The true nature of Humanity
Hi I am Cerberus22, this is my first ever story that I have written seriously and have become rather fond of it, from dropping in time to time to add to it every time an idea popped into my head it has grown from a few hundred words to a few thousand. It isn't really based on anything in particular although it has origins from Halo and Warhammer 40K, It also has ideas from Babylon 5 and Star Trek. I hope you enjoy it and please review.
Prologue
The Year is 2335 and after countless years of war, battles and bloodshed, Humanity has spread from the industrial hive that is earth, searching for cleaner air and larger space. Beginning with Mars the entire habitable planets in the Sol system were colonized, Mars became a massive shipyard able to produce ships at an amazing speed from fighters in an hour to a dreadnought in 3 months. They then spread to Venus which became a massive gas refinery and then Mercury which became a massive underground living complex. But soon, even with the new space afforded to them humanitys true nature arose, the sought bigger lands to own, better weapons and better lives. Seeing the almighty power of Earth as the one barrier stopping them from achieving their goal, both men and women alike from Mercury, Venus and even Eartth itself rebelled gathering in the underground vaults of Mercury these rebels against society plotted to overthrow the Sol systems seat of power. Suddenly they struck out from Mercury aiming straight for Mars the nerve centre of the military might of earth. Anyone controlling that controlled both the military and Earth. However the Inter-Planetary Defence Force (I-PDF) anticipating an attack was ready and quickly struck them down. However militia sprung up across Mars and Earth from the remnants of the rebellion and from this came years of killing and needless violence, the only reason that this fighting stopped was because of events unfolding around the 5th planet of the solar system.
The final Sol planet colonized was Jupiter; after strenuous efforts to build a artificial planet at the core the idea was eventually terminated and instead large station was deployed in the gaseous atmosphere which became both a research station and a vacation resort.
It was from this planet that the ability to jump was found in the very place colonisation was going to begin, its core. Many scientists speculated at how Jupiter was held together as no one had ever reached the core. As their technology increased the Jupiter station became the home of a massive scientific vessel being built to be deployed to the core. In the year 2370 it was released on its journey, it was a slow moving all the way as the high winds and spontaneous appearances of thick cloud and fog made piloting the craft damn neat impossible, contact with the ship was sporadic from the start as Jupiter's clouds interfered with transmission systems. But soon, 4 hours after its launch, contact with the ship failed completely.
All attempts to regain contact failed, until 3 months later a message pinged its way to the station, although degraded the message revealed one major thing, the core of Jupiter was a something massive, something so powerful it had the ability to literally transport ships to distant galaxies, it was soon nicknamed a jump gate. After travelling through this the exploration vessal had ended up in another star system. Using a tracking system the scientists found that the ship and its crew had been transported over 200 light years away to a distant obsolete solar system.
With this news the Earth fleet decided to send a major incursion force through the gate not only to protect the science vessel but to survey and colonise this foreign system. After only a week a fleet of over a fifty capital ships and hundreds of smaller destroyers and frigates had arrived, as the soon took their positions in the tight knight formation, read for the jump to this alien system. The ships all began moving as one great mass towards the gate, as they neared the gate glowed a light blue and began shimmering and expanding to incorporate the mass of ships about to move through it. In a single flash of deep blue the entire fleet was beamed to the necessary system in a heartbeat. But as they travelled through the gate many of their ships were damaged as they jumped into a massive debris field which was quickly identified to be the remains of the science vessel, within this cluster of wreckage, a small scarlet red ship was found. A loud screech sounded across all communication channels as the ship shot forward, fired a volley of shots obliterating several frigates and severely damaging a cruiser and then opened an unknown portal that matched the colour of its hull and disappeared. After months of massive work the military deciphered the language of the unknown alien craft. The message was very short, "We are the Dimari you will be terminated".
After this realisation a massive defensive station was set up on the opposite end of the Jupiter jump gate, this was guarded at all times to prevent any attack from the Dimari. The reality finally echoed throughout humanities colonies after several attacks by the Dimari on the station. We are at War
It is 235 years after these events. Our technology has advanced but the war still continues. We have pushed the Dimari back and know control many other systems, We have developed the ability to control the jump gates destination. Our story begins with the EFS frigate Titan as it is on the prowl for Dimari incursions, but they are about to find something much more frightening.
Chapter 1: Prepare for Battle
The sound echoed through the ship, the crunching of the rusting deck plates as the captain walked across his bridge glancing at each of his bridge crew franticly working at each of their terminals keeping his light frigate coasting through the inky blackness of space.
"Report" the Captain growled at the nearest man, the lieutenant turned, snapped to attention and then dropped his hand with much less enthusiasm as the Captain waved him off. "Sir" he whispered, "scanner reports that there are no ships within range, looks like intelligence was wrong". The Captain snorted "ha, don't be so assuming Jones nothing with the Dimari is as it seems surely you have learnt this by now
And as if the holy creator himself was to provide proof another crewmember, this one scarred so badly the parts of the face became discernable turned and yelled to the Captain "Sir unknown contacts jumping in, several vortexes opening up." "Red alert, all hands to battle stations. Power up the kinetic barriers and bring us about."
