Starlance

FreeSpace: Expansion

Garden system, a week later

Not long after landing, one of the ground teams found what was very close to being described as ‘the ideal place’. Now, seven days later, the mountain meadow was specked with several raised prefabs, three hardened landing sites for dropships and shelters for survey vehicles, all walled off by a razorwire-topped fence with several hundred ampera going through it. Six raised platforms, enthusiastically called ‘towers’, were fitted with twin-linked 20 mm AA autocannons that have proven quite useful on night two when a winged creature took interest in the outpost. Said creature lay gutted on a trailer, swarmed by biologists.

Over the past week, five nearly identical outposts designated ‘A’ to ‘E’ were established - A and B in the mountainous area, C in the lowlands on the current shore, D in the desert area and E, the smallest and most disliked, on the ice cap.

Aside from the winged creature, later identified by its teeth and the way its jaw was built to be a herbivore, earning the gunner the moniker ‘First murderer of Garden IV’ by his squad, very few examples of local flora were encountered. The most commonly sighted animal was a knee-height quadruped dwelling in the lowland forests, but no specimen was captured yet. Just a day ago, a towed sonar buoy, deployed by a Faira trainee pilot, briefly detected some aquatic animal the size of a small vehicle before it devoured said buoy, halting all study of it for the time being.

Despite being native forest dwellers, the woods of this planet were, figuratively and literally, alien to the Narix. Where the woods of Naris had thick undergrowth and conifers, Garden featured forests with bare floor and trees with leaved canopies that in most places formed a homogenous layer, blocking most sunlight from entering the dense woods. Almost miraculously, atmospheric makeup, pressure and temperature allowed for operation of their engines without a hitch as well as supported life without sealed suits, but care was being exercised until it was known what plants were dangerous and native viruses and bacteria could be studied.

Outpost ‘F’ on the other hand changed location frequently. The ECR Enlightenment has been modified with makeshift landing struts, now serving as a Faira operations base and as a mindspace powered space elevator along with the ECR Visionary above it on geosynchronous orbit. The Faira were conducting far different research, the Strike fleet and elements of the Second fleet running drills on the ground. The entertainment consisted of an arena set up in the area, where anyone could issue a challenge to someone else in a one one one duel. The Narix were in for a shock when Virgo requested and successfully defeated a Patriarch tank as her opponent, and the block B Positron fighter held against it surprisingly well.

Inside, a collection on engineers were working day and night on a truly multipurpose strikecraft, resulting in a modified Faira transport armed with the short version of the HYVEL cannon in dorsal and ventral turrets, VLS for the missiles, a plasma cannon turret on each side, engines modified to accept water as a plasmatizable medium and a shield system taken from the Baryon heavy bomber. The craft was hastily assembled on the Explorer and now was conducting flight tests of it’s modified engine pylons with lifting surfaces. Already the data gathered was giving shape to a dedicated hull design, rather than a filled up transporter. On the airstrip built on one of the deserts, a band of hangar workers was fitting a new delta wing and vertical stabilizers to a block B Muon bomber to test if the beloved tool could be used against planet-side targets as well.

At the Star node, the Vanguard fleet was preparing to lead another expedition through to the unknown, leaving the Strike fleet to guard the Garden system while it ran it’s drills.

Garden IV, Outpost ‘Asteroid’

“So… You like this cold and humidity?” Commander Mirai on shore leave asked of her second in command. “Although I suppose it counts as ‘open space no ceiling’, so it must be heaven for you.” the Faira smiled cheekily.

“Veeery funny.” Auraxis shook her head. Now even aliens were making fun of her stature. “Temperature’s fine enough, but the humidity could use to go up another twenty percent. And on the subject of height, ask some of our shorter comrades how they feel, running around in this.” she pointed at a picture from Outpost C, showing a rolling plain consumed by shoulder-height weeds. “Someone should get Ascari in the middle of all that, we’d need a week to find him.”

“Assuming we’d search.” Mirai snorted. “You want more humid? Yuck. Now I officially lost all desire to go see your capital.” the Faira groaned, “I can’t get this mess out of my antennae, you know how sensitive those are? You try to dry that with a towel. Most of us are going helmet-on all the time.”

Auraxis tapped her helmet. “As are most of us. Most of us don’t want to be the first to catch some weird alien plague. Some keep the suits sealed, I trust the filtration pack. And come on. Sure, whenever fighting starts in the simulators, Ascari can’t tell his arse from his elbow, but he did broker the peace. Alright, he kept the tensions as low as possible until more qualified people arrived. That doesn’t mean I want to be a part of his fleet, no thank you. And if by some unthinkable way he makes it to the Council, I’ll erase my documents and head for the Nebula.” Auraxis laughed. “Although having Ascari in the council would mean Fifth would get a different commander, every coin has two sides.”

“I suppose. So, picked a construction site for your weekend home yet?” Mirai grinned, “There are talks in our fleets of an underground base on Garden I. I don’t know how to feel about that. We’d still have no sun, but at this point, any place to expand the population might be preferable. It does help that the resources for it are not even at the site of construction, they are literally the construction site. We could blow up a hole under the surface and mine out form there. The rear admiral said it could even be undetectable and resistant to a Lucifer attack. She was quick to boast that the Singularity would still slag it, but hey.”

“No, I’m saving up for an apartment on New Frontier to retire to one day. Don’t have to bother with bad weather on stations. You don’t like the humidity here? I dare you to visit Naris during either rain season. If the Singularity points its guns at any Faira or Narix, something’s fucked already. And I’d be careful about underground bases before thorough geological surveys are complete, remember the Quake Island? And the expected flooding when the planet starts heating up? But if you go through with it, don’t forget to ask, we happen to be quite good at that. Maybe we could start selling spent mines to you for cheap?” she teased her commanding officer.

“No, thanks. So, any plans for the shore leave? I’m thinking of going to the Airfield and pulling rank to get to fly the delta-Muon around for a while. Total forty Faira alive right now flown an atmospheric strikecraft of any type. I’d like to get that one on my have-flown list.” the Commander asked.

“Sounds fun. Sadly, not a thing for me. First year of national service, they tried to make me an APC driver, except when I finally got myself to the seat, my head was sticking out of the hatch so I couldn’t close it. I’m not joking, I cannot physically fit into the cockpit of any strike craft we have available. I heard they are organizing a hunt for the sea monster that ate one of our sonar buoys, think I’m going to watch. Apparently, their existence is confirmed all over the equatorial seas.”

“Well, I’d be hesitant to call them seas, compared to Naris. With the ice caps sucking most of the water available here, they are pathetic little lakes. You could walk the entire circumference of this rock with a dry foot right now. Wait ten thousand years, then it will be a sea.” Mirai snickered, “It’s still not dry enough though for our tastes. Speaking of Strikecraft, they put together the mother of all uglies to test some of the concepts, but it looks like it could pull a few Gs and cause havoc to ground forces with those HYVEL turrets. You could fit into that, that cockpit is made for long haul transports, it is sizeable and comfy.” she suggested.

“Maybe, but I’d prefer not to break something. Aside from three years as a paratrooper, I don’t have any experience with flying. Though it’d certainly be nice to see the lakes from high up. It’s so weird, there’s so little iron in the water it’s not blood red. Almost tempted to go for a swim once that beast is gone, but who knows how many centuries worth of fishcrap are dissolved in it.”

“And now I have that image in my head. Thank you!” Mirai groaned. “Seriously though, they made that overhauled transport sub-surface worthy. I think they all have a major case of The Casei. That one I do not want to test. Stuck in a metal coffin that is slowly sinking into crushing depth is not my idea of fun time. Did you hear what M of A Virgo did to the Patriarch?”

“You’re welcome, sir. Yes, anytime a tank is alone, it’s crew is asking to get killed. Wait, Casei? That name sounds familiar. What was it…? It’s not the madwoman that created the fighter/walker hybrid, is it?”

“Yes, but with bare hands? Well, okay, suited. And that’s the one. I mean they changed it to treads now, but it’s holding out against the Patriarchs in groups five against four. Not bad for what is basically a strikecraft with a kickass landing gear.” Mirai shrugged, “I still prefer a Frigate, don’t get me wrong.”

“I served with a few tanks during my infantry years. How many casualties can the whatsitcalled evacuate? How long can it operate without support, as in ‘how much food and other equipment can it carry with it’? Where does the crew sleep on or in it? Can you make repairs it in the field? Maybe mark those down to improve it in the future. And on a personal level, very few experiences beat jumping out of a transport plane at several thousand meters, accompanied by a tank on a loading palette being flung out of it.”

“Well, I’ll give you the troop compartment, that is a good thought and not doable on the Positron. But if you take into account that it is designed mostly for our use, the food and sleeping space aren’t important. Regarding repairs, probably easier than the Patriarch, considering it is one of the modular fighter designs. And no offense, I’d rather have a tank that can fly itself to orbit than needing a pallet and flimsy pieces of cloth and string.” Mirai hated on the parachute. “Well, here’s my stop.” the commander said as they came to a ring on the ground marked for the Faira jumpers, “The boffins found some kind of sweet fruit on this rock and are now fashioning a still and bar at the outpost ‘C’ biolab. Want to meet there to see what they make before we leave?”

“Flimsy pieces of cloth and string are multiuse. Unless you have one of the older, silk ones and drop it into a puddle of engine oil, that’s a certain recipe for untimely death.” Somehow, Auraxis wasn’t surprised that was the first thing on their mind upon confirming the fruit wasn’t harmful. “Drinking before returning to duty? Now there’s something you don’t see every day.” she laughed. “Don’t get lost up there, not many airstrips around yet.”

”Worst case scenario, I’ll just need to head for the frigate.” Mirai waved off before she was jumped away.

FreeSpace: Expansion

2179 / IV - Six month later, the Ring

“The journalists must be having a field day with this.” Cygnus frowned, seeing the flock of civilian ships near the Relic portal, looking over the assembled Vanguard and Fifth fleets. She supposed it wasn’t often the Naris system would be hosting four expansion fleets. Minister Ertanax must have been silently thanking evolution for making the Faira species so low maintenance, les his work would triple rather than doubling. Combine that with the attempt at traversing an artificial jump node, and well, even the cold admiral could understand the sensation.

The Explorer stood still in front of the gate. After Terminus, she decided that a destroyer would lead the first expedition rather than a frigate, even if they were Curious class. One never knew when a wing of Muons might be needed, and if the worst case scenario happened, a detonation of the Explorer in the jump corridor would seal it shut, and the Ring then hopefully used to stabilize the Naris-Opportunity node. The probes that were sent through though didn’t report anything unusual. Of course, there was the initial screw up where the Ring refused to allow any ship through, until they figured out the Hammerhead was an IFF key to its use, likely a precaution used by the Relics against the Ancients returning to this part of space.

“Ring control, Explorer. All ready on our part.” she called over, waiting for the red light. The Curious, Studious and Latanos were waiting behind the Explorer to follow through quickly if needed. The Second and Strike fleets were also in the system, ready to start filing to the Ring once the system was declared without contact or with hostile one. She felt a pang of pride as she remembered the Roster of the Strike fleet, having grown into an effective fighting force, albeit with just three capital ships, two of them Curious class and one Studious. Astra called her a while ago, sharing that the interim Sword group would be left behind this time, still in training. Most of the Narix, OEP or citizens have left for that fleet, which made sense - the new ships have amenities for them built into the design rather than an add-on. She did like to see fresh recruits who she could mold though.

The rear admiral’s decision to make her the Longbow’s Master Engineer came an unexpected surprise to Tarith. After some persuasion on the account of commander Linsis and adept Nihlus, possibly a ploy devised by them in conjunction with the rear admiral, she accepted and now was standing in the frigate’s engineering section, responsible for the whole clockwork that made the ship tick, just behind the spearhead. Despite spending countless hours on both Faira and narix simulators, it was only thanks to the powered suit her hands weren’t shaking.

“How long do you think we have until they need us? Thirty minutes, an hour?” she asked her fellow grease monkeys to pass the time.

“ED Explorer, Ring Control, all gr- red- clear on our end.” Damn it, this would lead to problems one day. “Stars guide your way and try not to annoy any potential neighbors.” the Ring controller bode them farewell, signalling the Hammerhead to unlock the portal. “Lockdown lifted, you may proceed.”

Well, the Rear admiral and Primarch are now in wave two, hopefully that’s taken care of. Cygnus winced. Astra had a streak of bad luck, first time she makes contact she has to deal with Ascari, and the next time an Ancient remnant shows up. She crossed her fingers and hoped for an empty, rich system. “Helm, take us through.”

A window like they have not seen before opened, similar to the Narix FTL but apparently an a different channel from it and Mindspace still. The vortex was tinted green, and seemed to be warping at speeds between the other two. The probe shown that using that channel of subspace, the travel was quite fast and yet smooth. No wonder the Hammerhead could outrun everything they had.

The trek was indeed smooth sailing and over before long, the Explorer emerging near a gas giant in the unknown system. “Perfect. Fuel station right at the highway exit. Oracles, get to it. Corvettes, take defensive positions around the node. Enlightenment, attempt a return jump.” the admiral set up tasks, and immediately found a hitch.

“Uh, ma’am, we can not jump back. The drives won’t engage.” The Enlightenment’s CO reported, “We can get a signal through though.”

“We expected as much. Ring control, Explorer. We have made it through safely, but are unable to jump in the other direction. Send the Hammerhead through.”

A while later, the Relic ship emerged from the Node, and immediately the Enlightenment engaged her drives successfully. “Ring control, Explorer. It appears the Hammerhead’s presence is required to travel in both directions. It really is a key to the gate. We’ll send it back as soon as it’s drives recharge. It would seem the Relics were very thorough in protecting us.” Cygnus smiled. Finally a little fortune smiled on them.

“I would very much like to have a look at the Hammerhead’s guts. Stranded in an Oort cloud for thousands of years, yet it still works. It will be that much worse when it inevitably breaks down one day.” Tarith thought as the Hammerhead came back, not at all happy about the idea of her or anyone else being stranded somewhere, just like the Ancients they’ve encountered so far.

“Explorer, Ring Control. Do we start sending the others through, or do we stand them down for now?”

“Negative, Ring Control. We’ll scan the systems with what we have for now. If somebody is living here, we don’t want them to mistake us for an invasion fleet.” Cygnus answered, before linking on a private channel to the Amare: “Eudorian, I need you to promise me - If there are Ancients here, and they make it into the node despite not having the Hammerhead, you’ll blow it up and the ring along with it.” she asked, foregoing the rank. It seemed proper with a request this grave. “Save the Homeworlds.”

The admiral’s transmission was a little unexpected. “No offense, admiral, but I would’ve done that even if you pleaded me not to.” He then continued on a more lighter note. “But let’s focus on what we know is there for now. Let us know as soon your survey is done. We’ll keep our fingers crossed here and hope the only red and black ships beyond the node are yours.” Ideally, what remained of the Ancients, if anything at all, was permanently sealed away beyond the collapsed Terminus-X node. “Just don’t forget you have friends back here should trouble find you.”

“Good to hear. Thank you. We’ll send you a postcard once we find a new paradise to settle. Explorer out.” Cygnus smirked. “Alright, people, let’s get this done. Oracles, what do you have for me?”

“It looks promising, ma’am. Seven planets, four inner, three outer, likely gas giants. We are at the sixth, which appears to be the largest, some hundred thousand kilometers in diameter. There are signs of one exit node near the star itself.”

“Very well. I want one cruiser scanning each of the inner planets and one at the node, The rest will have to wait a while.”

Half an hour later

“Ring control, Explorer. Send through the first element form the Fifth. We need them to take a look at the fourth planet. I think they’re going to like what we found.” Cygnus called over, not wanting to spoil the surprise. It was not Naris, but it was closer than anything else they found yet. The planet had similar composition, albeit it appeared to be going through a mild ice age, with the polar caps reaching all the way to the tropical circles. What wasn’t on ice though was only slightly colder than their homeworld, and the ice meant that there would be no problem with freshwater.

The Latanos and her group lay in orbit of the planet, mouths collectively agape at the probe readings, eagerly waiting for the atmospheric composition results to be sent.

“I’ve never seen so much natural ice before.”

“Are we absolutely sure that’s water ice?” A planet covered in solid carbon dioxide was everything but habitable. Finally, the probes sent the results and the Latanos’ CIC erupted with loud cheers.

“Ring Control, Latanos. Pack your warm coats. 21% oxygen, most nitrogen, some other gases, but nothing harmful as far as we can tell. A little dry, but that’s probably a result of the suspected ice age. Pack the Asgypus with ground surveying equipment.”

But first the system itself would have to be secured. “Explorer, Latanos, how much do you know about the node? Is it stable enough for transit and can unshielded ships even get to it?”

The admiral pulled up the feeds from the cruisers. “It seems like the rest of the rocks are not as pleasant. The innermost has a nice temperature and composition for us, but again, no atmosphere. Still, the resource shortage has been averted for another thousand years with that one. The three gas giants are a welcome logistical relief as well. As for the node, there’s some solar wind, but it’s far enough for even a Guardian to go through if they do not hang around too long. Thus far, no Ancients or Relics, and there is no asteroid belt, only an Oort cloud to map out. I think we are safe to send the rest of Vanguard and Fifth through to start the searching. I believe Strike will want to take it as training time, Second is welcome to help unless they think it too boring.” Cygnus smiled.

“If they get bored, they can play Opfor for Strike Fleet.” the Ring controller laughed, “Sending them through. Fifth’s second battlegroup will be delayed three hours on account of loading additional supplies to explore the planet. Third Fleet has provided several Type VII Discoveries fitted for long-range recon and two for geological surveys. I know they’re not in the original plan, but they’ll make it faster.”

“Copy that, we’ll keep looking around until then. Note that I’m parking the Explorer and it’s corvettes at the Star node, just in case something wanted to come through. The Ira will need to take over blockade at this node.” Cygnus shared and terminated the link, instructing her battlegroup to make the jump and re-routing the cruisers to scan moons and large asteroids in the system.

A minute later, the lot of Strike fleet minus the Sword group has emerged from the node. “Strike fleet, reporting in. You needed to take a look at some comets?” Astra called over, promptly receiving patrol paths form the Explorer. “All group commanders, attend briefing on board Longbow in ten minutes.” she sent to her ships as they vacated the space around the node for the Fifth to land in. “It looks like all this has finally paid off, chieftain. Look.” Astra noted as she downloaded the intel package on the planet from the Explorer’s FleetNet and put it on display on the CnC TacMap. The OEP part of her crew had it’s shift, but the room was packed, the off-shift taking time out of their recharge to go have a look at what would possibly be the first planet the alliance settled.

“I reckon land is going to be cheap. Once at least some basic settlements are in place. Can’t wait to see footage from the surface.” the chieftain commented before pointing to an icy peninsula. “Cape Exile, right there?”

Astra laughed, “Really? You find a starsend new planet and the first thing you want to build is a prison?” she scratched her chin then. “Hm. We are an attack fleet. It’s reasonably possible our people would need to be deployed to ground operations sometime in the future. Forget videos, I think I can get our boots on the ground.” she nodded, already liking the idea of running some combat drills with the Faira shift. “However, look. Island, about half the size of Ardor. No volcanoes, but three fault lines joining right below it. That should be called Quake Isle.”

“Not just a prison, a labor camp. A lot of work will have to be done. If we could move the exiles here to help set up and populate Ardor with citizens, that would be ideal. And if they do a good job setting up here, the Council might even free some of them as reward for their service. Up until now, the only way off the island and back to society was being exiled military and surviving a suicide mission.”

“Boots on the ground will be a learning experience for both of our species. In theory, deep snow behaves similar to fine sand, but is somehow even worse. But you can’t thaw sand and drink it, so there’s that.”

Just then the group commanders arrived. “Ah, here we go. Helm, you have the ship.” Astra gave command and moved to the briefing room. “Commanders, Captains.” She greeted. She was happy that Linsis followed her to Strike fleet. She didn’t know whether the Lord-Commander told him of the option to be promoted to destroyer CO eventually, so she kept her mouth shut- it wasn’t like it wouldn’t be her flag until the Singularity was complete anyhow, but she could start preparing him for the role. Hence why she officially made the Crossbow the lead ship of the group, with the Longbow being a sole operating flagship with no other assets attached to it. Captain Zana has proven herself a capable XO when Aurigae left to the Latanos during the first phase of the OEP, and now served the role permanently on the Crossbow.

The other group commanders were also a favorable pick. The EFG Independence and her battlegroup were commanded by none other than Commander Mirai and Captain Auraxis. She wondered what her crew would achieve now that they had another way forward. With their luck, it was small wonder they didn’t find something of importance upon jumping into the system. “How are you settling in to your new roles?”

“Less turrets and abysmal sublight maneuverability took some getting used to.” Auraxis recalled her woeful first simulator experiences. “It’s a good thing it took us a while to figure out how to access the Ring, it gave me a lot of time to practice.”

“All is well on the Crossbow. With Captain Zana taking on some of the administrative work, the crew got their break room back without a fight. So, where do they need us?” Linsis inquired. “Planet satellites or Oort cloud?”

“Oort cloud, please don’t clobber me to death you two.” Astra shot an amused glance to the Independence’s commanders. Pulling up the patrol sectors the Explorer designated for them, Astra colored them two shades of orange in proportion to the size of the Independence and Crossbow battlegroups. “Here are the sectors that we need to scan. How you deploy your ships along which routes I’ll leave to you. Thus far, we have encountered no debris at either of the nodes, so chances are the Ancients purposefully cleaned up after themselves. That means if we are to make contact, it is more likely to be Ancient than Relic, so keep your shields up. Taking a note form the Terminus book, I want you to have your corvette crews run fire drills. There will be plenty of comets for target practice, and if there are Ancients here, they might draw them out. I’ll leave it to you whether to include the cruisers in this, but I’d advise against it due to their survivability. I’ll also leave it to you whether to deploy your frigates or leave them in reserve should any contacts engage the Pulsars, do keep in mind that we have a lot of ships in the systems and reinforcements are readily available. I’ll leave the Longbow at the node ready to jump to an assist in case a Lilith shows up. The extra cannon will be decisive in that engagement. Questions and notes?”

Auraxis spoke up. “If we encounter any debris, are we to pick it up immediately or simply log it’s coordinates and resume the patrol?”

“If the debris is small enough, we’ll could send the cruisers to get it.” Zana noted, waiting for the rear admiral’s opinion.

“Maybe have all ships send periodic reports every X minutes? If someone would be unlucky enough to end up like the NSS Independence, it’s best if we know as soon as possible.” Linsis touched upon another issue.

