Jump to content

Sol Invictus (Sci-Fi Spaceship Combat)


Kerbal22

Recommended Posts

WORK. IN. PROGRESS

 

 

The year is 2120, Humanity has reached for the stars, massive fleets now rule the trade-lanes and all is well.

Or not.

In reality, that's what your Earth Hegemony information tablet provides, but that's all propaganda to keep control over the masses..

Welcome, to the first fall of man.

Will you survive? Will you eek out a existance on some asteriod? Or muster the bravery required to captain your own ship and make a name for yourself? Will you fight, and go out like a supernova? Or hide, and die a coward?

The choice is

YOUR choice, and YOUR choice alone.

 

Welcome to Sol Invictus, folks. Where the galaxy is yours to voyage, or die in, either one. In this RP, you will Trade, Fight, die, Run, or all of the above. You will design a space-ship and each action taken shall be calcuated by myself using various methods.

All terms on your ship MUST be realistic, such as movement speed in meters/second (m/s) or the energy yield of weapons in joules or megajoules, things like that.

Example design:

Human Battlecruiser, ESN AAC-CVN1-22 "Foe Hammer"

L-H-W

120m 88m 56m

Engines are specified as high impulse low-thrust Ion drives with advanced manuvering capabiltiies, relies on 24 manuvering pods located around the ship.

Inter-planetary engines are CAR-V1 Fusion Engines using fusion reactors not suitable for power production.

The ship is equipted with Mass-Canceling fields for FTL travel between systems, able to reach a theroretical 55x SoL rating.

Ship is equipted with heavy Titanium internal armor, 5m thick around the hulling and crew sections. Armor is rated as 7m thick Titanium-Iridum Alloy, coated with energy-dissipating spray.

She is armed with 24 double-rail railguns and eight quad heavy railguns armed with Radiological, Hull-Penetrating, Explosive, and normal slug rounds.

She is also armed with eight guided torpedoes, current stores at 128 conventional and 38 nuclear.

She has 16 rotating missile launchers that are able to move around the hull via tracks, reload time is 40 seconds per salvo on each podule. Missiles are guided and non-nuclear.

She is fitted with several powerful anti-energy shield ion guns which are perfect for disabling energy weaponry aswell, but do no damage to hulling.

She has a complement of eight "Tornado" fighter-bombers, each carrying nine interceptor missiles, 88mm autocannons and 2 nuclear bombs, unguided.

The ship has heavy, omni-directional energy shielding with the downside that she is unable to fire with her shields up.

She is powered via eight Anti-matter reactors and a single ZPM module for the shielding.

She has a crew of 120 men and women, all human.

Her sensor suite can target ships upto 1 million kilometers away.

She has inbuilt damage control bots and machine shops, able to replace anything on the ship.


All special features must be approved by me or your actions will not be counted, and you will be ejected from the RP.

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
  • Replies 121
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Brahman, smuggler craft, retrofitted Sparrow-class long-distance scout

Length: 24 meters / Height: 10 meters / Width: 13 meters

She is fitted with a miniature mass-cancelling field generator, which serves as the main source of propulsion and can accelerate the ship to approximately 33% of the speed of light at full power. Small ancillary thrusters near the bow and stern allow for precision maneuvers to be performed at normal cruising speeds.

She is lightly armored, featuring the layered composite armor of land battle tanks of the early 21st century. Her hull is only 6 inches thick, with no interior armor. Between the armor and hull is a 10 mm thick ceramic heat shield. While the armor, heat shield and hull would be enough to protect it against light munitions and anti-aircraft guns, it would do little against dedicated anti-ship weapons and torpedoes.

She also has little in the way of weaponry.A single point-defense laser array on an axial mount serves as an anti-fighter weapon. However, the pair of mass drivers on either side of the ship have been modified to fire guided hull piercing anti-ship torpedoes that deliver shaped charges, and 20 kg ferrous slugs at 0.8% the speed of light, if a significant amount of power is diverted to them. There are currently 15 HPAS torpedoes and 17 ferrous slugs in storage. Reloading of the mass drivers is manual.

She has light shields that surround her entirely, and can absorb the impact of kinetic projectiles or energy weapons several times in succession before overloading. The shields, however, are a significant drain on power.

