Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

As the channel closed, the fleet commander settled back and let out a breath of relief. That had went better than she had feared. Almost immediately she could hear a bit gossip break out. She hushed it, but knew it would be discussed later. While many starfaring species shared similar morphologies, it wasn’t often one encountered another species that resembled another with such uncanny similarity. They had certainly not seen one that so closely resembled their own race before. Although they had met other ‘humanoids’ that came close. Prior to meeting the People of Sol, the species that most closely resembled Valorians was the Wovnar. They were an aggressive carnivore species. They were built much like Valorians, but their limbs were covered with fur and ended with claws. They had the pointed ears of a canine, sharp teeth, and an excellent sense of smell. Physically they were also much stronger than Valorians. As for these new aliens, it was hard to tell through a screen, but the man she had encountered seemed older perhaps on the late side of middle-aged. He also seemed larger, and stronger than the average Valorian male. That man certainly had more muscle, although he didn’t seem brutish either. In fact, she had the distinct impression that he was smarter than she was. There was just something about him that radiated a wealth of intelligence and wisdom. Her gut even told her that he was actually older than he looked. Older than her, in fact. If true that would mean these aliens lived longer than Valorians.

The average Valorian could live up to a hundred and twenty years. Her old bones were nearly a hundred years old. Hence her desire to retire. She was getting too old for this. If he was older than her, and still looked that young then these aliens could likely live twice as long, perhaps longer. That was a train of thought she wasn’t going to entertain.

She was just thankful the aliens were reasonable and wore clothes. The Wovnar certainly didn’t. In fact, that species wasn’t all that easy to get along with. Not because they weren’t friendly, but rather due to their strange customs. She hoped these aliens weren’t that... uninhibited. It would make them easier to get along with. Then again things were already off to a rough start with them. How things go after this remained to be seen, but it wasn’t going to be her problem. She was retiring. Without that final victory under her belt she wanted, but frankly, she could live with that. Now she just had to pick up the pieces. Then she would be retiring. After a failure like this, that was assured. At least she won’t be retiring in disgrace. Neither the admiralty nor the council would want to publicize this skirmish. Her retirement was going to be a quiet affair, and frankly, after what happened that sounded nice.

Glancing at the screen she watched the clouds swirl and part. Revealing the alien battleship slip into view. Its dark armored hull was far more intimidating than its lines would suggest. It was a ship that concealed its fangs and hid its true power. That was not all that ship hid. Her hull was shielded against sensors, had minimal emissions and practically no energy signature. It left one to wonder what else that ship concealed. Personally, she doubted these aliens had revealed all their cards, and what cards they had revealed were intriguing.

She had a feeling the intelligence folks would be orgasming over the ship. It was a wealth of things to analyze. Unusual armor, non-conventional sublight drives, shield penetrating torpedoes, and who knows what else. In her case, she was just glad it was no longer shooting at her. Now the last hurdle, was the face-to-face meeting they had agreed to. It was going to be on the alien ship, and her group wasn’t allowed to bring weapons. The aliens had accused them of being too ‘trigger happy’ to be trusted with weapons. Little surprise there since it was her own subordinates shooting at them that triggered this whole incident. Although she wasn’t going. Not because she didn’t want to go, but rather her old bones were protesting. She just wasn’t as spry as she used to be. It would be better to leave it to someone she trusted. Who better than someone of her own clan, there was one person, in particular, she had in mind. Commander Reia of Clan Urko, had proven an able captain and was one of the more competent officers under her. She hoped Reia would succeed in smoothing things over.

Reia tried to stay composed, as her small shuttle approached the massive alien vessel. She had left her wrecked ship behind when she would have rather been aboard. There was so much to do, but she had been ordered here. It was just hard not to think about what she could be doing back aboard the Salari’s Treasure.

The pilot of her little shuttle followed the flight instructions they had been given, and they came up on the alien battleship. She had not personally seen it before. It was an impressive ship, a mighty behemoth. It featured sleek, yet rugged lines. She noted the thick armor and the turrets that were tracking her little ship. One wrong move and they would be dead.

An alert suddenly sounded, and before she could even check her console her pilot informed her. “We are being scanned, high intensity. They aren’t even being subtle about it.”

She wasn’t that surprised. Reia had been informed about weapons being prohibited. They were likely being scanned for weaponry. Thankfully they hadn’t brought any. The rules however didn’t prohibit personal protection, so she had brought a personal shield belt with her. Along with a second for her pilot. The shuttle had been hastily disarmed of its two pulse cannons, but she had left the shields in place.

