bleed and die like every other being in the galaxy, and that alone gives the crew the resolve to see this to the end, to avenge their fallen brothers and sisters in arms.
The thus far unidentified, but certainly friend, carrier maneuvered itself alongside the
Courageous. One of its squadrons continued to fly around the two ships in a large circle as the two remaining squadrons headed back to the carrier. After a few moments the carrier opened a communications channel with the
Courageous“This is
Witch of the Void. Nice to see some friendly faces.” A dark skinned woman wearing a black military uniform partially covered by a white military style coat appeared on the
Courageous’s communications screen. She had a friendly smile on her face, even going so far as to wink. No one could be faulted for calling the woman a Yrrani. She did, after all, have a Yrrani’s telltale pointed ears. But her’s were different than what one would expect from a Yrrani. Her ears were much longer. “Nosewise indicated that you weren’t from around these parts and while I could get the whole story from him… well I figured it’d just be easier to ask you.” She shrugged. “So, who are you all and what brought you to this hellhole?”
The bridge crew couldn’t help but blush at the sight of
Witch of the Voids’s captain, and a Yrrani at that, one doesn’t see much Yrrani outside of their enclaves, and those ears for sure make them a different breed. Captain Hood snapped himself out of it and cleared his throat. “Captain Ryan Hood of the SRS
Courageous, Star Rangers of the Augustan Empire.” He paused for dramatic effect. “And the short of it is, we came to investigate the region after an anomaly, a tear in space had sort of “fixed” itself. We’ve come from the other side.”
The Yrrani captain raised an eyebrow at that. “Do you now? Are things so dull out there you have to find new things to entertain yourselves with?” After a moment she adopted a thoughtful expression. “Whatever happened to the Yrrani Empire? I’m guessing your Augustan Empire isn’t some sort of client state. The old Yrrani would never stand for someone else to dare call themselves an empire.”
The captain fixed himself up to deliver the news to the Yrrani. He had briefly forgotten the region had been closed off for 1800 years, these people unaware of the past six hundred years of radical change. “The Empire is long dead, fell over five centuries ago.” He announced. “In the void that was left by their old masters, our precursors, their former servants have risen to replace them. The Augustan Empire stands as one of the mightiest of the successors in the galaxy.” That last bit he said with a hint of patriotic pride. Turning his attention back to the Yrrani captain. “A lot has happened while you were trapped here, the Yrrani still live for the most part, but their power has diminished, small enclaves all that remain.”
“Good. Good.” The Yrrani captain said. “That’s one threat we don’t have to be concerned about then.” Her seemingly perpetual smile spread even further. “Guess you could say we outlasted them, in a sense.” Her smile darkened just a tad. “Well I suppose you’ve met the Swimmers. The vermin were supposed to still be quiet for another five or so years. Guess that’s just bad luck on your part. Or… maybe good luck given that none of the really big or clever ones came out to say hello.” She let out a, probably theatrical, sigh. “I have to admit they caught me off guard. Should have brought
Pike or
Halberd with me.”
The Captain, and as well as the bridge crew hearts sunk after the Witch’s captain comments on the swimmers. “
Big? Clever?..…oh sweet merciful gods…” He thought to himself, making his damndest to not make an audible reaction, best not ruin the mood after a hard fought battle. The struggle alone against these “smaller” breeds was soul-draining, they probably wouldn’t have survived against the larger ones. Although the previous comment did perk his ears. “You were enemies of the Old Empire?” he asked, intrigued with the story behind that.
“Don’t read much ancient history?” The Yrrani captain asked. “Ah that’s not fair. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Yrrani had simply erased us from the history books. But yea, we were what you’d call old enemies. The Yrrani-Twei never did like how the Yrrani treated other species. And well after the Twei Expulsion… had the Ghost Nebula not been sealed away, the Twei and Yrrani would have come to blows sooner or later. Back in the early days of the Republic it was assumed that the Yrrani would eventually make their way back into the Ghost Nebula and reconquer it for their empire. That… ceased to be the main concern once the Swimmers showed up.”
Hood’s eyebrow rose. “Seal? You mean the tears in space were of Yrrani creation?” Although that should be no surprise, the Old Empire was a technological juggernaut, with a small armories’ worth of devastating superweapons that could make and break the galaxy at will. Tearing the very fabric of real space is not beyond the Old Empire’s capabilities. “And you’ve survived all this time while fighting against those monsters while cut off? I must say, very impressive.”
“Survived is a… strong term for what we’ve done.” The Yrrani, no Twei, captain shrugged. “More like existed. If anything it feels like the Swimmers have allowed us to continue to exist. They’ve been… rather dull for the past hundred or so years. Either way there’s not many of us left. Other than my hidden base the only other stronghold we have left here is being guarded by Dame. I haven’t found it yet, but I’m pretty sure she’s still hidden away. I probably would have found it this trip if it weren’t for the Swimmers breaking their pattern.” She let out a long sigh. “Which reminds me… how did you end up with Nosewise?”
“We…encountered it alone in a wrecked graveyard.” Hood said, he connected the dots. “We had come across the aftermath of a fierce battle, the wrecked remains of an asteroid station and a few ships.” He paused and prepared to share the bad news. “We intercepted a garbled transmission before the station’s reactor went critical, it was a warning for the
Witch to stay away, and that the
Pike[ and
Halberd sunk….I’m so sorry, but they’re all gone. Nosewise was all that was left.”
“Damn” The Twei grimaced. “
Pike and
Halberd are- were” She corrected herself, “good friends. And the loss of that base means I can’t resupply anymore. Now I
have to find Dame and the base she’s guarding.” The Twei closed her eyes for a moment. “You’re free to stick around if you want, but honestly I suggest you leave this area. The presence of food is likely to rouse the Swimmers.”
“Unfortunately miss, that is not my decision to make.” Hood began, although if it were up to him, Hood would order this ship back to Imperial Space and never return, sadly, he has his orders. “We were merely scouting ahead of a much larger expedition, the last time we communicated was relaying a rendezvous point for the fleet, a “Alpha-Charlie-18” from one of your transmissions.”
“Well Alpha-Charlie-18 was the location of my base. And given that that’s in an asteroid field…” The Twei grimaced. “Let’s just say that we’re lucky the swimmers that were following you decided to attack here and not in the asteroid belt. That would have been rather nasty. They are stealthy, if nothing else. Still there is a bit of good news here. The Swimmers are more likely to go after you than your main expedition. They like to go for isolated groups when possible. I, for one, think Swimmer behavior makes more sense when you look at it from the lens of a pack hunter.” She made a whipping motion with her hand. “But this isn’t the time for an academic lecture. The Swimmers will attack again. And they will certainly do so before you can rejoin forces with your expedition.”
After what happened today, it would be downright suicide to go venture off alone. “In that case, I think it’s best if we join you on your search. Strength in numbers and all that.” The captain turned to maxwell. “Lt. Maxwell, once we depart, inform the admiral of our current…predicament, and inform him of the threat present.”
The Comms Officer nodded.
“Aye Aye, Captain.” With that done, Hood turned his attention back to his Twei counterpart. “We’re ready to depart whenever you are.”
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