She is equipped with a full advanced stealth suite, which can cloak the ship from IR sensors, long distance radar and combat sensors, and optical targeting. The stealth suite, however, is an extremely heavy drain on power.

She is powered by a single hybrid fusion power plant that provides just enough power to operate lighting, console displays, and background runtimes. However, most of the ship's main systems are significant drains on power, and the reactor is not suited to handle the load required to keep them all operational at the same time.

She has a human crew of 6, though crew quarters are small, as most of the ship's interior space is either dedicated to housing the main systems or whatever illegal cargo she is carrying at the time.

Edited by Guest
Link to comment

Human Biocraft

Acetes

L-H-W

110m 70m 43m

Engines consist of a variant of the mass cancelling field, allowing the craft to exert gravitational stress on itself and objects around it, pulling it around in space, while keeping a steady one gee force on the inner workings. This allows the craft to move at nearly the same speed as a fusion engine, without the radiation output; while still being able to manoeuvre in small areas.

The ship has a hard chitin-like outer shell, equivalent of a meter of titanium-iridium armour around all sections, with greater tensile strength against solid slugs; but significant weakness to hard radiation.

It is armed with two single-rail rail guns, as well as a handful of non-nuclear missiles for defensive action; relying mainly on it's agility in combat.

It carries one inter-orbital ion space plane; graded for 1.5 gee gravitational fields and lower.

It has a light, omni-directional energy shield, which it cannot fire through.

It is powered by two enclosed fusion generators, as well as the ability to consume asteroid matter and absorb solar wind and radiation to support ship growth.

It has a crew of 30 men and woman, supported by basic organic drones.

It's sensor suite is supported by an inbuilt spatial sense, allowing it to detect ships up to three million kilometres away, and judge their mass to a reasonable accuracy.

It has the ability to manufacture basic organic drones, to perform tasks that are too dangerous for crew members.

The ship is highly sentient, thinking on the same level as a mid-grade AI.

Edited by Guest
Link to comment

((I have no idea of the tech-level or lory-stuffs, so this is subject to change.))


Orpheus, Human Intelligencer Carrier

Length: 79 Meters, Height: 12 Meters, Width: 10

Orpheus makes use of a series of eight(8) solar thermal thrusters for maneuvering, placed at the ends of it's multipurpose spires. For longer periods of acceleration, it makes use of Solar sails. Orpheus lacks an internal method of reaching FTL speeds.

Orpheus is designed as a single cylindrical module at it's center, that contains it's Control( and data analysis), Habitation, and Power Generation subsystems. From this module extend eight(8) multipurpose spires. The core of these spires consists of a malleable interconnected series of connection nodes. These nodes relay necessary resources from the external modules and subsytems, as well as data to and from the core module. Along the exterior of the multipurpose spires are several dozen manipulators and exposed ports of the connection nodes. Separate from the core ship are several external modules and subsystems. These systems are attached and removed as necessary from the core Orpheus system. Among these include; One(1) 57 meter railgun (requires some assembly, used for long-range drone deployment), Four(4) seperate solar sail segments, Two(2) industrial heatsinks, Twelve(12) Fabrication Modules of various utility, Two (2) long-range communications arrays, Twenty One(21) Electronic Combat Modules, One(1) Medical Module, and Eight(8) Maintance/Salvage Subsystems. When not in use, these modules are attached to the inner facing sides of the multipurpose spires.

Orpheus's systems allow it to field a upper limit of Six(6) Micro-Intelligencer Drone Squads at a time. These Intelligencer dones vary in size between a 2mm to 93nm, depending on their purpose and pattern. Smaller squads require at least one(1) control drone to relay commands and data back to the Orpheus. Orpheus is capable of fielding several other drone systems, including long-distance networking combat drones, which are designed to draw on collective battle data and computational ability in order to act intelligently without assistance from the Orpheus core systems.

Orpheus holds a crew of 18, with a capacity to support 25.


((This good?))

Edited by Guest
Link to comment

The Red Winter - Terran Heavy Battlecruiser


Alignment: Independent Mercenary Ship.


