Author's note: The story will be set in the universe of The Arrival, but the Heptapods will not appear or at least that's what I'm planning so far. I will try my best to make sure that this timeline I'll write, won't collide at some point with the Movie's one, for example by a certain event that happened because Heptapods arrived. Hopefully, I cleared everything out. I'm also looking for a beta reader so I can release better quality chapters.
2440.9.23 A.D.
Danakian System.
Commonwealth of Man controlled space.
"Captain, we've got visual on the target." Spoke the crewman.
"Fire," Captain answered in an unemotional tone.
As the Captain had ordered to fire, the crew had fired upon the target which was classified as one of the last Unbidden ships remaining in the galaxy. The outdated railguns, which had been recently replaced with gauss cannons in newest vessels, sparked silently, accompanied with Gamma laser beam that almost instantly hit the target. After a volley of projectiles and beams that imploded on the target, the ship has been dropped from the sensors view after the last confirmed impact, making it destroyed.
"Approach the wreckage," As Captain ordered the crew to do so.
"Also, a thing, was that ship damaged before we shot it down? It came down too easily, too quickly."
"It seems so, sir, we have scanned the hull integration, including the shields, the hull was badly damaged by energy damage on it's top and the shield was depleted because one of it's generators was in the top section of the ship that was almost gone." The crewman had answered it quickly as if he waited for the Captain to ask.
"Badly damaged ... were any nearby units involved in any fight with the Unbidden last forces lately?"
"No sir, there were no reports of any conflict with any other units nearby this system it had to sneak through it seems."
"I see. Continue then." Captain had replied, unsatisfied with it.
The crew complied as they launched up the ship Impulse Thrusters to approach the debris floating in space.
After a short period of time, the ship has arrived close enough to the debris to investigate it for any technology that remains intact, as the Unbidden technology is very advanced. At the start of the war, the Commonwealth of Man wasn't even close to its technological status. The only reason why Commonwealth of War has won against the Unbidden is the quick reaction time and superior numbers, even though The extra-dimensional invaders smallest ships like corvettes could unleash hell onto small fleets in the Human fleet, the superior numbers, quick reaction time and also some luck saved them from doom.
"Scan the wreckage for any surviving components, we can learn something more from them. If it has anything valuable or unidentified, I need to know."
"Affirmative Captain, starting a complex scan. It's gonna take some time."
As the scan has been initiated, Captain left the bridge and headed to his quarters, since it was a long service and he needed some rest He rarely has. As he walked down the hallway he noticed the comparison image of the ship, as the main decoration and showcase of glory and progress of the ship. It's a comparison between now and 20 years ago, the first image shows the "C.N.S. Last Strike". It's a corvette class armed with few railguns, and UV laser, by now it's outdated technology. On the second image, the ship isn't a Corvette anymore, it's a cruiser after multiple heavy upgrades. Filled with advanced technology. The Advanced Railguns on the top and below, Gamma laser turrets on the rear and the front. It was also upgraded with few small hangar bays for space dogfights, boarding enemy ships, and also scouting planets within their atmosphere. The difference is colossal.
Captain was awed, no matter how many times he looks at the comparison, his memory of the ship and the showcase always awe him of the advances that Humanity has. Shortly after he started walking to his sleeping quarters, uninterrupted. Just as he entered his room he dispensed high-quality food and quickly ate it. Afterward, the Captain went to bed, almost instantly falling asleep.
"Captain? Captain, wake up. Sorry sir for interrupting your sleep, but We have full scan report, You need to see it." - Crewman while standing next to the fatigued Captain.
"You've already got it ... g-good. Tell me the details." The captain said that while half-asleep and barely talking.
"Sir, this ship we've scanned, it has an unusual object located inside, where it shouldn't be. That is because it's in the destroyed section, completely exposed, it should have been destroyed by the kinetic damage, if not the energy damage. Although it wasn't even harmed, we have also confirmed that it emits energy properties. It's unknown what that is or what it does, we need a research team to find that out. The problem is, we and the debris are on decaying orbit, and if we won't retrieve it now, it will crash into the planet, completely wasting the opportunity ... however, we can stop this if we send a small team to capture and retrieve the object if we accept the fact that we have no knowledge about it, and we are unsure of what it can do." The Crewman explained the situation in a cold and nervous tone, staring down the Captain's weakened eyes.
"This sounds ... dangerous. Although it could be beneficial for our technological progress as you said that it was mysteriously immune to our fire, especially since the risen tensions between the Commonwealth of Man and one of the Fallen Empires so if war breaks out, we will need the best technology possible. I'm willing to take the risk ... send in the team to retrieve it."
