Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Captain’s Log November 9th, 158 CSD;

We are now on the final approach to Proxima, the nearest star to Earth. Despite a few delays, we are arriving around when I first figured we would. The warp drive failure did set us back, but Ruri convinced me to push the engines harder, and the increased speed allowed us to reach the system as originally planned. It matters not, but in a few days, we can begin a survey of the system. More importantly, Ruri has a few projects ready for prototyping. Including a modification of our warp drive configuration. With several months use of data, and several inspections showing the effects of use. She already has an idea of what we can do to push the engines towards our goal of warp four. In fact she is already making promises about warp five

I’m optimistic about that, as well. Ruri bases this on the fact that the Cathamari drives we based ours on by all rights should be able to breach warp five. The problem with their drives is that they are inherently inefficient, abhorrently so. They also suffer from the same heat problems ours do, and we found that they likely also suffer from similar coil stress. Ruri’s more recent reports from those salvaged drives found that they solved their coil stress problem differently than we did. They employed a redundant coil system, that allows them to switch coils every so often to avoid them burning out or fracturing. It does make their engine modules larger than ours though. Anyway, her current project reports expect it would take about a month of trails to reach warp four, and another five months tops to complete her research on warp five. After that any further research into warp drive technology would slow dramatically.

In other news, her work on compressed particle weapons is also ready for field tests. She has several prototypes ready for field testing. She wasn’t comfortable trying to test these weapons in the lab, so that project has been stuck in the simulation phase for a few months now. It shouldn’t be too hard to find some barren rock to field test these new particle weapons on. If they work as planned, we will be implementing the upgrades. As much as I would like to hope we won’t need them, experience has taught me that we will. Especially with the Cathamari as an indication. It is a hostile universe, and we will need every advantage in order to survive. Allies would be nice as well, but I won’t bet our future on that. I must put my faith instead in the only things I can the Human spirit, and our natural ingenuity and adaptiveness. Not to mention when diplomacy fails, the only thing left to rely on is a healthy set of weapons and good armor.

As for Proxima, and Alpha Centauri, we expect the survey of the systems and the testing to keep us well occupied while we work. There are a few planets in orbit of Proxima, one of which may be habitable. While Alpha Centauri also has a candidate. Of course, this is based on long-range observations, and scans. A scout ship was sent by Venus colony a few years back, and there is a possibility that it made it to the system. If it did, they would be about halfway through their expected survey by now. While we have no plans to settle the system any data they do have on the system will be invaluable. Since we plan to stay for a few months, finding local resources we can harvest would be critical.

The ship itself, is a Newton class science vessel. Its a mere 340 meters long, with 22 decks. Designed for a crew complement of around 220. For defense, it carries two banks of outdated particle cannons, they aren’t particularly powerful guns either. The class wasn’t built with combat in mind. In fact that also shows with the armor. The ship is protected by a mere half meter of polarized titanium hull plating. That is honestly not much of a protection, enough to protect against lighter threats like pirate ships, and marauders. Any real warship could easily destroy a Newton.

What the Newton lacks in defense capability she more than makes up for with agility. It was one of the fastest ship classes of its day. Able to easily outrun most foes, thanks to a particularly powerful and robust engine configuration. Not only could she outrun them but she also had stamina. The ship featured extended fuel cells, that gave her a superb range. There was a reason the ship was chosen for a years-long scientific mission to a neighboring star. It was one of the few ships that could not only make the trip but make it back. Afterall at sublight speeds, you were talking about a trip of over a decade. Not an easy or quick journey to be sure, but certainly a feasible one. Although the trip was certainly not an idea that was widely entertained. Many felt that such a trip was premature and too risky. Still, the idea did find traction among the people of Venus colony, and they ultimately funded the mission. Providing both a ship and crew to the service of those interested. To be honest I was among those opposed to sending a ship to Proxima at sublight speeds. As I saw it, FTL technology was just around the corner, and that in all probability we would have the technology and be able to make the trip there, and back before the sublight vessel could complete the mission. As it turned out I was right, to a degree.