Armaments: Port and Starboard fighter bays, housing a total of 20(10 per bay) HORNET automated drone fighters. On the front and back sides of the ship, around each vital system, is a point-defense turret system, consisting of 20mm Automated Turrets. Each drone and turret is capable of being manually overridden from the bridge in a Drone Control point. The Bridge, situated at the fore of the ship, is seemingly unprotected, being completely visible in an old-school style front viewport. The Bridge actually is protected by an advanced shield system that is heavier in the area around the bridge.


The Ship has two front cannons, capable of punching a hole straight through any un-shielded ship. The ships fire depleted uranium shells, that accelerate to a speed that is near untraceable with automated defenses. The ship is also armed with various side missile pods that are able to aimed and fired via a Missile Control port on the bridge.


In the hangars, there are two large, spear shaped ships. These are the boarding ships. They are fast, light, and very durable. They are unshielded, and are able to be destroyed, but are also able to pierce through hull in order to deliver troops to the interior of a hostile ship.


Crew: The ship is mostly comprised of ex-militia from crushed rebellions, or Mercenaries from the seedy underbellies of population centers. Their jobs range from chef, and janitors, to boarding Marines, and Drone pilots. The Captain is a former governor of a rebellion that abandoned his colony to save his own skin. He is a wanted criminal, as his most of his ship.


Engine: The Engine is a very unstable FTL Drive, capable of miscalculations, or complete and utter failure. The ship is powered by solar panels that can fold inward during a heated battle. The panels reside on each side of the ship, and will point towards any solar light source that they can. The ship cannot turn very well, and has to drive forward into order to turn any direction.


INTERESTING FACT: This ship is able to be hired. If given adequate resources, or a reason to side with you, they will betray whomever they may fight for at the moment, and fight for you. Their only loyalty is money.



-WIP FOR NOW-

Link to comment

Story time!

The year is 2140, and everything is well in the GLORIOUS Terran Hegemony.

Or so we think.

In reality, the Hegemony is falling apart. Worlds rebel every day, rebellions are put down daily by the massive cruisers controlled by mind-implanted Hegemony troops, keeping them (safely) under Hegemony control. Unfortunately, the constant rebellions and the general cost of running an empire is stretching the Hegemony's resources quite thin, leaving most sectors (read: non-core sectors) lawless and without support for months at a time.

Warlords and pirates reign supreme, despite the attempts to keep them from rising up, entire systems have been taken over, and while there are not shortages of them, the Hegemony likes to keep control over assets they have put billions of Terran credits into.

And so, on the day the Terran Hegemony Privateer Act was announced by the Grand Senate, and shortly then passed with no votes against it, the Hegemony began to commission privateers, to act as a form of navy. Vessels of all kind, from retrofitted cargo ships, to small frigates joined the fleet, simply because it paid quite well.


Unfortunately, you and your crew have gotten on the bad side of this navy in the local system (read: Tau Eta)

So, you're wanted criminals, yes. But despite being wanted by the navy, there are still plenty of routes for you to take and earn a fortune from. Rarely, you'll have a chance to FTL to another system, via the system's warp gate(s).

Due to the nature of Warp travel, information is destroyed while traveling through them, at-least, electromagnetic waves are distorted heavily, meaning that communications between systems are rare and expensive, due to the nature of Quantum Entanglement technology, and it requires several weeks for the messages to arrive to each system.

Civilian grade FTL systems are uncommon, having a low-grade mass canceling field makes you a prized target for pirates.


The ultimate goal?

Survive. Live. Thrive.

Link to comment

The Acetes clung invisibly to an asteroid as it slowly revolved to face into the system; a flurry of ships spun in between the orbits of the fourth and fifth planets, short laser bursts and the crackle of shields brightening up the vacuum. Acetes sank lower to the rock, slinking into one of the larger craters and settling itself just above the surface, it's sensors directed towards the battle.


Inside, the crew compartment was dark and chilly, the power shut down to reduce the thermal signature of the small craft. The captain, Aesen Moore, focused her attention on the images that Acetes projected into her brain. "Pirates? Is the Navy coping?"

The response was quick, with faint traces of amusement, Yes, they are doing fine; the pirates are overmatched.

Aesen nodded to herself, "How is the cargo? You had to do some significant maneuvers to lose those pirates, was there any damage?"

Several of the cases have split, though the colony supplies have primarily stayed within them, redirecting a servitor now.

