Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

May 20th, 001 SDE, EFS Enterprise Delta Four Starsystem:

Sali shifted in her seat. It was finally time, her trial. It was going on around her right now. Today was the day her fate would be declared, and she wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that. Once again she was cursing her luck, as she considered where she had ended up. She was on an alien capital ship surrounded by aliens that were understandably unhappy with her, and her people. That brought to one mind one emotion she knew she was feeling, among the muddled mess of emotions welling up within her.

The trial itself she knew was also a farce. Her fate was already decided, but at least she would finally know what it was. At least for now. Sali wanted to get off this ship, but the question of how still eluded her. There were just so many variables to account for, and she just wasn’t even ready to try. Even if she was, she still had no idea where to find the hanger. Any chance to succeed would require learning where that was, and finding a ship. That was only half the battle. Assuming she somehow managed to escape, elude the guards, locate the hanger, and get off the ship, she had more problems to deal with. There were so many problems with that sequence that she often found it almost paralyzing. It was why she hadn’t even tried yet despite being here for days. Of course, the biggest problem she had was a simple one. Valorian shuttles and fighters were sublight-only craft, and she had no reason to expect the alien ones to have a faster-than-light drive.

She sighed and pushed that line of thought aside. Not for the first, she looked around the room. While half listening to the ongoing trial. Like everywhere else, the lighting was fairly dim, but it was bright enough that she could see across the room. Not without shadows draping over the room, however, and with all the people here, it gave the whole room a rather unsettling air.

Glancing to her side, she noted the woman sitting next to her looking a little bored. Her name was apparently Ruri. Sali remembered what she had seen when the captain had been leading her here to the trial. He had stopped on another deck to collect Ruri. What happened had been a little shocking. They had arrived to find her practically naked, wearing only some underwear, and a torn lab coat. Sali had ended up watching, as she was lectured, and treated like a child. Countryman had actually forced her into a bathroom, to bathe, while he found her something presentable to put her in. He wasn’t even fazed by her bad state of dress. It was like he expected it. The conversation she had afterward, seemed to confirm it.

Sali was currently settled into one of several seats on a raised dais at the end of the room. A giant monitor was above her, and a podium was up front. It was not the kind of design one would expect for a courtroom. In fact, the room looked more in line with a briefing room, which is what she thought this room was. At the moment, someone was speaking at the podium and she was seated in one of the chairs behind it. Countryman was seated on her other side. There were also a few guards positioned around the room. Each of them was outfitted in that distinctive armor of theirs and holding a rifle.

Suddenly, she was addressed and called to stand in front of the podium. Slowly, with a bit of trepidation, and perhaps something else, she moved to the indicated position. She had a feeling what this was. It was the dreaded moment, they were about to declare her fate. They had already done everything else in this pointless farce. As much as she hated to admit it, this declaration did matter as it would set the tone for her immediate future. At least until she figured out how to get out of here. Something she was going to do, she swore it to herself. Even if things hadn’t been perfect, she was going to make it back home.

She took up the position, and she was promptly addressed. “You stand accused, and found guilty of participating in an unlawful, and unprovoked attack against the People of Sol. For that crime, you are sentenced to fifteen years of basic labor in the ship’s factories subject to review in five years' time.”

She protested and was soon escorted back to her cell. Where she was left to stew, and ultimately cool off. It wasn’t until the next day that she began her ‘new job.’

May 28th, 001 SDE:

Countryman slipped through the door and crossed the short distance to the command chair. He had just completed his inspection of the work done over the last few days and more importantly left another trial behind. This time it was one related to an investigation into the cause behind some rather extensive damage to the forward shield generator. It seemed Williams and her cronies had started messing with minor systems to inconvenience him, as it was indeed sabotage that caused the damage. Unfortunately, they only caught the saboteur and he hadn’t revealed anything about his friends, who had gone to ground. No matter his trial alone helped mitigate the rather minor damage the sabotage had caused.

What was far more important was the fact that the minor refits had been completed. They took longer than they needed to, but that was largely due to the rotation schedule they had implemented. One that had thankfully proved unneccessary. Of course the refits while technically minor did represent some fairly large performance improvements for the weapons array, and the armor on the Enterprise got a significant upgrade. In addition during the refit process, they had completed their study into the Krall subspace radio technology, and upgraded their comms accordingly. Nothing that would class as major though. For that it would have to be something like a massive reconfiguration of several decks or something like that. Countryman figured it would be many years before the Enterprise would need a major refit. The ship was still young afterall. It was only a year old, afterall, and it was designed for an extensive service period. Like most capital ships she was intended for a service period of about a hundred years, and an expectation of one maybe two major refits during that period. Thankfully the war didn’t prevent the ship from being built to that standard. If anything they built her better than average. As they wanted to be certain that the Enterprise would hold up against anything they might encounter out here. Even if the current mission wasn’t exactly what they had envisioned for the ship.