“The cloud in this system is relatively thin to the one in Terminus, we should be able to read IFF or thermal and there will be far less subspace noise. But yes, have the ships report in on a five minute basis. If anyone has a problem on hardware like the Halberdier in Terminus, please do not wait half an hour for somebody to notice you.” Astra nodded. “If you encounter Ancient or Relic debris and can scoop it up, log it’s trajectory and mass and pick it up. Anything bigger, holler to the Explorer or Latanos to send a specialized team.”

“Finally, I know your Narix crewmen will be curious about the new planet. I’ll be contacting Lord-Commander Zorea about the option of getting our boots and fighters on there to participate in the survey, it would be a good training opportunity and it should boost the morale.

“Also, start marking land you’d like. I imagine the good spots will be spoken for fairly quickly. Sorry to disappoint you if you like mountain views, this rock appears to be rather flat and forested. Three large desert areas if you want to go play in the sand.” the admiral smiled, “I’d pick some high up though, because when that ice age eventually ends, a lot of that ice is going to become ocean. I suppose determining future shape of the continents will be part of the surveyor’s jobs.”

“We’ll be sure to tell the crews, the chance to get down there will be a huge boost. If that’s all, we best get going. There’s a lot of junk to sift through, even with the frigates and Discoveries helping out. I assume the Fifth is going to help? Or do we get sent to the middle of bloody nowhere while they do the interesting stuff?”

“They have their own patrol paths assigned, the masters should have real-time navigation updates courtesy of the Vanguard already having dropped FTL comm relays. Very well, keep me posted if something interesting happens.” Astra let them off the hook.

FreeSpace: Expansion

Two hours of cards later

“Lights are coming on!”

Astra got up from the FleetNet News and looked over the control consoles. “The engineers examining the Beetle were right. Bitch of a warmup. I’m glad we kept cables alongside the goo.” she snickered, looking at the screen in front of her as it started loading the control software. “What in the universe?” She asked as she looked at the letters that popped up on it.

“What do you have?”

“Contact rear admiral Libra immediately, have her and her linguistic team get here ASAP. This… this is an old dialect of our language.”

“Get out.” one of the Narix yelped in disbelief, “Sir!”

“Don’t tell me this is some lost Faira tribe.”

“Enough!” Astra shouted at them. “Who are you, scientists or mystery writers? For what we know the ship could be learning our language form us just as I did with yours. Until we know for certain, keep your speculations to yourself!” And then the world vanished from her senses.



“Admiral! Sir!” somebody was shaking her up. “I… I’m here. Did anyone see that?”

“Yes, you froze on the spot, looking like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you alright? Maybe some rest?”

“No, I- I’m fine. Something took over me, the ship I think. I saw a… what? History log? Captain’s diary? I don’t know, but I want to see more. Continue with the powerup. And get another inventor in here, in case they can see too.”

“Not to second-guess your judgement, but letting unknown technology mess with your head doesn’t sound too safe.” the Narix looked worried, “What exactly did you see? Images, or text...?”

“It’s… more like a memory? Like I recalled an event or a thought that wasn’t mine. I didn’t see what they were talking about, just what they were thinking about, or possibly looking at at the time? The visual memory didn’t seem related. It was a Relic, describing the first steps their people took to space… They were monsters. Conquerors who either subdued or destroyed races that were technologically inferior to them. I’m starting to think the Ancients did them justice.” The admiral related the memory to the others.

“Right, that rules out peaceful contact. Warn the teams mapping the ship, just in case the old tenants are still around. If they think to ‘subdue or destroy’ us, we’ll give the bastards a good hammering. Who knows what kind of hibernation technology they could possess.” Already, finding the ship was proving to be a sulfur mine. Ancient history and warning? What more was there?

“I think… AW!”



“Damn it! That hurt. I think I should get the hell away from here.” Astra growled, holding her head. “For what it’s worth, apparently they stumbled upon the Ancients and attacked them, only the Ancients have been more than they could chew.” she related the memory quickly. “Jumper! Get me to the Warden!” A while later Astra was jumped off, not trusting herself to do it at the moment.

Several hours later

“You look like you’ve been through a food processor. Are you certain your head is fine?” Libra said, rushing to the room Astra was being looked after in.

“Yeah. Whatever mindspace interface they have is rudimentary, that’s all. It has trouble even connecting. I suppose me being what I am is why it works in the first place. I just need some time to recover, according to all the scans ours and theirs medics ran on me, it just sucked my power really quickly, and my head started heating up more than healthy. One at time, I will be able to view the rest of the archive. How is the progress on the ship?” Astra shared.

“Some additional instruments in the CNC came to life a little while ago, but several doors have gone out in a firework of sparks and electrical fires. Engineers advise against further raising the output until we can look them over in detail. For now, we are going over the CNC to make sure we won’t break anything here. Marines have found what may very well be crew quarters and some sort of device one of the engineers thinks could be a mass data storage device. The linguistic team is making slow progress, but the more they know, the faster it will be.”

“Have you noticed? It’s our language. Ancient dialect, but it’s ours.” Astra said, not yet to her usual speed of thinking.

“Yeah,” Libra nodded, “But it’s so pre-exodus it might as well be called alien language. Even half the letters are not in use anymore. Still, we have gotten the power grid under control. No more fires, but the conduits are mostly damaged. It will take months to repair just those. Fortunately, the key systems can be accessed and powered individually, regardless of the main distribution system. We’ll get a node map, you just don’t take risks with that ship. Do try to remember the Ancients might still be out there, and now the Relics per your own findings are genocidal maniacs. We’ll need the Singularity and you yet. Then perhaps we can look if the ship has any historical data that might explain the connection between us and them. But that’s not important now.”

The next day...



“Great. One more vision I got and then the ship’s pathetic warning device burns out. Well, we know the Ancients wiped out the homeworld of these guys, and that’s it. At least I don’t have to worry about my head cooking.” Astra growled in frustration, looking at the charred console in the command center. “Where are we on the navigation system?”

“Almost there. These guys have taken the concept of a context menu and put it through a cubic power. There’s lists within lists!” Libra groaned, her eyes sore. “Aha! Maybe… Oh stars DAMN IT!” she shoved off of the console, disgruntled. “It shows us the collapsed Terminus node, and one node in Naris that we know is not there! In fact, there’s a chunk of rock now in its place!”

“What? Where? Which one?” there was a lot of rocks in Naris, but maybe there was hope. “Not that it matters that much, since the Durable hasn’t detected any jump corridor anyway. Unless… Let me guess: It’s near the shipyards in orbit of Artorias, where we didn’t want the oracles to look?”

“It doesn’t matter. The node would be felt like a tunnel in mindspace. We wouldn’t need to find it’s exact origin point to find it. There is no sign of anything like that in the system, other than the node to Opportunity.” Astra said gloomily. Libra brought up the node position on her own suit’s display. “There. It’s a pathetic little rock, but… could it’s small gravity has destabilized the node over time? It is stuck in a lagrangian point after all.”

“Well, there’s that, then. Generation ships?” one of the technicians growled.

“No!” Astra slammed her hand onto the console, “There must be more!”

“Uh… sir! The ship is coming alive!”

All around them, the consoles started booting up, and the engineers reported the main power unit starting to cycle into life. “We’ve got to get off the bus!” Astra panicked a little.

“Too late! The jump drive is spooling! It’!s heading to Opportunity!”

Outside, a massive blue vortex swallowed the Hammerhead, with the Ira and Warden following behind it as soon as their crews and commanders shook off the surprise.

Opportunity

The Warden was the first to arrive, followed shortly by the Hammerhead. “Hammerhead, Warden! What is your status!” Lira boomed over the comms.

“We’re here, the ship held! It jumps so smoothly!” Astra reported over, just as the Ira followed into the system. “Lord commander! Clear a path! The Hammerhead has set course for Naris! Let it through, please!” Astra called over.

“Kill it’s armaments as soon as you can, I’m not taking chances with my homeworld.” Zorea relayed before he started marshalling the fleet guarding the Opportunity-naris node on one channel and Eudorian’s First Fleet through subspace comms, trying to explain the situation.

“Can you give us a firing solution for it’s sublight drives in case it tries to start start another genocidal crusade?”

“Weapons are not active, they can’t. The conduits that far outside to the hull are severed. It’s using a gravimetric engine contained inside the ship, that’s the only reason it’s even able to move. You might want to tell the First not to shoot us down though. It seems we are going to outrun both of you though!” Astra called over just before the Hammerhead executed another jump, faster than the Warden could recharge, and at far greater speed than the Ira was capable of.

Opportunity - Naris jump node

As the Hammerhead appeared at the Node, it was met by two Narix battlegroups. “All ships, rear admiral Astra. Hold your fire and clear the way!” The ascendant called over frantically when she saw the mass of ships. She didn’t care for the Relic armor, if they opened fire, the Hammerhead would be shredded. “Libra! Where is it taking us!”

“The rock! Oh stars, if it doesn’t know the node is dead, it’s going to fly straight into it! We need to get off!”

“Alright, gather everyone! Lord Commander, do you copy? We will need a pickup on the Naris side of the node!” Astra called over the system-wide.

“Eudorian himself is waiting there, I’ve got him on the wire. R Verrikan is scrambling all of its shuttles, setting up targeting beacons in its hangars for mindjumpers and Eudorian’s sending another Warlord to the rock in case we have to evacuate someone on that side. I just hope it won’t jump straight to the rock.”

“Thanks. We’ll get off as soon as we can, those mind jump beacons will be a starsend. Libra, everyone needs to get to the hangar, stat!”

Naris

“Damn it, how is this thing jumping so fast!” Libra grunted as she stumbled into the hangar. “This is everyone, can you jump them all?”

“I’ll try my damndest! Every jumper that can, get your own group, as many as you can! This monorail only stops two more times tops before Eternity! We’re coming out of the node, now!”

As soon as the Hammerhead emerged into normal space, the Faira started evacuating the staff, not waiting on the orders. The hangars of the Partisans and Warlord present were fortunately large enough places to target the landings.

“Rear admiral, this is Amare Actual, report once you can.” a voice neither of the Faira have heard so far sounded over the comms. “Did everyone make it off in time?”

“Yeah… All but the jumpers themselves. We have no more power to jump out, and the ship will go any second again, sooner than the shuttles will get here. We’ll be riding this one out. Libra said, having Shoved Astra into the last jump against her will, knowing she would have stayed behind as well otherwise. “We’ll try to jump the ship, our suits are EVA grade, it would be nice to have some pickup, assuming we don’t emerge in that asteroid. Hammerhead, signing off.”

Naris, L1

The Hammerhead emerged close to the rock, but not in it, mercifully. What was strange then was that the ship came close to the asteroid and stopped. The Faira didn’t wait to see what was going on though, bolting out the docking port on RCS as far as they possibly could, emergency beacons broadcasting.

“We’re out, the Hammerhead is just sitting in front of the rock. Maybe it detected the node missing and stopped it’s voyage?” the rear admiral noted. “O-oh…”

The rescue destroyer lay some distance off the asteroid, Plunderers already in space. “We’ve got your crisis beacons, shuttles inbound.” a young voice sounded on the comms, “What? What is it, admiral, what’s going on out there?”

“See for yourselves! And get us out of here before some of that debris hit us!” Libra shouted as she noticed the rock breaking up, sending chunks of rock the size of a cruiser into space. “And track those rock, it would be a disaster if one of them hit a celestial body, even if it’s not Naris, any of the inner planets could create an asteroid ring that would eclipse it’s sunlight!”

The whole ordeal was an unexpected test of the First fleet. As the cursing pilots raced to the stranded Faira, putting their ships between any debris and them to pick them up, the First awoke throughout the system.

Three kilometers away, the Fiduciam’s torpedo tubes flung open, gunners tracking the rocks, waiting for them to get away from anything they could damage. Once they would be far away enough, the volley of torpedoes would break them up into smaller pieces that would be intercepted by the rest of the fleet, hopefully breaking them into small enough pieces to minimize the damage. On the other hand, it would create a buckshot of rocks, speeding through the system along only partially-predictable trajectories.

“Is everyone safe aboard the transports?” the young chieftain-commander inquired.

“We’re here, but what on the world is going on here?” Libra said incredulously as the mere presence of the Hammerhead seemed to be destroying the asteroid. “Is it using it’s engine to do that?”

“No.” Came Astra’s response, wherever she landed, she has made her way to a sensors station. “It’s sending a signal to it! There must be something insid-”

Then with a massive crack and spray of rocks, the asteroid broke apart into three large chunks.

“What… is that?”

“I don’t know, but it’s flooding subspace sensors with all manner of junk. It’s oddly similar to what the Fifth picked up in Terminus. Less intense and… not irregular. It’s not noise.”

The Ramses Verrikan, carrying the recovered research crews, arrived. “No idea what that is, but I believe we have a few dozen unexpected passengers that stand the best chance of figuring out. And the Third doesn’t have to send anyone too far out like this.” The Plunderers changed course for the carrier.

“I think you dropped something.” one of the pilots referred to the jumpers.

Faira FleetNet News

A way out?

Last night, the RD Hammerhead unexpectedly came to life. The ship has left with all hands aboard, heading to a location where it’s navigation systems shown a node out of the local cluster - an asteroid trapped in an L1 point of the system. After a hasty action for evacuating the personnel aboard, the relic destroyer activated what appears to be a Mindspace portal generating an artificial jump node. The node is not stable enough yet for travel, but scientists predict it will stabilize enough in ten years to allow Destroyer sized vessels through.

Largest cleanup in history

The Narix mining fleets and Faira’Capra have collaborated to clear up the asteroid debris in the Naris system caused by the above event in an unprecedented operation. Hundreds of ships had to be coordinated to catch up to and capture debris of various size to be processed before an important world could be hit. The operation is still in progress, but our colleagues from NNN report it looks like it will be successful.

Mysteries of the Relics

There are reports that the Relic ship used an ancient variant of our language in its operating systems. It has been confirmed that the ship possessed no means of learning it from the Faira on board, suggesting our species is somehow connected to the Relics. How is still a subject of study and speculation.

Admiral Astra received visions while residing on the ship, dealing with the history of the Relics. Apparently a genocidal, imperial species, they thought to leave us a message as a warning about the Ancients and their might. If the message is to be believed, the Ancients managed to wipe out the Relic empire which at the time spanned most of the galaxy. The Admiralty is now looking to create a contingency plan to stop an Ancient invasion should we encounter them on the other side of the Node.

Narix National Newscast

Runaway!

Yesterday, the RD Hammerhead was inadvertently activated by the joint research teams. Equipped with an apparently sophisticated AI, the rogue ship took the puzzled scientists and engineers onto a wild ride all the way to Naris before coming to a halt at its L1 point. Thanks to the quick reactions of several admirals, commanders and the First fleet, all of the research personnel were evacuated safely.

The rogue hammer proceeded to shatter an asteroid first documented in 1806 and stripped clean of resources in 2143. How did the prospectors and miners miss a Relic device thought by the Faira to be a subspace portal is yet unknown. The spokesperson for Metallum Ausira, the company that mined the asteroid, refused to comment.

Unsung heroes of the Fourth and ‘Capra

The Narix people owe their endless thanks to the personnel of the two mining fleets as they scrambled to intercept the asteroid debris. Despite missing some, most of the system is safe. While the New Frontier station suffered minor damage and several injuries ranging from bruises to brief vacuum exposure are reported, there were no fatalities.

Hope reignited

The appearance of the subspace portal, unofficially known as “the Ring” has been the much needed blow that fueled the dying embers of hope. In ten years, there may be a way out. Third and Second fleets have moved in on the Ring, keen on studying it and resuming the studies of the Hammerhead.

Opportunity Station

Councilor Acastus Nyx has revealed plans for constructing a small outpost at the Opportuunity-Naris jump node to act as a transit station and communications relay. Once complete, this station will make non-official transit between Opportunity and Naris much easier, finally allowing civilians and private companies to move to Opportunity. Several transport companies have already expressed the desire to set up regular flights to and from Opportunity upon the station’s completion. Construction is expected to start next month.

FreeSpace: Expansion

Hitosrical archive

2177 / II - Beginning of detailed scans of all explored systems
2177 / IV - First four cruisers of the Strike fleet commissioned, ECR Monster, ECR Drake, ECR Nightmare, ECR Enigma
2177 / V - Travel to Naris now possible with a visa following a public vote. 82% participated, 79% voted for visas, 12% unrestricted travel, 7% for official business only and 2% for complete ban.
2177 / V - Commander Astra reassigned to Singularity project. ECV Curious commanded by newly instigated Commander Linsis
2177 / VII - Construction of NSD Halcyon begun
2177 / VIII - First two corvettes of Strike fleet complete, ECV Katla and ECV Karm
2177 / X - Development of fusion weaponry suggested
2178 / III - ESD Singularity’s framework completed
2178 / V - Exodus and Opportunity fully scanned with no artifacts present
2178 / V - NSS Stargazer completed, replacing the NSS Independence
2178 / VI - Hazard level I zones in Faira Nebula explored without any results
2178 / VI - Narix redesignated the “Nightmares” to “Ancients”
2178 / VIII - Debris from NSS Independence recovered and returned to Naris
2178 / VIII - Narix elections see most of the councilors retain their seats with the exception of industry and military councilors of Armiden
2178 / X - Intact Relic destroyer found in Terminus Oort cloud

ECR Durable & NSS Zenith, Terminus Oort cloud

It’s taken years, but now they were looking at it. The Zenith and Durable paired up for easier defense, each scanning a hemisphere rather than a full sphere along the path, jumping twice as quickly. Even then, sometimes the cloud was so dense that the Marines were digging shrapnel form the hull. But now it all paid off. “Look at it! It’s beautiful!”

“Good thing we have the other derelicts to study their hulls, This thing must be beyond repair. Just make sure whoever comes to explore it packs a few psychokinetics, no way we are getting anyone across via shuttle or spacewalk. At least this garbage isn’t big enough to cause major damage to it, besides the hangar. If anything, there might not be any Ancients aboard. This looks like they jumped here to hide or repair battle damage. Maybe we’ll even get their sublight drives this time around”

“We can hope. I think we should start on detailed scans, if we know the internal structure, we can jump straight in. In the meantime, we’ll dispatch a camera drone to get a look into the hangar, see what state it’s in. What do you think would map the internal structure best, RTG, MRI?” Mirai asked of her Narix counterpart and her engineer alike.

“RTG over MRI, considering their materials react very poorly to magnetic field. If one ship acts as a lamp and the sensors of the other as a photo chip, we can have the entire ship done in a couple of hours form two directions, then we can build a very basic model of the internal layout. I’m rather worried how strong the sensor ray would have to be to penetrate though. It probably won’t be safe for the receiving ship. I think we’ll have to go in in either case.” the engineer noted.

“We only have 32 marines on board. If you can get them in, they could at least start preparing a sort of beachhead for when the others arrive. Shall I tell them to suit up so they’re ready when the drone is done? What we learned on the other wreck will make moving through much easier, so two squads should find a suitable access point within a reasonable timeframe. Or they’ll get eviscerated by hibernating Ancients.” She suddenly perked up in excitement. “Since the ship’s intact, do you think we could find any Relics on board, hibernating like the Ancients did?” If that were to happen, there were two drastically different ways that could go.

“I don’t know. The Ancients are species like none other, who knows if another species even can hibernate for eight thousand years. I certainly am not going to try. Have your men shuttle over, we’ll see if the Marines put their heads together if they can come up with a point of entry. Linking the drone footage to you.”

“Hangar’s taken some heat, but some of the doors seem undamaged. I’m not sure about sending out a shuttle through this junk. Swarmers loose, take out anything that would threaten the Pillagers.”

The ships left the hangars, carefully maneuvering through the rocks while the marines and their gunners squirmed nervously. The first ship made it to the hangar without any problems, offloading the marine team. The pilots then used some hook-like objects on the hangar’s floor to secure the Pillager to the deck with anchoring ropes so the away teams could use them to resupply air or as pressurized chambers.

On its approach, a brief flash of light blossomed on the second Pillager’s left engine cluster.

“Crisis, crisis, left engines gone, scythe two losing control.”

The marine team streamed out of the open rear bay, using their thruster packs to make it to the derelict as safely as possible. The pilot, down to only right engines and Z axis translation thrusters, hauled his crippled ship into the hangar, planting it almost sideways just a few meters from the first one. The landing legs bent, left aileron and a piece of the wing broke off and the ship bounced off the floor before the pilot brought it to a relative halt, allowing the marines to secure the ship.

“Scythe two is down, major structural damage and I hit my head against the canopy.” The pilot hissed over the comms, “Hull’s still airtight, but there’s no way I can limp back to the Zenith, Scythe one will have to tow me back.”

The gunner made his way over to the busted engines, pulling out several pieces of rock.

“Found the problem. Almost looks like iron ore.”

“Damn it.” Adept Auraxis cursed, “Tie Scythe two down and start working on finding an access point. Durable, how long until someone else arrives?”

“The Warden is on the way, the Admiral wants this towed to a safer region. We are to proceed though with establishing a landing zone. The Warden is launching a wing of Positrons to help with the heavy lifting. I’m moving the Durable in front of the hangar to provide shield cover for it. If you could launch a wing of interceptors to blast the heaviest rocks that are headed to towards the ship?” the lieutenant asked.

“Got it, we’re scrambling our four Halberds. Give us two minutes to arm them with dumbfire rockets. The marines are reporting the damaged shuttle is secured to the floor. They are exploring two ways out of the hangar, one looks like it leads to an airlock, the other appears to be leading deeper into the ship. We’ll reposition so our swarmers and 750s can help with the big chunks. ETA on the Warden?”

“Two minutes, they are cooling down drives still after translating the node. Have the Marines send engineers to the airlock, start making a list of materials that would be needed to make it structurally stable for docking. I’m having my Marines equip for a heavy Vanguard, just in case there are Ancients hibernating on this vessel as well. The rest of yours can join them and head to the inside, but have them keep in radio range, the Warden is better equipped to scout this out, we don’t have the manpower. The… what do we call this thing?” Mirai asked, not really coming up with anything that could be remotely associated with this ship, shape or otherwise.

“Hammerhead?” the adept offered. “If you extend a stick from the back of the ship, that would be the haft. Can you use a radio beacon to safely jump? The marines could deploy a targeting beacon to guide you.”

“Away team one, we’ve found the airlock, but the outer gate is bent inward, likely by impact, and we can see right through. We’ll need some heavy-duty tools to get it working. Or we could just cut it open, but we’ll defer to your judgement on this.”

“The objective is to secure the docking port, we don’t even know if the hull is stable enough to be pressurized. We’re sending a transport with two fabricators, materials and the fire foam for strengthening internal volumes, the Marines can hitch a ride along. I’m coming too, I want to see if the computers can be powered up on this one. Auraxis, you have the… ‘fleet’.” The CO smirked. She could dream, can’t she?