"Good, good..." Aesen let her mind wander, running a short systems diagnostic while Acetes controlled the servitor. "We still have most of our energy too... At least there is that."

Edited by Guest
Link to comment

Foe Hammer hung in space for a moment as it approached the battle outside the asteroid. The fury of the battle, lasers, railguns, and missiles being exchanged, and for a moment, space itself seemed to be on fire as a Hegemony frigate went up in flames of plasma and death.

"Captain, the Andromeda is down. We're picking up lifepods." The captain of Foe Hammer, Captain Rose Zephyr, nodded. "Dispatch recovery craft, provide covering fire, open a channel to the pirates."

"Channel open, Sir."

Captain Zephyr paused for a moment before speaking.

"Attention pirates, You are to stand down and prepare to be boarded."

A chorus of replies from the pirates come in, mostly telling her to put various objects into her rectum.

"Close the channel, fire at will, Tactical."

Space itself seemed to collapse in upon itself as a fury of projectiles reached out from Foe Hammer and smashed into the Pirate flotilla, reaving hulls and crews apart in the scant few moments, flashes from the Foe Hammer's rail-cannons, vapor trails from missiles, and massive plumes of fire from torpedoes, creating something of a laser-show as Ion lasers flickered out from the ship and disabled shielding, within minutes, the battle was over.

Foe Hammer crawled away, slowly, but surely. The cruiser represented the sheer power the Hegaemony held, it was one of twelve. Just one could annihilate a small asteroid sixteen times over.

Link to comment

Aesen, one of the navy vessels has been destroyed, I can see a large number of escape pods in the area, some are coming towards us. The cruiser, Foe Hammer has sent out rescue craft, we may be seen.

Aesen chewed her lip, inspecting the scene, "Can we redirect the pods? Or, failing that, can we get out of here?"

It took a moment for Acetes to respond, At their current trajectories, the rescue craft and pods will reach us in less than five minutes, the rescue craft have high level sensor arrays, they would have a high chance of detecting us, even if we remain still.

"Shit... Shit shit shit... Acetes detach from the asteroid, bring us up to full power, we need our communications online, and reach out to some of the pods with your field, see if you can stabilise or slow them somehow; they mightn't shoot us if we help them with their survivors."

The lights flicker shortly after the familiar rumble of the fusion cores, as soon as the communication console lit up, Aesen's second, Rede Calvert opened a common radio band, "This is the ship Acetes , do not shoot, I repeat, do not shoot, we are trying to help."

Aesen looked through Acetes' sensors, watching the closest pods slow down, their velocities and spins reducing.

Link to comment

Foe Hammer's captain watched impassively as the wreck of the Andromeda floated by, still burning from the wounds she had sustained during the brief battle. Hegemony frigates were strong, but not invincible. Foe Hammer had slowed and stopped and commenced SAR operations, and attempted to salvage the wreck of the Andromeda, and suddenly the bioship lights up on their sensors. A tremor of panic grips Zephyr, a memory from the A-31 conflict flashing to her mind. So many dead because of rouge bioships...

"Hail that ship."

"Channel open."

"This is Captain Zephyr of the Foe Hammer. You are to leave the pods alone or be destroyed. Leave, now, bioship."

"Close the channel, lock quads on them. If it tries anything, fill them with radiological shells."

"Aye aye, Captain."

Shortly after she gave the order, Foe Hammer's eight quad railguns rotated and targeted the Acetes, but not firing.

Link to comment

Rede swore quietly under his breath, "Captain, they want us gone. Now."

Aesen nodded, pressing a finger to her temple as she merged with Acetes, accessing the communication network. This is Captain Aesen of the Acetes; we are vacating the area, we didn't intend to be caught up in this savagery, nor do we intend to continue it. We will cease our operation to assist you.

Immediately, Acetes's forward thrust was reversed, and it flipped over, heading quickly away from the inner planets; it's dark outline merging almost seamlessly with the void behind it.

As a final note, Captain, not all of us agreed with A-31. With that final transmission, Aesen withdrew from the radio contact.

Link to comment

95,000 kilometers above the surface of the planet, the Brahman waited in orbit silently. The ship's stealth suite was running interference on the sensors of any ships that would have happened to be nearby, essentially rendering it invisible. The optical cloaking system, however, had been deactivated. The crew of the ship wanted to be found... but not by just anyone.


