Solarforscher

Chapter I: Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum

"God…I can't these fucking terms down" starship commander John Simth cursed. He's just been assigned to Earth's first interstellar warship, christened Solarforscher, which is in German. He is wearing a dark-blue naval-officer outfit with the Solar Navy logo on his hat, a ship with a planet behind it.

"Don't worry commander, we'll know what you're talking about…" the pilot, a Caucasian male with a crew-cut hairstyle, shrugged. The Solarforscher is mostly an Aircraft-carrier convert with a few modifications.

"Alright, pilot, steer the ship by…damnit, just get us to Tau Ceti" the captain said.

"Lay course to Tau Ceti, aye" the pilot acknowledged.

---

"ALL HANDS, PREPARE FOR LIGHT-TRAVEL" the intercom blared in rooms and hallways.

"Oh man, this is gonna get good!" 1st Lieutenant Alex Anderson exclaimed, excited. After hearing this, he strapped himself in his travel-chair, and braced for the jump.

"Better then the time you lost your virginity?" his roommate, Staff Sergeant Neil Primha, laughed.

"Shut up!" he exclaimed. Alex was a Caucasian Force Recon marine wearing a black-colored suit with an Interceptor armor strapped on to him, his ballistic helmet donning Night vision goggles. Neil was out of his armor, and donned a green t-shirt with camo pants, brown boots and dog-tags.
Neil only laughed.

---

"Everyone, status" John ordered.

"Mass drivers and Point Defense systems online and fully functional" weapons control-man reported.

"Thrusters at half-capacity, heat sink engaged, heat is at safe 10%" the engineer reported.

"Life support and artificial gravity shows no signs of danger, good to go" a 2nd engineer reported.

"FTL-drive 100% efficiency, we're all good to go" the pilot joined.

"Tau Ceti is charted, awaiting FTL-jump" the astronomer reported.

"All hands, engage FTL-drive!" John exclaimed. A beam of light shot forward from the ship, and in a second, opened a portal filled with neon-blue and stars.

"3…2…1…" the pilot counted. After they passed the entrance, everybody was rocketed backwards at the sudden increase in speed. John held a death-grip on the rail of the platform, his legs dangling in mid-air. After a few…agonizing minutes, the ship stopped, and everybody who was flying…crashed down.

"Tau Ceti is sighted…size…about a 7" the astronomer, a Latino male with thinning hair and a Fu-Manchu beard, reported.

"About 5 planets sighted, two a Terran climate" the engineer reported, an African-American with a short afro.

"The other three?" John cocked an eyebrow.

"One is a rocky planet, the other is volcanic, and the last an Arctic" the 2nd engineer replied.

"Send probes down to the Terran planets, I want atmosphere statistics…" John nodded.

"Moving ship to establish orbit around Terran-1" the pilot informed.

---

"God…" Alex moaned. After the jump ended, he puked up the remains of his breakfast. Neil just laid on the ground, also nauseous.

"That pre-physical routine really makes your stomach weak…" Neil groaned.

"You can say that again…" Alex replied, throwing his puke-bag into the incinerator, and then activating the Air-cycle.

"ATTENTION ALL HANDS, SHIP IS APPROACHING TERRAN-1, AND ANOTHER TERRAN IS SPOTTED ALONG WITH THREE UNINHABITALE PLANETS" the intercom announced.

"Aw shit, right when we got sick…" Neil complained.

"C'mon, let's hope it fades away when we get prepped up…" Alex got up and approached the door to the room…

XXX

"Stable orbit established sir, probes are at a good launch distance" the pilot announced after a minute.

"Engineer, make it so" John nodded.

"Launch probe, aye" the engineer replied, typing a few commands. The ship shook when the probe launched, and after a second, the probe appeared at the bridge. It was basically a blocky cylinder computer with legs that has blocks attached to the bottom of it. After a minute, the probe disappeared beneath the white cloud of the planet.

"How do we name planets sir?" the astronomer asked.

"Use the star name, and then a number, let's name this Tau Ceti I" John answered.

"Tau Ceti I, aye" the astronomer saved the name on the holographic map. The bridge was an industrial setting: the floor looked metal, the wall was metal, the ceiling was metal, hell, the damn whole thing was metal.

"Sir, we're getting a strange anomaly about 3 parsecs starboard-side" the engineer reported.

XXX

"Fox, look at the radar here…" Slippy the Toad said, pointing to the map on the terminal in front of him. Fox McCloud stepped over and leaned over to look at the map.

"Hmmm" Fox studied the map. The green blip was coming from Star-EB423, about 3 parsecs port-side.

"ROB, got an ID on that?" Fox looked at the ship's humanoid robot, ROB.

"Affirmative, transponder is in a foreign language…translation reads: Solarforscher" ROB reported.

"Design?" Fox cocked an eyebrow.

"Not logged in Cornerian database, or any enemy we've encountered, I recommend investigating" ROB said.

"A new ship, eh? I guess it's worth checking out" Falco Lombardi agreed.

"Fox…the mysterious ship is detecting us, they don't know about us though…they perceive us as an anomaly" Krystal said, removing her hands from her temples.

"ROB, what's their position?" Fox continued.

"Alpha planet, scanners detect they launched a probe onto the planet" the robot reported.

"It's an explorer ship obviously" Slippy said.

"Alright then, Slippy, get us there!" Fox ordered, returning to his position on the platform in the middle of the bridge.

"You got it!" Slippy exclaimed, typing the coordinates and then pushing a button. The ship, the Great Fox, disappeared in a bright-green light.