Captain was worried, knowing that the enemy had something that was immune to kinetic and energy attacks was alarming, or so he at least thought. He knew that if it does resist fire completely, they needed it. If a war would break out with one of the other Empires, it could be completely devastating for both sides, and the casualties would be countless. Upgrading a ship with so unstoppable material would save lives in future conflict, the energy that it emitted was something captain was even more worried about, because of the fear of unknown what that is, it could have been an FTL drive, it could have been a ticking bomb, nobody was certain of its abilities or purpose, so they needed to take caution, but they couldn't lose it.
Some minutes after the short report and the captain's orders, the retrieval team has been formed, and they are on the move to capture the object.
"Hang on tight. We're gonna be in the grabbing position in a few seconds. Man up the manipulator." Team Leader has ordered the team while piloting the shuttle.
"Alright, we're right above it, grab it. The sooner we're done the sooner we return to our homes." Team Leader has exclaimed.
"S-Sir, it won't budge off of the remaining hull, we need someone to cut it off."
"Then what are you people waiting for here? Corporal get to the Cutter."
The corporal followed his order and started to operate the cutting machine on the bottom of the shuttle. It was effective, although slow. He cut off the fragment with the object, ready to be extracted. The Manipulator pulled the object towards the shuttle, and maneuvered it carefully into the small bay and loaded it in.
"Good job people. We're heading back." Team Leader has announced to everyone aboard.
The shuttle changed it's course and started flying towards the C.N.S. Last Strike to land and unload the cargo that has been retrieved from the wreckage.
Upon its arrival, the shuttle floated slowly towards the cargo drop zone, while trying to be careful to not damage the extraterrestrial object. After they got in the right place, the shuttle hovered for a while and then opened the cargo bay doors, and used manipulators to slowly descend the cargo down to the designated area. Carefully and slowly it had been placed down and the shuttle closed it's cargo bay doors and landed nearby.
The onboard cargo staff loaded the object into a transport vehicle and secured the artifact to make sure it won't fall off, turned on the vehicle and moved it into the cargo bay area away from the shuttle bay. While a small science team that was already stationed on the ship moved with the cargo staff to analyze the fragment at close to find out answers of what it is and what it does if possible.
The science staff, as small as it is, began analyzing the component, testing it with tools for an electrical response. It had what it seemed to be buttons all around it, the staff was careful about it, and didn't push any, instead, they were analyzing it, marking the figures and symbols that were embedded on it. It was almost completely alien to the crew, it was nothing they have seen before.
"Chief, are you sure this is safe? Or even worth it? I really don't want to mess with this." The Jr. Scientist asked the Chief that was attending the research.
"I-I'm sure that we're safe. If it were dangerous, it wouldn't be on that ship, especially with its small size." Chief said nervously, Jr. The scientist had noticed his weird tone and knew that it's not safe.
"What a coward, if it could kill us, it would already, we're poking, probing, violating this thing and it doesn't do nothing, it's harmless I bet." The third scientist said without looking at them.
"I'm not a c-coward, It's ju-" He was cut off in the middle of the sentence because of the alarm. Everyone started running in all directions, some to the hangar bay to deploy in the fighters, some to the reactor, shield and other systems to maintain and fix if attacked. Some ran away to escape bay, which also has an emergency shelter in situations like those. Some stayed for some time to gather the data and information, take other things to other places, all as quickly as they could.
Pirate fleet had entered the system, and their course was on the ship. Although they had been noticed by the crew members that were stationed on the bridge, and immediately rang the alarm and called in the Captain to the situation. They automatically also armed and manned the weapon control systems. Shortly also started booting up the FTL drive if Captain would order to retreat.
When the Captain arrived on the bridge, he immediately called in to lock on the ships and deploy fighters from the bay. He also popped up the communication relay to the Command, requesting reinforcements.
"This is Michael Rolling, Captain of the C.N.S. The last Strike, I'm requesting immediate reinforcements to Danakian System, we are under attack by the pirates. Over."
"This is John Troy, Admiral of the fleet, we understand your situation and there is already fleet to aid you in the battle. Expect reinforcements in a few hours. Over and out."
