Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Sali turned away from the holo-display that concealed the closed viewports in this observation lounge. The shaking had stopped a while ago, and there was not much to say about the battle. As the battle seemed to have ended. With a sigh, she glanced at the doors. Coming in here had been a mistake. As the doors had locked behind her, and the computer was denying her exit. In other words she was trapped in here.

Another sigh escaped her. Honestly being trapped in here didn’t make much difference. Being stuck here wasn’t all that different from being utterly lost. She just wasn’t looking forward to when she was missed and someone came looking for her. She couldn’t imagine that being pleasant. Sali shuddered just thinking about it, as her imagination conjured up all sorts of scenarios. Each one worse than the last. A couple of them however were just pure fantasy and she knew it. She quashed them and wandered the room again. Honestly the worst part of this was the waiting.

It seemed her life had devolved into being trapped in one form or another. This alien vessel had simply become her prison. What joy that one was. She glanced back at the viewport and noted the station glimmering in the light of a distant sun. Sali recognized the design, it was a Valorian design often favored for remote outposts, and trade stations. Seeing it was like being stabbed in the gut. Sali slumped into a nearby chair. Already she was cursing herself for coming into this room. Not only that she was berating herself for getting lost in the first place. That failure of hers had cost her. She had lost her best chance to escape since she had got here.

The Valorian girl had this feeling that she might not get another one. Even if she hoped that feeling was wrong, she knew that getting off this ship wasn’t going to be easy. Getting off however was actually the easiest part, it was staying off that was not going to be so easy, and the answer to that problem was sitting right out there in plain view. Practically taunting her with its presence, and here she was trapped. Locked in this room with no way out. It didn’t help that she was lacking in both tools and knowledge. A fact that had stymied her attempts to unlock the doors.

Suddenly she heard a noise. Her attention was drawn to the doors. Where two armored figures were now entering the room. She sighed. It seemed her taste of freedom was over. Sali considered trying to fight them, but her gaze fell over their rifles. The impulse vanished as quickly as it formed. Besides there wasn’t much she could do against two fully armed and armored opponents when she herself was practically naked and unarmed.

With a sigh, she stood up. “I, uh... got lost.”

Neither one said a word and merely gestured toward the door. She complied and allowed them to escort her out of the room. Inwardly she was hoping for another chance, and she promised herself she wouldn’t squander it when it came.

She shifted in her seat as her ship dropped out of warp. Behind her she could feel the displeasure of her chief engineer. Her decision to increase speed wasn’t exactly popular with the engineering staff. Quite a few members in her crew agreed with them, and she did have to admit that it seemed risky.

The outpost glimmering in the light of distant stars, however, proved her right. They had gotten here before it could be destroyed. At least she thought so for a moment or two. As the view stabilized she began to pick out the lack of weapons fire. There was debris scattered around the system. The wreckage of destroyed ships. Some of it raider, some of it Valorian. No active raiders were in sight, nor did she see the mysterious aliens. Not at first.

It took a moment but a ship suddenly appeared on the screens as it began tearing into the wreckage of a raider. Several more popped on screens, all of them shuttle sized as they zipped around a frigate-sized chunk of ruined starship. Focused cutting beams tore it apart and tractor beams collected the wreckage with remarkable speed and efficiency. It took only minutes for the wreck to be disassembled and collected.

She didn’t have to wait long before another piece of raider debris was attacked in similar fashion. It seemed the mystery aliens were still around, and conducting salvage operations. Worse they didn’t seem to be showing up on standard sensor scans. Some kind of stealth technology perhaps? That was concerning, and made her feel uncomfortable.

“Status of the outpost?”

“The station has sustained moderate damage. Her shields are up, and at 69%. Weapon systems are on active standby.”

She noted that, and also mentally noted the absence of the fleet that was supposed to be protecting the outpost. Although at least some of the ships had been here, she could see the debris of destroyed Valorian ships. It seemed they had arrived too late to join the battle, and she had pushed the engines so that they could get here in time.

The commander let that hang for a moment before asking the dreaded question, “Drive status?”

Her glaring chief practically spat out the report, “Dead. You burned them out.”

