Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

November 4th 002 SDE

Countryman walked down the corridor as he considered the last couple of months. Since that first skirmish with that battle fleet, he had been encountering increasingly hostile Valorian fleets. They had already left the Lantaro sector, but it seemed Valorian activity beyond their borders was on the rise in this whole region. As a result many local worlds were on guard and skirmishes were happening every day. They had made a few friends by intervening in skirmishes caused by Valorian aggression, but Countryman was still left wondering why. Their lack of a micro FTL drive left limits on what they could do to spy on the Valorians, but he had an idea about that. They were only a few weeks away from a known Valorian port, if they could arrive under stealth it would be possible to insert a probe, but if he was going to do that he would have visited a closer one. There were clearly more in the area given the Valorian fleet activities. Rather, he had Richards working on a special project instead.

The forward cargo hanger was rather spacious, enough room for a cargo ship or a small frigate. He had her outfit the bay to be used for ship construction and she was now in the process of directing the construction of an automated spy frigate. They had pulled the design from the X-1200 series of projects. Line item 1288 was intended to be a stealth frigate with significant electronic warfare and observation systems. Of course, they had made a few modifications to the original design. For one, they were taking advantage of their recent experiments with ship automation and AI protocols to remove crew quarters and life-support systems in favor of a fully automated control system. Internal drones would be responsible for internal security and damage control.

The ship would use the same kind of stealth armor found on modern birds of prey and other stealth vessels. She would use new generation subspace comm arrays allowing her to beam back data. Armament would be light and her overall protection limited, but the hull was expected to be fairly fast. Especially since they were using the excess crystals from that earlier production run to build a modified engine for her. Replacing the original intended propulsion scheme. There may be a few issues as a result, but it would allow them to cut the production time. If things went on schedule, they would be able to launch the ship by mid-December.

The order was also the largest test of their deep space production capabilities and he saw it as a test run for their future. It helped that a small frigate was about the largest ship they could build without having to anchor. Sadly they could only work on one at a time, and since the only space that would work was their main cargo hanger other issues would present themselves. Notably with taking on and offloading supplies. There were secondary hangers for that, but the main one was the largest and best equipped. Still being able to build frigates on the move would be useful.

If it went well he was considering building a few screening vessels. Nothing really substantial could be built given the size and space limitations. The tonnage limits and only being able to build one at a time were both things to consider. Then they had to weigh if it was worth the cost. He always figured that once they started getting ready to build new ships for the fleet, he would have a few scout frigates built. Armed with light particle cannons and a couple of torpedo launchers, they could prove useful for scouting and screening. Sadly there weren’t any suitable scout frigate designs in the database. They would have to design an appropriate ship from scratch, so that would take a few years. Even with a team on it. Ships were complicated affairs, and there was a lot to consider before work could start on one. It wasn’t like video games where you might select a hull and slap a few components on it. Ship design was far more complicated than that. Modules could be swapped on a ship, but that did add complications to the design.

However, the biggest bottleneck to ship construction wasn’t the design phase. It was actually in the production phase. Namely the construction of propulsion crystals. Back home they had huge factories constantly pumping them out to preset specifications. Now they didn’t have those factories or the supply chains required for the production at any kind of decent level. A factor that would add time to any ship they built. He had a team looking into optimizing crystal production, but he figured that Ruri’s AGI project would be the big-ticket item that would really improve production. Crystals were slowly produced by nanites in large pools, meticulously crafted on the microscopic level. Better AI would mean improved nanite coordination and faster assembly of the overall crystal.

Reaching the door to the forward bay he stepped inside. He was on one of the upper levels and he was almost instantly greeted with the view of a growing spaceframe. The frigate was far from complete, but the spaceframe was well underway to complete and the first modules were already being fitted. Namely the power plant and structural integrity systems. Those were always first to be built into the hull, often with key components of the Structural Integrity Field or grid integrated directly into the star frame. A number of primary power conduits would also be run alongside the frame since it was the bones of the ship. Every module, every system would be built off those beams and struts. The engines would be anchored directly into them as well to ensure stability.

A young ensign in a work suit bounded up the walkway, she smiled, “Captain! Can I show you around?”

“Certainly. I came here to inspect your progress.”

She gestured, “As you can see we are currently ahead of schedule, things are proceeding very smoothly. We should be ready to start installing the computer and propulsion systems late tomorrow or early the day after.”

“Sounds good,” he said as he let her take the lead on the tour of the ship. For now anyway, he was going to be checking all the work, but based on what he saw he didn’t think he would find anything wrong with the ship.

Several figures watched a screen. An older woman, one of the clan leaders sighed, “This campaign isn’t going well. We have engaged them several times and we have yet to gain what we wanted.”

“Perhaps, but we have learned more about their technology. That will give us more of a chance.”

A sigh, “Yes, they have a sustained beam weapon that can carve through shields, stronger shields seem to hold up better, but that capital ship can still punch through at close range.”

“My people have been looking into that. Those particle beams lack the punch of Krall Plasma beams but they can be sustained for much longer. In most cases it’s the sustained strain on the generators that leads to localized failures. Reinforcing the emitter array and adjustments to the secondary shield generators would greatly improve protection on our capital ships with minimal cost. Smaller ships would be out of luck.”

“What about that next-gen shield project?”

“The one being run alongside project Yinta? It’s still a work in progress, they are experimenting with composite particle barriers without much success last I heard.”

“Composite particle barriers? I thought the next big thing was graviton barriers?”

“Well yes, but most projects in that field have stalled out due to issues with sufficient particle generation.” the person speaking glanced at the screen, “Something our friends seem to have no issue with.”