The bridge of the Brahman was cramped and dark. Cira Mavis, the first mate, paced back and forth, her boots thumping hollowly on the metal floor. "Where are they?" she asked, irritation leaking into her voice. "Twelve minutes. They're twelve minutes late."

"Calm down, Cira," said Captain Avery Foller.

"Maybe it's a trap."

"I said calm down. A few minutes never killed anybody."

"Like hell. Lots of people have died because of a few minutes. We should get out of here while we still-"

"Sig comin' up!" shouted a voice down the hall. Rene Sevchenko, the communications officer, leaned out from his alcove. "Ain't de hegemoons. Looks like our man, cap'n."

"Open up a direct link."

"Aye, cap'n." In the next moment, the holotransmitter jumped to life, and a blue holographic cube representing the captain of the other ship appeared. The voice that came through was artificially garbled.

"Traveller, why must you be led by hand into Damascus?"

"It is because the Lord appeared before me, and I was made blind."

"Hello, Captain Foller. I apologize for the tardiness. We had a small delay."

"Do you have the payment?"

"Yes. Half up front. Half upon delivery of the cargo. Is your man in place to receive it?"


Inside the airlock, Simon Havelock locked the helmet of his space suit into place. He tapped on his wrist communicator so that it interfaced with his helmet. "I'm in place, captain. Ready to open up." Tapping a few buttons on the wall console, the air drained from the small chamber, and the exterior door slid open. His magboots keeping him firmly attached to the floor, Simon took several heavy steps forward and leaned his head out of the opening. He watched as the client's ship pulled up alongside, only a few meters away, and aligned its own airlock with that of the Brahman. On the other side, he could see someone standing in it like he was, only they were holding a pair of small crates under their arms. The figure gestured for Simon to be ready to catch the packages, before gently pushing them into the void. Slowly, slowly they floated over to him, and Simon caught them one at a time in quick succession. "Cargo and payment are secure, captain." Simon turned and tapped on the wall console again. The airlock doors slid shut and the air hissed back in.


"It looks like our business is concluded here. Delivery of the package will be in two cycles' time."

"Understood. Do not be late." The connection abruptly terminated, and the other ship pulled away. A moment of silence passed over the crew.

"I hate all these shady contracts we've been taking lately, Ave," said Cira suddenly.

"That's captain to you, Cira."

She scowled at him. "Just because Vin died and left you in charge, doesn't mean you get to act all high and mighty all of a sudden."

"This is not the time to bring this up. Go down to the cargo bay and check on the package." Avery turned to the pilot, Jack Cooper, who had been sitting in his seat silently the entire time. "Cooper, set course for the Eta warp gate. Make sure that we're not seen."

"Aye, captain."


Cira muttered to herself as she made her way down the hall. Avery had taken Vinnie's death hard, but it didn't give him the right to be an asshole. And if he had a death wish, he certainly didn't have the right to bring them all with him. Coming to a ladder and hatch, she descended into the ship's second level, where the crew quarters and cargo hold were located. She came upon the cargo bay, where Simon and Maria Vespecci, who were the ship's engineers, were standing over the two crates, talking about something as she approached.


"Half a million creds, to keep the entire hold empty... just to house one crate? I tell you, something is strange about this thing."

"So you've noticed?" asked Cira as she came up behind them.

Simon turned around. "It's hard not to notice. Usually we're stuffed up full of weapons and drugs, and... it just feels empty."

"At this point," said Maria, "I no longer question what we've got in the hold. It's probably best not to know."

"Not even curious as to what's inside?"

"Let me put it this way. If you think it's something so horrible, you can be the first to try and pry it open."

Edited by Guest
Link to comment

All was not well, 95,000 kilometers from the rocky, barren world known as Darun. A Anti-Smuggling operation had been searching for a prize, and oh had they found it. They were spec-ops. Top of the line. Everything they had was the best of the best, at-least, inside the Hegemony. Before the Brahman knew it had been detected, several high-grade police corvettes were powering towards the ship, paying zero attention to stealth. They're closing at 4,500m/s, and a shot flies past the Brahman and explodes not but 100 meters away, those police craft are shooting to kill.