She understood her chief engineer’s displeasure over that, but thankfully there was an outpost here. The commander made a mental note to have a chat with her chief engineer later.

She filed the condition of the engines mentally, and gave her next order. “Hail the outpost.”

A moment later a middle-aged woman appeared on the screen, her appearance somewhat dishevelled. The station commander perhaps. The other woman smiled, “Am I glad to see you.”

While she already had an idea she inquired anyway, “I rushed here as quick as I could. Faster than my crew would have liked in fact. What is your status, and is there anything I can do to assist?”

“Well enough considering. The remaining raiders jumped away awhile ago, and we’ve used the time to begin repairs to the defense grid.”

She nodded, “I notice your shields are still up. Expecting more trouble?”

The station commander shrugged, “Not really,” pausing she waved a hand out there, “but I don’t exactly trust my... new friends”

Glancing at her screens, “Yes, I can see why. Hard to trust someone when you can’t see them”

The other woman blinked, “You might want to adjust your sensors then. Something about their armor interferes with standard scans, but they aren’t invisible. Just hard to spot.”

“I take it you can see them, then?”

“You would be right about that. My science officer adjusted the sensors to pick them up. Its a small fleet, but they challenged the raiders and came out of the fight without even scratching the paint.”

“Ah, I see,” she replied not entirely sure what to make of what she was hearing. Changing the subject a bit, she inquired, “Have you spoken with the aliens?”

“Briefly. Not much to share about the exchange. They offered further assistance. I refused, and then they inquired about purchasing local star charts. They also inquired about the local political landscape.”

She frowned, “Sounds like they might be new to this area, and looking for information on what to expect.”

“I got that impression as well. Why else would they be asking for that kind of information? Although that information is readily available on the market anyway, so I sold it to them. I kind of hoped they would leave as soon as they got it, but as you can see they are still here.”

“Want me to try and scare em off then?”

“I would advise against that. That armor of theirs is quite strong. I don’t think anything short of a Concussion cannon could penetrate it.”

She laughed, that sounded like a fantasy. No armor short of maybe neutronium could withstand a plasma round. It was one of the reasons why plasma was such a popular choice for ship weapons. Kinetics were largely useless in space aside from niche roles. Kinetic rounds didn’t stand a chance against energy screens, and they ran aground of both economic and logistical issues. Energy weapons were significantly cheaper to fire, and easier to keep supplied. Plasma rounds became so popular since they were cheap, easy to supply, and very effective against both energy screens and armor. The high energy of the rounds could quickly overwhelm shields, and the extreme heat of the plasma rounds allowed them to melt through armor in an instant. Neutronium was the only material known to actually withstand plasma, although a few materials were known to be resistant. The problem was that all of those materials were somewhat exotic and expensive. Neutronium was especially expensive, and difficult to work with. Outfitting a single cruiser with Neutronium plating cost about the same as ten thousand cruisers of the same configuration minus the fancy armor.

She waved dismissively, “I see. Well in that case I’ll just keep an eye on them.”

A moment later the channel closed. She settled into her chair, and glanced back at the screen. The aliens were still conducting salvage, but she noted the amount of debris had shrunk considerably. It seemed they were very efficient at the job. At this rate there would be no evidence a battle even happened before the hour was out. Sooner perhaps given how quickly the debris was being taken apart and stowed within alien cargo holds.

She glanced at her own science officer. Who said, “Give me a moment, I’m almost done adjusting the sensors.”

She smiled, it was nice that at least some of her crew were efficient, and didn’t even need to be asked to do something. She knew some commanders could get prissy about that sort of thing, but personally the commander liked it when her orders were anticipated and carried out like this.

A moment later, the screens shifted. Three alien ships appeared along with quite a few small craft. All of them clearly engaged in salvage operations. The commander felt much better now that she could see them. Thankfully there weren’t any of them uncomfortably close to her own cruiser. She kept a close eye on them, as they worked. It wasn’t long before they were finished. They collected their small craft, and then jumped. She glanced at the screens, and noted the heading. The aliens were heading into a region of space often avoided as it was best described as politically unstable. War between minor spacefaring powers was common there. Merely traveling through the region was dangerous. Although something told her those aliens would be alright.