Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Near Telgros EFS Umikazi, Main Bridge; June 25, 003SDE; 0855 hours:

Drakes studied the hull before him as they closed into range. The Veh’hemos was a large interstellar transport, her hull was fairly thin courtesy of her Valorian construction. The ship did have fairly strong shields, but they had already failed. Several defensive plasma cannons fired back on the small corvettes that were strafing the ship.

Without turning from the screen he inquired, “Status of the Veh’hemos?”

“The transport has sustained heavy damage, she is venting atmosphere on 19 decks. Her shield grid has been destroyed and she has lost all power to the engines. I’m also seeing heavy damage to key structural elements and her primary containment field is failing. Estimate thirty-four minutes to reactor breach.”

“And her attackers?”

“General specifications identify them as Voskar Raiders. They use high-yield fixed-mount particle cannons, mounted railguns, and several rapid-fire cannons for point defense. They are designed mainly for stealth, as such defensive systems are minimal, light shielding and barebones plating. They are no match for us, sir.”

Just then tactical spoke up, “We are entering weapons range now sir. Still no sign that we have been detected.”

“Lock cutting beams on targets, Alpha one, two and three, prepare for simultaneous fire,” replied Drakes as he checked his console for figures.”

“Targets locked,” said his tactical officer.

His smile widened, “FIRE!”

A moment later his screen lit up with three fireballs, as the beams tore right through the shields and plating of the corvettes. That was three down, a dozen more to go. After that he would have to save the transport, and then he could ask questions later when lives weren’t in the balance and he already had a few questions. Most important, was why was the attack taking place in the first place.

Reidia’s mind raced as she digested the flood of reports that were coming in. The Bountiful Treasure had dropped out of warp a minute ago and naturally that came with a barrage of new data and reports. Her mind quickly organized the data and considered the important points. The Transport Veh’hemos had sustained heavy damage and was facing an imminent reactor core breach. There were also multiple other ships in the area, mostly Voskar raiders, but there was also a single menace vessel.

Right now that one menace vessel was heavily engaged with the Voskar ships, which would give her a clear approach to the transport, which was her first priority. She gave the order and had someone prepare a boarding party. An engineering team to help the transport’s crew repair the damaged reactor. It would be for the best if they could save the ship, fixing or jettisoning the reactor if need be would do that.

Her gaze fell on the battle, the alien destroyer was more than a match for the Voskar stealth cruisers. As she watched, the ship rolled, and the shifting angle of her hull caused a barrage of missiles to narrowly miss the destroyer while simultaneously reangling the bulk of her dorsal weapons array towards a Voskar Battlecruiser, one she recalled seeing depicted on a recent intel report. It was one of their newer designs, the exact name unknown, so intel had designated it Phantom Blade class. Four such ships had been identified and engaged previously, typically on raids that were not public knowledge.

She mentally recalled the specs, it featured 20 spinal mounted high yield fixed mount particle cannons and 4 spinal mounted railguns that fired a particularly heavy round at about half the speed of light. They had been used to shatter starbases and other large installations. Overall the ship had decent shielding and semi-effective weaponry, but it’s real advantages were in stealth, speed and firepower. Most of which came from those four rail guns. None of that helped the ship she was looking at.

Multiple heavy particle rounds slammed into the shields, while focused energy beams burned into them. For a moment they seemed to hold, but then the energy burned through. The lightly armored hull of the battlecruiser failed instantly as the energy tore through the plating. Fires erupted along the hull and then the shields collapsed all together, as the energy beams carved the ship into pieces, explosively. Several escape pods were launched only to be targeted instantly, multiple turrets popped up and peppered them with projectiles.

She blinked, not many factions used projectile weapons and these seemed... unimpressive even for projectiles they didn’t even damage the pods, merely embedded themselves in the plating of the escape vehicles.

Her mind rapidly recalled what she knew about menace technology and their ships. The alien destroyers had originally been classified as cruisers due to their size but since then it became apparent that the ship didn’t fit the classification. The menace Phalanx type were outfitted with multiple fore and aft rapid-fire torpedo launchers, that fired in bursts. Each torpedo was outfitted with a high-yield photon warhead and a shield penetrator making them very deadly, especially to capital ships that couldn’t easily evade a spread of semi-guided torpedoes. The ships had twenty-four forward launchers and eight aft.

In addition to that she recalled they had some 400 hundred particle cannons, two hundred additional emplacements that carried the strange lightning gun the aliens had been firing at her ship, and a single lateral beam array. One that could apparently focus and fire multiple beams at once. They had just fired five beams at once at the much larger Voskar battlecruiser, along with the full output of some two hundred particle cannons at close range.

The alien ship, like all menace vessels, was lacking in energy shielding, but she was fast, agile and well-armored. The Voskar weren’t doing well, according to sensors their fixed-mount guns were having some effect, but not enough. The armor’s integrity field would often regenerate before a second volley could hit.

