Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Telgros Starbase; June 24th 003 SDE, 1314 hours:

The room shook as the commander stepped into the command center with one boot still in her hands for it had stubbornly refused to fit on her foot today. Sometimes she wondered if the Wovnar had the right idea about walking around naked. It was certainly easier than struggling with this damn uniform every day. Shaking the thoughts aside as the floor rocked beneath her again, she barked, “Report!”

“We are under attack!”

“I know that much! By who, how many, what damage have they done, has anyone even charged the pulse cannons?”

“Defense batteries one and two have been destroyed, both lower hanger decks have been hit, we have lost shields for sections A-23 through G-47. The cruiser Cali’s Treasure was torpedoed in her slip, she has lost all power and was forced to dump her antimatter reserve to prevent loss of containment. As for the other two cruisers, the Pride of Terimai is preparing to launch but is under heavy fire while the Dawn’s Jewel was torpedoed two minutes after she left her slip as scheduled for anti pirate patrol. She has taken heavy damage, but did manage to get her shields up.”

The floor rocked again, and someone shouted, “We just lost defense battery number four!”

As she drew closer to the tac plot, she noted that down but didn’t know what to say. Not yet, she was still trying to get up to speed on her current situation. By now it was obvious that someone had snuck up on the base without being detected. “Get reinforcements from Telgros, we need fighter cover,” she ordered, having made that determination based on what she saw on the plot.”

“We can’t, they are being hit by alien fighter craft as well.”

She mentally cursed as she turned to the screens just in time to watch an alien fighter start strafing the stricken cruiser Cali’s Treasure. Without shields, the heavy energy bolts tore into the hull like it was little more than wet tissue paper. Compartments ruptured with explosive force with each blast, as charred equipment and broken bodies were blown out into space. Nearby one of the defense batteries rotated and opened fire on the fighter with a mix of plasma pulses and short-range plasma missiles. Several missiles slammed into a weird grid-like shield of red energy that just appeared moments before impact, while the pulses harmlessly sailed into space.

The fighter came about with grace and agility, her forward ports glowed and large blue bolts sailed from her. The floor rocked, as they hit the defense battery, the local shield flaring uselessly. “Defense battery 14 destroyed!”

Again she cursed, this wasn’t good. They were under heavy attack by multiple enemy fighters and the shield grid wasn’t helping. Worse, the attack had already hit the hangers. Her mind raced as it recalled their defenses, they had 34 defense batteries and four heavier anti-ship batteries. The defense batteries were weapon pods mounted on pylons for maximum weapons coverage. Each pod had half a dozen type twenty-six light pulse cannons which took advantage of a starbase power plant to maintain a rapid rate of fire, with a yield and range comparably higher than standard light pulse cannons. They were effective against most smaller vessels including frigates, corvettes, and fighters.

In addition to the cannons, were eight type fourteen plasma missile projectors, which fired tracking plasma rounds that could home in on most fast craft at ranges up to five hundred thousand kilometers. Again thanks to the advantages of a starbase power plant allowing for the creation of a highly stable and contained plasma projectile. Again they were intended for use against lighter vessels.

For use against capital ships, she had the four anti-ship batteries, each mounted on the end of one of the four main docking arms, near the cruiser class docking slips. Those batteries consisted of one hundred and twenty type five heavy pulse cannons, forty Class XII plasma torpedo projectors and one Concussion Shock Cannon, often just called concussion cannons. The spatial flux pulse they fired produced a massive kinetic shockwave that could rip ships apart, making them very powerful if power-hungry anti-ship weapons. They were also bulky, which is why she had so few, half the projector assembly ran the length of the docking arms. Those four cannons were also her main defense against heavy capital ships. However, the plasma torps were also very effective against cruiser-class ships and above.

From the sound of it the big guns hadn’t been hit yet, they had lost fighter capability, several defense batteries and the ships in port were being peppered with particle bolts and torpedoes. She turned, “You said the lower hangers were hit? How bad was it? Can we launch any fighters?”

The woman who reported shook her head, “No, the bays were hit with over a dozen photon bombs and torpedoes. The doors were blown open into space, we don’t know if anything or anyone survived.”

She cursed as she turned to communications, “Send out a broadband distress call to any ships in...”

The communications officer frowned, “We are receiving a communique from fleet command, warning us to be on alert for Menace ships.”

The timing was so absurd that she couldn’t help herself, the station commander started laughing. “A little late, I think they are currently,” she glanced at the display just as the floor shook, “um, blowing up defense battery seventeen.”

Taking a breath, she composed herself, “Tell fleet command that I am not impressed and demand immediate reinforcement.”

“Aye, sir.” came the reply as the floor shook again, this time far more violently. She blinked and turned to engineering.

Her mouth opened but she was getting a report before she could even finish her first word.