“Careful, there’s junk flying around.” Scythe two’s pilot warned over the radio, the pain in his head somewhat dulled.

“Very well, we’re cutting through. We’ll try, anyway.” The engineer wasn’t sure how much good their tools would do against something like this.

A few minutes later, the dropship touched down in the Hammerhead’s hangar. The Marines dragged out the equipment before helping to fasten towlines to Scythe two to return it to it’s mothership under the protection of the Durable’s shield. The heavy vanguard marched out to the other door to link up with the rest of the Narix Marines not working on the docking port. Mirai had to admire the architect that built the ship, the halls an almost organic shape, with ribbing on the wall that looked as structural as it was aesthetic. “Zenith, Hammerhead. There is no strike craft here, they might have either jumped here without them or left on them. Bits and pieces of ordnance and weapons in the racks, some I do not recognize from what we found on RD Beetle. Looks similar to our HYVEL cannon installed on the Muon bombers. We’ll see if we can power up any computers.”

“Received, call back as soon as something interesting comes up. Halberds are out, deck crews are waiting for the Pillager. Can you get some of those projectiles into the shuttle before you tow it here?” Now she was definitely hoping there were no Relics on board, she certainly wouldn’t be happy if she woke up after 8000 years, only to find some aliens picking her ship clean and cutting parts of it away. “Keep the marines on a short leash. If there’s trouble, the remaining shuttle can’t get everyone out. Do you think you can jump twenty people out? At least out of the hull?”

“We can hold out for some time in a firefight if Ancients shown up. I’d rather try talking if by some miracle the Relics are still around. There is something else though, something missing in the ether that we recorded on the Beetle and form the captured specimen, we think they communicate with some form of telepathy, I can’t feel any of it here. Failing that, we have the Durable’s airlock in a direction that we can make the literal jump over.” Mirai ensured. “If any ancients show up outside, make the jump to the node, the Warden will arrive soon and this chunk of crystal can hold out for some time under fire.”

“Good thing we don’t have an Ascari around to bog down the talks.” Auraxis took a shot at the primarch. Perhaps a little undeserved, but humor never hurt anyone. “Just because the Ancients are not talking doesn’t mean they aren’t there, be careful in there. We’ve lost a little too many in the past two years, no need to add your names to the list. If anything goes wrong, pull back to the hangar where Scythe one can give you covering fire. And if you decide to collect personal souvenirs, bring some for me too.”

“Well aren’t you the eager grave robber. Don’t worry, I always bring you a gift.” Mirai snickered over a private channel. “Copy Zenith, thanks. Hammerhead out.” Mirai disconnected the link and floated over to the Marines. “Alright people, primary objective is to locate a power core and control center. Stay in radio contact, drop repeaters if you need to venture further. At any sign of Ancients or possible Relic presence, inform us and return to the hangar.”

“Sir, how are we to react should we encounter living Relics without means of retreat? Do we drop weapons or hold fire and stand our ground?”

“Hm… Keep behind the heavies and lower weapons. Their shielding should give you time to escape should you need to. Jumper, take them outside of the hull if you are forced to. Should they prove not to be hostile, contact me immediately, we’ll bring in the Vanguard and Fifth personnel to handle the contact. If you encounter hibernating relics by any chance, do not do anything to wake them and mark their location.”

Terminus-Opportunity jump node, ten minutes later

“I don’t know whether to like or hate the design.” Lira said, swiveling in the chair to face the holo of the relic ship. “It seems to be attack focused, but it is strangely beautiful, in a threateningly terrifying sort of way. That’s eight main armaments on that monster that can be focused on one target. Still not as threatening as the Lucifer’s main cannons, but I don’t see anything but the Singularity and Halcyon surviving an encounter with it one on one. We have sent for Read admiral Astra to help us with the investigation. I am amazed this thing is sound enough to be towed through FTL. Lieutenant Mirai reports no contacts on the ship yet, Ancient or otherwise. Would you like to bring in anyone else, Lord-Commander?”

“We’ve notified home already, a science detachment similar to the one sent to Beetle’s Head is on its way. They’ll arrive in about an hour, one of the Discoveries had a problem with the jump drive, those ships could use replacing. After thousands of years in a debris field, I’m surprised it’s in one piece at all. Have they found anything that would indicate why the ship was where it was? I can't see many AA turrets. Maybe no pilot of its time could approach it without feeling physically sick just by looking at it. Should we dispatch more marines to help map the interior?”

“I would wait for the additional scientists and engineers before we go poke around too deeply. We do not want to accidentally fry the navigation system. If there is a node out of here somewhere, chances are the information is on that ship. Or at least a confirmation that there is none. We have one shot at this, we can not make an error.” Lira shook her head. “So… curious to see it from the inside? I heard the hangar and docking ports are now stable enough and we have installed a power unit and a gravity generator.”

“Tempting. My shift does end in sixteen minutes or so.” the Narix scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Sure, no one will miss the second highest ranking member of the Republican Armed Forces for an hour, or two, or three.” he chuckled. “Zorea to starboard hangar, I’d like a Pillager ready for liftoff in sixteen minutes. And shake the journalists awake, we’re going on a field trip. Admiral, if the Hammerhead crew needs something, I’ve got a supply Pillager waiting. Might as well do the useful along with the pleasant.”

“I think they could use the end of their shift the most. After Beetle, the heavy Marines are shaking in their suits every time they have to go into one of those. No one dares hope though. We need some good news out of this ship-” She cut her line short, listening to the comm suite, “The Enigma has arrived with the rear admiral. Perfect timing. Shall we go?” Lira beckoned to the door.

RD Hammerhead

Though he’s seen the footage and pictures, nothing compared to seeing this in person. He felt as if he had entered the hive of some giant insect. Perhaps he did, who knew? Although a sight to behold, he hoped their shipwrights wouldn’t take inspiration from these ships. For a few seconds, he was too busy examining his surroundings to notice the Narix saluting him or the two waiting Faira.

“As you were, I’m not on duty.” he finally noticed the ramrod straight marines and turned to the Faira. “Good evening, rear admiral. I see you’re wasting no time putting your future fleet to use.” he greeted Astra, still as if taking in the ship with one eye.

“Good evening it is!” Astra beamed. “Two years in waiting, and finally we have a hit. Why am I not surprised it’s those two ships that found it? Admiral, if you could spare Durable’s crew, I feel like their talents are sorely wasted in Patrol fleet. They should be with Strike or Vanguard, with their talent pool. I believe a certain Captain and possibly Primarch might be better suited for you.” Astra said so no one else would overhear.

“I am not happy with sending my people to the front lines, it’s not what they have been trained for for years, but perhaps you might be right. I won’t give them to you unless you give them space to grow though. Have you already picked the crews for your corvettes?” Lira shot back, seeing the merit in such a transfer, but wanting to do good by her crews.

“I did, not for the Frigates though. The first two are due any month now. I will be taking one as my flag ship until the Singularity or the Warrior are finished, but the other could use a crew, and a pair of in-sync commanders.” She said, looking at Zorea as well, “Talk to them about it for me? This opportunity won’t be here for another two to three years until the next batch is ready, I’d hate to waste their talents. Now, shall we?”

“Not sure about frigate people, maybe someone from the Naris and Zenith. And I think a few people from the Erythrita, one of my Vanguards, might be worth your while.” While he was all for extensive cooperation, he didn’t want to send all his best people away, but wasn’t going to suggest someone who wasn’t up for it either. “But when you start looking for crew for the Warrior, or the Singularity, I believe there are some on the Ira that you would like.“ He didn’t think there would be places left on the Singularity herself, but it was worth a try. “Whenabout is the Warrior due to be done? 2183-ish?”

“If we started building it right now, then perhaps, more likely 2185 though. We will first build the third frigate group, it will be worth more in a fight to have another frigate in two years than a destroyer in five. Unless the rear admiral buys us more of your dock time. The main problem though is, we do not want to build another Meteor. The plans for a new class will be complete in about a year with all the advances we had since. Speaking of which, the frigates being built are the refined Curious class, with the third being a Studious class. The Comet has been officially shelved, although the existing ones won’t likely be rebuilt. It’s cheaper to build a new one.” Astra explained.

“And sure, I’ll train you some people for the Halcyon.” she grinned, understanding the eagerness behind it, “I would like to take Linsis with me eventually anyway. Why break something that works? If he proves capable on the Curious, I intend to offer the Warrior to him, unless the crew makes him retire by then. Last I heard he had to evacuate from the breakroom when the news of the Hammerhead being found arrived.” She smirked, missing not being there for the celebration. “And I don’t think the Durable’s CO would accept without the Zenith’s going with them. Those two ships have quite a history.”

“I’ll be sure not to spoil the surprise to the commander, then. If that’s the case, I’m sure he would appreciate to see a few old friends from the Second aboard the Warrior.” the lord-commander paused. “Breakroom? I always thought of Linsis as the ‘work until midnight’ type, what have you done to him?” Zorea inquired with great amusement. “And getting adept Auraxis onto a bigger ship will only do her good. Maybe she’ll stop hitting her head when going through doors, it’s not easy being 228 centimeters tall.”

“Oh, he works late alright… The Admiral sees to that. How often do you get someone who likes doing paperwork to do it for you? He just likes working in the breakroom, with all the risks that entails since more Narix came aboard.” Astra smirked as she walked along their path towards what the Marines identified as a control center. “I can only imagine what it’s like to be that tall. Some of us have the luck to be born a runt. Good luck or bad luck, I can’t quite tell.”

“Good luck as far as working the duct goes, I’m sure any engineer will agree.” Lira smiled. “Very well, I’ll talk to Lieutenant Mirai about the position. I am a bit surprised you are taking on so much Narix personnel. I do not mean to push you, but every Faira you take from the ‘Dea is one more child that can be born.”

“I know, Admiral, and I am taking as many as I can, but I want my command staff to be selected on skill and merit alone, and some roles the Narix are simply more suited to. The Strikeforce will be mostly their domain, there’s no shortage of volunteers, OEP or citizenship requestors. Speaking of which, how are the ambassador and Rear admiral? I haven’t heard from them in quite a while. I imagine they will visit here shortly as well?”

“He hates paperwork, but does it because that keeps the ship working. Especially anything related to crew comfort. Ambassador Taranis has been called back home for some diplomatic project. I suspect they wanted to throw her aide into the water to see how well he can swim. And it’s the first vacation she’s taken since coming back from the Nebula, that place did not sit well with her. She should be back early next week. Have you talked to her about ways we could help with the population issue? Aside from building more ships, of course. I think there are many places in Naris that could use some of your species’ talents, from dockyards through ports to science teams.”

“Oh, what was that about breakroom problems with additional Narix? Any troublemakers?” the Narix switched into a more serious mode.

“Those are jobs, not homes. I do not mean any disrespect, but nowhere on that cold, damp, heavy ball can feel like it. Even a ship is more comfortable than Naris to live on. It is amazing to visit for certain, but beyond that… I was tired just after two hours on the surface. More than after the battle with the Ancients.” Astra shuddered. “Oh, those aren’t trouble at all. In fact most of the crew welcome the lively culture your people brought aboard. It’s just that the Commander has made it his second quarters, and the crew celebrations tend to disrupt his peace when he falls asleep in there. Seriously, I will pull rank and order him to take a vacation soon if he doesn’t let up. His face is wrinkled already in his age!”

“Good, I was worried there for a moment. I’m sure he will be glad for that.” Zorea breathed a sigh of relief, “I didn’t mean the planet, rather the system as a whole. There are numerous stations, from New Frontier through the shipyards orbiting Artorias to small science and mining outposts. Yes, they are jobs, but long-term jobs often come with long-term housing. And working within our economy and learning its ins and outs might be beneficial for your people in the long run, it can be quite a minefield at times. And I’m afraid even the good ambassador can’t help you there, math and economics are the main reasons she got kicked out of her school. Maybe minister Ertanax, he and his comrades have become a common sight in Opportunity.”

“Suffice to say we are happy he retained his post. It would waste two months of pleasantries getting to know another man, but up to six for him to just get familiarized with all the operations we have going on.” Lira said, “Gravity cuts off ahead, be careful. I see they put up iron catwalks for the boots.” she said and tapped her heels together to engage the magnets. “I like what I see of this ship aesthetically, at least inside, but I worry about the general shape. Good when you are on offense, but the armor is thinner than the Beetle’s and I cannot imagine this turns very well. I don’t think we will be adopting much of it.”

“Too dark for my taste, and it feels like it’s caving in on you. The lack of defensive abilities of ships this size is something the shipwrights lost a lot of sleep over when designing the Warlord, not to mention the Halcyon. And the vertical layout is puzzling as well, it’s much easier to build a monorail and halls than elevators. Did they at all try to get anything working, besides pressurization and an airlock, or were they waiting or someone more qualified?”

“The cruiser and corvette do not have the experience with ships this size in the first place, even on our systems it might have been too much for them to put this into working order, the power grid alone would take all of their efforts. Couple that with the fact it is an alien technology and… here I am.” Astra noted.

Lira paused for a little while examining a piece of technology the crew had on the ground next to the road. “We’ve had the same problem, but we chose to invent the cruiser to add more AS firepower. It’s more expensive, but also more flexible.”

“We did the same thing, and now we have 108 Guardians that are scheduled to be scrapped. Not an ideal solution, but the Privateer wasn’t available at that time. I wonder how the Halcyon will approach the problem.”

“So, rear admiral, having everything we’ve learned so far from the beetle and the Terminus debris available, do you have any estimate on how long until you figure out at least the basics of this thing’s navigation?”

“It seems they use good old push buttons, so figuring out the controls should be easy. Knowing how most of the systems are built also helps, but the main problem still is the language. If we can’t figure out how to read the screens, we’ll get nowhere. It doesn’t help that the Relics didn’t ever invent ‘the label’.” the rear admiral frowned. “As for the Singularity, it’s shield is strong enough to vaporize an entire fighter, not just the bombs. I don’t think the Halcyon is going to have too much trouble, and knowing you there are swarmers lining every edge.”

“I sure hope so. I heard it’s going to have about half the Warlord’s crew, I guess they needed more space for munitions, storage and fabricators. Earlier, when talking about the Warior, you mentioned a new class of destroyer, anything specific revealed about it, or is it still in too early stages of development?”

“Maybe the labels are simply worn out?” he offered a thought of hope, “There’s still a lot of the ship unexplored.”

“I put two cruiser berths on the Singularity, if you have anything similar on the Halcyon, yes, it’S going to need some space. And XD-5’s blueprints are almost complete. It is not a radical difference though, merely an evolution of the Meteor. As the development tag suggests, fifth one. The first three we never built, and even the Meteor is not perfect, I only nailed the full application of the design philosophy with the Singularity for the first time.” Astra explained. “Still no news on the fusion weapons. The concept is a promising upgrade to the standard plasma weapons we use, but it is still years from deployment, likely the Singularity will have to be deployed with the proven P-15s, to be replaced later. Good progress on the P-100 though. The dish projector is as stable as a barrel, albeit it takes twenty percent more power to operate. Still, unless I can figure out a way to store ammo in subspace, it will have two, three shots. Good enough to kill a biosphere of a planet, but the Lucifer?” she made a so-so hand gesture.

“No berths, but it will have its own strike craft production facility. As far as ammunition is concerned, I’m skeptical about the 16 meter coilguns they came up with for it. I gather the Comet’s power problems have been solved for both the Singularity and the new frigates?”

“Aye, the frigates are built to Curious and Studious class standards, with the upgraded power generation and distribution. Singularity was designed with power to spare. No point in underpowering that ship, size is not the issue. The less intrasystem jumps that ship has to make the better though. Even with dual drives, it will have to cool down two minutes on the third jump, and it’s better to cool both drives before the next set of jumps. How are the Halcyon’s drives predicted to hold? Any special measures you have taken?” Astra inquired.

“Boffins behind it assure us of four safe jumps, but we won’t know until we try for ourselves. I am quite skeptical of that claim. We might break a few things on the first trial runs, but if the first Guardian survived such treatment, so will the Halcyon. They’re using the same heatsinks as the Privateer, but scaled up, coupled with two-stage cooling. First they get the heat from engines into other, less important systems to cool the drives, then they worry about the non-critical things. That’s still proof of concept, I can’t wait to see in action. I just wish they could figure out a way to beef up the aft armoring. I am delighted it’s designed with shields from the scratch, but most of us are still used to a hard shell.”

“The sheer volume of armor should make it impervious even to a Demon. Have you received plans for the Active armor? That should give us some advantage against it’s heavy plasma cannons at least. It was quite frightening to find out that one of those could melt half a Guardian in a single shot…” The rear admiral hissed.

“Speaking of upgrades, you managed to get the strikecraft jump drive working, but there’s no space on the current fighters to mount it, correct? Have all ships been fitted with the launch gate at least? And what of new or upgraded models that could take advantage of it?” Lira pipped up.

“We have, and I believe the Halcyon will be equipped with it, though I don’t know whether it will be applied to the entire hull or just the weaker sections. No wonder the thing needs so much power output. And I can’t think of a weapon that can’t damage the Guardian, a sturdy toothpick could make a sizable hull breach. I admit our ships are defenseless against energy weapons.”

“We can’t fit the launch gates anywhere, though they are doing their best to fit the Partisans with them. If that doesn’t work, we are considering making mobile jump gates, but even minister Ertanax doesn’t seem to think that’s possible. Both the Trident and Maul bombers can be fitted with the jump drives, another argument for retiring the Corsairs. As for fighters, that’s a problem. But if they can fit it onto the Flail, and so far it looks promising, it will bury the Raiders. Marauders are mainly defensive fighters, so there’s not much incentive to even try. We’re glad we got shields working there, at the cost of a bit of fuel. What of the Muon, any upgrades to that? The Naris’ crew is very fond of that class since operation Clean Sweep.”

“Ah, yes. The Muons work quite well as they are, although with the smaller jump drive derived from the Ancient fighters and if we mount the carousel launch bays you employ, it might be possible to expand the secondary capacity at no cost to performance. I am also intrigued to see what the HYVEL cannon designed by the Relics is like and if it can be used to upgrade our own. If it could punch through Demon’s armor as well as the Lilith’s… I don’t need to tell you what priceless asset that would be.” Astra hinted.

“As for the fighters of our design, we are due for an interceptor upgrade, the Proton drone is starting to show age. The Positron was already redesigned, given a tracked understructure and carousel missile bays, making it have smaller silhouette both on or off the ground. No space for the jump drive either though, so that would likely require making a complete successor, or just using Narix designed fighters. The decision on that is still being made, but the ease of logistical support for combined fleets has a large pull.” Lira grunted, her inner patriot screaming, but the logical side of her seeing the merit.

“How are your support ships working? The support container for the Plunderer turned out to be a success. And because it’s an attachment to the ship, we don’t have to wait for the pod to be rearmed. The pilots just detach the empty one, grab a fresh one and head right back out. Now, all we have to do is boost the power output and put the jump drive in. By the looks of it, we won’t even need to reduce fuel or ammo capacity. Though its success might be for nought if we can’t sort that out. And we lost one of them to an electric fire. Whenever one goes down, it’s best to be far away.”

“We’ve taken a different approach. Rather than to create a competitive class, we made a supplemental one. Smaller ship that can get into hotter zones than the Plunderer can. It has magnetic delivery systems for secondary weapons, but it doesn’t carry any spare subsystems for the modular strikecraft. We fitted it with the fire foam dispensers to strengthen the damaged hulls though, for what it’s worth. It won’t supplement armor, but it will increase structural integrity.” Astra explained. “Ah, here we are.”

They walked into the Relic ship’s command center. It looked as strange as the rest of the ship, arranged in a circle around a raised platform. It looked similar to the layout the Faira were used to, albeit there was a clear structure and hierarchy built into the room, whereas the Faira command centers were flat. The Relics didn’t only use push buttons, but apparently flat screens as well. “Well, at least managing the controls should be easy.”

“Score 2:1, go flat screens.” Zorea chuckled, remembering the ambassador’s description of Astra’s expression when she first saw the screen cluster in the Alchemist’s negotiations room. “This is odd. I’d feel like an actor on a theater stage here. At least they thought to up railing around the podium. Falling off in the middle of a fight wouldn’t be good. Let’s just hope this ship’s not-so-mysterious-anymore mystery goo is not completely shot. Think this thing’s life support might be salvageable?”

“It’s completely dead. Not even a lightbulb. We need to get some power into the system before anything can be done here.” astra noted the lack of any electronic activity. “Bridge to Engineering, how are you looking down there?” Astra radioed to the other team she sent in.

“We are ready. The relic ship appears to be using fusion as secondary power generation, so it should be safe to hook up one of our own reactors. The primary though… I don’t even want to guess at what it’s based on.” The Master engineer form the warden reported back.

“Okay, hook up the cabling and start slowly charging the power grid. We’ll tell you when to lower the output to just sustainable levels. All we need now is control input, let’s not wake any other system, I’d hate to think what would happen if the internal defenses ran on automated AI.” Astra noted. “Admiral, Lord-Commander, this is going to take few days honestly, I’ll report to you once we have something.”

Narix National Newscast

Intact Relic ship discovered!
Mere hours ago, the duo Durable-Zenith, now widely known for coming up with the basics of Operation: Clean Sweep, the plan to weed out the remaining Ancient forces in the Terminus system, have discovered and intact Relic destroyer, now officially named the RD Hammerhead. Courtesy of lord-commander Zorea and Admiral Lira, we have been allowed access to this ship as soon as it was towed to the Terminus-Opportunity jump node. In addition to almost an hour of video footage, we’ve managed to catch a few personnel assigned to the project while they had a few free minutes.

Immediately upon entering the Hammerhead’s hangar, we came across lieutenant Mirai, commander of the ECR Durable.

Q: What state was the ship in when discovered, and what state is it in now? Roughly when will the science teams be able to start fully uncovering its mysteries?
A: The ship was merely towed to the node and the hangar and docking port reinforced. As for the latter, an alien ship this size? We could be talking years.

Q: Have you encountered anything that would indicate ani life form, alive or dead, on board? Should we worry about more Ancients, or can we hope to see a Relic?
A: We have encountered noone on board, although only a small part of the ship has been mapped as of yet. If the Beetle is any indication, any Ancients on board should have reacted already. As for Relics, it seems the ship was abandoned by them, at least judging by the lack of anything that flies in the hangar. The Marines are still looking though, it is possible that the Ancients would just be biding their time with the demise of the Demon rather than attacking directly.

Q: At this point, you were present in two very important events, and many people hold you and the Zenith partially responsible for the Demon’s destruction. Do you think there is a promotion waiting around the corner, and if so, where would you like it to take you?
A: If the Admiralty sees me fit for promotion, I will do what I can for my nation. But that is a question for them.

---

At this point, another major player, adept Galeia Auraxis of the Zenith, found her way into the hangar.