At least the Voskar were doing a good job of keeping them occupied. It would give her time to save the transport. Even if the damage to the transport was consistent with Voskar weaponry, the menace ship wasn’t an ally. That ship was as much a threat as the Voskar ships were. Then she watched tractor beams engage on the escape pods and she realized the aliens were taking prisoners.

Moments later, she was watching the screens. A voskar ship decloaked and fired her railguns and fixed-mount particle cannons at close range, scoring the first effective hit on the alien destroyer since she got here, it wasn’t enough. Her armor held, the structural field merely weakening by about thirty percent, that was a huge fluctuation, but what happened next precluded the Voskar from taking advantage, as the aliens opened fire. The skilled helmsmen of the Voskar cruiser kept most of the fire off them and the shields held. For a moment it seemed they would get away, then someone made a mistake, they started cloaking.

The alien ship simply saturated their position with high energy particle bolts, most missed, but those that found their mark tore into the ship with deadly effect. Several fireballs erupted from the cruiser, just before an alien beam weapon punched into the aft plating cutting through the entire length of the ship as the beam carved the cruiser from dorsal to ventral. Naturally the cruiser didn’t respond well to being cut in half like that, and a series of secondary detonations rippled across the surface of the ship.

An officer stepped up to her, “Ma’am the away team is ready to disembark.”

“Excellent, grant them clearance and have all guns on standby ready to support them.”

“Aye Ma’am!”

She turned her gaze from the battle and focused on the more immediate area, watching as her shuttle disembarked. The small ship passed through the shields without incident and then made for the transport. A comm signal passed and a moment later one of their undamaged hangers opened to admit the ship.

When she saw them land unmolested she let out a breath, even as an officer told her, “Away team has successfully boarded the Veh’hemos”

“Excellent, and the Voskar fleet?”

“Destroyed sir, all hostile Voskar ships have either sunk or been disabled. No active signatures on sensors.”

She glanced at the screens, “And the menace vessel?”

“She’s gone silent, and no longer registers on sensors.”

She cursed, Reidia didn’t like that. Something about not being able to see a potential threat left her feeling somewhat uneasy and she could see the same feeling in her crew. An order already on her lips, she turned to the sensor officer, “I want them found now, active sensors, full sweep.”

Drakes watched the sensors quietly. The main objective seemed to have been completed, the Valorian Dreadnought VCS Bountiful Treasure had deployed an engineering team to the transport while he had been clearing out the Voskar ships.

He still didn’t know why they were here either. He had a few people in the brig now, but so far they hadn’t divulged anything. Which left him with precious little intel, for now. Drakes figured they would crack soon enough. In the meantime he had a bit of opportunity in front of him.

“Sir, sensors indicate that the Veh’hemos is no longer in danger of a reactor breach, her containment fields have stabilized.”

“Excellent, how long before she is able to move under her own power?”

“Ten minutes or so, her shields might take longer.”

He nodded, while observing the Bountiful Treasure, which had taken a defensive position over the transport. A fact that left them vulnerable, he smiled, “Arm all forward tubes, stand by to fire.”

“Aye, sir arming forward tubes.”

“Full salvo, primary target VCS Bountiful Treasure,” he paused to consult their scans, “First target deck six, sections 23 alpha through 31 gamma, second target deck fourteen sections 31 alpha and 49 beta, third target deck eighteen, section 31, final target deck 56, sections 117 alpha through 223 epsilon.”

“Targets locked, sir,” came the report a second later.

He leaned forward, checking their position one last time, “Fire!”

The launchers thrummed a familiar reverberating throop sound echoed through the hull plates as they fired in rapid sequence. In the blink of an eye a full volley of three hundred and sixty warheads were in the water and on course to strike the Bountiful Treasure.

He gave a quick order to helm before the enemy noticed the torpedoes. Allowing the ship to slip from their sensors again. While keeping an eye on the fast moving warheads, they sailed toward the ship quickly, which started to accelerate, but she was too slow. Her batteries opened up, but they couldn’t knock the torpedoes out fast enough. Most evaded the plasma rounds and impacted the shields in a brilliant display of firepower.

Reidia braced herself, they had just spotted the damn destroyer but it was too late. The damn thing had launched torpedoes. Her ship shook, nearly knocking her off her feet. Alarms blared and multiple spots on the display turned red.

“Shields are down!!!” cried out someone, she cursed. Then something exploded and her floor shook again, just before smoke flooded the chamber from the vents.

“Lock that down! Damage report!”

“Shields are gone, we’ve lost main power, primary fire control is offline, helm control is nonresponsive, the main sensor array is offline, all torpedoes projectors are offline, secondary shield generators non-responsive.”

She cursed, “They knew exactly where to hit us. Get me helm control, now before they make another pass and get us out of here.”

“Aye sir!”

She held her breath, her eyes watching the screens, just waiting for another volley to come their way while the shields were down. Thankfully it didn’t as the moment stretched into eternity, “Backup helm control is coming online now, initiating emergency warp out!”

The stars distorted as the ship jumped. It would be a little while later before she could make a full assessment of the damage and what happened.