Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Sali watched the latest shuttle land. It was starting to become fairly routine. Right now she was in the observation bay with her fellow work crew. This room overlooked the hanger bay and was fairly close to the landing area. Not only that but it was fairly comfy and not subject to decompression. Making it a great place to wait. They’d already carted the last of the previous shipment off to the refineries. Leaving them with a bit of downtime. She’d ended up using it to watch the bay. It was quite interesting, a view into how her people might have conducted hanger operations before they developed airskin shielding.

Behind her, she heard a ringing sound as someone tried to get their attention. “Alright boys and girls. We have a new shipment coming in. This time from a salvage crew. We are transferring the materials to the lab for study.”

She blinked as she listened. Salvage? Not ore? That was interesting. So she started paying more attention as the speaker detailed the protocols. A review for most of the people here, but something new for her. Sali had never handled salvage before. As such she was quite thankful for the lecture, but it seemed she wasn’t the only one who needed it. That wasn’t too much of a surprise to her. Some of the people here had only recently signed on to the job. Apparently, it paid good credits and for one reason or another, they needed the money.

Before long the lecture ended and they filed out into the hangar. The bay doors were closed again, the bay once again pressurized. Several shuttles were landed their rear cargo doors open, for ease of offloading and she could see their holds full of debris this time and not the usual mix of ore. Grabbing some gloves, she moved right into her role with no prompting needed. Sali knew exactly where she was supposed to be at this point and soon started talking with a friend as she pulled the first crate of shattered metal off the shuttle.

“So where did all this salvage come from? I thought we were mining.”

The man chuckled, “Well remember when we were talking about poor Bob and the floor shook?”

She nodded, “Yeah a crate landed on my toes.”

Thankfully the things were surprisingly light considering each crate was packed with ore. Yet she might as well have stubbed her toe for all the damage that did. It was more surprising at the time than anything else.

He responded, “Well something hit us then. Its the talk of the ship at this point. Some idiots took potshots at us with railguns. No idea why, it didn’t do them any good.”

She took another look at the debris in her arms. That seemed like a poor life choice. Well it wasn’t her problem. With that in mind, she changed the subject.

Ruri looked over the screen. This was very interesting. She had been reviewing the sensor logs. It was the best she could do without the debris, which she was expecting soon. Behind her the door opened and she looked back to see several officers entering the room. Including Jac and his new Valorian advisors. Greyman wasn’t here, likely on the bridge, but she was happy to see Richards was here.

Jac came over, and inquired, “What have you found so far?”

“Not much. There is no exact match in the database, but I was able to identify a possible origin for the vessels.”

As she spoke, Vera looked over the console, she frowned, “Aren’t those Voskar ships?”

Sali replied, “There does seem to be a fair amount of correlation. I suspect we are looking at a newer or less well-known class of Voskar Stealth cruiser. If not for the size, I’d classify it as a Bird of Prey.”

All three Valorians commented, “Bird of Prey?”

Jac told them, “A type of stealth frigate, typically equipped with high caliber spinal mount guns. They are noted for being very agile, stealthy and thanks to their firepower they could hit like a truck. Of course something did have to be sacrificed. Ships of the archetype had fewer turrets and weaker armor, making them poorly suited for slugging matches. They did excel at raider and skirmisher roles however and they were very affordable to build. We employed them in large numbers in the past. I can show you a few designs later, in the meantime we have a few stealth cruisers to discuss.”

Vera commented, “I’m surprised you were able to detect them. Their cloaking shields are renowned as the best in the quadrant. Even our most advanced sensors have trouble penetrating their cloaks.”

Ruri commented, “We aren’t unfamiliar with stealth tech, their approach is... Different, but not without weaknesses.”

Richards looked a little lost, as Jac said, “I noticed, but I haven’t really had time to review what they were doing.”

“I’m not sure either,” said Ruri, “Some kind of energy field surrounding their ships serves to distort light and all known forms of detection. Rendering the ships effectively invisible. Very different from what we do.”

Vera spoke up, “The Voskar cloaking device is widely believed to be some kind of specialized shield. Studies on salvaged examples seem to corroborate this. The device produces a barrier around the equipped ship that selectively distorts light and sensor signals around the ship. Actively preventing detection. We know that the process is very energy intensive and takes up most of their power reserves while cloaked. I’m still interested in how you managed to penetrate it though.”