A second later, she noted the turrets lowering back into the armored hull, and she let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. It seemed they had passed the first inspection. However, a second later, the comms sounded with the distinct four-tone alert that indicated they had just received a message. Her pilot informed her, “They’ve requested that we drop shields before they open their landing bay.”

She nodded, “Go ahead.”

It was risky, but she did not believe they were in danger of being shot at. Not anymore. As it turned out, she wasn’t entirely correct about that. An instant later, after the shields dropped several projectors popped out of the alien hull, and fired some kind of disk-shapped object at her hull. It adhered itself to the shuttle without inflicting any damage, and an instant later several tractor beams engaged.

Reia blinked. She had encountered similar devices before. It was indicative of a less advanced towing beam technology. Although much better than the grappling cables that preceded it. Reia however knew better than to simply assume their towing beams were primitive. As it was merely indicative not definitive proof. She did note down the observation. She knew any little detail could be important. That was why she planned to keep her eyes open. Her opponents would be doing the same.

Moments later, guided by the alien tractor beams, her ship set down within a small aft-facing hanger. It was obviously not a primary hanger. It was small and lacked many of the features expected of a main hanger. It took her a moment to spot the two elevators. They were well concealed. Other than those, there was no evidence of ship storage. Based on the size, she figured it was mainly used for shuttles like hers. The bay was also fairly well decorated. Likely meant to receive dignitaries and the like. Yet that hadn’t kept them from mounting weapons in the bay. She noted four turrets deployed from the ceiling and the floor. Two above, two below. They looked like smaller versions of the turrets she had seen tracking her ship from outside. Each appeared to carry a tractor projector, and what seemed to be two particle emitters. They were well placed to cover the hanger while it was open, and if she had to guess the weapons on them were specifically designed for use against light craft. It also gave the aliens an extra advantage in this meeting. Just one more sign of how thin the ice they were walking on was. Treading lightly was the key here.

With that in mind, she moved to disembark. Her pilot stopped her. “Sorry sir, but we can’t leave just yet. The bay isn’t pressurized.”

She blinked having not expected the bay to be unpressurized. “Not pressurized? They aren’t using an air shield?”

The pilot shook her head, “I saw no sign of one.”

Reia had missed that. Perhaps she had been too distracted by other details. That made her wonder what else she may have missed. Sure it could be argued that she simply wasn’t used to hangers that didn’t use air shields, but that was a poor excuse for overlooking something so important. Afterall walking into an unpressurized bay was often fatal. Thankfully not immediately so. Between the swelling, and lack of air death came from mere seconds of exposure, but seconds was more than instant. That gave you time to do something, assuming you kept your wits and didn’t panic, such as close the hatch. In fact, she would have been able to do that before the air even finished rushing out.

With nothing else to do, she waited. Picking out details of the bay. While it cycled. Thankfully the alien bay pressurized quickly, and it was only a couple of minutes before the bay was safe to enter. That actually impressed her a little, but she did idly wonder how much they had spent on the associated systems. Most Valorian bays could not cycle this quickly. Not due to a lack of technology, but rather the reliance on air shields meant that fewer credits need be spent on air pumps. Leading to less powerful airlocks, that took longer to cycle. However with an air shield that didn’t matter much. Before she left, she did check the air, and was happy to find that it was breathable. Not only that, but it was not a pure oxygen atmosphere. The composition mimicked a planetary one. She noted that done, it was indicative of a fairly advanced life support system.

With the bay safe, she disembarked along with the pilot. Where she was soon greeted by three people entering the bay. All three were in armor, but the one had his helmet off. Allowing her to see his face. The features were rugged, but he seemed to look remarkably like a Valorian. Albeit with a skin color not possible for their species. It was a light beige with subtle undertones. Her gaze was drawn to his eyes, the eyes of a battle-hardened warrior. One who looked both of them over. She felt small, and exposed in front of his gaze as if he could see right through her. In a way his gaze reminded her of her old drill instructor, and he did not seem impressed.

One of the others pulled out a small device. Consulted it, and then said something to the warrior man who seemed to be in charge. After a moment he approached, “Welcome aboard the Enterprise. I’m General Forest, and you are?”

