Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Captain's Log March 14th, 005 SDE:

The last month has been long but peaceful. Tika left us a few days ago, just after we passed the Krall border and entered Valorian space. This entire sector however is in dispute, intelligence indicates the local Valorian fleets are largely broken. Apparently they'd held the initial Malora offensive off, but their own counteroffensive had gone badly. Now the entire Vosk sector is overrun with Maloran warships. Given the war, piracy which was already high, has spiked through the roof. I suspect that means we will have an encounter with the Malora sooner or later, but I'm not going to go out of my way to greet them. I'm more concerned about local pirates than anyone else.

I suspect that at least a portion of that pirate activity is actually privateer activity. It would explain why some of these pirate vessels are so well armed. I've heard more than one account of pirate vessels with armament to match military cruisers. Nothing in the battleship class, but it doesn't really fit the job description. Piracy requires fast and preferably stealthy vessels.

Regardless I'm not really worried about the pirates, so much as what engaging them may lead to. We have little desire for entanglements right now, and it's possible some of these pirates may choose to cash in on reporting us, if they find us. The Valorians have an active bounty on the Enterprise. It ain't small either, which is more than likely to tempt the riffraff in this sector.

Countryman stepped through the blast doors, and without even stopping to take his chair, inquired, "What do we have?"

"Another battle, captain. Based on the comm traffic we've intercepted, it appears a Valorian battle group has engaged a small Maloran fleet. They are just outside of sensor range right now."

Nothing unusual there, they didn't have great long-range sensors. Not for interstellar tracking anyway, it had never been a priority until after they launched. Unfortunately, they'd not made much progress in sensor technology in the last five years, other projects had taken priority. Even now they were focusing on stealth research over sensors. Countryman made a mental note to find the time and resources for better interstellar tracking sensors as he walked down the stairs to the Tac Plot. At the moment, they relied more on a technique they'd taken to calling comm scanning to locate hostile forces, which was useful but not perfect.

On the central strategic display, was depicted the Valorian forces, and their Malora opponents. The Valorians were arrayed in a standard skirmish formation, while the Malora had split into three main battlegroups. The Valorian forces were effectively surrounded, and it didn't seem to be going well for them. Countryman was quite thankful that both sides were transmitting combat telemetry, but he was relying more on the Valorian telemetry. It seemed they hadn't changed their codes. Likely didn't realize his codebreakers had broken their comms.

"Eri, adjust course to avoid the battle."

"Already done sir."

He smiled and focused on watching the battle as signals winked out, one after another. Several Valorian cruisers vanished all at once, as energy was exchanged between the two forces. Soon followed by a couple of Malora vessels, but the tide was clear.

In moments the Valorian formation broke apart, as ships broke in every direction. Yet it did them little good, as they were chased down and destroyed in rapid succession. Countryman had only watched it for a few minutes but it was clear the Valorians had lost this battle.

Greyman commented, "Looks like another glorious defeat for the Valorians."

"I don't know about glory, but they were clearly outmatched in that battle."

Greyman nodded, but didn't say anything as Countryman headed up the stairs to his station. For the moment it looked like things were going to remain uneventful.

Sali settled onto the alien grass and looked around. The place she was in was peaceful and quite pretty. Not to mention somewhat popular, as she could see plenty of other people around. As Robert was spreading out the blanket he brought, she asked, "So how'd you manage this?"

Robert grinned, "I told you I had something good in mind."

"Yeah, but I didn't expect you to actually get me out of my cell." She replied while looking at the various alien trees. They were in a garden area, the ground below was lined with soft alien grasses, and numerous blooming flowers could be seen. The light was brighter than she was used to as well, making her feel like she'd finally come outdoors. There was even a nice cool breeze, artificial no doubt, but she liked it anyway.

"Well getting my criminal girlfriend out of jail for the day wasn't easy."

She blushed, then gave him a look.

He chuckled and patted a spot on the blanket, as he opened the basket. Revealing a number of sandwiches. "Hungry?"

She shifted onto the blanket, feeling how it was different from the alien grass. The grass had been nice, but the blanket did feel better. Grabbing a sandwich she nibbled at it for a moment, but found it did taste good. Off to the left, she noticed a couple slip behind some bushes, and she had an idea of what they had in mind. Hell, she could see another couple that was a little less... discrete.

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He waited for her to finish one before producing something else. "Also I got you something. I figured you were getting bored with those long nights in that cell."

She blinked as she saw what he had. Carefully she took it, running her hands over the hardcover, feeling the letters engraved on the front of it. Opening it she was greeted with clean pristine pages, they looked new and untouched. Crisp block printed letters filled the page, the top formatted in large bold letters, declaring it the first chapter. "A book?"