The refits anyway hadn’t just been completed they had gone well. They had found a few abandoned pirate bases with reasonably intact defenses, that had made excellent test targets. The locations had been thoroughly glassed by the intense heat and energy of the particle bolts. Bolts that had melted deep craters into the ground. There was nothing left of those abandoned bases now. It had made for a good test of the upgraded weapons though.

Putting that aside, it was time to depart. They had been here too long, it was time to say goodbye to this system. Settling into his chair, he looked over the bridge. Moments later he gave the order. With that order, they set forth on a course out of the system. It would be days before they actually reached the edge of the system however, and made it to warp since they were fairly deep in the system. That very position had played a role in keeping them safe. So this was a minor inconvenience.

June 4th 001 SDE, Valoria, Tagresh City:

The Councilwoman sighed, as she looked out the window. Her office was placed in a location that gave her a rather scenic overview of the surrounding area, and most notably the coast. She could see a few ships moving in and out of the age old harbor. It had been part of the city for decades. Tagresh had been built up around that harbor. Long ago it had once been the thriving center of trade, and had made Tagresh one of the wealthiest cities in all of Valoria. Today that harbor was a mere shadow of itself. It was no longer graced with massive trade ships, and the bustle of a thriving sea trade. Instead it was graced with tourists. Most of the ships that came and left were cruise ships that gave the folk guided sea tours. Although there were also a fair number of private yachts that made the harbor their home port

It also certainly made for a great view, something she much enjoyed. In addition it was also much quieter than the starport which could not be seen from her window. That was in the other direction, and located on the opposite side of the city.

She centered herself with the view, and after a moment she asked, “Is this report accurate?”

She was of course referring to the reports from the seventeenth fleet which had returned to port in shambles late yesterday afternoon. They had taken a beating. A severe beating that didn’t often come to ships of the Valorian navy, espeicially not with their powerful shields. Of the two thousand ships that made up the 17th patrol fleet, about half of them were gone. The others had taken heavy to moderate damage. They had barely a third of their normal effective combat strength. Its arrival in such a state was not good news in her mind. If anything if this report was accurate, it was the opposite. Worse if that report got to any one of her rivals, it could ruin her and her party. It didn’t help that she had lost all contact with her contacts in the Rydia clan.

Her aide nodded, “I’m afraid so.”

She sighed, and glanced at the combat record playing on the monitor. It was set to loop, and it was replaying now. She had already seen it. The record reminded her of that one report she had seen from the Rydia clan. They had only sent her info on the alien fighters, but the 17th fleet had actually encountered something bigger than a fighter. Capital ships, and from the looks of it, only three. A mere three vessels had proven sufficient to not only best a fleet 2000 strong, but cripple it. Part of that was clearly the local conditions favoring the aliens. Yet it did give some data on them to study.

The alien ships were agile, very agile. Some of the fastest she had seen. Not only that, but their engines had no apparent thruster ports. A reactionless drive, maybe, which gave them an edge. They could not only match valorian ships in speed, but they could turn faster. Something the battle had made quite apparent.

The battle had also given her a fair amount of data on the alien weapons. Worse, the alien torpedoes were now confirmed as able to penetrate Valorian energy screens. Often with devastating results, an indication of their destructive power. A single warhead was so lethal, that a single direct hit was sufficient to destroy a cruiser. The mines the aliens had made use of were similarly lethal with equally spectacular results on impact.

Their other weapons were not so noteworthy. Deadly to be sure, absolutely devastating against a target without adequate shielding, but at least they were something they knew how to defend against. The alien torpedoes not so much, especially since the report didn’t give much data on how they were penetrating the shields. The alien particle weapons were also observed doing it, but that was brute force. Made easier by the environment weakening the shields. The torpedoes clearly didn’t use that method, but the exact particulars escaped them.

“Has the 17th fleet shared this with anyone?”

“No, mistress. They have been in isolation since their return.”

She nodded, at least something hadn’t gone horribly wrong. “Good, news of this can’t be allowed to spread. Draw up a falsified report about them running into a plasma storm or something, and classify the whole incident. Make sure everyone understands that this is classified. Also get me Irnas from the Balynik clan, I have a job for him.”