“Main Docking Arm Beta has been destroyed, and the cruiser Cali’s Treasure is gone.”

She glanced at the screens where she could see the broken remains of the arm, with it destroyed they had lost several defense batteries, a shield generator and one of their four main anti-ship batteries. Quietly she inquired, “Shield status?”

“I’m reading significant fluctuations in the main shields, grid strength is down sixty-eight percent, gaps are forming in sections...”

Just then someone reported, “Sir I am detecting another ship.”

She turned just in time to see a Menace Destroyer on the screens. Her beam array fired, lancing the stricken Dawn’s Jewel, her shields flared but failed to stop the beam. The concentrated particles burned through the hull in seconds, sections ruptured and the shields flickered before failing. The moment they did, the beam erupted from the other side of the ship as she carved deep into the vessel, slowly passing a line from bow to stern as the destroyer flew past.

Escape pods started launching into space, she glanced at her officers, but there wasn’t anything they could do. No guns could fire in that quadrant, they had no fighters in the air and their defenses were in shambles. Helpless, they could only watch as the Dawn’s Jewel was cut in half by an alien beam weapon. The sight merely confirmed something she had already suspected, this was merely the start to something bigger. In the next moment the Destroyer turned its terrible weapon on the station. Just as a number of alien fighters started unleashing their payloads on Main Docking Arm Gamma. The station shuddered, alarms blared, and the arm came apart, while Alpha was lacerated from the far end, to the point it connected to the station core in a matter of seconds. Explosions rippled across the length of the arm as systems failed. Several blue bursts lit the alien hull as torpedoes sailed from the destroyer in the same moment hitting the last cruiser just as she was finally pulling away from the station. In an instant the Pride of Terimai was gone with all hands.

A lump formed in her throat as someone told her, “Shields are down.”

The station shuddered as alien bombs slammed into the last docking arm, nearby the engineering panel blinked red. The defense pods were shattered, the docking arms destroyed, the hangers blown open. It was then that a much larger alien ship came into view, her hangers open as small craft swarmed out of the bays, while others began to return. It was the so far unseen carrier, not that she could do anything about it. She had no weapons, shields were down, fighter craft gone and reinforcements were nowhere to be seen. The commander didn’t even know what she could have done better. Glancing at the clock it read, 2221 hours. 21 minutes had passed since the alarms woke her up in her bed. Slumping into her chair, she thumbed a button. A recording began to play, new alarms blared but she made no move to leave her command center. Her life was over. Someone tried to pull her out of her seat, but gave up a minute later and ran for the escape pods.

Telgros; 1322 hours Enterprise time, local time: 2222 hours; Airbase Hesa:

The pilot cursed as her ejection system engaged. They had managed to get into the air despite the damage to the base, but these alien fighters were something else. There were only a couple of them here, most of the attackers were in those combat shuttles bombing the base. Yet even those weren’t easy to deal with. Worse, she had gone down without a single air kill, but she hoped she managed to buy some time.

Elsewhere she watched a fighter carreen into the ground and erupt into a small fireball. That was the last thing she saw before her little ejection pod hit the ground. Her seat shook as the damper engaged, keeping her safe as the pod came to a rest. For a moment she just sat there in her pod, trying to work out what went wrong, but she already knew. There were just too many enemies, and they were too well-equipped. Reaching under her seat, she pulled out the survival pack, and a weapon which she promptly holstered on her hip. Taking a breath she pulled the hatch, and climbed out of her ejection pod. Glancing around, she noted that she wasn’t far from the base. Maybe a kilometer south, but from here she could see the flames. Entire sections were nothing but rubble and craters.

For a moment she looked for that hardened hanger she had taken shelter in before getting in a plane. Only to find it wasn’t there anymore. Where it was supposed to be was another crater. Only one thought crossed her mind, did anyone make it out? She looked but didn’t see anything. The base was strangely silent, most of the structures reduced to broken concrete and metal. She was staring at a ruin with only a few buildings left standing, but it didn’t seem they would hold much longer. Several alien shuttles flew over the main shield complex, pounding it with bombs. Already she could see the structure beginning to buckle, while the shield over the base was evidently gone. It was painfully obvious the base was lost.

Shouldering her survival pack, she made her way away from the pod. She couldn’t stay here, with that in mind, she took one last look at the base before walking away from it. Recalling protocols she figured that anyone else who survived would attempt to link up at Rula. It was a smaller garrison town between Hesa and Port Yular. Rula wasn’t just a garrison though, it was also a checkpoint through which goods flowed from the mining towns to the ports. The fact that it sat on the banks of the Uriga River may have had something to do with it. The waters at Rula were calm and gentle, making it easy to build a major bridge there.

It occurred to her that the aliens might try to take the bridge. There were tactical and strategic benefits to holding the bridge. Which gave her all the more reason to get there quickly. Everyone would be needed to help.