Q: Adept, last time you two went through a similar debris field, the Zenith suffered a few big scratches due to the lack of a shield. Has the Hammerhead been more kind to you, and could diverting resources to this ship impede the shielding refits of the First Fleet?
A: The durable offered to share the patrol route and they were able to extend their shield over both ships in hot areas. A shield system would be a welcome addition, but the Privateer class is built well enough it withstand deployment in an Oort cloud, and my crew is one of the best. As for the upgrade schedule, that is beyond my pay grade. When they call us, we’ll head to the shipyard, until then, we’ll make due.

Q: Similar question as for the lieutenant: Do you think there’s a promotion coming up, or at least a vacation?
A: It would not be unwelcome. Two years of patrolling systems we already seen is not amusing. I would like to stay for some time in open space without a ceiling.

---

Lastly, we scored sulfur. At the end of our excursion, we caught admiral Lira and lord-commander Zorea.

Q: Can you tell us who is going to lead this research project?
A (Admiral Lira): Preliminary search is being conducted by the crews form the Durable and Zenith, although they will be recalled shortly for a well deserved rest. Rear admiral Astra has been recalled from Naris to attend to the Hammerhead for the time being, and a sizeable science fleet is en route from Naris to render aid.

Q: With a force like that, surely no secret can stay hidden for too long. What will the research focus on. General Relic technology, getting the ship operational, or something else?
A (LCMD. Zorea): The main point of searching for an intact relic ship is to decipher it’s navigation systems and pull a node map form them. Fortune has smiled on us and we were able to find a ship which systems may well be operational, unlike those on the Beetle. We will of course conduct research on the rest of the ship, but those objectives are secondary. As for the ship itself, we would like to preserve it in operational status, albeit perhaps not for military deployment, as we do not understand it well enough yet.

Q: As superior officers of both of the commanders responsible for finding this ship AND coming up with the basic principle behind Operation: Clean Sweep, I imagine your sights are set on these crews. What does the future have in store for them?
A (Lira): They have been noticed, that is all I will say on the mater for now.
Q: Lord Commander?
Shaking of a head

Q: is it possible civilian science teams might be hired to assist on this project, or parts of it?
A (Zorea): It is possible, we will see how taxing this will be on the military personnel. The third fleet I imagine can not wait to sink their teeth into this one.

---

As we are currently embedded on the NSS Ira, we will continue to cover this research project as best as we can, and wish good luck to everyone working on it.

FreeSpace: Expansion

EFG Curious, being repaired at Faira’Karte

It has been some time since the Commander visited her ship. The refits were still undergoing, mostly because of a quick but large change in the design spec done after the recent engagements with the Ancients. Both the Studious as the only reconstructed ‘block B’ Comet class, and the Curious were classes in their own now, the former spotting improved reactors and one extra unit, along with double barreled P-5 turrets, and the latter with an entire modular section added over where the docking port and second P-15 used to be, the extra gun sacrificed for a hangar. Even now though a replacement class was being drafted, all but ensuring the two modified Comets would be the only examples of it’s class that would ever fly.

Reaching the break room on the Morale sector, she found the victim she was looking for, having not seen the man for a week once she was stuck with the engineers on the ‘Karte. “Good evening XO, how’s the ship?” she smiled at prefect Linsis.

Truth be told, he’d expected to be kicked out at Opportunity when the Curious limped back to the system along with the rest of the OEP personnel. Seeing the Faira work together on such a large scale was truly quite something. Since he had no engineering background, let alone knew anything about Faira technology, he’s been swamped in various logistics, requisitions and similar paperwork, had there been any paper involved. During this time, he gave the break room a new purpose, opposite of its name. Though working on Faira calendar meant shorter days and therefore sleep more often, the monotone nature of his work took its toll. It was for that reason he was glad for any diversion, and even the sight of the commander didn’t sour his day, though she certainly had her moments.

“Evening, sir.” he stood up with a salute, “It almost looks like it’s supposed to again, save for the modifications. Looks like they were busy back at Terminus without us. Have you had time to follow the news?”

“Enough bled through the paperwork to paint an image of complete insanity. That and few of our countrymen making a name for themselves. Lieutenant Caliri of the Enlightenment has been bumped to receive command of one of the corvettes to be attached to the Singularity once she’s finished. The Curious will need a new CO by then as well, although that might happen far sooner. I will probably be leaving to work on the Superdestroyer.” the Commander sighed.

“Enough about work though. I hear you ruined the break room for everyone with it so they have to party at command and control. Come on, you need a break too!” the commander said, pointing to the door, “You up for a game, or perhaps some news from the blackdocks?”

“I do take breaks, I’m just trying to find a better environment for when I am working. And I did what now? Didn’t realize sitting in the corner was so obstructive, they need only ask and I’d be on my way.”

“I was speaking figuratively, but even if, they do it out of respect for your personal space. You are nowadays responsible for their well being, and believe it or not, the crew took well to you. Aurigae is a good person, but she couldn’t make a decision if her life depended on it, much less everybody else's, the woman takes no risks which leaves her in a dead end. You took charge and made more or less the correct call after being here for a couple of hours. Thing like that impress people.” Astra said encouragingly.

“Now get off that bench, do you want me to show you what we came up with or not?!”

“That’s nice to hear. Truth be told, the phrase ‘cooking out of water’ doesn’t come even close to describing what that engagement was, but I’ll take the results. Just glad that wreck was there to provide cover.” the Narix launched himself to his feet. “Lead the way, and tell them to pick up all the bottles when they’re done.” the Narix grinned.

“Aaaaw, see? You know them so well already!” The commander grinned as she lead out of the breakroom, where one of the Stonemasons was juggling still full bottles and another one od Virgo’s squadron was showing off tricks with chips, all with an ‘about time’ face on them.

One visit to a transport room later, the commanders of the Curious were on a berth observation deck on the ‘Karte, with the Curious and Latanos sharing the two klik berth. “My poor ship. It grown a tumor.” Astra whined, seeing the unshapely hangar module.

“Have you seen the bottles adept-legionnaire Solaire was carrying? That stuff has hallucinogenic properties, don’t be surprised if some of them start reporting nonexistent targets tomorrow morning.” he chuckled. “Only if one of them were to drink an entire bottle in the matter of a dozen minutes on an empty stomach.” he quickly explained to clear up any possible misunderstanding.

“I thought that hangar was your design. Could have been worse, look what they’re doing to the Latanos.” he pointed to the hexagonal shield projectors. “It’s got a rash. With the general shape of the ship, you’d expect they’d have the common sense to make the projectors rounded. There’s an adage: ‘Do you know what happens when you quit the Fifth? You get your brain back.’ I think I now understand.”

“Hah! Good thing you’re here then!” Astra laughed. “An, well, you can only do so much with the armor technology the Curious uses and a hull designed for something entirely different. It is always better to integrate stuff from the beginning. As to why it is happening, well… The Vanguard is being turned form an exploration fleet into a full fledged combat evaluation. I mean, it makes sense, between us and the Explorer, Vanguard has the most combat hours logged.” she shrugged.

“Note the armor on the module though.” Astra said summoning a camera output window and zooming in over the viewscreen. “We developed our own version of the crystalline armor the unknowns used. It’s nowhere near as tough, but still an improvement. We’ve added a slat armor over it with an electric charge. None of ours use ion weapons, not even the Ancients do, but it could still help one day. We set the control system to default to negative charge to eliminate the charge of cations, which are somewhat more dangerous in plasma weapons than the electron part. In addition to that, jet vents for coolant have been installed along the plates, both to cool down and disrupt the incoming bolts.” she noted, encircling the small turret like vents on the ship.”

Linsis nodded in silence, the commander’s words passing right over his head. He knew the words and their individual meaning, but combined, they were just noise to him. Perhaps he should stick to his supply manifests.

“Funny thing, if the Curious had a hangar in the first place, the turret that hangar replaced might have still been there. The circle of life. How many craft can that hold?”

“It will fit about sixteen craft plus a Pillager. It’s no destroyer still, but you put in there eight superiority fighters, two tactical bombers and six heavy bombers and you can take on one if you’re on the attack. Defense… Well, better leave that to the Meteor. It will help tremendously with the scouting though, especially once we couple in the last piece of the puzzle. I’ve been pouring almost non-stop over the Ancient strike craft jump drive. So far I made one small enough to equip the hangar with a jumpgate so we can launch the fighters through FTL at least.” the commander explained.

“That should make the mapping of the nebula somewhat more bearable. Not for the pilots flying recon, but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

“There aren’t going to be any pilots flying recon. One of the lightning bolts in the nebula would vaporize anything short of a cruiser, shielded at that. I don’t know how I feel about even the Guardians, and it’s a good thing the Fifth doesn’t have any Partisan, or it would have to stay behind, shield or not.” Astra frowned.

“Guardians are staying behind. We don’t expect to be ambushed by fighters or bombers in the Nebula, so Ascari is leaving them home. Not to mention those things are so small and their reactors so flimsy they don’t allow the mounting of shields. Though I overheard an engineer from the Fifth spewing fire and smoke at the task of mounting shields on the Privateers. Something about removing turrets.”

“They will stop bitching as soon as they get hit by the yearly output of their powerplant concentrated to a fraction of a second and live. If not, I will remotely power off their shields and then we’ll see how long they last.” the commander grunted, not liking her technology to be dissed in any way.

“Whoa, blue on blue. Their problem is the small size of the ship. They had to figure out a place to put the projectors, not to mention the extra power output. It’s worse because even the high ups don’t like it, seeing as the Privateer is our newest class. Has the Fifth been told what to expect, or did you not want to spoil the surprise for them?”

“They have been told alright. I don’t want blood on my hands. Or whatever charred remains of it are there among the cloud of plasma that used to be a ship. Normally we’d ferry those ships through under our shield, but since we are in need of fanning out…” the commander sighed. “Come, let’s hit the breakroom here. Those on military ships have nothing on the civilian fleet. I want to see how you improved your game since last time!” she said, referring to the Faira space combat simulator games.

“Eheh...” the prefect laughed uneasily, remembering the royal beating she referenced. “Although I did take breaks, most of them consisted of food and sleep. Sometimes mixed.” he shook his head to banish the memory of waking up over a half-eaten ration pack. “Best not hold out much hope.”

“Come on, don’t be an Ascari. I told you that I am soon leaving the Curious, and there’s no way i am leaving the Captain in charge. What reason could I possibly have for trying to drill ship movements into you?” Astra dropped as she lead to the game consoles. “Like it or not, you are the only other person available with hands-on experience commanding a frigate. Suck it up and learn, I’ll give it to you as an order in writing if you need.” Astra smirked as she launched the game, choosing the Ancient fleet to play.

“I’m not an Ascari, I can see over tables when I’m standing straight.” he took a shot at the primarch’s height, or lackthereof. “And I believe that would be the first time in our history someone’s been ordered by his superior officer to play, and our military has a few weird orders on record.” he took a seat, selecting the Faira fleet. “Is the humpback Comet already in, or is that just a sideline project?”

“Oh don’t you dare call it that!” Astra hissed, “Oi damn it! You’re just trying to distract me… and it’s working.” Astra huffed as she missed a few seconds on setting up her resourcing. “You have to research interspecies technology exchange first, then branch into the fighter line with any class, that unlocks the hangar refit for the comets, you can find it under the Curious class.” Astra noted, herself going first for capital ship building research, followed by bombers.

He decided to take the frigate branch of research for practice’s sake, though he was tempted by the Meteors. “What’s wrong with the name? I know: There is a jolly bunch of marines on board who would no doubt offer a plethora of fitting names. Especially now since they’ve ingested unknown amounts of several types of liquors.” he teased as the first corvettes and multirole fighters of his imaginary fleet formed around the resource operations.

Astra has meanwhile been busy sending her interceptors to peek on resourcing spots, and mining those still unoccupied, but close to Linsis’ base rather than her own, her fighters keeping an eye out for any scouts and her single Demon hanging back. She didn’t bother with advancing to the Superdestroyer branch yet.

Creepy crawlies started popping up around his mining ops as the sensor range of his fleet increased with each expansion to new resource sources. Finally, a pair of cruisers with the oracle upgrade enabled were complete and set out, charting the playable area, each with a wing of fighter drones attached to its hull. A lone Pulsar with eight drones of its own lay in wait to the side, away from the main forces. Eight more minutes and the research necessary for the frigates would be done, but a lot could still happen between that and the first frigate’s arrival.

Astra was playing a dangerous game, but she wondered how Linsis would adapt. Her scouts have no doubt been detected by now, but she dared to send them closer to see what kind of defenses his resourcing operation had. Then she pulled everything out courtesy of the jump capable strike craft, and sent a large force of fighters into the sensor range of the Narix’s civilian fleet, feigning an attack run on the harbor ship.

That was indeed a lot of fighters, which could mean the commander neglected large capital ships. He scrambled the defenses of a half-spent resource op, a fighterless Pulsar and Nebula, and jumped them in range behind the strikeforce using the Nebula’s drive, putting them between the commander’s fighters and his harbor ship. Finally, one of his scout cruisers reported a large contact, but disappeared from the map before it could be further identified. He set both the backup Pulsar and his Meteor to aggressive behavior, waiting for the commander’s reaction to the two ships in her fighters’ back yard.

A flash of metal smile came from the other side of the table as a duet of Liliths jumped upon the unprotected Nebula and Pulsar, while a Moloch jumped to the resourcing operation. Astra tasked the Fighters with disabling and disarming the Faira ships. With their numbers it shouldn’t take long for the two ships to be dead in space, but if push came to shove, the Liliths would finish them off quickly unless the XO had something up his sleeve. Astra was trying to bait Linsis strike craft away.

And there was the catch. Using the Pulsar’s jump drive, he moved the two ships behind the Liliths, setting the pulsar’s torpedos and largest turrets to target the Liliths’ engines while the Nebula, reinforced by the Pulsar and it’s eight drones he originally held in reserve to aid the oracle cruisers, bit into the fighters. He left the resource op to its own devices, the reason for choosing that one was its near-depletion. Its fighter complement should tie up the Moloch for a minute or two. Neither of their two destroyers have so far been deployed, but to his knowledge, the Demon was outclassed by even the unupgraded Meteor in firepower. The remaining cruiser has not found anything new and now lingered close to where the large contact was reported by its unlucky brother.

The ruse worked, mostly. Astra tasked the Moloch to ignore the few pesky fighters that were doing sum zilch to it and focused on the economic vessels. Even if the fighters disabled the moloch (their weapons could do little more), it would repair over time. Just replenishing the resourcing ships would take five minutes of build time. It would be a loss anyway, either he didn’t build bombers or capital ships for five minutes, giving Astra a head start even with her bomber research, or he would not replenish his economy and she would bleed him dry in the long run. Speaking of which, her last heavy bomber wing has finished building.

Abandoning the liliths to their fate, she waited half a minute later for one of her resource drops to have the resources for the jump she was about to execute. She started with jumping all of the fighters form the fight straight to the Meteor in two groups, sicing them onto the P-15 turrets. In the same thought, she carefully placed the jump of the heavy bombers, setting them to appear inside the Meteor’s shield for a quick delivery. Somebody was going to get hurt.

Letting the engagement with the Liliths to play out as it would, he turned his attention to where the oracle cruiser perished. Grabbing the two freshly arrived Comets, he set them to jump to the large contact’s last known location. He then set the Meteor to jump some distance away from them, on the other side of the presumed Demon. As the resources for the jump arrived, a sneak attack at the Meteor took place. Aided by the Comets, it should hold against the Demon even with a few dents. Though jumping the Meteor would leave another resource op, this one slightly bigger, open to attack with just two Nebulas and the ships that were fighting the Liliths to defend it, once they were finished. Screw it, they’ll be done soon enough, he thought and jumped the Meteor.

The one redeeming quality of an awful design like the Demon was that there was no safe approach. Even from behind it’s missiles and a couple of heavy plasma cannons could still reach you. Not as good a layout as a Meteor or anything else the Faira built, but with the insanity it called armor, it made it work. The fighters have managed to disable one of the P-15 turrets and some of the bombs have landed, directly on the hull courtesy of Astra’s precision jumping. Speaking of which, she needed to do that again, her budget taking a bit of a hit with that jump. She tasked the Fighters with protecting the Demon just in case Lindus had enough resource points to launch a torpedo strike, and routed the bombers to go for the other P-15.

It was still there, and right between the Meteor and the Comets. Perhaps gods existed after all? Shame the torpedoes did not fit into the budget. At least Astra’s fighters left the resource op alone. If he could keep the Meteor alive long enough, that would cost her. Unfortunately, she had a nasty habit of bypassing the ship’s shield. Time to see what the fighter AI of the simulator could do. Ordering the capital ships to engage the Demon, the fighter drones began mixing it up with the cheeky bombers. Good thing they weren’t the monsters the Explorer cooked up. If only did the Faira ships have a reasonable amount of point defense turrets. Where was a Warlord when you needed one?

Having finished the two Liliths, in spite of losing the Nebula, the battered Pulsars could still be used. Another thing that needed resources. More ships, or torpedoes? It had to be torpedoes, two Pulsars couldn’t do much against that thing. It was just the matter of keeping the Meteor armed and waiting for the resources. Close, but not quite there yet.

“Come on, come on, COME ON!” Astra growled as she watched the demon’s build bar rise, but the health bar drop. When the demon dropped to 25%, another demon finished building, jumping alongside the battered one, Astra’s production finally catching up with Linsis’.

“Death and taxes, now what?” he hissed at the game sound of a new contact. “Well, there certainly have been better developments in the history of warfare.” The Comets kept pelting the dying Demon and the meteor was, almost miraculously, still operational, albeit the bombers have taken their toll on it. So this is what her resources have been going into. The first Demon was about to fall and he turned the Meteor to shorten the flight path of the torpedoes. Just a little kiss on the cheek and they would be ready. Firing the torpedoes would leave him with empty pockets, but once they were launched, the newly arrived Demon would have a bad time.

“You know what the problem with torpedoes is? Flight time.” Astra said as both her demons were swallowed by subspace windows before the torpedoes crossed the distance. The two ships materialized back in he rbase, where a repair transport was waiting for them. Five minutes Linsis had to find them to finish them off before the first demon was up to full strength. Astra was ahead of resources still, but right now she would have traded that for a few fighters right now. The demons were starting to spew up more interceptors, but now it was down to dumb luck on how fast Linsis could find her. And she still had two minutes on the superdestroyer research, not to mention the actual build time for a Lucifer. One of the demons had to live, she set her goal. “Any word from home? What’s the mood there? The civ fleet is getting sort of restless with all the ships coming to the Nebula, and with being basically on the front line should there be a way through.” she asked, hoping to distract the Narix from focusing on the game.

Fortunately, one of the oracle cruisers was still around, even though it was limited to travelling through real space. And he had a decent idea of where the ships would NOT be - neither of his three remaining resource ops nor the harbor ship could see the two destroyers and any escorts they might have had. Between the Comets, the Meteor, the oracle ship and the two Pulsars, finding them would be rather quick.

“No idea, haven’t heard from there.” he replied to the commander’s inquiry mechanically. “Last I heard, construction of the mother of manned missiles was going smoothly.” he tried whether another verbal attack at Faira ships would provoke a reaction from the commander.

“You mean the greatest thing to leave a berth since the Meteor, thank you?” Astra smirked, “We seem to bi killing the Ancients well enough - on or off the sim, but there’s the big question. Do they have more of these?” she cheekily shown her panel as she queued up a production of the Lucifer. She knew she was revealing her hand, but the chance to snap a picture of the Prefect’s surprised face was worth tossing the game. “One I think the Singularity can deal with. If they have more, well… It’s been a pleasure serving with you.”

“Don’t think the primarch would agree, but you can’t win with the southerners.” his face remained expressionless, as he’s already accepted defeat when the second Demon showed up. “On the offense, the MOM might work, but what will you do when it takes a hit?” he hinted at it’s cast hull. “Ask the Nightmares to kindly take half a decade off so you can build a new one or patch up the one you have? Or when the enemy is behind it?” he snorted. “Mind jumping can only get you so far.” The whole time, the area where the destroyers could be hiding grew smaller and smaller until…

Hostile contact identified

There they were. Why the commander keep them both where they were instead of letting one get fixed and using the other one to harass his units to make him waste further resources? Maybe she was low herself, all being funneled into the superdestroyer? The damage done was at about 60%. His ships could reach them in time, but which one was producing the bloody Lucifer? Reason commanded it be the newer one, but that’s what everyone would think. But the damaged one was an easier target. Fifty-fifty. He set his ships to attack the undamaged ship, ordering a single Pulsar to disable the damaged one.

There it was. The timer on the Demon’s jump drive was still ticking, thirty seconds left. That meant that when she made her jump, she would have about fourteen and a half seconds to slag Linsis’ production with whatever she had left. The healthier demon was packed with all of the fighters she managed to produce, and the one being repaired was positioned to be the first one hit. It annoyed her a little when most ships overlooked the damaged ship and went straight for the good one, the Comets chewing a bit off of it’s health pool, while the crippled meteor could sit back and plink until it’s turrets repaired. What she found amusing was one pulsar trying in vain to disable the older ship - Linsis apparently didn’t notice the small transport still working on it, undermining the corvette’s effort. The newer demon dropped to 70% integrity when it’s drive charged. Astra crossed her fingers and jumped it to the last known location of Linsis’ civilian fleet, leaving the older demon on site to draw the AI’s fire.

For some reason the older Demon refused to yield. Zooming closer to it,Linsis’ face sunk into his palm. “Oh for fuck’s sake, really?” It was then the second Demon jumped, planting itself in the middle of the civilian fleet.

“Tell me, commander, if this battle took place today, how many Faira would’ve been left at its conclusion?” he asked as the harbor ship’s health bar sped towards zero.

“Not as many as I’d like, about as many as could be expected. Game wise, you need to protect your rear slightly little more. Tactics wise, I see improvement though, playing around is not without it’s worth it seems. You’re using your ships well within their design parameters, although you are on the conservative side. If you switched your Meteor to siege mode when you jumped my first destroyer, the game would have ended right there and then. You might have lost the meteor as well to the bomber strike, but, within our knowledge, the ancients’ destroyers count as win conditions, until we see a planet or a city ship of theirs.” Astra said, rubbing her temples, “I was worried form that moment on, you had me on a run and I got by only because you kept the civvies alone. On real deployment, I would compare that to leaving a node behind you without a watch or downright blockade. You would have been cut off from your supply lines.” she said as her old demon finally fell, but along with Linsis’ production ship.

“In real life, jumping a ship doesn’t cost arbitrary resources and a transport craft cannot regenerate a ship’s engines as they are pelted by a corvette either. But still, a loss is a loss.”