She stepped forward and introduced herself, “Commander Reia of Clan Urko, first officer of Salari’s Treasure. I was entrusted with this task by Admiral Neyla.”

“I see. Well if you would follow me, I’ll lead you to the conference room. The captain has quite a bit to discuss with you.”

The Conference room was on another deck, but it didn’t take long to reach it. She entered to find only one person waiting for her. An older man, who looked quite intimidating in the dim lighting. It seemed a constant in the areas she had visited. This ship was not as well lit as Valorian vessels. Perhaps, these aliens were nocturnal, rather than diurnal like her own people. It would explain why the lighting was so dim. It also explained their skin to a degree, but she had a suspicion that their sun had a different spectral spectrum.

He stood, smiled, and greeted her upon entry. “Ah, you must be the Valorian representative. I am Captain Countryman, commander of the Enterprise, and you are?”

She reiterated her introduction and was soon shown to a seat. Her pilot settled into position near the door. Not that mattered much without a weapon. This battle wasn’t going to be won with guns, but with words. They were already on bad footing so everything she did mattered.

He started things off, “Your admiral already explained some things, but it is still somewhat surprising that a people with such a peaceful reputation could be so trigger happy.”

“That was a mistake. One I am sure will be investigated thoroughly. We would not want a repeat of this incident.”

“Ensure that it is. In the meantime, we have to discuss what happens now.”

What followed proved to be less rocky than she expected. The aliens did demand some compensation, but nothing outrageous. She did consider inquiring about the pilot she knew they had captured, but after what happened she didn’t think they were in a good position to request her back. After being spanked that badly, she was happy to get away with what they did get. However, one item bugged her enough that she did ask it.

“I’ve noticed that you don’t seem to have an air shield, nor did you much use shields in the battle.”

“If you are asking if we have shield technology, we do. Although as you can see our armor is vastly superior to any energy shield. Personally, with a few exceptions, I think it makes far more sense to invest in superior armor technology, over shields. Sure the armor costs more to install, and repair, but the protection offered more than makes up for it. On the other hand I have to ask, why your people didn’t include armor on your ships? Everyone else put at least a token level of hull plating on their ships, except you.”

She scratched her head, “I know its kind of stupid, but most Valorians don’t think much of armor. A plasma bolt can burn through most materials with such ease, that armor is often considered a waste of credits. Shields on the other hand can stop plasma bolts easily. Combined with that cultural perception is the fact that our military budget is crap.” Her skin flushed instantly when she realized that she had let something slip that she probably should not have.

Countryman chuckled, “Well you should consider yourselves fortunate that you could afford a minimal military budget. Most aren’t that lucky in this hostile galaxy. War, unfortunately, seems to be all too common here.”

She blinked gave him a look, and said, “that’s the thing we can’t! Yet the council just keeps spending their money on pet projects. I don’t...” She stopped herself, as she realized her emotions had once again made her blab about things she probably should not be talking about.

Countryman smiled and shook his head. “Your training may need some work, but I think I understand. It isn’t my concern though. Worry not, the People of Sol have little interest in invading the Confederation. Perhaps if history had been different, but the past is the past. The path once walked cannot be changed. We will be here a while longer, if you need assistance picking up the pieces caused by your own rash actions we will be willing to assist. However, we are not going to be staying for very long. Perhaps a month at the most. We have mostly achieved our objectives here. Next time I hope we meet under better circumstances.”

With that he signaled to a guard and she was escorted back to her shuttle. Her pilot when they got back, commented, “I have a feeling that we are lucky.”

“Yes, we are. I’m not sure why, but we lucked out. I just hope that luck holds.”

As they took off, she was already writing up a report. Reia already knew what she was going to say. Most of it was going to be facts, but at the end she was going to include what her own instincts were telling her.

Ruri smiled to herself as she set the alien pistol into the drone’s hand. It was a simple drone designed for exactly this sort of test. She needed something expendable to fire the pistol. While none of the scans had indicated any sort of self-destruct or real security measures on the alien weapon. She knew it was best to be cautious.

The weapon had been acquired from that alien pilot they had captured during the battle. It was certainly an interesting item to study. It was a remarkably light hand weapon, and its ergonomic design would make it easy to use. The casing of the alien plasma pistol was composed of a lightweight polymer that was reasonably durable. It would hold up quite well against the elements, and protect the more vulnerable components. Not as well as the materials used in the construction of human weapons, but she suspected the material was chosen more for its weight than anything else. The polymer was incredibly light. Allowing them to reduce the weight by nearly a third compared to other materials. It played a major role in why the weapon weighed about half the average for side arms of this type.