He smiled, "Yep. I wasn't sure what you would enjoy, so I figured a classic fantasy adventure would be good."

Closing the book she ran her pale blue fingers over it again, while she was living in a cell and a bit disconnected from life here on the Enterprise, she still heard things. Paper wasn't common on the Enterprise and this looked like a fresh print. She couldn't help her tone as she inquired, "How much?"

"Huh?"

"How much did this cost you?"

"Oh, is that what is worrying you? I know paper is a bit rare, but you can still make it on the ship."

"How much!?"

He sighed, "250 ration credits."

Her mind raced as she glanced at the book again. She was holding a veritable fortune. A meal typically cost a credit, Reia told her most people ate three meals a day, averaging two credits spent. Since a smaller meal cost half a full portion, people with more to spend would pay a little more for their food. Clothes were getting pretty pricey these days, a pair of panties was fifteen credits, but here she was holding an item worth two hundred and fifty. Numbers raced in her mind, as she considered the factory typically paid around 30 credits on an average day, most people would have around 900 credits in their account each month, which was a comfortable wage. Between food, utilities and general hygiene they'd spend around 22 credits each day, which meant spending 660 credits a month. That would leave them 240 spare credits to spend on things like clothing or entertainment. In other words, he'd basically handed her a month's pay, as a gift. Sali did notice the extra ten, but she knew she was just taking the number for someone who just did the work, pay was calculated on a merit system. Robert was always doing more, they likely paid him more, but still

"I... I can't accept this. It's..."

"Just take it, I didn't spend that money just for the hell of it. I like you."

She blushed again and held it against her breast. If he was going to give her something this valuable, she was going to treasure it. A warmth grew in her belly, and she gave him another look. Maybe they should have some fun too, she thought as she watched a couple slip out from the bushes. Their appearance was all too telling of what they had been up to. Hmm that might be nice and she did like him.

Countryman kept an eye on the tac plot. The last few hours had been quiet, but they were now entering a system. According to star charts, the system didn't have any colonies, just an old outpost. Yet they hadn't received any traffic from the outpost, which left him with a few questions in regard to the outpost.

However, they were entering an area with high activity from both Valorian and Malora vessels. Turning from the display with markings depicting the location of multiple battlegroups, and even two more engagements on sensors, he turned to Misaki. "Anything interesting on comms?"

"Nothing too much, but I did intercept a few messages. The Valorians will be sending the ninth fleet to reinforce the local garrison. Elsewhere, the Malora seem to have initiated ground invasions on three separate worlds in this sector, and there is a tactical notice about a critical supply convoy passing through this sector. Local commanders are advised that under no circumstances is that convoy to be intercepted."

"A supply convoy? We've spotted a dozen of those, what makes this one special?"

She shrugged, "No idea, the message doesn't say."

"Put that convoy on the plot."

A moment later, a new course was projected on the star chart marked in red. It was labeled supply convoy 39. There were several colonies near its projected course, but Countryman noted that it would go right past the fleet base at Hemitar Four."

"Greymen, what do you think of this?"

He leaned over and traced the course for a moment and commented, "Odd, if it's a supply convoy, why bypass a major fleet base?"

This convoy was starting to look very interesting and if something was interesting, he'd like to know more. There was something fishy about that convoy, and the Valorians were being tight-lipped about it. Doing some mental math, he estimated that if they didn't change course too much, they'd be able to intercept that convoy in early April.

Eri reported, "We are secure from warp speed, sir. Switching the main reactor to standby mode."

"Load forward tubes one and two. Standard probes."

Kaori looked up, "Done, sir."

"Launch."

The probes sailed into the void a moment later, and he turned to Misaki. "Keep an eye on them, let me know what they find."

Over the next hour, the probes quickly revealed the system they were in. The system had a dozen planets, including several gas giants and a vast asteroid belt. The Valorian outpost was a large installation over the third planet, which quickly drew his attention. Planet number three was obviously once an Earth-like Garden world, but that was clearly no longer the case. The planetary atmosphere was oxygen-nitrogen, and surface temperatures ranged from -20 to 40 degrees Celcius depending on where you were on the planet. Several large oceans could be seen from orbit covering almost sixty percent of the planetary surface.

At first glance that sounded pretty nice, but something caught his notice. There was no life on the planet, the seas were devoid of life forms, the soil was lifeless and the surface was covered with decaying ruins. Yet the planet clearly once had life, as the surface was covered with dead vegetation.

As for the Valorian outpost, it clearly wasn't a military installation. The facility was even maintaining comms with several robotic encampments on the surface. No one was down there but robots, who were beaming scientific data back to the facility in orbit. Data his own probes had intercepted which furthered the mystery. Revealing that not even microbes had survived the catastrophe that struck this world.