by Ivan Kal
“Weapons, bring the railguns online, arm the missiles. Opal take control of defensive fire.” Ship Master said to Opal, the ship’s Ai. “High Prime I want the tracks on those missiles immediately. Find out where they came from. Sensors, active scans on our surroundings, we are obviously not alone.”
After giving the orders Eric looked at the holo. Above, the time to impact was constantly dropping. Now showing thirty seconds. He hoped that the Ai would be able to take down the missiles. He wondered how they didn’t notice them before the missiles engaged their drives, their sensors should have detected them. There were 68 of them. The missiles tracks were shown from the moment their drives kicked in, the distance they had already passed was shown in a full red line, while the projected path in a dashed red line. Voyager’s drives were slowly kicking in, but Eric knew that they wouldn’t be fast enough. It took time for them to start.
At twenty seconds to impact Voyagers four top railguns opened fire. The rate of fire was amazing. But the missiles were too close, not even Opal, an Ai, could have destroyed them all in time. Out of 68 missiles, Voyager’s railguns took down 65. Three missiles continued on their projected path.
Eric keyed his ship wide comms. “Brace for impact!” He said.
Three explosions rocked Voyager in quick succession. Internal dampeners took care of the brunt of the hit, but they could still feel the ship rock.
“Damage report!”
“Railguns 1 and 4 are no longer operational. Deck 6 is open to space. Five missing, seven injured.” High Prime said.
“Navigation get us out of here, shortest route to the hyperspace barrier. Comms inform the Fleet of what has happened.” Eric said.
“New contact! Correction two! No! Three contacts on an intercept course!” Sensor Handler said.
New contacts immediately appeared on the holo.
“What are they? More missiles?”
“No Ship Master, they are ships. They are coming in fast. Intercept in twenty minutes.”
“Get us out of here, top speed.” Eric said to his Navigation Handler. And then turned back to his Sensor Handler. “How did they get so close without us seeing them?” He demanded.
“I don’t know Ship Master.”
Voyager started accelerating out of the planets orbit, and towards the hyperspace barrier. At their top speed they would be able to get there in an hour. Eric just hoped that they survive that long.
“Ship Master, the three ships are accelerating faster than us. We won’t make it.” High Prime said.
“Try to contact them, start sending greeting messages.” Eric said.
“They had already attacked us, I don’t think that they are peaceful.” High Prime said.
“No, but the messages might confuse them. Give us time to escape.” Eric said
His High prime nodded, and started working on his holoscreen. Five minutes later, the hostile ships were still coming fast.
“Anything?” Eric asked.
“Nothing.” High Prime said.
“Target the closest ship with missiles and fire as soon as you have a lock.” Eric said.
Ten seconds later, Voyagers launch tubes opened and fifty missiles left the ship. Voyagers missiles were faster and bigger than those that their warships used back in Sol. The missiles accelerated rapidly and closed the distance quickly. The lead ship tried to evade, but human missiles were all following adjusting their course. The timer was now on three minutes to impact. They were close enough to be able to track the missiles in near real time.
“We got the images of the ships, Ship Master.” Sensor Handler said. Eric looked up to see a part of the wall turn into a screen and he saw an image of the ship. The image showed a brownish colored hull, the ship was oddly shaped. The front was pointed, rocket like, with its middle being bulky and wider than Voyager by half. The end of the ship was spread out in 7 arcs bent backwards. The ship’s weapons could be seen mounted on its hull. The computer calculated the ship's size and displayed it above the image. It was 130 meters from tip to end of the bent arcs. Not much bigger than Voyager.
When the timer dropped to two minutes, Voyager’s missiles started exploding.
“What is happening?” Ship Master asked.
“They have engaged point defense Ship Master. It looks like lasers.” Weapons Handler said. Missile computers recognized the danger and engaged evading protocols. But by then ten missiles were already shot down. In the next two minutes, thirty eight more were taken out. Only two missiles passed through their defenses. The enemy ship had turned its side when it tried to evade the missiles. The first missile hit the front of the ship, while the second hit towards the end. Two missiles exploded. A few seconds later they got the images of the ship. The front part of the ship showed little damage, save for a large scorch mark. The end on the other hand showed a hole some two meters in radius, the ship was leaking atmosphere.