Before the police craft know it however, Foe Hammer enters orbit of Darun. Those are not police forces as it seems. They're pirates. Very, very rich pirates. They belong to the Zulu Consortium, one of the more prominent pirate gangs in the Tau Eta system.

Foe Hammer's fighter-bombers deploy, going after the police corvettes and totally ignoring the Brahman

"Attention Brahman, this is the Captain of Foe Hammer, Captain Zephyr. If you think your activities are unknown, think again. Now, You can either face charges, and be killed. Or, you can do a special, abeit dangerous mission for us. Don't think about running. We're bigger, meaner, and faster than you."

Just as the Captain says that, there are numerous target locks onto the Brahman, but no fire.

Link to comment

"Damn it! I knew it was a trap!" Cira tapped her communicator with some force. "Ave, I fucking told you-"

"Shut up, Cira. I already know. This wasn't unexpected."

Simon was panicking. "What the hell does he mean, not unexpected? The goddamn Hegemony is on our ass!"

Maria grabbed him by the arm forcefully and dragged him with her. "Don't lose your shit now, Simon. Let's get to the mass drivers."

"Ave, you better have a good fucking reason for being so calm," said Cira through gritted teeth.

"Open it."

"What?"

"Open up the crate, and you will see. The code is 553629."

Cursing under her breath, she input the code into the crate's keypad. There was a hiss as it unsealed, and Cira flung the cover open. Her jaw dropped.

"Holy shit..."


Avery sat in his chair, smirking wryly at the Hegemon's pathetic display of force. "Ren, send a wide-band signal to our guests outside."

"Aye, cap'n, readyin't up fer ya."

Avery leaned forward in his chair and activated his holotransmitter, speaking into it. "Greetings to you, representatives of the Zulu Consortium, and Captain Zephyr of the Hegemony. I am Captain Foller of this ship. And I'm going to tell you that I don't give a rat's ass about your offer. You obviously don't have the full picture, or you would have not decided to come in guns blazing. You have no idea what we're carrying, do you?"

While Avery spoke, Jack turned the ship to face the Foe Hammer head-on, aligning the mass drivers with the hulking mass of the Hegemon ship.


Down in the cargo hold, Cira finally came to her senses. "Avery... is this... what I think it is?"

"It is. Now scan it, and send it to Ren."

"We're fucked, aren't we..."

"Not if you scan the goddamn thing and send it up to Ren. Now do it."

Cira did as she was told, scanning the contents of the crate with her wrist communicator. Ren then proceeded broadcast the scan results to the Foe Hammer.


The specifications for an AMX-35-PA warhead are transferred at the speed of light to the data suites of the pirate vessels and the Foe Hammer. An antimatter weapon, designed to utterly destroy rebellious colonies, and ruin their biospheres for eons to come with massive amounts of residual radiation. A Peacemaker prototype, one of only 3 ever created. One that happened to have been stolen several weeks ago from a Terran Hegemony weapons development facility in orbit around Altair.


"Be mindful of your next actions, Captain Zephyr. They could be your last."

"You've lost your goddamn mind, Avery," hissed Jack as to not be overheard.

"Shut up, Jack. As for the rest of you, you are going to do exactly what I say. If not, then the resultant explosion and waves of gamma radiation will be enough to ensure that both you, and the good people of Darun below us, are going to have a very bad day."

Link to comment

Zephyr's eyes widened, but she them smiled. A anti-matter warhead? One of the few that had been stolen? In Sol, they were common..out here, not so much. This was not expected at all. She sighs quietly.

"You understand that before you can detonate that we'll have you trapped in our FTL fields, correct? Directing the blast out, harmlessly, into space?"

She smiles, letting that sink in. The planet wasn't her concern. The Antimatter nuke was. Fortunately, it wasn't exactly top priority, Foe Hammer's safety was. She was due for a refit with a militarized spinal rail-gun..meant for cracking asteroids, but it could crack small moons in half.

"So, you see, if you detonate that nuke, the planet, and everyone on it will be fine. So will Foe Hammer. You, however, will not. Now, you can safe that AM nuke, and hear me out, or die for nothing. You didn't even hear the last part of my offer, did you? You would be paid."