They all knew what the person was talking about. Refuge ships had a rather high graviton signature, something they had previously missed. Sadly the scanners that could detect gravitons had limited ranges, which means tracking them at long range was still limited to traditional methods. Factors that made it hard to find the alien ships, since they were only detectable on short-range scanners. That stealth of theirs was very interesting and rather unlike Voskar cloaking. A few of them had ideas for what it could be used for, especially if improved since it seemed to be more passive than active. That had certain advantages over the Voskar method.

“Yes we have noticed that, any idea what they are using them for?”

“Not shields, scans show high levels in the hull, and they emit them in bursts while moving. Likely they play a role in the function of their reactionless sublight engines.”

“I see, that just makes acquiring the alien tech more important.”

“Agreed the implications for next generation shielding alone would be worth it. The strange armor of theirs would be useful as well. If anything it might prove an interesting study for next generation shielding as well.”

“In the meantime, we need a better defense shield to withstand their strange weapons. The particle beams are easy enough, but those torpedoes rip right through our shields like they aren’t there.”

“None of my teams have any leads on how. Our shields use a rotating modulation which should prevent something like this, but roughly forty percent go through. It’s like they somehow know our shield configurations.”

“Sounds like you might have an idea?”

“After so many battles? The teams have noted a few things about their warheads. Most notable is their glow, plasma warheads glow due to their payload of superheated plasma, but why do their photon warheads glow?”

“Hmm? Is that important?”

“Yes, we know from Cantra that not all of their warheads glow, but they usually do. We think it has something to do with the shield penetration ability. As near as we can tell, the torpedo is wrapped in some kind of electromagnetic field.”

“Wait!? An EM penetrator? Those don’t work on modern shields.”

“Actually they do, it’s how carriers can launch fighters and shuttles without dropping shields. Sure the fighters and shuttles in question use their shields, but the same principles would still work with an EM penetrator. The only reason EM penetrators aren’t everywhere is because you need the target’s shield configuration in order to bypass the target’s shields. Something you can get with a scan, but by the time a warhead can hit it will have changed. It’s why we use a rapid rotating band modulation.”

“I see what you mean about that, so if we presume they are somehow capable of anticipating the band shift in our shields, do you think you can come up with a way to stop their warheads?”

“Actually I do have an idea. Plasma shielding, modern shields already use a dense particle layer. Adding a plasma barrier wouldn’t be too hard, in theory. I have a team working on it and that same team is also looking into composite particle shielding.”

Frowning the older woman inquired, “Would that work?”

“I think so, I based the idea off the alien defenses. They use an energy shield that produces a barrier of high intensity laser beams. A plasma barrier would do much the same thing, anything that penetrates the main shield layer would be subjected to extreme temperatures and burn up.”

“As interesting as that sounds, how long before we can use it?”

“Six months according to the team.”

“Great. What about penetrating that armor? Any progress there?”

“Perhaps, we are looking into acquiring a new type of warhead for our fighter craft. It’s a high yield antimatter warhead designed to fire a focused directional burst upon detonation. Usually just before impacting the shields, but we think it could be useful. My team says they found a promising dealer for these warheads.”

“Interesting, but I would like to look into further improving our plasma warheads, they already show promise. Creating a larger, more powerful warhead is the next logical step. The tricky bit is balancing the containment fields. I even have a team working on it and they promise it will only take a few months.”

“We can do both, the more options the better.”

“Agreed.”

While Countryman was down in the main cargo hanger conducting a routine inspection, Greyman was on the bridge. Commanding the Enterprise, like any good first officer would be doing. There wasn’t much to do, given that they were conducting routine operations. They had entered orbit of a small gas giant and were conducting an atmospheric survey. This particular system had three gas giants, two large iceballs and a couple of rocky barren worlds. Nothing remotely capable of supporting a colony, but it did have a vast asteroid belt. One that from initial scans appeared to be rather rich in metals. Mostly common metals like iron and nickel but they had found some fairly high concentrations of more valuable minerals like Titanium and Tungsten. Given the recent run of repairs, they had drawn up mining plans to collect what they could and refill their stores.

Fuel might also be an issue, given all the combat. They had started eating heavily into the reserves. Not enough to be concerned about yet, but if they didn’t find any fuel it might become an issue. That was why he had Misaki conducting high intensity scans of this gas giant; it showed the most promise for high concentrations of deuterium. In other words, it might make for a fuel source with which to replenish their reserves.

Suddenly Misaki looked up, “Contact sir. New ship just entered the system at point two two seven, mark three eight. Distance two point two million kilometers.”

“Have they seen us?”

“Looks like it, they are heading our way.”

“Can you identify them?”

“Scanning, they don’t look like any ship we have seen. Their hull configuration is... ORGANIC? Sir! That ship is alive!”

He blinked, “What? Are you sure?”

“Yes, it’s clearly organic.”

He had never seen a living ship. They were theorized about, but nothing like that had ever been encountered nor had anything even close been invented.

He opened his mouth to give an order, when Misaki said, “We are being hailed.”

Put them through. A moment later he was greeted with the sight of a naked alien female. She had sharp triangular ears on the top of her head, long white hair. A heart shaped face with a cute little fang poking out from her lips. Her skin was a light creamy tan where it wasn’t covered by white fur, which unfortunately included her entire torso as he could see everything from her modest breasts to her hairless vagina. He blinked, the words he was about to use stuck in his throat.

Her smile widened, “Greetings, I am Linari, Captain of the Talair and a representative of the Queens of the Wovnar Queendoms. We welcome you to our space and you are Captain Countryman of the Sol Refuge correct?