There were cheers from those present on the bridge.
Eric quickly silenced them.
“Sensors?” He asked.
“The ship is no longer accelerating, but it is light damage. They are still coming.”
Eric nodded.
“The other ships?”
“They will-” Suddenly the ship computer started showing damage to the hull.
“What was that?” Eric asked.
“Damage report. We sustained light damage to the hull.” High Prime said.
“The second ship is firing laser weapons on us Ship Master.” Sensor Handler said.
“Evasive maneuvers. Opal can you predict their fire?”
“Not yet, I need a few more hits to be able to see a pattern.” Opal said.
“Comms send everything we are getting back to Fleet.”
The Voyager computer showed areas of the ship’s hull where temperature raised significantly, areas where the ship was hit by lasers. Three more laser beams struck the ship, one of them holding long enough to penetrate the outer hull. The third ship came into range and opened fire with its laser weapons. The lasers started raining fire down on Voyager. The hull was breached in several more places. A shot at the back of the ship disabled the Voyagers drives. And suddenly they were dead in space. Eric was thrown out of his chair by the force of the explosion, and everything went black.
Sometime later, Eric got up from the floor feeling lightheaded with a piercing pain in his stomach, he looked around the bridge. Half the stations were on fire, with several of his crew members dead. His High Prime was on the floor a gash on his head, Eric couldn’t see if he was still breathing. The holo was remarkably still operational. Eric could see that the hostile ships were close to them now. They didn’t destroy them, so it suggested that they wanted the Voyager. Eric stumbled to one of the stations, the Comm Handler was on the floor, dead. Her skull was split open. He found the damage report that was generated by Opal, most of the ship was open to space, he checked the internal sensors, and looked for any life signs on the ship, there were none. He then tried the comms, but no one answered him. He saw that the FTL comm was still operational. He keyed it open and sent all the ship logs of the battle back to Sanctuary, he looked down at his stomach, a metal rod had ripped through him, it was from the nearby railing, he had no idea how it managed to impale him. Then, he sent a message saying that he planned on destroying the ship. He went back to his station and somehow managed to get himself in the command chair.
“Opal are you still with me?” He asked.
“Yes Ship Master.”
“I need you to engage the self-destruct sequence.” He sure as hell wasn’t about to let the bodies of his crew be dissected by aliens.
“I will need your command codes Eric.”
Eric nodded and sent the codes to the ship's computer where Opal could access them.
“Trigger the self-destruct when the enemy ships close the distance. I want to take the bastards with us.”
“Only one ship is approaching, the other two are keeping their distance.” Opal said.
“It was an honor Ship Master.” Opal said.
“Likewise Opal, likewise.” Eric said, and lost consciousness.
Opal waited for three minutes until the enemy ship came into blast range. She triggered the self-destruct sequence. It forced the fusion reactor that powered the ship to produce more power, while no safeguards were active. Soon the reactor blew, and the Voyager became a fast expanding ball of white fire. The blast engulfed the shuttle that the enemy ship was sending. A moment later Voyager was gone, along with the entire back part of the enemy ship. An instant later the ship exploded, the debris flying in all directions. There was nothing left of Voyager, but dust.
Chapter Eleven
Olympus city
Laura walked the long corridors of the palace on her way to one of the meeting rooms. She was dreading the duty ahead of her. She tried to think of an easy way to tell Tomas the news, but couldn’t think of one. Navigated through the enormous palace by her implant, she finally arrived at her destination. She steeled herself and entered.
She was the one that called for this meeting. There were four people inside. Civil leader Nadia Wilson, she was the people’s voice. Minister Seo-yun Hyeon, she was in charge of most everything concerning technology. Field Master Elias Bakas, he was in charge of the army. Elias was Laura’s counterpart. And then Tomas Klein. They were sitting at a round table, which Laura knew was a holodesk. Tomas was sitting directly across from the entrance. The table had only five chairs. Laura made her way to the free chair, across from Seo-yun and at Tomas’s right.