---

"Sir! The anomaly is heading towards us, sub-light speed!" the engineer reported after the radar started beeping.

"Shit! Is the statistics showing yet?" John cursed.

"Affirmative, 65% Nitrogen, 30% Oxygen and 1% Carbon Dioxide, about 1.5 times Earth pressure" the 2nd engineer reported hastily.

"Alright, let's escape to Alpha Centauri and-"

"We can't sir! Heat is at 45%, if we make a jump, we're gonna have to Freeze, and they could possibly catch up to us!" the engineer informed.

"God damnit, alright, let's land on Tau Ceti I and hide there!" John ordered.

"Escape to planet, aye!" the pilot nodded. The ship lurched forward and the planet started growing in size.

"Captain, if I may" the ship's Physicist, Dr. Allen Shopfer, a German who gained a Ph. D in physics, came in.

"Go ahead" John crossed his arms.

"I recommend dropping a Radi-beacon so they won't follow us to the ground, I suspect that they don't have the equipment to shield themselves from the radiation" Allen proposed. The Radi-beacon is a 20m wide cylinder shaped generator that when activated remotely, sucks in atoms and greatly destabilizes them, rendering them Gamma-type radiation. The only metal capable of repelling this radiation is Lead.

"I see, crew! Allen has the conn!" John shouted.

"Physicist has the conn, aye!" the engineer repeated.

"Engineer, drop the Radi-beacon when we're close to the atmosphere, and past the electromagnetic field the planet generates!" the physicist ordered.

"Drop beacon, aye!" the engineer started typing in commands on the holographic terminal.

"Beacon primed!" the engineer announced.

"Launch!"

"Launched!" the ship shook and the crew swore they felt the ship go slightly faster.

---

"Fox! The ship is retreating towards the planet, they know we're coming!" Slippy informed, slightly greener.

"What the…how did they know?!" Fox exclaimed, having a green tint as well.

"They dropped some sort of generator behind them, and by the color of the minds I read, it might be dangerous" Krystal warned.

"Slippy, how long until we're out of hyperspace?" Fox glanced at him.

"Just a few more seconds!" Slippy replied, looking over the computer.

XXX

A bright green light flared in front of the Terran planet, and the Great Fox appeared after the light vanished.

"Unknown object detected, scanning…" ROB informed. "Warning, object generates highly lethal amounts of Gamma radiation, I strongly recommend not approaching it"

"How can we get past it?" Falco asked, leaning against a wall.

"Two options concluded: we can destroy it, and wait for the radiation to dissipate, or we can try to reach too high of speed to get lethal contamination" ROB said after a second.

"ROB, scan the area, estimate time when it's safe to enter the planet after we destroy it" Fox looked at the cylinder object floating in orbit.

"Estimation time is one minute"

"That's too long, the ship's crew is trying to hide from us" Krystal shook her head.

Fox sighed. "Alright, Slippy try the second option, ROB, what's the recommended speed?"

"Calculating…" the robot was quiet for a minute. "About 275 knots"

"Slippy?" Fox cocked an eyebrow.

"It'll strain the engines, but they'll make it" Slippy said.

"Slippy, make it so!"

-----

"Sir, the ship is bugging off!" the 2nd engineer reported.

"Looks like your right egghead" John chuckled. "They won't take it"

"When was I ever wrong?" Allen gave a cocky expression.

"Sir! The ship is climbing speed! Passed 145 knots!" the engineer shouted.

"What the, Allen!" John glared at the German.

"They're probably gonna try and zip past the generator!" Allen gave a worried expression.

"215 knots!"

"Geographer!" John looked at the scientist sitting at the table.

"Sir!" the man saluted, a Caucasian with poofy hair.

"Where's the safest spot to hide?"

The geographer studied the map, and circled a spot. "A clearing in a dense forest, they'll find our ship, but they won't find us"

"Get the Marines, Spetsnaz and Air Force pilots ready…"

------

"ALL HANDS, RETRIEVE YOUR EQUIPMENT, AND STAND BY FOR DEPLOYMENT" the intercom blared.

"Aw great, I still feel nauseous…" Alex groaned. Since the ship was a carrier convert, there was small room in the hallways, which meant it was slightly crowded. He and Neil dashed towards the armory, and opened their lockers.
Alex retrieved his HK416 rifle while Neil rushed to equip his armor.

"That's why I keep my armor on except when I go to sleep" Alex laughed.

"Shut up!" Neil growled. After his armor his equipped, Neil brought out his M4/M203 carbine with an EOTech holo-sight and laser/flashlight attachment.

"I hope the American stereotype is wrong" a Russian Spetsnaz, Mikhail Vikholvsky, said. "It's about to get hot soon"

"What stereotype?" Alex gave a suspicious look.

"That you are cowards and retreat when the heat intensifies"

"Well we aren't, we take care of our own" Neil said, irritated.

"Then let's hope that is the real reason…"

---

"Altitude is at 45,021feet above ground sir" the pilot reported. "Drop rate is 152ft per second"

"Weapons-control, get the weapons online and primed in case of attack" John glanced at the port-side terminal operator.

"Bring weapons online and primed, aye" he nodded, a Middle-Eastern middle age man.

"3,000 ft, activating landing gear" the pilot announced. A metallic sound rang through the cockpit, and a sudden small-lurch upwards signaled it was down.

"Landing…" the pilot worked hastily on the computer, stabilizing the landing gear and bringing the ship towards a slow, but steady stop. After a minute, the forest towered above the ship, and all systems save for life-support, Artificial gravity and weapons were offline.

"And now we wait…" John sat down, resting his feet on the rails…