“Well, I agree on the engines, though mind this is a civilian issue simulation. On the resources… does it not though? It costs power, that doesn’t magically appear from nowhere. Different resource, but a resource still. Well then… rematch?”

FreeSpace: Expansion

ED Explorer, Terminus system

“I think we’re done!” Casei hollered form the bay she was occupying, shutting down the paintbrush and looking over her work. Since the formation of the alliance, the OEP on the Explorer has grown a few heads, mostly Narix pilots and engineers. It was then that the two groups started an unofficial arms’n’tech race, each using the combined technological base to develop prototypes of each class of strikecraft, interceptor, superiority and heavy fighters, as well as tactical and strategic bombers. And Casei and her engineers have just finished work on the last one.

Walking out of the walled off rack, she looked on the visualizations of the Faira designs and couldn’t wait to see what the pilots could do with them.

“Almost done.” Lindus hollered over the paintbrush. “And finished.” he came out of his evil genius’ workshop. “Might have to refill your paint stores, there’s a reason we’re not allowed to customize our ships too much.”

Since the alliance was formed, tensions dissipated and tech sharing fully started, the Explorer’s hangars looked someone let children run a candy factory, much to the dismay of the engineers swamped by requests and wishes of the pilots. Now, he stood among five strike craft, weird bastard children of Narix and Faira, all five of them. He’s just finished painting the heavy fighter.

“Well, shall we go all at once, or one by one to get the tension up? Should there be betting?” Casei grinned wildly.

“What have you to bet? Last I checked, you still don’t have a currency of your own, your food’s bloody awful, and I still don’t understand your playing cards.” Lindus returned fire with a toothy grin of his own. “Unless the Meteors come equipped with a stash of edible livestock no one told me about?”

“You can take me to see your home and I’ll whack a few of the colossal monsters you eat for you!” Casei challenged. “So, shall we ascend the weight scale then?”

“What’s colossal about waist height? But now that you bring up home, I do need a new fence around a property I bought last year. It’s just 900 meters of corrugated steel and razor wire. Sure, interceptors first. It’s your ship, let’s see what you’ve come up with.”

Smirking and tapping the controls on the first rack, the door slid to the floor and a hydraulic arm extended forward a craft that would have been a bit similar to the standard Faira fighter drone, only a bit elongated and with a bit more armor on. “Yeah, this one is a win for you in sophistication no doubt, I don’t even need to see it, but this thing costs nothing to build, can be built in two hours from raw material, and what better way to escort a large ship and shoot down bombs than having many, many of them?” Casei explained her thinking behind the design. The entire thing was compactly packed, and yet still modular enough to be serviced by the support ships. It had fixed mounts, but was agile enough to target even the smallest and dodgiest of missiles.

“And you expect me to cry out in joy at the mention of the ship being buildable in two hours and its strength being numerical superiority?” Iris half chuckled. “While I see the point, your description of the ship certainly doesn’t inspire confidence. Perhaps this role would be best left to the drones?”

“I’ll be honest, I have an AI capsule in it rather than the cockpit variant.” Casei smirked knowingly.

“We’ve come up with this.” the rack opened, revealing a small fighter with a joined wing at the back. “Wing is there for mounting ordnance and heat radiation. Big engine in the back for accelerating, RCS in every direction for maneuvering, translation and precise movement, such as docking. Cockpit in the middle, with the front housing most avionics as well as four fixed weapon hardpoints, accessed by these hinged panels.” He pointed out a marked panel beside two large holes near the nose. “Life support is integrated into the pounchout capsule, main drive and power core are joined in a sort of a power pack. Little back heavy.” he finished.

“It looks like… a sports shuttle.” Casei smirked, “Don’t get me wrong, I want one, just not for getting shot at. The wing doesn’t seem to be too structurally sound under fire though.”

“In a way, it is. We built it for speed and maneuverability. The wing lived through some small calibre fire, AP munitions and two or three plasma bolts from your drones, but disintegrated when hit with a 75 mm. No wonder, those are meant for bombers and turrets.”

“We tried to go for internal hardpoints, but we’re still getting our bearings straight with your reactors, they take up more space than we’re used to.” one of the Narix engineers explained, “Also, heat management was a problem, hence the wing. Hardpoints were an afterthought and could be changed.”

“I solved the heat by using a small reactor and a large battery.” Casei smirked at the cheekiness of her solution, “I thought, Interceptor’s combat deployment is only about thirty minutes anyway, but even then, it can last on the battery for forty. And then, the battery is a module like all other subsystems. Just dock with the mothership or a support ship, swap in ten seconds, go go go.”

The engineer nudged Iris in the ribs. “There’s a method to her madness.” the Narix shared a chuckle. “It would reduce mass a bit as well, but the drive is still a beast, even at half burn. Perhaps we can try that with the next prototype and see where that takes us. Shall we move on?”

“Enter, number two. Dedicated space superiority fighter is a new thing to us, so don’t spare any criticisms.” The fighter was larger, with a small profile from the front and sides and boasted four full engines, two facing back and two forward. “More power for the reverse thrusters granting it better maneuverability along the Y axis as well as shorter braking distance. Cockpit roughly between the reverse thrusters, followed by the reactor and engine assemblies. Again, liftless wings to aid in cooling it down, with a variable tilt so it doesn’t take up as much space when stored. Three pivoting primary hardpoints, one internal missile bay on the bottom. As with the previous ship, life support is part of the punchout capsule as they share the same module. Avionics in the front, fuel wherever we could fit it, granting it long flight time. Missile bay can be removed and replaced with additional fuel or a sensor pod for recon.”

“Superiority is the middle way to go, something you would give a rookie to learn, and something a veteran would pick if intel was hazy. I would have put a dual secondary weapons system on it myself, this means that if you want a sensor pod, you can’t get missiles. I don’t know how to feel about that. How did you solve maneuverability, and how many degrees of freedom does it have?” the faira engineer inquired.

“The ship carries its own sensor suite, the additional pod is a poor man’s AWACS or long-range recon. With the pod, it can also function as a dedicated electronic warfare ship. Also, none of your current fighters have missiles, so I’d still call it an upgrade. It can move in six directions and rotate along three axes using maneuvering thrusters, is that what you’re asking?”

“Yes, full range then, good. How fast can it accelerate with the thrusters, is it docking speed, or can it be used, say, to dodge?” The Faira asked, hinting a little at what her design would contain. She spared the remark about an upgrade no thought, they were told to build the best machine they could come up with, and so she did.

“Dodge what and at what range? Nothing with a pilot in it is outmaneuvering a missile. Main drives are of course enough to get you out of trouble, the maneuvering thrusters will do about 4 m/s2.”

“Dodge what you have that will leave you the smallest reaction time at optimal range. My turn.” the Faira grinned, revealing their fighter. It was a slim thing still, albeit larger in height than the Narix counterpart. The cockpit was sunk back, with four engine pods in a plus arrangement extended forward, each sporting a ball mounted thruster that could point in any direction. On the X-line of symmetry were four smaller missile banks, with the guns mounted on the same planes but closer to the center axis. “My thinking was, if you can accelerate the same amount in any direction, you could dodge most incoming fire without needing to turn so much that you would lose target lock. That reacquisition could cost you up to three seconds. Other than that, we went for maneuverability over integrity still, focusing mainly on primary gun fire.”

“What was it you’ve said on day one? Something about thrust vectoring being unnecessary?” Lindus said, pointing at the thrusters. “Easier to hit, too. Heat management and ordnance?”

“It is unnecessary when coupled with other means of reorientation. This design relies on the thrust vectoring to do everything. Ordnance is tailored to anti-fighter role, but secondaries can catch an interceptor after some training and primaries have enough punch to kill a heavy. Heat management has been balanced carefully though, we’ll have to see how an actual flight test will do. Might need to enlarge the sinks a little, they are on the back.” Casei pointed to two fins sticking out of the rear. “There is a LN2 tank for short bursts of overcooling.”

“Like the armament. The nozzles may be a little problematic for deck crews, but we’ll see. Move on to your heavy fighter?”

Casei looked at her engineers proudly and with a big shit eating grin, and the engineers grinned right back. “Oh well…” The door slid down and revealed what initially looked like an enlarged version of the interceptor in general shape. On second look, one would notice two small scale torpedo banks on the rear, albeit they looked like they were facing sideways rather than forward. There was one smaller bank under the nose for conventional rockets, and the thing had eight primary mounts, four on the sides of the nose, and four in two pivoting pods to the side. The thing was clad in heavy armor on top of a shield, that when looking on the number of emitters was geared to be very powerful in the front quadrant. The most bizzare thing was a large superstructure underslung under the fighter. All in all, the thing looked hideous, but menacing.

“What?” someone uttered.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on here. And what’s the scaffolding beneath it? An OTH radar?”

“Show them!”

Casei was happy to oblige. Tapping the controls, the fighter came to life. The superstructure beneath unfolded into a set of reverse-bent legs, the pivoting pods extended out a little and the torpedo tubes hinged to face forward, turning the fighter into a mech. Before she said anything, Casei wanted to see the look on the Narix faces.

“Someone get a dictionary and explain what a fighter is. Of what use is this going to be, really? It’s complicated and serves little purpose than perhaps a tech demonstrator. Even if you get it planetside, these vehicles are horribly unstable, we’ve tried. As for space, just dead mass.”

“Oh, believe me, we simulated against everything you have, and against everything we have come up with, and this thing always came on top if used properly. We’ve designed a special missile for the pods, we’re calling it the longbow. It outranges anything you supplied twice. In the initial salvo, one wing of these can wipe out two squadrons or disarm an unshielded cruiser. The two pods act as turrets in fighter mode, giving you more survivability if you are outnumbered and your two is busy. Finally, eight primary mounts will strip off an Ancient fighter’s shield in one or two hits.” Casei boasted, “And trust me, I’ve seen your exo suits before you met us. No wonder you couldn’t hack it. Watch.” she said as she climbed into the cockpit, running the mech mode strikecraft around at reasonable speed, making it jump off of a few walls and jet over a distance quickly. “Couple this with a re-entry level frontal quadrant shield, and you have something that can fight on the frontline in any area, and all of them at once. Situation on the ground going bad? Nevermind, just reroute some fighters form the orbit to support the troops. They can even do their own CAS if piloted by a psychokinetic trained for it.”

“And they’re done for once something hits a leg. Or you run into bad terrain. That’s the reason we didn’t field any walkers in the end, even the quadrupedal ones, along with the aforementioned complexity. Plus they make a big target for any schmuck with a PAVS, although the shield changes that to some extent. At least this seems to be easy to control.”

“And by your own admission, they require a special type of missile you have to supply or produce on-site. Removing that missile also removes one of the apparent major selling points. Its simulated effectivity also depends on your use of our equipment, specifically your correct use of it. And on the subject of reentry-level shield - can it then get back up on its own and have enough fuel left to still be useful?”

“As for rerouting fighters from orbit, normal fighters can do that as well, and...” the engineer paused, “...who was it that said something along the lines of ‘I wouldn’t bother with atmospheric capability’?” He snapped his fingers. “Right, you.” The engineer was not fond of agreeing upon design guidelines and than breaking them without changing the specs. “Even the Halberd, the space superiority ship, could be easily modified to fly in the atmosphere, just switch the liftless wings for ones producing lift, add control surfaces and modify the flight control software that is already in place to aid with stability. Same goes for both of our bombers.”

“Well, the Positron actually isn’t atmosphere capable, it wouldn’t turn, just fly straight, preferably straight up. As for hitting legs, you can make the same argument for tank tracks or just about anything really. If you hit something enough times it will fail. Missiles we didn’T use previously because it wasn’t cost effective, but with mining operations beginning in earnest in Opportunity, that ban has been lifted. Or should be, any day now. And regarding the fuel, while in atmo, it can plasmatize the atmosphere, see the intakes here, so the return to orbit is actually quite efficient on planets we would be likely to deploy it to.” Casei explained, berthing the fighter, “Speaking of bombers… your heavy first.”

“You got me with plasmathising the atmosphere. The biggest difference between tracks and legs are: one - tracks are smaller and two - the tank will not fall down, maiming the pilot. Right, heavy.”

“Enter, the Flail.” The open rack revealed the ugliest thing that, to Narix knowledge, ever left a production line. Words failed to describe the general shape, with six primary hardpoints and three secondary bays and four primary engines. “Two secondary banks up top, one bottom. Four main drives, two reverse thrusters and enough armor to put the Guardian to shame. Excess power allows for a shield, meant to boost the front for attacks or back for running. Follows the same internal layout as the previous ones. No atmosphere for this one, no matter how hard you try. Translation along Y and Z axes facilitated by thrusters, although it is a bit sluggish. Rotation is handled by gyros.”

“Hm… okay.” Casei passed it off. ‘Bland’ was what she said, and everybody knew it. “Now, we didn’t have any prior experience with bombers, so bear with us.” she said, revealing the first of the Faira strikecraft. There was a long, thin, and distinctly secondary deficient thing to be called a bomber by the Narix frame of mind. In the rear though were powerful engines, and the thing had a hard-built massive hypervelocity kinetic cannon, and a snub-nosed version of it mounted in a turret. “It doesn’t carry many torpedoes, but is extremely fast. Armed with a variety we developed for attacking systems of a capital ship, and a cannon that could punch through the lilith’s armor and completely wreck it with one mag, we feel it fits the role, what do you think?”

“Hard to hit and hard hitting. I’ll have eight.” one bomber pilot commented. “Just one pilot?”

“How does that keep the temperature down? Small core and batteries again?”

“One pilot, one turret aiming AI. Cue the booing.” Casei snorted. “And no, actually. The drive is laced with cooling lines that use phase-changing coolant, and it recuperates part of the heat in a turbine. Then, there is again a phase changing heat capacitor for afterburner, which can either be cooled down over time, or simply ejected. We do not expect the heat to build up too much though. This thing is equipped with two jump capacitors, eliminating the need for a recharge. You jump in, gauge the situation, perform the attack run if you deem it possible, and jump out. You will need to rearm anyway, might as well land on the destroyer for that and let another wing take their shot.”

“Jokes on you, because we messed with AIs as well.” the rack opened, revealing the Narix light bomber. The craft had a twin-tailed hull, again featuring liftless surfaces to radiate heat and main drives in two directions. “And this thing looks like it may come to a relative halt within our lifetime, too. Single primary hardpoint, two revolving torpedo bays, two turrets, one dorsal, one ventral, usually controlled by an AI. Again shielded and relatively easy to refit for atmosphere. Two crewmen, both have full control over the ship and the turrets, allowing them to spread workload. One flies the ship, the other manages shields and countermeasures, leaving the AI to man the guns. No jump drive, sadly, didn’t fit even with a single crew setup. Wings fold backwards to save space in hangars. Turret weapons interchangable, of course.”

“It looks fightery still.” Casei noted, “I am not sure how I feel about tactical bomber that is not jump capable. They need to be highly mobile in my head to be deployed quickly when a tactical advantage presents itself. Alright, go with the big beast.”

“This one has eaten too much, so it got a little fat.” The rack opened, light falling upon the smooth hull with two massive engines in the back. "Flying wing design, two crew members, subspace motivators, three safe jumps, four seconds charging time, 20, 50 and 80 seconds for complete cooldown respectively. Possibly could jump four, even five times, but we won’t know what sort of damage that will do until we find a pilot braindead enough to try. We expect melting components and cables, leading to loss of systems and power spikes. Four revolving banks, 12 torpedoes each, two turrets at the wingtips, again AI controlled, 220 degrees pivot main drives, that’s 110 up and 110 down. Maneuvering with gyros. Ship this size, shield goes without saying."

“You were saying about vectored thrust?” Casei smirked. “Well, the design is pretty i’ll give you that, but I like this better.” she said and revealed her own brainchild. It was a conventional Faira layout of a hull with rear engine pylons, and around it were wrapped modular torpedo bays. The bomber had no primary guns, but four defensive turrets facing each to one side, and one in the rear. “The beauty is not with any aspect of the craft you would usually consider, but with it’s fire control system. This thing is capable of swarm-firing all of it’S ordnance within two seconds, guiding it up to five targets in a full sphere around it. We have even designed special munitions taking advantage of the feature, having smaller, more numerous torpedos where they arrive time on target in groups aimed to the same spot. That way, you basically intercept a fraction of a single big warhead if you only shoot down some of them, and the sheer number should in theory overwhelm the point defenses and escorting fighters.”

“Unless the defense system works on a canister-shell basis, in which case anything short of a plasma or laser-based weapon will fail. Also, why is the craft responsible for guiding the munitions? Wouldn’t it be better to have the craft designate a target and feed it into the torpedo’s guidance system, therefore allowing for as many targets as you have ordnance left?”

“Frankly, the size of the warhead. By removing an internal guidance system form the torpedoes and deleagating them to the fighter, we have made half sized torpedoes with three quarters of the punch. We calculated that none of the nightmare ships we encountered so far save for the superdestroyer could survive an attack by a wing of these, with no losses on the bombers’ part because they deploy all of their munitions quickly and jump out as soon as the salvo hits. Of course, they have to stay to guide the missiles through, but considering a conventionally firing torpedoes would only fire four at a time from this thing, then they would have to wait for several dozens of seconds for another to fire, the total deployment time is still lower.” the engineer explained the theory.

“In theory, nice, but have taken fighters and AA fire into account? And with every lost bomber, that’s a lot of ordnance that is not going to hit the targets. Perhaps they could cooperate with larger ships or even fighters to designate their targets? It’s not going to save the pilots, but it’s a step to ensure a hit.”

“We have. Just like the Positron, the forward shield is augmented, and the same energy allocation macro as we use on the Comet class frigates have been added to the systems, allowing for quick power reallocation in need, only with this thing not being underpowered in the first place. Furthermore, with the high volume of fire, even counting on interception because of longer flight time, enough ordnance should make it through, if we are talking about Nightmare ships. Against yours, well, I do not want to guess which of the missiles would be more agile, but I imagine the defending one would be at advantage. And our PDS is laser based, so depending on the ship and the number of it’s turrets.”

“Well, cards are on the table. Someone put the pilots on a leash. Do we torment the poor souls further and go get some rest, or do we move straight to test flights?”

FreeSpace: Expansion

Opporunity II Orbit, Faira’Hexus, two days later

Libra has been at a screen for the last two days, going over the many suggestions on how an alliance between their species would look like. The facts were that while their military contingents seemed to work well with each other, fond of it even, the civilians were an unknown. The Faira had little information about how they went presented on Naris prime.

It was that what shaped her thoughts on the alliance and how it should work. It would require some changes to the structure of their society, but they would be worth it in the end. Now though, she was interested what the other side came up with, as she impatiently waited for a transport from the Alchemist.

When the airlock opened, a quartet of Narix, exited, if a little bleary-eyed, entered the ‘Hexus. In the weeks she’s spent at Opportunity, the layout of the ship was firmly engraved into Runa’s memory and they found the meeting room with little effort. She remembered the day she first set foot into the room, full of barely masked uncertainty at the prospect of being alone on an alien ship. It almost seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Good morning, rear admiral. Please excuse the delay, technical issues with a maneuvering thruster.” she greeted as she took her seat, setting her tablet that contained whatever she might need in front of her. “Lord-commander Zorea’s troops treating you well?” She was initially a little frightened at the thought of four Warlord-class destroyers and their battlegroups, headed by the Ira herself, present at a system that was designated as military-free as possible in the first peace treaty.

“Greetings. I have actually had little contact with the world outside my quarters in the last two days, I imagine it was much the same to you.” the faira shared, rubbing her forehead. “Please, pick a seat, Admiral Lira should arrive shortly.” she noted, looking like she needed a recharge.

“Yes, I think I’m going to sleep in my office for the next few days, my quarters have become a little stale in the past day and a half.” she noted the rear admiral’s appearance. This would be a productive day. Fortunately, not everything looked as bad as they did, as the Faira oracles got an all-clear to survey Naris for a node, aided by the NSS Privateer, the construction of the Singularity was going along nicely and with the alliance being negotiated, the council was already clearing more workers to be deployed to that project. Unbeknownst to anyone but minister Ertanax, several shipwrights were contacted by the council to draft a Narix design of similar function to see where that would go.

“I hope at least the admiral got some rest.” minister Ertanax more or less collapsed onto his chair, “This can’t be healthy for either of our species.”

“If this all works, than at least in the military there might be a couple of redundant officers so that I could take a leave for the ‘Dea for a while. I would like to get out of this frozen coffin and warm up on a sundeck.” Libra agreed readily. “I do not suppose it would be too inviting given our homeworld is a city ship, but if you need a vacation, you are most likely free to visit after today.”

Lira chose that moment to arrive, wearing her uniform. Unlike the exo suits, it seemed to be a blue and grey dress uniform with red ranking insignia and golden wire embellishments. “Greetings, sorry for the delay, we’ve had a problem with the jump drive.”

“This is shaping up to be quite quite the day.” Ertanax noted grimly.

“No need to apologise, admiral. Some things are beyond control. Shall we begin?” Runa woke her tablet, displaying the footnotes of what the Narix wanted to go through, briefly reading through them and drawing a deep breath.

“No doubt you are aware the problem at hand is twofold. Fortunately, it would appear our militaries work well together, something made much easier by the OEP, so cooperation and any level of integration shouldn’t be difficult to organise. As a civilian with nought but civic guard experience, i will defer to minister Nebiros when it comes to that. The more troublesome side would be everything else. Worried they might be perceived as misusing their power and not reelected, the councilors commissioned a survey of opinion among our people.” She displayed the results on her tablet and handed it to Libra.

“As you can see, in the face of the Nightmare threat, an overwhelming majority of our people thought an alliance is the best course of action, with around 48 percent agreeing this federation of sorts should last even after this threat subsides. The problem with democracy is that any idiot has to be heard, and you have do doubt noticed the 4 percent that wish to do away with your species. Fortunately, that number is much lower than I had feared, therefore ay threat of extremism can be managed. That means two things: One, this alliance has the support of around three quarters of our population, meaning there is now nothing stopping us from seeing it through, and two, the majority of that final quarter is indifferent, which gives us time to sway their opinion. The four percent are insignificant and thus can be ignored for now.”

“For obvious reasons, we were initially skeptical of your idea of unification.” Minister Kandros took over. “When Narix hear ‘union’, we think of complete integration. That being said, our side would like to propose a sort of federation, where both our species’ governing bodies remain independent in governing our respective peoples and home systems, but would decide as one ruling body on matters of other systems and military. That would also entail joint research and development, exploration, as we’ve seen that can work, and exchange of knowledge and information. Given time, maybe even unrestricted travel to our homeworlds, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves too much.” he finished, eager to hear what the Faira had to say.

The Faira looked at the Narix delegation in bewilderment. “A four percent would do what? Is there a brain present in those individuals? This can not be ignored, I’m sorry, with your system who’s to say the next elections will not be dominated by them? This needs solutions, people!” Lira demanded.