She sighs quietly, and with a flick of her wrist, all eight fighter-bombers are upon the Brahman, circling it like vultures would a dying animal..

Of course, the captain was lying. Her FTL fields couldn't enclose the Brahman at this range. Nor would Foe Hammer survive. Or anything else within a light year. That wasn't just any Peacemaker. That was a Ripper Type Collapsed Antimatter warhead. A very insult to Einstein himself.

Link to comment

"Acetes, see if you can find an asteroid or something, our reserves are low, I can feel your hunger." Aesen said, running her hand through her hair as she walked into the crew toroid; her visit to the cargo hold had been hopeful, at least, the damage to the supplies had been minor, now they just had to figure out how to deliver it, and remain intact.


Maybe a half-dozen of the crew were in the toroid, the rest were pulling double shifts to keep everything running. Immediately, she was accosted by Davis Stow, the systems generalist; Acetes had picked him up as a newblood shortly before the A-31 conflict, and now he was stuck with them, much to his displeasure. " Captain" He began, sneering the title like an insult, "When do you intend to bring us into port? I can only eat so much nutrient paste, no matter how much this ship waxes on about it's nutritional value. I haven't had a decent wash or rest for months and soon things might get... Unpleasant."

I have been told on multiple occasions that my nutrient paste tastes like piss with cornflour mixed in. It is quite funny, really.

The crew toroid was silent for a long moment as Aesen stared down at Stow, "I am going to assume that this unpleasantness is your gastrointestinal distress, not some form of mutiny; as Acetes answers to me, and only me. Mind-mated for life, me and a hundred metre long, coral armoured beastie. So unless you want to be breathing hard vacuum, you will forget this, is that clear?"

Davis glared at her, then turned and stalked out of the toroid.

One hundred and ten metres.

"I know, love, I know."

Link to comment

Avery tilted his head slightly. "Captain Zephyr, while I may not be the smartest man in the galaxy, I can certainly tell when someone is lying to me. Even if you avoided damage from the blast, the gamma radiation would certainly cook you and your crew to a fine crisp." At this point, Avery only knew that the AM warhead was a powerful weapon, enough to ensure that the captain of the Foe Hammer wouldn't open fire at such a close distance. He didn't fully realize just how destructive the prototype was.

"Now, I am not unreasonable. I will hear out your offer. But on my terms. Call off your bombers, and take your weapon locks off my ship."


Down below in the cargo bay, Cira resealed the crate with trembling hands.

"He's gone mad... a goddamn nuke... we're carrying a goddamn nuke... he's going to get us all killed..."

Link to comment

Captain Zephyr stared hard at the man on her holoscreen, anger on her features. Would she really tell him what he was carrying? The only way was to vent his hold, she could track the rad tracer on the Ripper prototype. It was in what appeared to be a cargo hold. She sighs quietly, hovering her finger over the button to systematically annihilate the smuggling ship with railgun rounds. Just a push of a button away. She glances off screen for a moment, looking at her crew. Her family.

"You really don't realize what you're carrying, do you?"

"What you have in your hold isn't just an Anti-matter nuke. It is a Ripper Collapsed Antimatter Warhead. And if you detonate it, you know what it will do?"

"It will kill everything from here, to Sol. One hundred and eighty light-years of destruction. Billions dead. That, is why i advise you hand that nuke over to Foe Hammer. Hell, i'l even pay you for it. One billion credits."

She sighs, resting her face in her hand for a moment. Tough choices. Command would give her hell for this, but she would save lives. Billions.

Link to comment

Avery began to chuckle. "Once again, Captain, do you take me to be a stupid man? Why would I give you my only bargaining chip, especially since you now seem more afraid of it than before?" Smiling, he shook his head.

"You care for your crew, don't you, Zephyr? If you do, here is what's going to happen. You are going to call off your bombers. You are going to shut down your weapons systems. And then you are going to jump away. Brute force isn't going to work for you in this situation. The only thing that will save you is walking away."


At that moment, every crew member aboard the Brahmen realized that Avery had gone insane. But they also realized that their lives rested on his gambit succeeding.


"So what'll it be, Captain Zephyr?"

Link to comment

Zephyr stares for a moment. She had her hands tied. It seemed like she would have to let the damn smuggler get away.