Eri’s practiced hands flew over the controls. While the procedure had been utterly new to her a few months ago, it has become somewhat familiar now that she had done it so many times. They often dropped out of warp for brief periods during the journey. Mostly so that the officers could meet and discuss matters that affected everyone. To her, it seemed that after a few months people were starting to settle in. Figure out their rhythm and whatnot. The children even had a school, not that it kept them out of trouble. They still found time to do things they weren’t supposed to be doing. In fact, to her, it seemed the children were the ones who had best adapted to the change.

The ship dropped out of warp, and following procedure, she double checked the sensors. Before reporting, “We are secure from warp speed sir.”

Behind her from the balcony, Countryman said, “Good. Begin active area scans, and then set course for the nearest planet, ahead one half engine power.”

She acknowledged and repeated the order. Before carrying it out. It was standard procedure, and something she was trained to do. It was second nature to her now. On the bride, almost every station had access to the external sensors. Operations or science was supposed to do the more detailed scanning, but at the helm she could initiate active scans as well. Tactical also had the option to initiate a scan. There were merits to this set up. She tapped her console and started a scan. Within moments, the ship’s sensors had picked up and registered the local objects.

There were a few objects nearby. The Coto, and Umikaze naturally showed up on sensors, both ships a little over a thousand kilometers away. A bit closer on the scans was a lone chunk of ice, but it wasn’t yet close enough to a star to start producing a vapor trail. A quick extrapolation of its course showed that in a few months it would be. Further out were other chunks of ice, but nothing really interesting. They were on the edge of the system, the more interesting items would be closer in. Still chunks of ice were useful, water was a valued substance with many uses. They had plenty now, and the reclamation systems made sure they always had some available. Still the ice chunks around here might be useful. She made note of them.

The nearest planet was over two hundred thousand kilometers away. It was smaller than Earth but bigger than Mars. Preliminary readings indicated it wasn’t habitable, but that was no surprise. There was only one planet orbiting Proxima that had any chance to be habitable. This was not that planet. There were other planets with a chance of habitability in the system, but they were around the other stars. A rather significant distance from here. As for that first planet, it was the furthest out from Proxima and was little more than a ball of ice, and rock. A more detailed scan may reveal more about it. She set a course so that they could conduct those detailed scans. It would be a few hours before they reached the planet, unless they increased speed.

The leisurely approach was perfectly fine in her mind though, and it was what the captain wanted. It wasn’t like they were in a rush to get anywhere. Hell the only schedules they had to keep were their own. The captain was now the unofficial ruler of the human race, and was the only higher power they answered to. There was a certain freedom to their current existence. Reporting that they were underway, she returned her attention to the sensors. Studying the incoming data from their first active scans of a new system.

All previous surveys of this system had been done from lightyears away. Those sensors had never been able to give them a detailed analysis of the system. It gave them a rough map of the system, and a general idea of what resources maybe in the system. Much more could be answered now that they were actually here. The Alpha Centauri system was a trinary system containing three stars, the one nearest Earth was Proxima the star they had recently came out of warp near. Proxima had five planets, and an asteroid belt.

Interestingly the complex gravity of the system had resulted in significant asteriodal regions. These regions were denser than Sol’s belt, and frankly populated with a larger number of large asteroids. Preliminary readings indicated high metal contents, very high metal contents. The largest and densest region of asteroids was located between Proxima, and Alpha Centauri AB.