“Unless said federation includes free travel of people, that system will not work in my book. You run into the same problem we had when Opportunity and the systems beyond were concerned. We do not even have laws as you understand them, would any Narix wanting to settle or even cross enlist in our military? Surely not.” Libra put that thought to rest.

“After much deliberation, I can only suggest that we merge our militaries. Given that for us that is synonymous with our state, it solves the civilian issue from our end. You would however have to allow us to enforce your laws upon your people much like your own forces would. In return, we are prepared to give you overall command of such joint force, you have more experience managing massive fleets than us in any event.”

“Four percent claim to want that. That doesn’t meant they would do it themselves nor does it mean they would actually have someone else do it. And although elections dominated by people like that are certainly possible, I can’t imagine what manner of terrible things would have to happen for that to be the case. I cannot imagine how four percent of witless hicks from Longus Mons or some other armpit of the universe could grow to be the majority.” Nebiros cimed in. “Sixteen percent of our population calls for reverting the Republic to a federation of pre-unification nations, that number has been steadily declining since the end of the Unification war, where it peaked at 43 percent. And still, they couldn’t do anything.”

“This is exactly why none of us are keen about complete integration with your species.” Runa explained. “You are bewildered by these statistics, did not understand the concept of crime, by your admission have no laws as we know them. We simply don’t see how two species so different to one another, not in terms of biology, but the way we think and behave, could exist in a single body. The problem is made more difficult by different understanding of civilians. That is why we wanted to keep our homeworlds separate, with the rest of discovered space administered jointly. Of course under such a system, your forces would have authority to enforce laws upon our people and vice versa, I thought that goes without saying. Same when it comes to free travel between systems. Naris and the Faira Nebula were excerpt from it for several reasons. I can see many civilians getting lost in the Nebula or stumbling upon things they are not meant to see. The latter issue applies to Naris as well.”

“Merging the militaries is possible, and would certainly bring some order into the cluttered mess coordinating is now.” Nebiros continued. “Pray tell, by ‘merging’ do you mean a single command structure, or unifying equipment, doctrines and the like?”

“Pardon me, but last time no one could imagine, an ethnic group of your people was eventually wiped out, if I recall. But I’m willing to let this go if you keep us aware of the tendencies in the population.” Libra said, obviously not happy with their way of handling it, but there were more pressing concerns to address.

Libra continued: “Seeing as the nebula might be the only way out of our region of space, that might not be doable. For what it’s worth, we would be willing to move the cvillian fleet to Terminus, it seems more defensible and is not in the first strike vicinity of the Ancients. That would potentially solve that issue. Regarding the military, merging command structure for now. I imagine the rest will follow on it’s own whether we like it or not, there is no denying that we do some things better, and you others. Doctrines first as we are unavoidably exposed to one other’s, equipment as our engineers start to understand it.

“At the time of the Dark Ones Purge, our most advanced piece of technology was steel plate armor. Things have changed since then.” Nebiros snorted, “Then merging the militaries is something that is within our grasp.” Nebiros finally brightened up a little, “By comparing your and our designs, it seems your ships are geared for attack where our ships are designed for defense. Tell me, admiral, would you and your peers prefer to have specialised ships, or would you rather have ships that can do everything with reduced efficiency.” he turned to Lira, trying to get an idea of the way Faira commanders thought.

“Wouldn’t it be better to move the civilian fleet to Opportunity?” Runa inquired, “If we were attacked and overrun, you’d have nowhere to go from Terminus. By basing your fleet here, wherever the threat comes from, you’d have two nodes to retreat through.”

“Of course we would keep you informed, that falls under exchange of knowledge and information, not to mention keeping...” she took a moment to calculate, “...two percent of the population safe.”

“You are right, if there turned out to be a way out through one of our home systems, then free travel through these systems would be necessary. But so far, that isn’t the case. Should it happen, and I hope it does, securing that free travel deal would be the first thing we’d get onto.”

“I’d rather have the framework thought out now rather than when tensions are going to be high and heads hot.” Libra said, worried about the four percent growing in popularity for that reason. “It would also be applicable should we assign ownership to entire systems within the alliance rather than individual celestial bodies. What are your views on that? I think it is rather redundant when both our forces are going to be policing both our peoples, but I understand that you might view it differently with your traditions.

“You misunderstand our design philosophy then.” Lira answered the minister, “Our fundamental requirement is that all our ships need to be able to focus all firepower forward, but at least 50% to any other direction. In our opinion, their defensive capabilities are good enough, and considering the first line of defense is a node blockade, we seem to have that covered well enough. Albeit, even on defense, we intended to use our good FTL maneuverability to nano jump facing forward to an attacking vessel and open up with full barrage, like the Curious did in Terminus.”

“Since we are already assigning ownership to individual objects, why talk of changing it? We are going into this alliance with the intent to share anyway.” Unsure of how the Fiara would view such invasion of privacy, she did not share the amount of information Narix government kept about people that would in worst cases allow them to forbid specific people or groups from leaving Naris, minimizing the possible damage they could cause directly. She wasn’t even sure if Libra took the possibility of ideologically driven attacks into consideration. “We’ve managed with tensions before, but although I think even the most absent-minded of my comrades realize we cannot alter the way the fifth dimension operates, I agree tempting fate is not good. There is one thing we can do to see how the people would react: The oracles coming to Naris. We can observe the way people treat the news of their arrival, or the Faira directly in any personal interaction, and work from there. If the reactions are negative, we’ve our work cut out for us. If not, all the better.”

“They will be delighted to hear that. Do tell: How was your general population informed about us? And anything else the team would need to prepare for that might not be usual in our regions of space? They are not trained diplomatic personnel. If it is your wish, they will be comfortable not talking to anyone outside of the military chain of command, but I’d still like to know.” Libra asked.

“Aside from descriptions of what you look like and that it’s not your apparent intent to kill or enslave us? They have been told that you are a race that has come to the stars seeking colonies, much like we have. Since then, Naris was getting regular declassified updates on the progress of our work, such as the treaty, the OEP and the engagements in Terminus.” she looked up an example article on her tablet.

Exploratory fleet under attack: outnumbered Fiara cruiser fended off unknown attackers

”An engagement like any other, crew just looked differently. We kept each other alive and that’s what matters in the end.” -PFCT. C. Linsis, XO of the EC Curious

“Given our situation, most people sympathise with the need for a new colony, although they haven’t yet been told why exactly your home can no longer support you. We weren’t sure you’d want this out just yet. When commander Astra told the primarch, he sent a direct message to me so we could make sure on our respective ends it didn’t spread.”

“As for the lack of diplomatic training, that’s a good thing. We need to know how our common people interact with each other. As for any unusual situations, you already know about our careful approach to artificial intelligence and our hatred of religion. If they keep that in a sack, there should be no major problems. Also, one of our major holidays is coming up, so if they happen to see many people with flags painted on their faces, tell them to pay no attention to that. That’ just our way of remembering the fallen of wars long past. If they come to contact with someone directly, say someone they’d be cooperating with for some time, they might be told they can refer to that person by their first name. They don’t have to oblige by it, just tell them it might happen. Also, despite being briefed, some might call them by their name by a slip of the tongue. Mistakes happen. Anything our people should be made aware of before the oracles arrive?”

“We appreciate the effort, but we have chosen full disclosure. You can post that information or any other that you see fit, such as our technological schematics to your shipwrights and the like. As we discussed when setting up the non aggression treaty, the ship we send to your home system will be void of any AI, although I believe now there will be no need to strip it of weapons? If that is not possible, I’d ask the lord commander to temporarily assign one of his small ships to the task, it won’t be longer than a few days.” Libra answered the questions.

“As for what your people should be made aware, should any get within reach, tell them to keep their hands to themselves and especially not mess with any Faira’s antennae, the whole mentioning of homeworlds, supernovas and the like. If anyone wants to pose questions about our military, the Oracles will tell them to go through proper channels anyway.” Libra commented on the issue of possible faux pass. “Although, with the names thing, do mention it is a sign of affection for us, so that they aren’t too surprised if they make that mistake on some more liberal of us.” the admiral smirked.

“No, the ship may stay armed. Also, there will be a Privateer-class frigate waiting for them to act as another pair of eyes and their guide through the system. I made sure they didn’t send the NSS Nova. And touching someone else’s head is a WMD as far as insults are concerned, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” Runa wasn’t sure how not mentioning a homeworld was possible AT the Narix homeworld, but she would try to get that message across.

“Very well. Back to the Alliance proposal, we would like to discuss the economic side of it. While between countries barter trade might have worked, we are looking at entering into your monetary system, it would be easier than developing one of our own, since the system we used pre-exodus would probably not hold. Would that be acceptable? We will of course submit to any regulations you deem fit so that your own economy is not destabilized. I imagine your private enterprises would be interested in raw materials like everyone else, and possibly our military technology for non-military use, which we would sell licenses to. From our side, the only entity in that trade would be our government. Would that be acceptable?”

“That would work.” Runa nodded, “While our economy should be able to take a hit and stand, we’d rather be on the safe side, I was never good at economy. Not to mention if we don’t have to adapt to accommodate you, we’ll avoid arming the four percent with arguments. So far all they have is xenophobia and fears of what could be, let’s not give them anything solid.”

“This is of course something that shouldn’t be rushed.” Kandros chimed in. “There were some grim moments in establishing our post-unification currency I wouldn’t wish on anyone else. As for the private enterprises, unpredictable little bastards, they are, but tech licenses are going to be a high-prized commodity. But they might also be interested in direct cooperation in developing new technologies and products. Do you think that’s possible, given, say, four to eight years?”

“We would want to enter the market slowly ourselves, since we are not too experienced either. Initially we would likely enter with resources to get some currency to operate with, then perhaps buy in or establish our own company. As for joint research, I do not see it happening in military technologies, those we feel should be government controlled. As for civilian research, perhaps. When we know the Ancients will not slay us all.” Libra noted.

“Do you have any other points to discuss? The finer details we can hammer out after a good rest.” Libra said, massaging her remples.

“That is in the hands of admiral Cygnus, lord-commander Zorea and the men and women under their command now. All good hands, as far as I know.” Nebiros nodded.

“A good rest and a good meal for some of us. Rear admiral Libra, admiral Lira.” Runa stood up, bowing her head. “Farewell for now.”

---

Narix National Newscast: Formed from many, now as one?

Following two days of restless work, Narix and Faira delegates have prepared the bedrock of a solid military alliance. Furthermore, lord-commander Adrihen Zorea took four battlegroups of the First Fleet to meet the Nightmare threat alongside the Vanguard fleet led by admiral Cygnus.

Following the popularity polls, the delegates have also agreed on the basics of a loose union of our two peoples.

“This is not a complete integration. Rather, it is a loose union that will allow both of our species to coexist without unnecessary delays and obstacles in dealing with one another.”
- Ambassador Runa Taranis, Narix ambassador

The Faira have also hinted at the formation of their own currency. They have expressed the desire to enter our market!

”We would want to enter the market slowly ourselves. As for joint research, I do not see it happening in military technologies, those we feel should be government controlled. As for civilian research, perhaps. When we know the Ancients (Nightmares - journalist’s note) will not slay us all.”
- Rear admiral Libra, Faira ambassador

FreeSpace: Expansion

Opporunity II Orbit, ED Warden

Lira was looking forward to this. Despite her ship being charged with warding the Opportunity system where their diplomatic hub with the Narix was located, she has yet to meet a single one. The Vanguard fleet seemed to hog all the OEP personnel for now, and the diplomats rarely ever had a use of her, and when they did, a video call was all that it required. Well, now she would get her fill, she supposed.

“This is some event.” Sola said as she stood next to her in the hangar, waiting for the transports to arrive with the Narix delegation. The upcoming talks were probably not going to be easy for either side, but the Narix were probably the one’s who would suffer bigger shock. Not that the Faira were not about to leave themselves wide open and vulnerable if the Narix decided to do away with them.

A flash of a Mindstorm announced Libra’s and Cygnus’ arrival, and they exchanged brief salutes and pleasantries. “Admirals. What is the game plan?” the junior flag officer asked.

“We tell them what threat they possibly face, and then we will see how they react, but the goal is to solidify a military alliance. We can not hope to stand up to the Ancients alone, no one can. They are thousands of years old, contingencies need to be put in place for the long term.” Lira answered, just as the dropships started to arrive.

The delegations arrival was nothing out of the ordinary. A single Vanguard arrived through the Narix node flanked by the frigates of its lance before jumping to the Fiara side of the system. It was then that a casual observer would notice something odd, as a launch of half of its fighter complement preceded two ships vaguely similar to the Pillager, but longer, missing any wings, sporting four separate engines and troop pods underslung beneath the hull. The transports, the first of the new Plunderer heavy transports, headed for the destroyer, flanked closely by the 16 Marauders. When the dropships entered the Warden’s docking bay, the fighters broke off and assumed a defensive screena round the hangar approaches.

Upon landing, the dropships lined up next to each other in their designated stands. Neither of them bore any markings except highlighted emergency handles. Once the engine noise died down, the boarding ramps dropped down, letting their occupants out. First to set foot into the hangar were the security forces, wearing an unmarked and more streamlined version of the Narix standard suit. Following them were the delegates, one carrying primarch Ascari and ambassador Taranis, the other minister Ertanax and two other Narix. Emerging out of the ships, the five delegates greeted the Faira with a nod of their heads and ambassador Taranis took the word, addressing Libra and Cygnus. “Good to see you again in good health. Shame about the circumstances of our meeting.” before turning to Sola and Lira, “I am ambassador Taranis. These are primarch Ascari, head of the Fifth Fleet and ministers Ertanax, Nebiros and Kandros, representing our government. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“I am honored to welcome you aboard the Warden, Ministers, Ambasador, Primarch. I am Lira, admiral of the patrol fleet, and next to me Admiral Sola, commander of the Home fleet. Trust me, if you believe the circumstances are not good, you are in for a long day. This way, if you please.”

The group fell into march, leading to the cleaned up briefing room. As they walked, Cygnus could not help but lean towards ambassador Taranis with a whisper: “Ertanax? Any relation to...?” she asked hopefully discreetly enough, thinking of the technician aboard Astra’s ship.

“Indeed. The name ‘Ertanax’ runs far back in our history when it comes to engineering, mainly mechanical, but there are exceptions. Let me guess: you are worried we’ve sent you someone just because her uncle holds a position of power?” Runa couldn’t conceal a grin.

“Actually, no. I was just curious. It is common for us to have entire families serving on the same ship, given how long a deployment can last. It would be unbearably cruel to separate a family for as long as a generation. We maintain high levels of professionalism, with our form of government there is little choice. But we would not deny the relation. In fact, I am Commander Astra’s mother.” the admiral shrugged.

“So your daughter, with some help from rear admiral Libra, made sure an alien species didn’t start shooting at them, despite...” Runa looked over her shoulder to make sure Ascari was not within an earshot, “Despite the, well, rigid thinking of the person she talked to. Must make you proud. While on the subject, do you have anything to say about our exchange personnel? Complaints, commendations or general notes?”

“I am so glad that meeting did not turn into a disaster you have no idea. The Commander is no diplomat herself, and albeing in sciences she is the genius of her generation, people skills she inherited from me. Just awful.” she shuddered. “No, I have some notes, but none that I would want to share as they are more my thoughts than objective observations. It seems that your perfect Linsis has done rather well with hardware he did not know in an unknown hostile situation though, and my hangar crews are buzzing with excitement whenever one of your pilots issues a build order.” she rolled her eyes.

“I hope the pilots are not getting too overzealous. But it looks like we will need their skills soon, and many more like them. Have you seen the footage captured by the marines? The noises alone make my skin crawl.” Runa shuddered. “Now imagine the initial contact didn’t go as well, we were fighting each other and the Nightmares awoke. Can’t picture a scenario that could be worse by much.”

“We could have been believing in invisible omnipotent men living in the sky granting life beyond life if we followed their arbitrary rules and insist on you doing the same.” Cygnus said in a flat voice.

“Well, 1539 years ago… Some things are best not spoken of. The Dark Ones would have something to say about this, had the bloody fanatics left any of that ethnic group alive.”

“More on the matter of the Ancients soon. Much more, and you are going to wish you didn’t know. Tell me though, what is the meaning of the name you use for them?” Cygnus asked as they neared their destination.

“You know we require sleep, yes? Even when we sleep, our brain is still active and may or may not, during certain phases of sleep, produce images we perceive as dreams. A dream that incites terror, sometimes bad enough to cause you to wake up, is called a nightmare. The word is also used for particularly undesirable things or situations. One might say a set of difficult exams at school is a nightmare. For me, having my fingers crushed and arm broken at several places was a nightmare. An ancient, hostile race of aliens that don’t seem to die when shot? Quite a nightmare, wouldn’t you agree?” Runa tried her best to explain the word and thought process behind naming the new species. “If you refer to them as ‘Ancients’, what do you call the other species? The species that wreckage belonged to?”

“I’d rather not repeat myself. If you’d please.” The admiral beckoned into the room and they all took seats.

Taking their seats, Runa spoke up. “So, your invitation was in equal measures urgent and unspecific. But it doesn’t take a genius to understand it has something to do with the events that transpired in the past 32 hours. So, go ahead. We’re all ears.”

“Your assumption is correct.” Lira responded, “As you know, we have initialized the OEP and other measures to gauge how well our peoples can work together. This form our side was also to gauge whether we can trust you with our secrets. Unfortunately, the appearance of active Ancients renders those plans too long. You need to be made aware of what it is that we might find ourselves fighting, and hopefully you’ll see the need for disclosure and why we were pushing for an alliance.”

Cygnus took the word then as a former scientist, able to share the information properly. “You were told that we have found debris of a ship form past era. That was not entirely honest from us. What we found, was an intact, inactive Ancient, or Nightmare as you refer to them, ship of massive proportions and capabilities, exceeding the destroyer specification.” she said, displaying the visualisation of the ship in question.

“This ship is where we derived most of our current technology from. It’s main weapons were able to render the surface of a planet uninhabitable, and the shield it boasted was all but invulnerable. We have always wondered if they might still be roaming space, and now we know. And we know they do not like us. In light of this, we would implore you to rethink the decision to merge our forces sooner rather than later, and share our technological bases so that we can hopefully design equipment that would give us a fighting chance. Whether you do or do not decide to do so, the information we have on the Ancients and their ship is on this drive. Use it well.” she said, handing the drive to Runa.

“A lie by omission.”

“Being economical with the truth, minister.” the primarch interjected, accepting the drive from Runa. “In their place we wouldn’t have even shred as much as they have.”

“It has been our intent since day one to for a semi-rigid federation as well as a military alliance. We wouldn’t have agreed to the OEP otherwise. We were not sure our troops and yours could cooperate, given the obvious differences. But both the spaceborne and shipboard engagements have proven those worries null and void. I realize there hasn’t been enough time to fully evaluate our cooperation, but time is forcing our hand. The council has been notified of this, and we are prepared to begin shaping the alliance. Furthermore, Lord-Commander Zorea has been notified of this development and the Second fleet is mobilizing. Four battlegroups will be ready to be deployed tomorrow at 0600 hours.”

“There is also the matter of your construction project - the Singularity.” minister Ertanax continued, “Construction is proceeding faster than expected, but we still only have about 8 percent of the hull complete. I dearly hope that ship isn’t the bedrock of whatever we intend to do about this new, or perhaps I should say old threat, because it’s certainly not going to be ready in time.”

There seemed to be a massive relief on the Faira faces. “Very well. I and the rear admiral will be available to you for the making of this alliance.” Lira said. “Unfortunately, we can no spare any more of our ships ourselves. To be honest, the Vanguard, Patrol and Home fleets are all we got.” Sola then picked up, the hologram changing to display a large red star. “What you are looking at is our home system circa three hundred years ago. This,” she highlighted the planet closest to the star, “Is Faira’Erea, our former homeworld, with about five billion Faira.”

The video then sped up, and they could see the star eventually exploding timestamped hundred years from the original view. “This, in part, is why we have been so sparing with giving you any information about ourselves. The truth is, that the nebula we inhabit is in fact our home system. There are only a million of us left, they are all that we could evacuate in time.”

As the mood couldn’t get much worse than it already was, the news of the Faira homeworld didn’t have much of an impact. If anything, the Narix now felt validated in spending numerous resources on the First Fleet.

“Let me get this straight.” the primarch, for the first time, dropped his stone face. “You expect us to fight an alien enemy we have just learned about while you take the back seat and watch, despite knowing about this species and their abilities for what, 400 years?”

“Four hundred years trying to escape and reconstruct our society after going nearly extinct? I will not make any excuses for not being able to lend more aid at this time because we simply didn’t have the manpower to build any more. After you go through such a tragedy, they I will accept your judgement on how we have handled it, until then, you have no right whatsoever to judge us on the matter.” Libra said, a bit of a hiss in her voice.

Lira placed a hand on her forearm, trying to calm the rear admiral down. “It is true. Our only shipyard ship has been at non stop work since then. Why do you think we were so hungry for you to pay with build time in trade? We have literally jumped out of our home system for the first time since the nova of our star two weeks ago. What do you expect us to do? We have already committed two thirds of our forces to this, you can not expect us to leave out home completely undefended.”

“I am trying to be sympathetic, but I fear you have no choice. What good is rebuilding your civilisation going to be if we all get crushed? As much as I hate to use cheap phrases, this is a literal do or die situation. You have jumped out of your system for the first time? So have we. When have you ever fought a war without risk?”

“I think-” Cygnus interjected, “-That given what we know of the Ancient’S capabilities, we need to all calm down and admit to ourselves that if they arrive now, both of our races are as good as extinct.” she said morosely. “There is a single weakness in the Ancient superdestroyers’ design, which we know of because our ships suffer from it too - their shields do not work while in FTL. Now, given that your only ship that could even dream of engaging one of those in that condition at the present is the Latanos, and that is with a Faira technician operating it’s drive synchroniser, you need us right now to have a hope of saving your homeworld should they set their eyes on it, and even then, whichever jump node you would choose to engage them in would collapse with it’s destruction, likely taking all the other nodes out of the system with them. Much like that, we need you because we do not have the numbers to deal with a sizeable fleet of other ships. So can we please top accusing each other of what might have been done better to deter the Ancients now, when they are not even attacking us, and focus on how to deter them best for when they actually do show up?”

