Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Countryman stared out the viewport lost in thought. From his present position, he could see the captured cruiser being worked on. It had been a few weeks since they had started working on the refit project. Ruri had taken advantage of the opportunity to take a look at the cruiser’s shield generators. While they had known a fair amount about Cathamari shield technology, there were still details that eluded them. Details that were now illuminated thanks to Ruri studying the physical generators.

Those systems made use of an exotic energy particle that had previously been unknown to human science. These particles called Sega particles were of interest to them in a number of fields, but since they couldn’t produce the particles themselves research had been slow. Ruri however had identified the component that generates those particles.

Shifting his stance a bit, he considered what being able to freely study those particles could mean. Since sega particles were critical to the operation of both Cathamari, and Krall shields from what he could tell, knowing more about them would aid them in improving their weapons to defeat these shields. Not to mention it would also open the door to developing true combat shields. As these particles were key to making them hard rather than soft like all current generation human shield systems. Still while this was a major step forward, he had little doubt that they would not have shields right away. It may be a few years before such systems are actually viable. It didn’t help that they had a rather limited budget for research, but thankfully they had the facilities for it.

However honestly in his opinion, shields were a low-priority research item. There was another project that would be far more important to their long term survival. Especially given their long-term goals, and frankly three ships was just not enough. Worse, their population was limited. That made meeting the crew requirements of additional ships difficult beyond a certain point, especially when one considered the lack of trained personnel. Thankfully modern ships thanks to AI control systems required a mere fraction of the crew they would otherwise require. The Enterprise for example absolutely dwarfed the battleships from the naval era but required the same number of crew to operate at the very minimum. More were required for optimal function. Switching more systems over to AI control would help, but only by so much. Frankly ships, especially combat vessels needed crew for basic functions, such as maintenance, and damage control. Not to mention crew were very important for internal security.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small object staring at it. It was something he had access to but had not yet shared with anyone else. This small object contained a prototype, an evolution in artificial intelligence. Although it was still not quite ready for what they needed, but it already displayed vastly improved learning abilities compared to older AIs. If they could work out the kinks, and using advancing cybernetic technologies they would be able to build artificial crew. If successful fleet size would only be limited by their available resources. In other words, it would be a function of industrial capacity and supply.

That would be key, as increasing the size of their fleet would dramatically expand their reach. As they were already fast enough to reach any number of systems within a reasonable timeframe, but with more ships, they would be able to explore more systems at any given time.

In fact, as he saw it research down this line was now a necessity. They needed this research. Without it, they would have little chance of rebuilding their civilization elsewhere. As they were too few to defend any world. It would take centuries to recover, and decades for them to move away from the brink. In a few decades, if his programs bore fruit they would be in the low millions by then they might be able to afford a larger fleet.

He sighed, they really needed additional ships now, but frankly this AI he was holding wasn’t ready. The android bodies needed for his plan, could exist now, but the AI needed to make them work just wasn’t ready. Both the software and the hardware needed to run the kind of AI needed required work. Perhaps a decade if not more, but this chip contained the key to make it possible. All they needed was time.

Countryman looked out at the cruiser undergoing refit. If it succeeded in its mission. This entire region would destabilize. The Cathamari ruled their empire with an iron fist, and he was about to shatter that fist as if it was made of glass. Civil war would be the inevitable result, and he had little doubt that their neighbors would interfere. This system would not escape the inevitable conflict. Having studied the star charts they had purchased, he had noted a region that showed promise. It was on the far side of Valorian space, a race they knew only by reputation.

He had plotted out a few routes, but all of them would require crossing some portion of Valorian space, and take years to reach. It would have the benefit of putting the Valorian Trade Confederation between them and the Cathamari. Something he considered to be quite the boon. Especially since they were a peaceful people according to reputation.

Hearing footsteps, he turned from the viewport to see Ruri. She looked quite happy. There was an extra bounce in her step, and frankly, she seemed quite excited. “Ah, I was just about to look for you. Something happen?”

She nodded excitedly, “Long-range sensors have identified a system that shows high concentration readings of Erudite. If it pans out we will have more than enough to fuel my research.”

“Interesting, Where is this system?”

“Its marked on the star charts as Delta IV. The system is not controlled by any powers according to the charts,” she said as she pulled out a pad with a copy of the star charts on it. She pointed the system out, and Countryman noted a few details.