As for Proxima’s five planets, none of them were gas giants. The two closest ones were composed of rock and ice, while the other three were just rock. Although that didn’t mean they had no water. Preliminary reading indicated that the second planet conventionally labeled Proxima Centauri b had subsurface water. Its surface was dry, and barren. No atmosphere had survived. That was actually expected most modeling of the planet indicated it would have none, while it did have its own magnetic field it was weak. Too weak to have protected the barren rock from its host stars stellar winds. The presence of subsurface water however meant this world was a terraforming candidate. Creating an atmosphere was well within their means, they had started doing that for Luna using a mixture of magnetic fields and artificial gravity generators. The project had ended up on hold however due to the Cathamari war. It was no cheap endevour. Much the same could be done for Proxima Centauri b. Just she saw no reason for them to even bother with the effort.

While too far out to get any readings, she had read up on what the knew about Alpha Centauri AB. The two stars were named Rigel Kentaurus commonly abbreviated as Rigel Kent, and Toliman. Kent had nine identified planets, three of them in her habitable zone. Again no gas giants. While Toliman had seven identified planets two of them were in the habitable zone. As usual for this system there were no gas giants. That lack of gas giants had contributed to the large number asteroids and planets in the system. What this meant was that there were a lot of places in the system that might have resources. Not to mention plenty of space to test new warp engine configurations. This system may prove just what they need to complete the warp project. Not to mention she had heard there were a few other projects that need testing, and this system would be great for it.

The ship leader leaned over the console. It had been several months since she took command of the IKS Teketh. She was quite the ship, and her mission to investigate Cathamari activities in this sector had proved interesting so far. It might have been easier with a cloaking device, but those things were still relitvively new. They hadn’t yet entered widespread use,a nd the Teketh was never equipped with one. Even if she was the ship was far larger than anything they had cloaked before. Those things took a lot of power to function, and the bigger the item you were trying to cloak the more energy it took. Now since smaller ships also had weaker powerplants, this meant when one did the work that there was a sweetspot for cloaking devices.

Fighters, shuttles, corvettes, and other small ships didn’t have the power generation for it, even though their smaller size reduced the energy needed for the cloak. While heavy cruisers, and battleships were simply too large for it. The amount of energy needed was more than they could generate despite their impressive power plants. Frigates, and Destroyers however were sitting in the golden zone, their size was just right to support the power plant for it, and the cost wasn’t too high either. As such it only ships of that size that had cloaking.

Of course she had a feeling that she was sent because they didn’t just want ot investigat the Cathamari activities. They wanted to show the flag, and remind the Empire they were here. While other concerns had kept them occupied in recent years, it was time that the Imperium started paying attention to this region again. Especially with how the recent wave of conquest from the Empire was leading to widespread instability in the region. Refugees were fleeing the fleets of the Empire in droves. These poor refugees were lucky if they found a world any world to take them in. Forcing large numbers of them to resort to piracy just to survive. The rise in piracy was causing problems in numerous sectors throughout this part of the galaxy.

At the moment she was noting Catharmari fleet movements in this sector, and the locations of a few supply bases. The positions of these bases indicated they were staging grounds, and she had marked out two systems that seemed likely to be the target. The first was a lone yellow star, while the other was a trinary system. She felt the lone star was the more likely target, due to preliminary readings. However she noticed several warp signatures approaching the trinary system. She ordered a course set there to investigate. The signatures she wanted to investigate were Cathamari, but she noticed something else as well.

It had only popped up seconds ago. She doubted the Cathamari could detect it, their sensors were primitive. The real question was why she didn’t pick this up earlier. She knew not who else was there, but it seemed at least one ship was already in the system, and they were not Cathamari. Although the only reason she could detect them was due to their active scanning pulses. Her FTL scanners could pick up the spatial scanning pulses even from here.

Her helmsman looked up, “We are ready to jump, ship-leader”

“Initiate jump sequence.”

Her order was acknowledged, in a few moments the Teketh would make the first jump to that system. She would arrive roughly around the same time the Cathamari fleet did. She was curious to learn why that fleet was headed that way. No point speculating yet, she would find out soon enough when they arrive in few weeks, sooner if she pushed. Although there was little reason to do that.