“You’re wrong about the Latanos, admiral.” Runa quickly spoke up when she heard Ascari draw a breath to speak. “There are still her sister ships, the Asgypus and the Malachor, which brought the ministers here. As I said earlier, more of our ships will arrive tomorrow. But it is as you said: we can’t face this enemy alone, which is exactly why we need you on your feet. Fortunately for us, the superdestroyer seems to be the only ship equipped with such a shield. The ships the Curious engaged did not possess any shielding system at all and our fighters, though outnumbering the Nightmare craft, managed to damage several of them despite their shielding. We can stand our ground against these threats until something bigger shows its ugly head. Is that superdestroyer all you’ve found? Did it perhaps contain additional information about this species, such as their strength, ship types or something?” she made an uneducated guess at what a warship might hold.

“There is something to discuss about the timeframe we think of. Thus far, we have no indication of the Ancients arriving in any larger numbers. Terminus is a system that doesn’t lead anywhere but back here.” Sola said, highlighting Terminus and Opportunity on the node map, “And on our side, we have Exodus system with a node only to Opportunity and to the Faira nebula, which in its own as far as we were able to scan it is a dead end as well. The Commander of the Curious theorized that the unknowns blown up their ships in subspace on purpose to cut themselves off of the Ancient forces. Unless there is a known entry point somewhere on your side of the map, I don’t see how they could even get to us, we have seen they use same mode of FTL as you do. What we found is looking most likely to be a remnant of the war fought eight thousand years ago, rather than a new arrival. We are of course still trying to chart the mindspace nodes in the Nebula, which is not easy given it’S turbulent environment, so there is a potential entry point there, in which case the Home fleet is exactly where it needs to be. Would you share your side of the map? If you know of a possible entry point, our best choice is to put a chokehold on it and not let them through to our systems in the first place.”

“Than we have a problem.” Ascari stood up, leaning towards the projected map. “As far as our side is concerned, our node from Opportunity leads to Naris itself.” he pointed to where Naris would be in relation to opportunity, Terminus and the Faira Nebula. “And that is a dead end. So either the Nightmares can travers unstable nodes, or nodes unknown to us, or we are trapped here with them. Either way, it seems we have no way out of here for the time being.”

“Well, we would like to go over Naris itself as well then. Our oracles can confirm whether there is another exit. That would actually make your home the last defensible place to fall back to should they enter through the Nebula, and it actually sounds like we need to recall all our fleets back, possibly outfit some of your ships with shielding systems and hardened sensors as well and finish surveying there, so we know for sure.” Cygnus suggested. “If we are stuck in this region of space, then… Well, it will be able to support us both for a few thousands of years and keep us perfectly safe but what future is there then?”

”An inevitable war over the remaining resources that would allow the victors to endure for a few more years before their unavoidable death.” Runa thought, but did not say out loud. “Since secrets are getting out, no point holding this one back: rear admiral Libra already knows a bit, but we were pushed out of Naris due to population growth. There are now over nine billion of us and despite taxing every child, that number still grows. I hope for everyone’s sake that we can find a way out that doesn’t lead to a galaxy infested by the Nightmares. If not, that unknown future might be here sooner than anyone would like, even if we started drastically limiting our population.”

“With the alliance taking shape, getting a few oracles to Naris shouldn’t be a problem.” Ascari took over, “The Malachor will be staying here for a while, the Oracles can hitch a ride when it returns with the ministers. Once their work there is done, they can either return here via a supply ship or join the forces that would be going through the newly discovered node. As for any plans regarding direct combat or even just hunting the Nightmares in Terminus, that is better left between you and Lord-Commander Zorea.”

“Terminus is being scoured by the newly established OEP wing as we speak, along with the Explorer group’s cruisers. If there is more of them there, we will find them within the week. We hope that the unknown shipwreck will be able to provide some answers, our combined scientists are working round the clock to restore power to it’s systems. We hope that logs form the last war with the Ancients might give us an edge on ours, whenever it comes.” Cygnus supplied.

“In the meantime, we can be relatively certain that Exodus and Opportunity are free of any other jump nodes, the Patrol fleet has scanned them thoroughly, in case of Opportunity the 5th fleet has confirmed the finding. For ease of mind, it might be worth to send some of your science teams to survey Exodus as well.” Lira noted, thinking it wouldn’t hurt to be certain.

“And, since the Nebula is the only system left not fully charted by either of our species, and thus far the most likely entry point for the invasion, I propose we move the Faira’Karte to Exodus so elements of your second fleet can have our shield and sensor suites installed so they can navigate the Nebula safely, and by extension train a first wave of your personnel to work with the technology. With those upgrades, they could aid in the survey, if that would be acceptable to you. If you need the lord-commander’s approval, then I think we should reconvene at a later date once the necessary people are fully informed.”

“I don’t think anyone is going to complain about mounting shielding onto our ships.” Ascari noted. “Perhaps it would be best to start with one ship of each class, or maybe an entire lance to see what changes there will have to be made to power grid, internal layout and so on. Since the Latanos has already been modified with the help of specialist Omicri, we could start with that. Not to mention the entire Fifth Fleet is under my control, therefore the only ones that could halt that are the council and I am sure ambassador Taranis could persuade them should the need arise.”

“That would depend on whether the Lord-Commander intends to deploy an exploration fleet or be on the safe side and deploy your attack fleet straight on. On our part, it makes little difference, but the sooner it is done the better, I assume the integration of the components will not be as smooth as we would like.” Sola noted.

“I am forwarding you the full schematics of the Singularity as well. It makes no sense now to tow it into a different location, it would be easier to ferry the components to Naris or assemble them there. I would implore you to go over the design and see what improvements you think could be made. We think that you could vastly improve the armor at least. Even without that, we designed it to be - in theory - capable of engaging the Ancient superdestroyer, or killing a planet. It’s the best shot we have at the moment to killing one of those things in normal space, unless you have such a ship or weapons platform you’d like to tell us about.” Cygnus said, forwarding the schematics to the ambassador.

“Yes, I recall people complaining about the Singularity’s hull.” Ertanax noted. “It would be best to make it segmented so damaged sections can be replaced more easily. We will send the schematics to the shipwrights in charge of that project and forward their notes to you.”

“Lord-commander Zorea would not deploy his fleet without sending us through first. We are better equipped and trained for that. His fleet is a weighty blade, not fit for recon and exploration. That gives us - in theory - time to equip his ships. That, or he could assist in hunting the Nightmare remnants in Terminus.”

“The exchange pilots also mentioned one of your conceptual designs, a sort of self-propelled capital ship weapon. A gunship, I think you referred to it? Do you think that could be useful against the Nightmares?” one of the ministers wondered.

“Those were conceived as cheap offensive weapon. I do not know how effective they would be on defense. I suppose, provided we could protect them long enough, we could use something like them to blockade the destination end of a jump node. But they would still be extremely fragile. I’d rather see more capital ships built. The curious proved that even a somewhat lacking frigate is capable of destroying several of their line ships. No doubt with some experience that ratio would improve, and with some further upgrades perhaps they will not be left in such a sorry state.” the Vanguard’s admiral thought out loud.

“Upgrades such as a fighter bay or proper power generation.” the primarch snorted. “I understand your resources and shipbuilding capacities may have been limited, but how does the latter not raise any red flags? Or rather green flags.”

Outside of the primarch’s field of view, Runa shot the Faira an apologetic look. While she agreed, there had to have been a better way to put it.

“Don’t forget the ability of Nightmare strike craft to use subspace to jump on their own. Even if the range would be limited, it would level the playing field.” minister Ertanax continued, “Imagine if a Partisan-class carrier could deploy all of its strike craft while staying on the other side of the system? One such carrier carries 240 fighters and bombers. If provided proper jump coordinates, they could annihilate small lances without any help from a capital ship. How quickly do you think the Nightmare fighters trapped in Terminus, provided they are indeed trapped, can be tracked down and captured?”

“We know of the weaknesses of the Comet class, a replacement is already well in the simulation stage, although pending the review of the Singularity, we might make other changes as well. The Meteor and Pulsar class are thus far good enough, but we are looking at the complete deprecation of the smallest warship class. After seeing that monster of a cruiser they tossed at the Curious, nothing we can produce yet can compare. That thing could stand up to a corvette.” Cygnus frowned.

“Yes, miniaturization of a jump drive should be something we should work on. In the meantime, provided there are psychokinetic volunteers, a special strike craft class that would serve to wakejump other craft could be designed. Is there any progress on the support ship?” Lira asked.

“With the introduction of the larger Plunderer-class transport, this task just became much easier. Three prototype support modules are already being assembled, they should be delivered within the next few days.” minister Ertanax rubbed his hands, “Not only can the Plunderer carry more materials due to its size, we don’t have to modify the craft itself, we just build the desired module, much like the Discovery-class. In a few days, we’ll take the same ships that brought us here, detach the troop pods, attach the support pods and boom: support ship. As to how it’s going to work, that lies in the stars so far.”

“Yes, the Lilith-class.” Ascari frowned, “Corvus Linsis dedicated a few paragraphs to that nasty little beast. I hope there are no more of those hibernating around here. I doubt anything smaller than a Comet or Vanguard stands much chance unless they manage to cripple it very quickly.”

“Very well. I think we have what we came for. Minister Ertanax, rear admiral Mercuriel will be your contact in facilitating any technology exchange. Read admiral Libra will be handling the drafting of any alliance related documentation form our side. Regarding our military deployment, Admiral Cygnus and the Vanguard fleet will remain in Terminus and finish surveying it. Primarch, your fleet is welcome to help and double check, but we would like if you could send one instance of each ship class form your fleet ahead to Exodus to begin the refits. Given the sizes of the ships, our shipyard will be able to refit them and repair the Curious at the same time, it would give us a head start. Admiral Lira and the Patrol fleet will be deployed throughout Opportunity and Exodus to keep a lookout for any ancients that might have been left slumbering there, as well as sending a cruiser to verify Naris as a dead end on the map. Finally, I will away the fifth fleet’s arrival in the nebula once your ships are ready.” Sola summarized what the Faira fleets’ plans were. “Would this schedule be acceptable?”

“Very well. I will send the Asgypus, the Sharlatan and the Natanis to begin the refits. That will give us two Vanguards that can be synced to your drives. I will return with the rest of the Fifth present as well as the science ships to Terminus for now. I expect lord-commander Zorea to pitch his tent here for the time being, as he could quickly respond to any threats at Terminus, Exodus and Naris alike.” Ascari nodded.

“I will sort out the proper clearance for the survey of Naris as soon as I get back to the Alchemist.” Runa continued. “In the meantime, the ministers will put together a skeleton of the treaty. Rear admiral, say we meet in 48 hours at your convenience to get things moving?”

“We’ll get started as soon as we stow our things. I will also forward any updates regarding the Singularity to the rear admiral directly.” Ertanax finished.

“Please, pass the design changes to Commander Astra. She is to be the commander of that ship, and it is her design after all.” Cygnus noted, and the group got ready to depart back to their respective fleets. “One final thing. I believe we should switch most of the OEP personnel to the Home fleet. Get them used to working in the Nebula. It is a bit of an… acquired taste.”

FreeSpace: Expansion

EFG Curious, command deck, after the Marines left

“Thoughts, XO?” Astra asked, slowly twisting the scan of the wreck in front of them, scrutinizing the details. It looked familiar, and yet so dissimilar with her own ship, it’s armor crystalline, but a mineral rather than metal. What looked to be a strike craft bay and a massive weapon emerged from the front of it, same as a P-15 cannon in caliber, but if it ran along the spine, woe was anything it locked onto.

“Can’t imagine aiming the spinal armament. Unless you want to kill something on a different orbit. How much do you think is missing? Half? Two thirds?” Linsis wondered in return, examining the aesthetically displeasing wreckage. “And perhaps more importantly, where is the rest? Think the debris field we ran into was the rest of the ship?”

“IF it is a laser, or high speed plasma cannon? Easy to aim, nothing like your guns.” Astra noted, “If it was on the attack, it would tear through a small fleet alone. On defense though, it’s limited to the agility of the ship, which I can’t imagine being too good.” the commander theorized. “I don’t think that debris was the rest. And there is still the mindspace disturbance. It feels like… a node, but there’s none there… I’m going to look into it, you have the ship.” Astra said, leaning back in her chair, her mind worming its way into the mindspace around, hungering to figure out the mystery.

The maneuverability was exactly what Linsis had in mind when noting the aiming difficulty. He didn’t even want to think about what that gun could do to a city, or perhaps half a continent.

There was something odd about the commander’s working position, as if she was taking a nap. Who knew, perhaps she was? Stranger still was the program itself, exchanging officers mere weeks after first contact. How was it that relations with an entire different species were going smoother and moving along quicker than relations between some pre-unification nations?

Suddenly, the Oracle gasped and straightened up in her chair. “Echo, none like what I ever felt before. Two ships cruiser sized, one corvette sized.” Cartis announced, rubbing her head. “Headed here, but where did they come from? The only way in here is through our systems and we would have known if they passed through there in the last hundred years…”

“Notify the rest of the expedition force and the away team. How long ‘til contact?” This couldn’t be. There was no way they could encounter two species in the first two weeks of their exploration effort. Could it be the original owners coming back to recover their stuff? If so, the boarding party could be an issue. “Is it in any way similar to what we’ve found here?”

“I do not know, I have not felt this thing jump before either.” The oracle responded, “But I can toss their jump point off course. In a random direction, mind you. I think that right now, they will emerge around here. The oracle on the Latanos confirms. Orders?” One look at Astra was enough to see that she would not be giving one, more than likely wanting to see how the XO would act.

Defense. He was aware that was not his forte. Combined with a ship and crew he knew little about, this situation was a recipe for a disaster. He had to trust someone would let him know if he wanted them to do something the ship couldn’t do. As he understood, power generation was an afterthought when this ship was designed and fully powering engines, weapons and shields at the same time was for all intents and purposes impossible. He had also been warned about the somewhat flimsy nature of its hull.

“Adjust shield to max. Oracle, can you tell how much time we have left before they arrive?”

“Shields aye.” Astra said from the helm’s chair, her tone of voice strange, like she was not really sparing any more attention on the command and control than was necessary.

“Less than a minute. Lieutenant Farsa sent an exact point of emergence, marking it on TacMap.” the oracle noted.

“If they emerge there, we’ll be at their mercy. Helm, can you get us to the other side of the derelict in time? Power down weapons if necessary.”

“Optimal range: Two kilometers. Optimal facing: Head on. Sublight maneuver impossible in given time frame. Brace for a nanojump.” Astra arrived at the logical conclusion, and the all too familiar chime echoed through the ship. In ten seconds, the Curious was enveloped in a mindstorm as it was forcibly repositioned. Given the disturbed nature of the Mindspace in the area, everyone was tossed a meter into the air save for Astra who was strapped down to the helm’s chair. “In position.”

Two kilometers? That was it? He didn’t have time to complain as he was launched toward the ceiling. He never wanted to be a pilot. Rolling back to his feet with the grace of a cat, he turned to the projector, expecting the unknown’s arrival. “Increase weapons power. Gunnery control, standby.” Red icons popped up on his HUD as all stations reported combat ready.

“Anything new from the away team?”

“Shipboard fight with something ugly, literally. It might have been them that woke them up.” the comms specialist noted.

“Ten seconds!” the oracle suddenly announced.

“Advising powering down rear shield quadrant to supplement weapons power. Do we go test their mettle slowly, or do we want a quick kill?” The Master gunner asked.

“Check on the shield, is the away team back on board?” If they had to run, he wouldn’t want to leave anyone behind. “Turn them to dust, no playing around. I’d hoped to avoid fighting, but it looks like that ship has sailed. All hands brace, DC crews standby. Gunnery control, fire at your discretion.” He left the gunners free hands to squeeze out all they could out of the guns.

“Latanos reports all civilian ships have jumped towards the node.” Niziz reported.

Right after, three subspace windows of the same type as the Narix used popped up only five hundred meters from the predicted point, and Astra was already adjusting their facing to meet the threat head-on, where the Comet class could bring all of it’s firepower to bear. Lieutenant Pegsei was chaingun-speaking to the turret controllers on a separate channel: “P-5s target the dark cruiser sized vessel. P-15s, the lighter one, both firing points. Torpedoes, stand by.”

“Corvette sized vessel launching strikecraft!” Niziz announced, eight dots popping up on the TacMap along with visualizations of the craft, four of each class.

No way these were the same species as the wreck. Based on the colors alone, they were the antithesis of the derelict. Yet the hostile ships bore strikingly familiar colors. For a moment, nothing happened. And then the lightshow begun. Blood red blobs of what he assumed to be plasma streaked from the unknown, now clearly hostile ships toward the Curious, dissipating against the shield. When the Curious returned fire, he noticed more of the unsettling similarity. “Is the shield holding?” he inquired following several tightly clustered hits to the front of the shield.

As the beam mode operating P-15s bit into the lightly colored cruiser, the ship all but disintegrated. “They will better now. Also, Marines are on board, battered but alive.” Astra said as she woke up from her mindspace trance. “By the stars, it’s them!” the commander exclaimed as she laid eyes on the appearance of the hostile ships.

“Latanos, Curious. We could use strikecraft cover so we can maximize our offense. Can yours help?” the commander asked.

“Curious, Latanos, we have your sensor readings, outfitting Marauders for interception, launch possible in forty seconds. Give us a jump point so we can bring out our guns.”

“Oracle, have the Latanos jump 600 meters positive Y axis, that will let us squeeze the hostiles in a 90 degree pincer.” With the Curious in front and the Latanos above the hostile ships, both the Faira and the Narix could fire their weapons without fear of friendly fire.

“Them? Who ‘them’?!” the commander confused him, “Nevermind, later.”

“I’m not quite sure we need to bother the good primarch with a jump yet.” Astra said, “Torpedoes, one salvo, MIRV, cruiser. P-15s switch to the corvette.” the commander ordered.

“Shield at 35% charge.” another voice blared. The heavy plasma cannons of the enemy were not something to forget about in the fight. Astra shuddered to think what those ships could do with a beam mode weapon if they could switch. She’d rather they not. “Stop the engines, reroute to shield. Reserve the PDGs for warhead interception, only target the strikecraft with the ASBs.”

The main armaments flared again, shaving off a third of the predicted hull integrity off of the corvette. One of the shots must have went through the fighterbay, because it caused a massive secondary detonation. The small caliber cannons were finding little purchase on the other cruiser though. Two of the torpedoes were also intercepted by the enemy fighters before they split, but once the submunitions of the ohter two were out, there were too many for the four fighters and not numerous defense cannons on the cruiser to pick up.

“Confirmed detonations, by the heavens that is one tough bastard!” Pegsei reported when the cruiser survived both plasma and nuclear onslaught. “Most of its turrets are out though.”

“They’re running!” Niziz then reported, feeling the other ships spooling up their subspace drives.

“Just means they’ll be back with their friends. We either kill them now or run as soon as they jump.” Linsis noted.

“We can not let them leave!” Astra said almost hysterically. “Not through the node where our civilians are, and under no condition must they ever get a message out! Master gunner, melt the cannons if you have to! Oracle, guide them onto their drives! Comms, tell Latanos to jump to the node ASAP!”

“Siege mode, ma’am?” Pegsei asked uncertainly.

The enemy strikecraft was closing in, but they would have to deal with it. “Authorized.”

All but the frontal shield emitter on the Curious momentarily shut down, and the turrets re-aimed onto where Niziz guessed their jump drives could be located. Then, not only the P-15s, but also the P-5s opened a salvo fire in beam mode. Both of the enemy ships were punctured, and the glows that dotted their hulls as well as their thrusters went dark, leaving only glowing, melted holes where the weapons hit.

“Brace for impact!” The sector controller barked as an enemy bomb found its way through.

“Curious, Latanos. Received, jumping to the node.”

The bomb must have been massive as the ship noticeably shuddered upon impact. Still, it would appear the enemy has been vanquished.

“Commander, should we continue firing to make sure?” Linsis turned to his superior officer. “And what did you mean by ‘them’?”

“Yes, I am interested in armor alloys form the second cruiser, but debris will do just as finely. We do not need to research anything else, it has already been done. Which ties us neatly into ‘them’, and to that I say, ask your superiors. We warned your race, perhaps now they will see it fit to act on it.” the commander said, not really authorized or in the mood to explain. “Good work with the ship, prefect Linsis. It may have been a short fight, but well handled.”

“Err, commander? We can’t quite continue firing, unless you want us to peck them to death with PDGs. The cannons are…” Pegsei said, the TacMap zooming in on the Curious, showing barrels hideously bent out of shape, and one of the P-15 turrets slowly drifting into space where the enemy bomb hit.

“Spare the expense and let them have a few more massive load torpedoes. Leave the remaining strikecraft to the fighters from the Latanos.”

“Ma’am the strikecraft… they jumped. Not to the node, and we didn’t catch their vector.”

“Thank you, commander, the crew deserves a lot of the credit. If the lost turret is made out of something ferromagnetic, our fighters should be able to recover it. Might take several of them, depending on its weight.”

Jump-capable strike craft were something to be worried about. It meant their home ship could be on the other side of a planet, or system for that matter, safe from harm. Worse still, they could be deployed in ambushes unexpectedly on unprotected flanks.
“If the fighters have jumped, that brings us back to what I said before: Do we retreat, or bring the rest of the fleet here? They will be back to avenge their comrades. Question is: how long ‘til that happens?”

“Curious, this is Pike leader. Be advised, enemy strike craft appeared to be equipped with a shield similar to yours. 50 mm had little to no effect, 75 mm got through after six to sixteen rounds, depending on the hostile craft. Worse still, sensors could not acquire aspect lock. It would seem the ships have some form of advanced EM insulation or something. Thermal signature was also fairly low, but enough for the missile to track. Radar tracking was not impaired.” one of the Narix interceptor pilots reported.

“I don’t believe so, XO. I think I know what the interference is. No wonder it feels like a node, it used to be one. My guess is that the ship exploded while exiting, and the window shaved it in half. The energy released in the explosion must have destabilized the local mindspace. By all accounts, the node we came through should be less stable than it is. My guess is that it formed after said event.”

“In any event, the fighters have nowhere to run. Explorer is blockading the only node out on the other side, and the Latanos is on this side. We will need to hunt down those fighters anyway though, if not for the research on their miniaturized FTL then for the research on the shipwreck to be safe. It looks like this ship will only be headed to the yard though.” Astra sighed. “I for one have had enough of being the first ship in, the Studious can pick up it’s slack for a time.” A round of agreeing murmurs went around the C’n’C.

“So the Latanos’ jump engineer was right? Wonder what caused the malfunction. More importantly, how do we avoid having that happening to us, especially if it has the potential to destabilize a jump corridor?”

“That’s assuming the unknowns didn’t do it on purpose or weren’t engaged by the Ancients while traversing said node. I would wager one of those - Either they were hoping to cut themselves off before they were overrun, or…” she shook her head, “All speculation though. The Marines on the other hand gathered some data that might shine some light on the situation. Call them up for debriefing, I and Virgo will be interested to hear your and the Centurion’s evaluation, since we don’t have much experience.”