Satisfied the weapon was secured, she slipped behind the blast shield and started the test. Sensors were already set up to automatically record all of the data. A second later, a few pulses were fired into the first target she had set up. While entirely artificial, the dummy was made of gels and artificial tissues that mimicked an actual living creature. In this case a human target. The plasma rounds slammed into this facsimile with deadly force. Each hit not only charred synthetic flesh, and bone, but vaporized small chunks of the target. Inflicting horrific, even fatal wounds.

The next target was the same type of dummy, but this time it was dressed in standard issue light infantry armor. The kind typically employed by security officers, militia units, and police forces. The armor didn’t offer the protection that medium or heavy varients provided, but that was due to its focus on mobility. Users had full range of motion, and the low weight was also appreciated. There were also light armor variants favored by spec ops forces, but those had fancy gadgets not relevant to the test.

The bolts slammed into the lightly armored dummy leaving only light scorch marks to indicate a hit. At first, there wasn’t any notable effect, but after a while the armor started to weaken. In the end it took 46 hits before the armor weakened enough for the bolt to have a chance to pen, but in the test it was not until the 57th hit that one actually pierced the protective plating. That didn’t look good for the alien plasma weapon.

Her next test target was another armored dummy, but this time in the medium armor favored by the ship’s marines. As it turned out the pistol was wholely unable to penetrate the armor. It ended up depleting its plasma cell, and the armor was unmarked. The AIF barely weakened. It was evident that this pistol simply wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate medium armor. As such, she scrapped the other tests and moved to analyze the data.

Something she was still doing, sometime later when she suddenly became aware of Countryman standing behind her. Turning around, she noticed him looking at her clothes with a familiar look in his eyes. He sighed, “Didn’t I tell you to recycle that lab coat?”

She looked down. Ruri was wearing one of her favorite lab coats, it was a bit worn. Starting to show its age, stained, and patched. A couple of those patches had come undone while she was working. Ruri replied, “Yeah, you did. What about it?”

He sighed, shook his head, and then said, “Only you would need an explanation for why a lab coat so worn, and torn that it doesn’t even cover you properly needs to be tossed out.”

She blinked, “Its not that bad. I can get a few more months out of this.”

Countryman just gave her a look, “I can see your bare breast sticking out. It needs to be replaced.”

She didn’t need to look to know that he was right about that. Ruri didn’t need a bra since her boobs weren’ that big. A blessing to be sure. As for why her boob was sticking out, well she had tossed her shirt somewhere, she wasn’t sure where. Didn’t remember why either. There were more important things on her mind. The patch on her coat had also torn recently, so her boob was sticking out. Not much of a problem really. “I guess, but I’ll just patch it back up later. It will be fine.”

He let out a breath. Reached over, and adjusted her lab coat. Clicked his tongue, and then just suddenly ripped it off her. Walking over to a locker, he opened it. Pulling out one of her spare lab coats. “With me around yes. If I wasn’t always looking out for you. Put this on, and I’ll recycle this old thing for you.”

“Hey, I can still use that.” she protested, as he tossed her the spare coat. Ruri caught it, and he just gave her a look. A moment later, he left the room. Leaving her standing there half naked, and holding a spare coat. Not entirely sure what had happened either. She did note that he locked the door behind him, as well.

She moved to chase after him, dropping the coat. Ruri had to get that coat back before he tossed it. Reaching the door, she tried to unlock it, only to find that he had code-locked the door. She needed the right authorization code to open it. A code she did not have. However, that wasn’t going to stop her. She had broken a few of his codes before. Enough to know that his codes often followed one of several patterns. Ruri got to work.

About five minutes, later she was sure that she had found it, when the door suddenly unlocked. Countryman walked in a moment later, without her old coat. He sighed and closed the door behind him. Relocking it as well, his fingers a blur of motion as they input a new locking code. “Not going to get dressed?”

She glanced down and remembered that she hadn’t put the spare coat on. Ruri looked around for it, found it, and then quickly put it on. It seemed he had already finished taking it to the nearest recycler. She sighed, no point complaining about it now. Such a shame too, she really liked that coat. Not that it stopped her from doing so. Turning back to him, she gave him a look, and started complaining about him throwing away her favorite coat.