“Hmm, I see that is about twelve lightyears from the Valorian border, and the system itself looks fairly unusual.”

She nodded, “I read some notes about it. Apparently, the unusual gravity of the Delta IV system has resulted in some rather dense debris fields and other anomalies. It makes navigation in the system difficult, and FTL drives do not function inside the system. In addition, shields and sensors are severely impacted by local conditions. We don’t have to worry about the shield problem, but our sensors will be affected. Even if the Erudite was not there, we should still visit the system given its unusual characteristics.”

“It might give us some peace to complete some vital research projects. Speaking of such projects,” he handed her the chip. “Take this. Its the latest in AGI research. This will be your highest priority to complete, even that Erudite armor is of secondary importance. Well possibly with the exception of subspace communications.”

They had acquired a subspace radio from the Krall, and he had assigned a few scientists to replicate the technology. It would be of great value to them, in his opinion. It might even solve many of the complications they had with communicating at warp, but to do so they would need a few more radios, the one they had was not enough.

The pirate captain made his way down the corridor towards his bridge. He was looking forward to the visit to Iridia. While the system wasn’t a good raiding target, he had found it to be a great place for shore leave, and more importantly since it was an agricultural colony a good place to buy food. His clan had a strong understanding with the local leaders, and as a result knew when the local patrols would be around. By now the local patrol should have left a few days ago, so they would be clear to land on the colony, sell some of their loot off, and buy food for the rest of the clan. Everyone had to eat afterall, and thanks to their understanding with the local leaders they got a good deal for bulk purchases here. Everybody won here, the colony got access to goods they normally wouldn’t have access to, he got cheap food, and on a good day some extra coin as well.

Thanks to that fat convoy they hit the other day, he had little doubt today was going to be a good day. Afterall, who was going to ruin the good deal they had going on here? No one in their clan would he knew that. There weren’t many good places near their base in Delta IV to offload cargo, and Iridia was the best for that. Especially since most of their targets were in Valorian space, so the best places to sell was going to be in Cathamari space. Sure there were a few Krall outposts nearby, but they were more heavily patrolled and the locals less willing to turn a blind eye. Although that didn’t prevent a black market from forming.

Reaching the door to the bridge he stepped through. The first thing he noted was the familiar swirling clouds of hyperspace. The next was the younger woman turning to his entry, she spoke, “I was about to call you to the bridge. We have nearly reached Iridia, and Daka tells me we should be dropping out of hyperspace in a few minutes.”

He smiled, “Good, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of seeing hyperspace clouds.”

She smiled, then giggled, “Yeah, they are cool at first, but get kind of boring.”

The captain settle into his chair, and the two chatted briefly until the ship dropped out of hyperspace. When it did the room went unnaturally silent, as everyone stared at the scene reflected on the screen. The colony... it was gone. They couldn’t even see the surface, but instead all they saw were dark clouds.

“... What.. What happened... to the... um.. Colony” he sputtered out.

Silence was his only answer until the young lady at sensors, said, “Its... its been... destroyed. Sensors, um, indicate signs of a heavy bombardment. The surface has been... cracked. No life signs, atmosphere toxic.”

He waited for her to compose herself further before asking the big questions, “Who did this? Any sign of survivors?”

She studied her console for a few minutes before replying more clearly, “I am afraid not. The planet was subjected to an extensive bombardment by particle weapons, and the local orbital is simply gone. There is no sign of any survivors, and if anyone did survive the bombardment they would have been killed by the toxins released from the surface being cracked. I don’t think anyone escaped either, as I’m not picking up any engine trails leaving the planet. I am picking up a few decaying plasma trails from a few Cathamari ships, but all of them end abruptly.

“As for who did this? I can’t say, the computer doesn’t recognize the weapon signatures. Hell I can’t even find any engine trails from the attackers. Hopefully whoever it was isn’t still around, I doubt we would last long against someone with the firepower to do this.”

He had to agree with the sentiment. In fact he would like to get out of here as soon as they could possibly leave. However, they couldn’t leave quite yet since the hyperdrive needed to recharge. It would be another thirty minutes before they could make the jump to hyperspace. So instead he glanced to the side, “Alert the crew, and raise the shields. I want to be on alert in case the aliens who did this are still around.”