Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

September 2nd, 004 SDE:

The fleet commander leaned over her tac plot, she'd received another order from Fleet command and disregarded it. If the menace hadn't been in sight, she might have changed her mind. At the moment, the alien warship was traveling at warp five, and thankfully not warp five point two. Of course she figured the aliens were less afraid of them after the showing they made over that frozen world.

That was information she was still digesting, even after reviewing the recovered combat logs. Sadly they didn't have long to stick around if they wanted to catch the escaping menace warship, so the survivors had been left behind. There had been enough time to drop them a care package though, some orbitally dropped supplies that should help them long enough for a fleet vessel to pick them up. Not to mention, they had a network of tunnels to work with as shelter from the winds.

Her mind however was less on them and more on the menace vessel Enterprise. She tapped the screen near a series of glyphs indicating the tactical position of one of her battlegroups. She was converging multiple groups on the ship, in an attempt to intercept.

That damnable ship was going to sink, or she would die trying. There was no going back, not at this point.

Next to her tac plot, she had a display containing all the intel she had on the ship. Part of her wasn't sure how she was going to bring the beast down though. They had a large supply of stolen deuterium, and the damage they'd taken at New Valoria had since been repaired. In fact the degree of repair was impressive, the dorsal superstructure of the ship had sustained significant damage with multiple turrets destroyed and entire decks opened to space. Yet the alien menace had managed to rebuild all of that and restore the hull plating. Worse, they'd done something to increase the power of their guns.

The fleet commander was already planning the battle, and she knew any ship of destroyer class or smaller wasn't going to last long against that ship. Her beam weapons had a very high particle density that allowed them to punch through weaker shields. That would force her to rely on cruisers whose stronger shields should be able to absorb the beams.

An officer came over, "Ma'am I have the latest storm predictions."

"Anything interesting?"

"All signs indicate a massive wavefront is brewing in this area. I'm also seeing signs that not one, but three local stars are about to go supernova."

"Subspace readings?"

"Turbulent, I think we can expect a Class 12 or higher storm within the next twelve hours, possibly sooner."

The ship shook, and she looked to her helm, "What was that!?"

"Spatial eddy, subspace turbulence is causing spatial anomalies in this sector."

She glanced at the tac plot and blinked. The alien menace were slowing down and then suddenly they just dropped to sublight with almost no warning. Someone reported, "The menace warship has dropped out of warp."

Then engineering reported, "Sir warp field stability is dropping rapidly."

Helm looked up, "I'm losing speed, warp four, warp three...."

"All hands, battlestations, engineering, what's jamming us? Is it them?"

"Negative! The star! It's putting out a massive interference wave."

She glanced at the star on screen, but her gaze also caught the menace vessel moving away at high sublight speeds. "Intercept course, all vessels." Then she turned to one of her officers, "Any idea why the star..."

"Sensors indicate it's highly unstable, the computer is estimating that the Feros star will go supernova in the next eight hours, possibly sooner."

The commander blinked as she digested that. There was a plasma storm on the way, warp drive was inoperable, and the local star was about to go supernova. This sounded like a wonderful turn of events. Actually, wait, this really was, she just had to keep that damn ship from escaping and then getting out before the storms got her. A smile graced her lips, a new plan in mind.

Red lights flashed, the ship shook, and alarms blared, as an announcement followed. Sali sighed and turned to Reia. The girls had gotten together for some fun during off hours, but it seemed things weren't going to be so fun. Reia let out a breath, "I'll see you back to your cell. Hopefully, this blows over soon."

Sali frowned but followed the other girl out of the room. She might have spent a lot of time in a cell, but she did learn things by talking with her coworkers at the factory, and more recently the farms. The Valorian navy had chased and engaged them on more than one occasion. It seemed clear to her that they were going to face more attacks of this nature.

Rushing into the dimly lit corridor, she found a din of activity. Crewmen and civilians rushed in both directions, as the red lights ominously glowed. The deck plating beneath her shook, reminding her they were under fire, as she moved into the crowded passage. Like them, she also had somewhere to be, they all had places to be during a combat action.

Reia grabbed her hand, and gripped it tightly as the pair of them weaved through the throngs of people and made it to the lift. Stepping inside they found it already packed with people, but added their destination to the list as well. Just moments before the doors silently closed and the lift sprang into action.

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Sali gripped the rail when the thing rocked, but no one else seemed to worry too much. Still she had the feeling they were in the thick of the battle by now, especially now that the ship was really shaking.

The lift opened, and several people got off. Rushing to stations, as the corridor rocked more. "Feels like we are getting pounded."

"Certainly does, I hope the armor holds."

"It will, we did enough work on it, and I don't want to spend another month freezing my ass off fixing it."