"Damn you. Leave. Go. You're a damn idiot if you don't understand what the fuck you have in your hold when a fucking hegemony captain is telling you."

"Beware if pirates come after you, the Navy won't help your sorry ass."

She cuts the channel with a venomous glare.

"Helm, set course to Durias shipyard, full speed. Comms, alert Durias we're coming in for our retrofit."

Foe Hammer's fusion drives glowed and spouted bursts of fire as her fighters docked again, and soon, there's a bright flash of light as the ship accelerates to FTL, leaving the area as fast as possible.

Link to comment

Avery smirks slightly as the Hegemony ship disappears from the sensors. "That's right, you Hegemon dog. Run away with your tail between your legs."

Cira stormed into the bridge. With a deft movement, she grabbed Avery by his collar and threw him onto the floor. She then placed her knee over his throat. "You son of a bitch. I ought to kill you. You nearly got us all blown to bits." He began to choke and gasp for air, and she pressed down a bit harder. Jack rushed over, and with great effort, pulled Cira off of him.

"Nobody's killing anybody, damn it!"

Avery propped himself up on his elbows and rubbed his throat as Cira struggled against Jack's grip.

"I'm going to fucking kill you, Ave!"

"Shut the fuck up, Cira! I don't want the goddamn bomb on our ship any longer than it needs to be. I saved our asses for now, but if we don't deliver that fucking thing on time, you're going to wish that we'd been vaporized by the Hegemon ship."

Jack stood up with Cira, but still kept a firm grip on her arm in case she lunged for the captain's throat again. "You think this is what Vin would have wanted? You supplying superweapons to terrorists, risking all of our lives just because you have a fucking death wish?"

Avery glared at her with sudden intensity. "Ren. Jack. Secure her in her quarters. She is not to be allowed out for the length of our trip."

Jack and Ren exchanged glances, before taking Cira by the arms and leading her away. "He's right; we have to get that bomb off the Brahmen as soon as possible.""Sorry 'bout this, lass."

"The piece of shit's insane, and you're going to agree with him? He's going to get us all killed!" she shouted, as they dragged her off, kicking and screaming.

"When you get back," Avery called after them, "Redirect power to stealth and engines. We're going to have to go dark if we want to reach the Eta gate without another such encounter."

Avery walked back to his chair and stared out into space. The ZC pirates had since departed, either by being destroyed by the Foe Hammer's fighters, or having run away at the mention of the true nature of the cargo. He lost himself in his musings.

Link to comment

The Cruiser is leaving.

Aesen woke with a start as Acetes spoke in her mind.

There was another confrontation, and then it started heading for the warp gate, several ships were destroyed, others fled, then another one vanished from my sight.

Aesen sat up in her bunk, rubbing the grit from her eyes, "Great... Just great... Are there any other big ship-shaped problems in the system? Or are we finally clear to try and deliver these supplies?"

I can't see anything else, baring a small number of frigates guarding the warp gate. The colony is unguarded.

Aesen felt a small tug as the ship got underway, the acceleration quickly smoothed out by Acetes' distortion field. "This should stop Stow's bitching, though I can't say the idea of throwing him out of an airlock wasn't appealing."

Throwing on a clean jumpsuit, Aesen exited her cabin, heading into the main crew compartment; glancing around, she saw Rede, the communication officer; Inis, the blue-haired biotech specialist; and her weapons manager, Jackob. Rede and Inis were sat dealing some cards, while Jackob was slumped in a chair, head back, mouth open, snoring for all he was worth.

Aesen exchanged short greetings with the two conscious crew members, then headed over to the paste dispenser. she muttered under her breath, "Pancakes, if you can."

I will see what I can do, Aesen.

Aesen pushed a bowl under the dispenser, just as a yellowish slop was disgorged from it; grimacing, Aesen took her bowl to a seat; before eating a spoonful.

It tasted like pancakes... But the texture was that of a thin gruel.

You know I can't change the texture. Acetes said, rather reproachfully.

"I know, doesn't stop me wishing though, does it? You haven't tasted this stuff."

I can taste it as you taste it, and I guarantee you that it tastes better than asteroid.

Aesen laughed out loud, startling Jackob awake, and finished her bowl.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...