“So, what is the reason for this meeting Laura? It sounded serious.” Tomas asked.
Laura steeled herself for a moment before she spoke.
“There was an incident.” She said hesitantly.
“What kind of an incident?” Nadia asked.
“We lost the Voyager.” She said.
“Lost? You mean we lost communications?” Seo-yun asked.
“No. The Voyager was destroyed.” Laura said.
“What happened?” Tomas asked.
“Voyager entered a system and proceeded to the planet. They sent a shuttle team to the surface, as per protocol. When the shuttle returned, Voyager’s sensors detected missiles. Ship Master Eric Donaldson ordered countermeasures immediately, and they managed to take down all but three missiles. The ship survived the three hits, but the sensors then detected three ships on an intercept course. Voyager tried to get to the hyperspace barrier, but the hostile ships had faster acceleration. They disabled the ship, presumably killing most of the crew. Seeing that there was no way for them to escape, Ship Master Eric Donaldson engaged the self-destruct sequence.” Laura said.
“Do we know who attacked them? Was there any attempt at communication?” Elias asked.
“No.” Laura said, answering both questions.
Tomas closed his eyes and covered them with his hand, Seo-yun reached over and covered his other hand with hers. She leaned in and whispered something in his ear. A moment later Tomas nodded. He turned to Laura.
“Do we know if those ships are the same as the ones the Traveler encountered?” He asked.
“We believe that they were not. The drives are similar, as is the material they are made of. But they don’t look anything alike.” Laura answered.
“But we can’t be sure.” Elias said.
“No. Though the ships that attacked Voyager didn’t even attempt to communicate. But then again, neither did we. And I doubt it would have made a difference. Those that the Traveler encountered on the other hand, did establish communications. And it was them that initiated the talks. I believe that they are two separate races.” Laura said.
“Inform Ship Master Kisaragi of the Voyager's fate. And make sure she is prepared to turn and run away.” Tomas said. “Now, Voyager was on a long term exploration mission, and it didn’t arrive in that system from here. I’m assuming that there is no chance of them being followed here?” Tomas asked. Seo-yun and Laura shook their heads, and Tomas nodded. “Good. Laura, I will release all available resources and personnel to the Fleet. I want the ships ready as fast as possible. After they are finished we will talk about expanding the Fleet. If there is a hostile race in our neighborhood, we won’t be able to wait for the younger generations to grow up. We are going to need to draw from other departments, army mainly.” He said looking at Elias. “And Nadia, I need you to schedule a conference for this evening, I need to tell the people what happened.”
“Yes Tomas.” Nadia said.
Tomas got up, and nodded at the rest of them. “All of you have things to do, I suggest you get to it. I have a speech to write.” With that, he walked out of the room. Seo-yun got to her feet and followed him out.
Laura looked at Nadia and Elias. “You think he will be okay?” She asked.
“Seo-yun will take care of him.” Elias sad, and Nadia agreed.
“We have other things to worry about.” Nadia said.
“You are right.” Laura said.
***
Tomas entered his personal office in the south wing of the palace. He locked the door behind him, and walked over to a reading chair in the corner. He leaned back and closed his eyes. A moment later he heard the door opening. He remembered that Seo-yun had his access codes. A second later he felt a hand on his knee.
“Tomas…” Seo-yun said.
“I don’t think I am right for this job.” Tomas said.
“Of course you are. Didn’t we already go over this. It is not your fault.” Seo-yun said.
“I know, but I still feel helpless.”
She didn’t say anything. She just stood there, anchoring him. A few minutes later, he finally opened his eyes. He looked down to see Seo-yun looking up at him. He saw a touch of trepidation in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, I won’t lock myself away again. But that doesn’t mean that I can just ignore feeling like this.”
“Everyone is here to help you. You are not alone.” She said.
Tomas smiled at her. “I know.”
He got up and walked over to his desk. He turned it on and then looked at Seo-yun.
“Help me with the speech?”
“Of course.”