"Hey, it wasn't that bad, those thermal suits are something else."

Sali shared a look with Reia as they were carried into the bowels of the ship, listening to the engineers in the lift chatting. Somehow the bit of gossip felt a bit reassuring as they made their way down to the cells.

"Hull plating at seventy percent!"

"Sir! Radiation spike, background radiation levels are now exceeding safe limits."

Countryman turned to Misaki, as Kaori fired on the destroyer that had just unleashed its entire payload of torpedoes. "Danger to the crew?"

"Minimal at these levels, but if they keep rising..."

"Noted, bring radiation shields to standby mode," he turned back to Eri, "Distance to target?"

"Sixteen minutes till we clear the star's radius, sir."

The ship shook, just as a battlegroup warped in dead ahead. "New contacts, three Champion class battleships, and Fourteen Protector class heavy cruisers."

"Maintain course, standby pulse detonation," ordered Countryman, as he kept an eye on the tac plot. The entire time listening to new reports. They'd been engaged by multiple Valorian warships, but he was more concerned about the brewing storm. His instincts told him the storm and the local star were related, something big was going on.

Not that he had much time to consider that, as the new heavy warships entered weapons range. The ship shuddered under the heavy fire from the warships. "Kaori, focus all fire on the lead warship, maximum firepower!"

"Aye, sir, superchargers active, locking fire on the lead battleship, targeting their primary reactor."

He chuckled, he hadn't told her to focus on their main reactor, but the system target had been left to her discretion. "Fire!"

Several points on the hull lit up, just before violet beams lanced into the lead Champion. Her shields flared brightly as the first two beams discharged fully into the forward shields, then another pair fired on the same point and then a third. All the while the Valorian warship returned fire with her heavy cannon.

Each strike led to the shields glowing brighter, then one of them lanced through, tearing into the hull, just as a barrage of pulsed fire was unleashed on the battleship's shields.

The Enterprise shook, making it hard to forget the other ships, as a flotilla of destroyers flew overhead, having discharged their torpedoes. Several of which penetrated the Energy Web projectors to strike the hull, "Hull plating at Sixty percent!"

"Return fire, all available electro cannon batteries!"

The batteries lit up, as lightning-like blasts streamed into the ships, one after another, as they tried to sail out of range. Yet they weren't fast enough, their shields flared brightly one after another before detonating. Several energy bursts rippled on sensors, but the cannons kept firing. The ships sailed out of range seconds later, adrift and powerless.

"All targets disabled!"

Elsewhere the lead Champion was looking a little worse for wear but still fighting, and its entire formation was now in weapons range. Trading fire with the Enterprise, yet staying out of range of the Electro cannons. Suddenly her shield buckled, and several penetrating strikes tore into the lead ship.

Countryman watched the ship tear itself apart in a series of secondary explosions. Its destruction seemed to cast the other vessels in the group into chaos. However, that lasted only for a moment.

"Kaori! Fire at will, all batteries."

She nodded and targeted several cruisers with simultaneous heavy fire. Shields flared brightly, but several shots tore through regardless.

Misaki looked up, "Another spike sir."

"Raise shields, time to jump point?"

"Seven minutes sir!"

Countryman turned his gaze to the battle, they were doing limited damage to each other. The new more powerful weapons were helping, especially against the smaller ships. It certainly made up for their continued lack of torpedoes, as they hadn't been able to resupply those at Frozen Oasis. Not fully anyway, they'd produced a few warheads while they were there, but he'd rather save them.

The ship shuddered under a barrage of torpedoes, but Countryman saw something. "Eri! Hard to port, three-second burn." He glanced at tactical, "Kaori standby Electro cannons!"

The engines pulsed, and the moment they were in range, he gave the order to fire. Scoring direct hits on two battleships and three cruisers that had gotten too close. As their shields failed they were peppered with high-yield particle bolts. Entire sections ruptured as the energy tore them open.

"Sir! One of the cruisers has changed course and is increasing speed. She's on a collision course!"

Countryman nodded and focused on it. The ship in question was closing fast. "Eri! Initiate pulse detonation."

Countryman felt the ship thrum, as she surged forward. Narrowly dodging the charging cruiser, in the same moment, they punished the ship for the reckless charge with concentrated fire.

"We are now clear of..." started Eri as several warnings blared."

"Long range sensors have picked up a wavefront approaching fast! Category twelve."

"Get us out of here, maximum..."

Countryman blinked, as he felt a sudden wave of force that slammed him out of his chair, and overwhelmed the dampers entirely, that wasn't the wavefront! "Damage report!"

"Hull plating, thirteen percent, sir! No other... Sir! The star!"

He glanced at it, it was collapsing! "Eri!"

"On it!"