Jac smiled, “Commander Greyman used a very simple method. A particle sweep. In the past we found that bombarding a vessel with high energy photons or particles will illuminate it. The same was true for cloaked Voskar ships, when hit with a sweep their cloaking fields lit up like beacons.”

Reia blinked, “You are sharing that with us?”

“It won’t work on the Enterprise, we stopped using it against modern vessels. Favoring instead modulated spatial pulses which are less likely to be absorbed or dispersed by advanced stealth plating. Still we keep the option since it does have value in some cases as evidenced here.”

Richards finally interjected, “So any idea why they took a shot at us?”

Jac shrugged, Ruri didn’t have anything to say either. It was Reia who gave an answer, “The Voskar are known to launch attacks with little to no provocation, but the Zah system is fairly out of their reach.”

Her sister nodded, “True, but I’ve never known them to attack something so large. Then again most large vessels have more escorts than the Enterprise.”

Richards frowned, “So I ended up hitting my head while buried in the Nacelle systems because someone just wanted to take a shot at us? For no reason!?”

Reia nodded then frowned, “You know what are those Nacelles for anyway? They seem rather vulnerable to weapons fire and odd on a warship.”

Richards replied, “They are actually quite thickly armored. They mount our secondary maneuvering engines and all four of our warp engines.”

Neira interjected, “All four? In two housings?”

“Well we did experiment with mounting warp engines in the primary hull, but that was found problematic. They are very dangerous pieces of equipment. They put out a ton of heat while in operation and require significant cooling systems or they will burn a hole in the hull. Even with the cooling systems anyone close to the engines will find themselves baking. We found it was much safer for the crew for them to be further away. Along with a number of other practical advantages.”

Reia nodded, “I understand. Plenty of similar cases in our own ship design. Just perhaps not as distinctive as yours. Although I do have to ask, what were you doing in there?”

“Maintenance, with the engines offline now is the perfect time to do some work in there. Its not exactly a good idea to try and work on them while they are running. If you know what I mean.”

Vera commented, “I think we all do and we seem to have drifted from the main topic.”

“Yes the Voskar. Seeing as they took shots at us, anything we need to know?”

Reia seemed about to speak, but Neira spoke up first, “I’ve had a few dealings, often as a competitor for one contract or another. I have fought a couple of their ships. For the most part, Voskar ships ain’t that impressive. Weak shields, and outdated weapons. Well mostly outdated, they do have one weapon of note.”

“What weapon is that?”

“Their Hypernova torpedoes, but I wouldn’t worry about them.”

“Why not?”

“The Hypernova torpedo is very powerful, it creates a powerful multispatial shockwave on detonation. One powerful enough to crack a planet. They first tested the devices almost a century ago and within a year they were at war with the Krall Imperium. A year after that, they signed the Treaty of Avaris. That treaty ended that war, but its terms also restricted both the development and usage of Hypernova torpedoes.”

Ruri shared a look with Jac and then Jac asked, “Avaris? I’m not familar...”

“I doubt you would, its a Voskar core world, and a hundred years ago the seat of the Voskar government.”

“Their capital?”

“At the time, yes.”

“I see. Sounds like the war didn’t go very well for them.”

“It didn’t, most of their core worlds were occupied within a year. There is a reason most powers have a healthy respect for the Krall. As for the Voskar, they are strong, but they rely heavily on their stealth. Without it, they don’t do well. Since then they have only gotten better with their cloaking devices.”

Jac shifted his stance, “I’ll need what you know on cloaking and their borders. So we can steer clear. I’d rather not deal with them.”

“I prefer to avoid their space when I can as well. I’ll give you what systems I do know. As for their cloaking fields? Not much to say.”

Vera spoke up then, “I can give you what data I have on it. Its not much, but it might help.”

Ruri smiled, she was getting excited. She couldn’t wait to start looking over all the debris and the Valorian data. It was at that moment that there was a knock. The doors opened with a work crew coming in. Bringing with them the first pieces of alien wreckage.