Captain left the communication relay and now all He could do is watch the battle as it goes on, while the crew is doing their best to shoot the enemy down. The railguns have been fired, the mighty power of the kinetic weapons due to its insane velocity, imploded on an enemy vessel within seconds after firing, only to be deflected by the shields, even though it was deflected, it drained one of the ship's shield immensely. Silent shots were fired one after another, finally, the laser turrets were powered up, and ready to fire, and so they have. The focused fire of the laser turrets immediately destroyed the smaller corvette after being hit on with kinetic weaponry. Until the first hit to the ship's shield, the enemy's weapons are now in range. The hits weren't that deadly, old, outdated pirate's coilguns and mass drivers did little against Humanoid advanced shields, which only were damaged a little, compared to them. Though, one lucky shot went through the shields, because they weren't perfect, advanced yes, but depleted shields aren't tough enough to stop everything from coming in, the more unlucky the crew was, because it hit right in the cargo bay where there still were some people left. The explosion inside created chaos, and the pressure change, hole to space and running out oxygen made everything go flying, hitting objects, people, and especially the artifact.
One unlucky person, the Chief Scientist that was still gathering all the data left, during the explosion went flying straight to the artifact, hitting it with leg and hitting a combination of buttons that made the artifact start to glow. The scientist still went flying to the wall, but was lucky enough to grab a small metal fence, and even luckier to be right next to the emergency oxygen set, which he immediately opened and put on his head. When he put it on his head, he turned to see on the hole in the hull, people and cargo getting sucked out, and some lucky to hold onto stable things, while the oxygen and pressure in the room was quickly escaping out into the space. The Scientist noticed that the thing they recovered, started glowing, at first only slightly blue, but as time passed by that seemed like hours but were just seconds, it was more bright.
Till it finally was bright so hard, he couldn't see anything, he closed his eyes and looked away.
"Captain, we are hit! They hit the cargo bay! That's where the object is at, we need to activate emergency drive, now qui- Whoa, we're noticing growing energy spike in the cargo bay ... it's this thing! Shit, we're done!" Just after the startled and panicked crew member announced, the whole spacecraft was immediately covered in a shell of energy, traveling through a wormhole to an unknown location.
"S-Sir, we're doing an emergency jump?"
...
"Captain? This isn't emergency jump, it doesn't look like it is"
"I don't know. I'm not sure what happened. Crew, I want a report of the damage and the ship status, I also want to know where are we and how did we get here. I didn't initiate emergency jump, and we're not in hyperspace, or in the jump, not at least ours."
After a few minutes of researching the data about the ship's current systems if they malfunction or work, and the damage status on what has been destroyed or damaged, the crew had finalized the report.
"Captain, our shields have been depleted almost completely, it wouldn't be much of a problem, but our reactors have been damaged and some even destroyed, and their output has been lowered, we're unsure how long it will take for the shields to recharge completely. The cargo bay is also inoperable. There is a breach in the hull, and it requires immediate repairs, the problem is, all the repair equipment is exactly in the cargo bay, while there are some minor repair kits on other sections, it's not enough to fix the hull. We've also lost approximately 10 life marks on the ship, so it's safe to say, they're dead. Although there still are 2 life marks in the cargo bay but we've already sent a small rescue team to extract them from there. Back to the reactors, they weren't damaged by the pirate's fire, no, it was this, this thing. When it spiked in power, it hurt the reactors, but we're lucky it didn't burn them all." Crewman reported.
"Do we have enough power to sustain a jump, or hyperspace entrance?" Captain asked while being quite startled.
"I doubt so sir, if we would use all of our reactors then we could have a chance, and also if we use it at overdrive, which will damage the reactors, and possibly even destroy them. It's very risky not only because of that but if we would use all our power for the jump or entering hyperspace, we would lose life support system and most electrical equipment, doors, control stations, and computers, we could at best sustain only our computers and stations on the bridge, nothing else."
"Shit, we still can send a message to the Command to send help ... Do you know how did we get here?"
"I'm unsure sir, but I suspect it was this object, let me call it even a drive. After the energy spike, we've entered this, uh, jump, presumably. Although I'm afraid it's technology to open the portals, between the Unbidden and our universe, and if that's true, then we might end up in their dimension, that's the worst-case scenario."
"If your worst case scenario is actually right, and so far it seems like it is, then we won't even survive a minute. I remember how they flooded the portal they entered to out universe, galaxy. They flooded the portal, hundreds of ships, some even colliding with eachother. We were lucky that we had stationed a local fleet in that system that managed to destroy the portal, before being destroyed itself." Captain looked through the bridge window, staring into the wormhole they've entered.
That's it for this chapter. Since you've seen what's the crossover with, and also the first note, it's common sense of what will happen later on, on where they will end up. Hope you liked it, please review it, and follow it to be contacted on the new chapters. Feel free to point out story contradictions,if any, it will really help.