At first he said nothing in response to her outburst. Instead he merely stood there and listened. Just when she stopped to take a breath, however, he suddenly pulled her into an embrace. Where he began to stroke the top of her head in that way she really liked. If she had been a cat, she would have been purring under his touch. Instead, she flushed a little but relaxed into it. She really loved this when he did it. Not that she would ever tell him that. After a while, he finally spoke, “I’m sorry I had to do that. I’ll get you a new one.”

She didn’t say anything, while her heart reacted strangely. After a moment, she said, “I think we should talk about why you came here in the first place.”

He just chuckled, and then allowed her to move away. He smiled, “Well, I was just going to check on what progress you made studying that pistol.”

“I’m about done with that actually. I was going to move on and study the other little items we obtained next.”

“I see. Anything you care to share?”

“These Valorians have some interesting weapons. Its plasma based, but of a very different breed when compared to Cathamari weapons. Where Cathamari weapons can be best described as a blunt instrument, this thing isn’t. It’s a well-optimized and remarkably efficient design. The plasma cell stores enough condensed plasma for a surprising three hundred shots. That stored plasma is kept in an inert state, until you arm the weapon. Once the safety is released, “she pulled up a diagram of the weapon, “inert plasma will be drawn out of the cell and intro the main plasma chamber at the rear of the weapon. Here the plasma is superheated, and imparted an ionization charge.”

She pointed out the chamber on the diagram, and then said, “When the trigger is released, a small portion of the plasma is allowed to escape into the acceleration chamber where it is accelerated to about three tenths the speed of light. Exiting that chamber the forming plasma pulse is wrapped in a low-level containment field, and projected from the weapon via the emitter here. The whole process takes a fraction of a second. Allowing the weapon a fairly rapid rate of fire. It can fire 1247 pulses per minute, and based on my testing its effective against unarmored infantry. The bolts don’t fare well against armor at all. As it is ineffective against lightly armored opponents and utterly useless against opponents equipped with medium armor or better.”

“Interesting. Not the best weapon, but possibly an effective sidearm. Anything else of note?”

“I ran a few other tests. Its properties allow for a few interesting secondary fire modes. It can be set to fire an ionic pulse, instead of a normal plasma pulse. The pulse can fry unshielded circuitry, and stun organic targets. Our armor is already shielded against this type of weaponry, and as a result this mode is also ineffective against armored targets.”

“Very interesting. Not having an effective option against armor, may indicate the designers never considered an armored opponent. Then again it is a sidearm.”

“I believe it would be much more effective against energy shields. Simulations indicate it is, but that fighter in our hanger bay gives us a chance to actually test that.”

“Speaking of that fighter, and knowing you I believe you have already taken a look. Anything interesting?”

“I’ve not had the time to get into its guts, but I have had the computer analyze some internal scans of the vehicle. It does have a few notable features. Most notable is the fact that it has energy shields. I’ve had difficulty estimating the exact strength of those shields, but they don’t appear to be weak. Her engines also appear to be fairly powerful, which plays into the observed capabilities of the fighter.”

He interjected, “I recall, it performed comparably to ours in the battle.”

Ruri replied, “I think that was more due to the pilot than the plane. With the exception of the energy shield, the ship is largely inferior to our equivalents. The plasma drive produces a fair amount of thrust, more than our own do, but it is quite inferior at vectoring that thrust. This gives them an excellent top speed, but our fighters will be far more maneuverable than theirs. In addition, our twelve o fours outgun the Valorian fighters. That fighter only has two pulsed plasma guns, and two missile launchers for armament. Her missile bays are also puny, with only enough space for four missiles on the craft in total. By default, the 1204 was designed to carry eight but can be configured to fit more missiles. I see no evidence of a modular weapons bay on the Valorian fighter, however. So that leaves me to conclude that four missiles is their maximum loadout.”

“I see,” he glanced at the diagram of the alien fighter that she had pulled up while talking. After a moment, he asked, “any notable weaknesses in the design?”

She frowned, “At first glance? Just one. It seems her only protection seems to be her energy screen. The fighter has no armor, nor does it have any apparent missile defenses. No chaff, no energy projectors, no ECM, nor does it have an Energy Web. They must be rather confident in that shield as even the Cathamari included missile protection on their fighters. It was primitive and ineffective, but they included it.”

He nodded, “Well, I’ll leave you to your research. I have other items to check up on. Talk

to you again later.”

With that he left the room.