***
Three days later Adrian was still shocked by the events that Tomas Klein revealed in the vid conference. Voyager was destroyed by an alien race. And Eric Donaldson was dead. He remembered the previous Ship Master of Athena kindly. And Adrian couldn’t believe that he was dead. The records of the incident were made public, so Adrian reviewed and found that there was nothing Eric could have done. His ship was outmatched. The news pushed Adrian to immediately jump on the data regarding the dreadnought class ship. Three days in, he was barely half way through.
The ship design took a radical change from the previous ships built. Older ships were good, functional, but they were not going to win any beauty contests. The new ships on the other hand will look a lot different. When you looked at them you would immediately know that they are ships made for war. The dreadnought class was massive, and menacing. The dreadnought specs put the ship at 820 meters long, 380 meters wide at its widest, and 140 meters tall at its highest. The front of the ship looked like a double-headed axe head. The middle part of the ship was thinner, and covered in turrets. Around the half-way point two stubby wings protruded bringing the ship's width to its widest, and the ship’s height also increased equally below and above the ship, bringing its height to its highest. That last part the designers named the Citadel. It was where the command center was situated.
The ship was covered in weapons. Double barreled turrets lined both the top and the bottom of the middle part of the ship. They were a hybrid railgun turrets (DBRG). Close-medium range weapons firing metal slugs by using a combination of high pressure gas and magnetic fields. There were two types of ammo that the ship would carry and that the turrets could fire. Kinetic shell ammo, used at medium range, a simple metal slug, its d
estructive power coming from its speed. And explosive ammo, explosive shells that exploded when they hit. These were close range, and were fired at lower speed than the simpler kinetic shells. The ship had 28 of these turrets, 8 on the bottom and 20 on the top of the ship. The shells they fired were massive 70 cm in diameter. It also had 36 smaller railgun turrets, that fired 15 cm shells, these turrets were spread out over the ship hull. The ship's surface was also filled with smaller turrets that were to be used for point defense (PDT), they could be retracted inside the hull. The axe head part of the ship, housed powerful laser turrets (LT), able to fire at long range. They were the strongest ones they have ever made, with lenses of 60 cm in diameter. A three second beam from one of these turrets would slice Athena in half. The 12 turrets could be retracted inside the hull, there were 6 on the top and 6 on the bottom side of the ships axe head. The citadel housed another 20 DBRGs, with PDL turrets and 10 LTs, half on the top and half on the bottom. The sides of the ship housed missile tubes. The new missiles were stronger, faster, and had greater range. They were smart missiles, and didn’t need to be turned towards their target. The Citadel also had ten ‘torpedo’ tubes. These were newly developed weapons for space. These larger missiles were much faster and stronger than the regular ones, but at a cost of maneuverability. They needed to be pointed in the general direction of their target. The two wings extending from the Citadel held the backward hangers and landing bays, with the front of the ship housing the forward smaller ones.
The dreadnought class ships were meant to rain destruction on the enemy, while also being able to take any punishment the enemy dished out. The alien database had little information on weapons that the Union used, save for the laser technology. And judging by the hull of the alien ship they found, laser weapons were common. The hull of the alien ship, had a “skin” material layer that was reflective, and would dissipate most of laser fire, as well as prevent scans. The research department had tested it extensively, a direct beam from one of the dreadnought class lasers would only transfer 45% of its destructive power. That was still enough to damage any ship coated with it, but it was still a huge defensive tool. The research department had also spent the years since recovering the alien ship trying to develop new alloys for the use in Olympus ships. The new warship hulls are all made of new metal alloys, and coated in a layer of skin, developed from studying the alien ship. The alien ship itself used completely synthetic ceramic-like materials. But the way they were used, gave human scientists an idea. They still kept to the metals. It was the material humanity was most proficient and knowledgeable with. And in the end they managed to create alloys that were more durable and stronger than those on the alien ship, if somewhat heavier. But by the human temperament, there was no such thing as too much mass. The data on the new classes of ships was extensive, but for now Adrian focused on things that he needed to know. Like the number of crew, needed to operate the ship. Which was 800, not counting the security forces. With them that number grew to 880 people. But the ship had enough room to carry thousands. It was imagined as a fortress, able to take materials from space, store them and fabricate anything it needed. It had 4 big fabricators, and a score of smaller ones.