“Experience in what? Space combat? Neither do we, not counting simulations or exercises.” Linsis said as he sent the summon through his suit. “Oh, not sure whether you’ve been told, but of the twelve simulated, two training and this live defensive engagements, this is the first time I lost less than 50 percent of the crew.”

“I meant marine combat, but now that you mention it, this has been the first time we have engaged in ship to ship combat as well. I will take the statistic as compliment, we did gear up our ships to go against bigger threats and with crew survivability in mind.” she explained, “I’m… sorry. It can not feel good to go into a fight knowing that even in tests the equipment can not save you.”

“You misunderstand, commander. Equipment was fine, as evidenced by the numerous success of my comrades. Your temporary XO usually doesn’t know where his head is at when he’s not the one to start the engagement. The marines are done servicing their equipment and the suit logs and helmet camera feeds have been pulled. They are waiting in the briefing room. Good news is they are all unharmed and have located a functioning airlock, IF we can keep a foothold here.”

“Then let’s not keep them waiting. After that, our shift ends. Perhaps I can persuade you to a sim game? Let’s see what you got, perhaps we can give one another some pointers.” the commander challenged.

FreeSpace: Expansion

EFG Curious

Meanwhile on the Faira ship, things have been doing same and yet different. With the general tour of the ship complete along with the Primarch, the new reinforcements from the 5th fleet were already made aware of where their workstations were to be as well as their quarters. Much like the pilots on the Explorer, each of them had a suit waiting inside, albeit those manufactured on the Curious were much more resembling their Faira counterparts and came loaded with all of the software they would need to perform their duties, alongside with an invitation to visit engineering if they desired any customizations.

“Well, people, I look forward to working with you. I want you all in the briefing room tomorrow at 0800 when you start working. Until then you are off - go recharge, go get to know the crew, call home - whatever you want. We’ll set up your schedules as we go along.” Astra relieved them.

“Thank you, commander. Are there any shipwide occurrences we should be aware of? Evacuation drills and the like?” Prefect Linsis inquired, wondering how the Faira on the Latanos would cope with almost daily unannounced exercises.

“This chime,” Astra said, playing the sound from her suit and causing every Faira in earshot to drop what they were doing and grab for something bolted to the superstructure, “means the ship is about to jump. You should grab something firm even if you wear the suit, especially in combat or crash jumps, as they can toss the ship about. Anything else is announced over the intercoms in your suits. Evacuation is handled by the same Faira that man the transport rooms, so just report to the closest one to you. As for the rest, all will be explained to you tomorrow during your orientation once you report to your station.”

“Duly noted.” Linsis nodded, the reaction of the Faira crewmembers letting the Narix know this was serious. Just what manner of terrible things would be happening every jump? “That would be all from us for now. If any questions come to mind, we will be sure to ask at the briefing.” Saluting, the four turned to leave.

“Looks like we are off duty for now. Going easy on us. Few final pointers: Ertanax, think twice before you speak. No need for interspecies incidents. Faustus, remember what they told us at the briefing about bringing up their home. And Nihlus, try not to tell them every last detail of everything we have.”

The next day, 0800

The briefing room was prepared when the Narix would have started filing in, a projection already set up.

Alongside, the command crew of the Faira has also entered, all taking whatever seat was free at the moment, with the Commander taking the ‘stage’ to the front.
“Alright people, the orders just came in. The Vanguard and Fifth are amassing next to the jump node, we’re going through today. With the coordinated jump between ourselves and the Narix Fleet, the Studious group has returned home for refit on the Frigate’s systems. Once they are cleared out of OpEval, you can expect us to be given some Civ’Leave as well.”

A round of happy murmurs followed.

“Before that, we are once again taking the point. The entire group will translate the node in standard formation, but this time, the NSS Latanos is accompanying us through the jump. They will be testing their ad-hoc sync drive, so expect a rough ride. Everyone who doesn’t need to be on their feet should be strapped in.”

“That said, that is not the only addition, as you have certainly noticed, and some changes. Captain Aurigae and several others have departed for the Latanos, and Lieutenant Zana will be taking her place on the other shift as commanding officer. For the duration of their stay here, Prefect Linsis will be my XO, and Adept Faustus will act in a similar role to the Lieutenant. Lieutenant Farsa will be substituted by Lieutenant Cartis, formerly the Sector Commander of the Studious group, as our Oracle. Specialist Niziz will be substituting for Specialist Xyth as our sector controller. The Specialist is fresh out of training, so give her a warm welcome. Master Engineer Omicri’s place will be filled by Specialist Alesi, Master Engineer of the ECV Wisdom form Studious group, and she will be assisted by Technical Centurion Ayrton Nihlus and Technician First Class Tarith Ertanax. Lieutenant Zana will be substituted by Specialist Arga as our new helm. Finally, Specialist Euris is to be substituted by Specialist Eridae. Please welcome the new members of our crew from the Narix fleet as you would our own. Our lives are in each other’s hands after all.”

“We jump in two hours. The floor is open if you have questions.”

As their names were mentioned for the first time, each of the Narix stood up with a bow of their head.

Two hours to get set at their new posts. Then they would see what the jump drive fuss was all about. Tarith was not at all happy the Narix were testing a new drive and she wasn’t there. She wasn’t even told and had to learn about it from a different species. That indeed stung a little.

As the crowd got up when no questions followed, the people responsible for the Narix came and approached them. “Prefect, you’re with me.” the commander said, beckoning the Narix to follow her.

“Looks like it’s your lucky day, we get to lounge for twelve more hours while the rest does the hard work, Adept.” Zana smirked at Faustus, inviting him to her quarters for a round of games.

“Right, I am used to a vessel far smaller than this, I think I can use both of your hands.” The new Master engineer nodded to the two Narix to be in her care.

The Marines were approached by the mother of all giants, a black-suited Faira who towered head taller over all of them. “Right, let’s see what you can do. Grunts, to the cargo hold, you and mine are going to run spars. Centurion, I’d like you to accompany me to inspect our defensive measures, I and the builders in the shipyards would like your input.” Virgo ordered.

“Sparring in this gravity? Why have the suits?” one of the marines murmured among the crowd as they marched in formation to where the cargo bay was located. Meanwhile, the centurion matched his pace with the biggest Faira he’s seen so far. “Can’t the Faira who work the transporters be classified as a defense measure? What’s stopping them from thinking any intruders outside of the hull, or better yet, straight into the brig?”

“They could, however they will be too busy deploying us through sealed bulkheads to where we need to be. Also, not everyone can do that all day like the Commander. Deploying squad after squad of enemy combatants outside would tire them rapidly. We have our own ways though. HEY! YOU! WITH THE QUESTIONS!” Virgo waited for the concerned Narix marine to detach from the group, before activating the anti-intruder foam on him, leaving his head sticking out of the block. “We do.” she answered his question, multiple weapons deploying from her suit to show them off. “Take a wager how long it takes him to chisel himself out?” Virgo offered to the Centurion.

“What’s interesting is his name means ‘stone’ in your language.” the centurion scratched the foam with an amused expression. “Usually, we seal the intruders in a given section, cut life support and keep making sudden gravity changes in that section until they give up or die, but this works rather well. Petrus is an engineer, he’ll figure out a way. Just make sure he gets out before he dies of dehydration or life support failure, he’s a father of four.” the centurion finished, flicking the foam off his fingers.

“Well, the option is there, and our marines use gravity manipulation to good effect, you’ll see at the spars, but if the enemy has their own life support suits, all you’re doing is slamming the door on them. We figured not being able to move was a good first step, then chisel them out one by one and safely transport them to holding under watch.” Virgo said, loosening the Engineer’s helmet so he could move his head at least. “Word of advice, unless you too have iridium teeth, biting your way out is not a good option. If you are willing to suffer some indignity, feel free to call for help.” Virgo smirked, before giving the poor engineer a salute and turning to walk off with his commander.

“As you have noticed, the internal space of our ships is very small to their size, and we mostly use the services of our sisters to get around, so we could make the corridors twisted, sort of illogical to follow unless you know the layout, and aside form the foam that also acts as fire retardant - it’s original purpose really - we can toy with gravity and life support, and there are checkpoints at strategic places.” she pointed forward to where there were turrets mounted on the walls right behind a bulkhead.

Leaving Lindus to be excavated by the rest of his team, Uristis listened to the Faira marine commander. “Then aside from needlessly illogical layout, our defensive measures are pretty much the same except crew numbers. But wouldn’t the foam be an obstacle? Say you get boarded in a fight, you seal the intruders and block the halls with the foam. What if you have to get through that hall to contain battle damage and no transport is available? How many halls do you have running parallel to each other if one or more get blocked for any reason?”

“There are two main paths running the length of the ship. Transport is usually available in some manner, as I took care to have one squaddie that can do what the transport specialists can at least once or twice before needing rest. It is not a universal requirement in the fleet or the military as a whole.” the Master of Arms noted.

Just two main paths? Sure, easier to hold, but equally as limiting. “Your checkpoints, what do they look like? An airlock with guards, maybe monitored from a security office?”

“A bulkhead rather than an airlock.” Virgo noted as they passed through the checkpoint, knocking on the internal rail of the door that would slam shut by the gravity if the mechanism failed. “The guns are a scaled down version of the PDG on the hull of the ship. Our designers are very, very fond of standardization. What of your ships?” she asked.

“Standardization, or defenses?” the Centurion asked.

“I asked for the latter, but now that you mentioned it...” Virgo shrugged.

“As I said earlier, much the same. But While we can’t mess with gravity or move our opponents by thought alone, our ships have more surveillance than our capital city. One of the biggest problems an intruder would face on a narix ship is the constant watchful gaze of security officers on duty. Another part of our defense plan are strategically placed entrances. Unless you mindjump wherever you wish, you have to go through the hangars on larger ships or storage on smaller ones. And if you manage to break out of there, anywhere you try to go, you’ll have to cope the crew as a whole, sealed bulkheads, gravity changes and most importantly, a force of marines that can be quickly directed to block your path anywhere aboard the ship. Don’t let Lindus fool you, in the first year of his service, during an uprising, he bludgeoned two hostile combatants to death with his empty rifle, and that was before power armor. Now imagine a few dozen like him at once. Unless mindspace usage is common among the various species that no doubt roam the stars and we are the exception, that would make a hole in our plans.”

“As a side note of the standardization, mostly everywhere but the Fifth Fleet.” he chuckled. “As we were expected to be away for long periods of time, ships of the Fifth were modified - better crew quarters, cooks recruited out of civilian restaurants, a fully-fledged movie theatre, a library.”

“Oh? And yet, your CO and most everyone of you looks baffled when they see our morale sectors. Imagine what the others of your military would feel like. If this merging of forces thing goes through, we’ll need many more ships for all the volunteers.” Virgo snickered as they reached a transport room, where Virgo had them jumped to the cargo hold. A small section of it was taken by various obstacles that simulated both the inside of a ship and obstacles one might find on a planet. “I apologize for the pathetic playground of a training area, but as I said, for a ship one kilometer in length, the Comet class is really cramped even by our standards. We moved your weapons to the armory, care to run a few comparison tests before the stonemasons arrive?””

All but team two started to examine the obstacles, waiting for the ‘stonemasons’ to arrive. “That name is going to stick with them for at least two months, sir. And we thought a library is weird to have on a warship, you put a part of a city here and as we understand, it’s standard issue. THAT is what we find, as you say, baffling.”

“Once, if that is, they decide to let you through to Naris, I think you should apply for a visit. We turned one of our moons into training grounds. So what now? Start with physical, move to obstacles, then marksmanship?”

Though he intended to add something, he was interrupted by the hasty arrival of the stonemasons. “Team two reporting, sir...s!”

“I see one issue that needs fixing. Centurion, for now, you will retain command of your squad. You personally will be getting your orders from me, just like the rest of my squad commanders. Later, when we see each other work, I might mix up the squadrons around, we shall see.” Virgo cleared up the chain of command.

“We’d like to see what utensils you brought.” One of the Faira squad leaders said, and Virgo nodded. “SL, bust out the equipment.” she ordered, and what looked like targets made out of layers of different materials were brought up. “Benchmarking targets.” Virgo explained. “Let’s see what kind of stuff your weapons can go through before we go to the rest.”

“Our weapons fire tungsten projectiles, are we sure no one will be harmed and nothing will be damaged by ricochets?”

“The first layer to get through is the standard issue personal shield. If those projectiles draw their energy from velocity rather than mass, they won’t do much more than splatter on the on the last layer at most. The first actual armor layer is the suit standard you and we are wearing, which is a ceramic fiber in metal matrix composite plate and 3D nanofiber metal mesh underlayer. Behind it are three layers of what we use for ship armor - reconstituted biopolymer plastic, heavy metal armor alloy and what’s upscaled version of the suit’s armor plate.” the master explained, “Although if it makes you feel any better, we’ll put up a shield around as well. You know what to expect of your stuff the most.”

“Acastus, Erixa!” Ursitis gestured at the targets. “Start with low settings. And someone make sure there are no flammable materials around the targets.”

The two named soldiers retrieved their equipment - a standard rifle and a longer marksman variant. Going first, the team’s field medic quickly disassembled her weapon to make sure everything was in order before putting it back together and taking her place at the firing line. Adjusting a knob on the side of the weapon, she disabled the safety and waited for an all-clear.

“Engineers struggled to figure out a way to make the weapons work without punching a hole through walls that weren’t meant to be penetrated, such as weak hulls. We’ll start with the lower ones and work from there.” Ursitis explained.

Given the signal, the Narix raised her weapon and fired, producing a rather massive muzzle flash from the heat generated by the friction between the sabot and the rails. Upon impact, the incendiary mix in the tip ignited, detonating the explosive filler, shattering the bullet’s steel cover and sending its splinters flying. The tungsten penetrator would then continue on through the target.

Or it would have if it didn’t detonate prematurely upon contact with the shield. Upon closer examination, a dent in the armor indicated the penetrator was going sideways when it hit.

“200 meters per second, 77 kilojoules.” The marine announced. “What do you reckon the impact force was?”

“Not enough to go through a shielded standard issue suit. Light suit worn by command staff, diplomats and citizens might have left them with a bruise, heavy suit like mine, probably I’d feel it and that’s about it, but that’s because of the shield, and not everyone chooses to equip it. Humor me and let’s do another round without it.” Virgo frowned, already having the idea of what this round was going to do and not liking it one bit.

Again assuming her stance, the marine fired once more. Without the shield there to disrupt the projectile’s intended operation, it detonated when it was meant to, the suit layer gave way, the penetrator went right through before shattering upon impact with the second, ship layer.

“So something to nullify shields.” Ursitis made a mental note for the R&D. “Shall we try with shield and a higher setting? Say 300 meters per second?”

“All of you that claimed a full body shield is unnecessary? At the end of your shift, you are going to engineering, and you are getting it, no questions asked.” Virgo ordered, making the mental note to push this up the chain of command to make it a fleet-wide order. “Feel free to go up to your comfort zone.” she nodded to the Narix, herself wondering about the result.

Nudging the medic away with an elbow, the marksman took her spot. “Why would you have access to shields like this and NOT use them?” she shook her head, setting up her rifle. “Let’s go 500. Shame we only brought this ammunition type.” Increasing the power assistance of the suit to withstand the recoil, she fired full of expectations.

Noticeably flinching backwards as the shot was fired, the suit kept the barrel pointing the same way despite the recoil strong enough to fully compress the shock absorbing stock. Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, the penetrator went through the shield, the suit and still had enough energy left to gough a notch into the second layer.

“Well, that’s much better.” the marksman commented. “Have a theory why the shield failed, sir?” she turned to Virgo, lowering her rifle.

“Engie?” Virgo asked one of her squadmates, who seemed to have been monitoring the shootings.

“Seems like on the initial test, the shield vaporized the casing and ignited the explosives. The penetrator element was deflected by the magnetosphere. In the second test, the penetrator went pretty much straight through, and the shield couldn’t heat the round up enough in the time it was in contact to ignite it or compromise its integrity. Can we do one even faster? I think the shield might actually start setting it off like when it impacts a solid target.”

“Can do.” the marksman turned the knob to an area marked in orange and waved one of her squadmates over. Unfolding the bipod, she used her squadmate to support the weapon as she took aim.

“These settings are extreme, meant to be used when the weapon is resting against a solid piece of rock or something similar. The second suit substitutes that.” the Centurion noted.

When the second soldier let the marksman know his helmet microphones were disabled, the marksman fired, the muzzle flash nearly a meter in length. At 800 meters pers second, the kinetic penetrator alone carried over 1200 kilojoules.

“Tell me you got that, because I would prefer not to repeat that.” the marksman stretched her right arm.

“I imagine that is not too usable in ship combat?” Virgo frowned, “Also, sidenote, the bang and stench are absolutely abysmal. Seems to me like the weapon might also maim the user upon the highest setting.” the master of arms shook her head.

“Confirmed,” the engineer said, “ignition at the shield threshold.” the engineer noted, “Seems like the shield has a weak spot to that particular round around 500 meters per second, and the standard suit can not handle the penetrator at and above that speed. Heavy I think would survive until you need to support the weapon.” the engineer reported.

Nodding, Virgo headed off to the target to examine it. “Seems like the penetrator would also go right through, probably pretty hot. Unless you hit something major, it would not do much to us. You, being mostly liquid form what I understand, is a different story.” Virgo said as she returned to the firing position. “Would you like to try our own, or should I demonstrate? We do have handheld versions as well.” Virgo offered.

“Correct, this is for planetary applications, when you have to disable a vehicle or hit something at 1600 meters. When used correctly, even this setting is safe, but this tests the border between what’s safe and what’s not.” the marksman turned the settings down again. “We do have air rifles in stock, but left them all at home. Those are nearly silent, but have to be pumped to keep their effectiveness.”

“We certainly won’t turn down a demonstration.” the centurion nodded, waving at his squad to clear the firing line. “If any of you feel the urge to try ours, you only need to ask. Somehow you even have the right amount of fingers.”

“Aleph squad, form up.” Virgo said, and four of the Faira lined up at the range. “I don’t know how much you have been told about our ship weapons, but it’s a lot similar on the smaller scale. First is the sidearm, which are small caliber and low speed plasma blasters.” Virgo explained, and the first Faira deployed the weapon from the forearm pod on her suit and shot with it, once at the unshielded target and once on the shielded one. The damage was completely undone by the shield, and there was a good sized scorch mark on the suit layer plate, but not much more.

“Leaves something to be desired. What’s the range and how many times can it fire before you’re out. I assume it’s at least ammo efficient?”

“Not very effective, but against a soft target in last resort situation, it can save your antennae. It is also so compact that you can very easily conceal it. As far as ammunition goes, it uses plasmatized nitrogen, so within atmosphere, the suit replenishes the clip from there. The tank is big enough not to be a bother, but the gun needs a cooldown after fifty rounds, hence why we usually have one on each arm.” Virgo explained.

“Next there is the anti-materiel laser.” the next Faira continued, bearing a handheld version of the weapon, pointed it to the targets. It took a few seconds to go through the shield, almost none to go through the suit layer before it bit into the ship armor, going halfway through before the weapon shut down and vapors from nitrogen poured on it’s heatsink.

“Good against one target, but everyone in the star system is going to know where you are. If what you kill has friends, staying in the same place would not be advisable.”

“Honestly, we do not count on deploying Marines to planets. This is for ship bound work, just in case some diminutive race or technical geniuses figured out armor vehicles that could fit in, or to defend hangars against boarding attempts.” Virgo noted, “then there is the dual-mode plasma cannon.” she nodded to the remaining two Faira

The first one deployed the cannon from shoulder mounts, firing high-velocity blobs that punched through the shield after several rounds and melted the suit layer, but gone no further. The other Faira shot it in a continuous beam mode, punching right through the shield, but it took a second or two to amass the damage on the armor.

“But, most of us prefer this.” Virgo said, mindjumping next to the target and swinging her arm forward, a red and white plasma lance forming in her hand that she rammed easily through both the shield and suit armor. It was obvious that compared with the Faira’s superior speed and mindspace mobility, it was not to be taken lightly. “Mindspike can take many forms, from lances through blades to chains.”

“That could be a problem.” someone at the back of the assembled squad murmured. The centurion kept silent, but was inclined to agree. “How long can you last in a engagement doing that?” He said, recalling a mention of only being able to execute similar feats for short periods of time. “How far can you go, and how accurately?”

“Most depends on skill really. Some of my marines can’t jump at all as they are oracles rather than psychokinetics. In general, we either have to have a Faira homing us in on the other end, or be able to sense in some way where we go - sight, echolocation, … But as it is a proprietary mindspace ability with no ammo feed, it relies on a gaseous atmosphere being present.” Virgo said as she got back. “Most marine-level psychokinetics will manage a knife-long spike at least though, enough to go through to vital organs.”

“Assuming you know where they are. If you wanted to kill me, for whatever reason one might wish remove such a blessing upon this universe, where would you strike?” the centurion inquired with a great deal of sarcasm i his voice.

“Sensory abilities and communication, so mostly your head, hypothetically. The engineers might target something important they can recognize on the suit instead. Mobility if I could not figure out anything else of the target - cut of all legs and it is a safe enough bet that it’s neutralized. Technically, you don’t need the enemy killed.” the master of arms answered, “You?”

“Joints and softer points, such as throat. With a firearm, whatever I can hit, so mostly your chest. If I was designating a target for a friendly or myself, assuming I had enough time to pick a target, I’d go for weak points in the suit - neck, joints, gaps in armor. But given what we’ve seen here, I might switch the underslung shotgun for a grenade launcher, and those things don’t care where you aim.”

“Oh, I meant with a blade or hand to hand.” Virgo said, “Guns, the largest target, so torso probably, as you said. I assume you can not produce plasma blades at will, do you have an alternative?”

“Several, but most are primarily tools.” he said, drawing his knife and handing it to Virgo. “Single-edged blade for cutting or hacking, saw on the other side. The small edge on the top side of the tip serves to cut wires. The tip is self-explanatory. There are larger variations for clearing away vegetation that can also be used to remove a limb or two. For less or non-lethal, blunt batons, be it rubber or metal. Those are very popular among civilians and civic guard, but still can break bones.”

“Not that useful here then, save for perhaps repairs to broken door panels.” Virgo said, flipping the knife in her hand a few times before launching it against the practice target. The knife passed through the shield, but bounced off of the plate. “Well that was interesting.”

“It seems like the suit’s sensors thought it too slow to be a projectile. We might want to adjust the software a little.” the engineer said.

“Oh well, now that we’re a bit familiarized with the tools, fancy seeing how our teams do against one another?”

“If you have a non-lethal way, sure. I am quite interested how that will turn out. Lindus, get the practice shells!“