At this the captain sat upon his command chair as his crew franticly ran across the bridge as they ran to their station. The captains flicked open his com and calmly spoke out loud "Computer activate the view screen and open ship wide communication". The screen flickered and then the red flashes of the vortex portals opening in front of the ship illuminated the dim bridge and out of them cruised 12 Dimari star ships of varying class. After a sudden flash of fear, which slivered through his body like a cold black eel, the captain quickly shook it out of himself and without any more hesitation declared both to the crew and the Dimari "This is the EFS frigate Titan calling the Dimari ships, please respond, what is your purpose here". For a short time the only noise was static and the churning groan that was a constant echo produced by the old ship. Then a blaring incoherent screech blasted through the bridge. "Lieutenant where the hell is that translation software." A young freckly boy jumped up banging his head on the overhanging monitor at his station as he scrambled to find the correct program "Sorry sir there must be a fault it is supposed to activate the second any other language is spoken, DAMN IT!" he yelled as smoke hissed form his station. He smacked it with his fist and the screeching halted as quickly as it had begun, instead it was replaced with what it could of been a whisper with just one word "Kill". At this the captain jumped to attention and yelled down his com "all gun decks charge weapons." He then spun around and addressed a black haired women concentrating at her station "Gunnery chief send the decks firing solutions and send me a list of weak points in the fleet to my station" With this the gunnery chief dropped her head and busily began her work.
As the Captain surveyed both his crew as they rushed to prepare the ship for battle and the Dimari as they manoeuvred into firing positions he became aware of a low humming noise behind him as he turned he noticed a young midshipman seemingly hypnotised by the Dimari ships, with a look of fear he suddenly screamed out "Creator help us were all going to die" Before he could take another breath the captain had whirled around and from his hip drew a gun and sent a bullet spinning into the midshipman's skull, the look of fear in his eyes disappeared to be replaced by a glaze of nothingness just as his body met the deck. The entire crew turned to see what the disturbance was. The more experienced crew members quickly returned to their work while the rest stayed where they were watching as the captain strode forward closing the dead midshipmen's eyes whilst whispering "In death may you find solace" Without any more deliberation the captain returned to his chair and waved to guards over to move the body of the bridge.
His chair bleeped as his requests for tactical information with a nod of thanks to the gunnery chief he reviewed the information. As he looked over this data he began to formulate a plan. He turned to his communications officer "Cole prepare a distress beacon make sure it contains all the details of our current situation then plot a jump course to the Hexan station" "Captain" a Cadet stammered, the Captain twisted in his seat and found the cadet standing in the middle of the deck, pointing at the view screen. As the Captain stared from the cadet to the screen he noticed the Dimari ships, they were no longer moving instead all along their combined hulls he could see a bright light as they charged their weapons. A large shell coated in an unknown energy source was the Dimari's main weapon, and right then hundreds of these were being levelled at the Titan. "Damn" the Captain yelled then screaming into his com "All hands brace for impact." At this point the bridge was illuminated as the view screen lit up with a pure bright light. The Dimari opened fire in a massive salvo of death. The first sign that the captain had of damage was the shuddering as the Dimari
Fire first impacted against the Kinetic barriers, then as they dispersed the fire continued on to melt holes in the exposed side of the ship. The sound of screeching metal echoed through the bridge as multiple hull breaches occurred. Crew both standing and seated alike were thrown to the floor from the shuddering of the ship.
The ships structure moaned and groaned as if it were an old beast as more and more fire smashed into its broken hide. As the ship began to list to one side the captain quickly surveyed the bridge as his crew began to pick themselves up he glanced at each making sure that each was not wounded. Finding nothing he flicked his com and shouted "All ready gun decks return fire immediately" He tapped a couple of commands into his inbuilt data slate and quickly brought the ships damage report up.
He was distracted from this as his ship shuddered again this time from the propulsion of a hundred shells each fired toward the front pocket of the Dimari fleet. "Bring us about and prepare another broadside volley". The image from the view screen began to move as the ship pivoted on its axis. In this brief relief from combat (as the Dimari tracked the Titans movements for another volley) the captain swiftly surveyed the damage report and just as swiftly smashed his hand into his armrest "Damn it" the Captain growled "How did the Dimari do this much damage, we have breaches on all major decks, two of our seven gun decks are damaged beyond repair and our engines took a shot reducing our possible speed to fifty percent".
"Commander Janos activate the evacuation protocol for the ship however all bridge crew must stay with me." After registering the looks of dismay radiating from his younger crew members the captain added "We will leave soon don't worry, but first we have unfinished business with these Dimari." As the Commander ordered the crew to abandon ship, the captain relayed his instructions to the gun crews to keep up the fire to protect the escape pods.
After ten minutes of massed fire the Captain judged the escape pods to be at a sufficient safe distance to enact his highly dangerous if not suicidal plan. The Captain spoke in a calm commanding voice to the entire bridge "Bring us around on an intercept course and charge the kinetic barriers to maximum." Turning and striding over to the engineering officer he put a hand on her shoulder and whispered "Bring the engine reactor to one hundred and fifty percent charge". The officer turned with a worried look on her face and stammered "But captain, that's not possible there's no way the reactor can take that sort of strain we can barely get it over fifty percent never mind one hundred and fifty, she will blow" The Captain gave the officer a wink "Exactly crewman, the Dimari seem to really want this damn system, so let's give them it with a little present of ours" The crewman nodded with a sudden realisation she set about a task with a fervour.
The captain returned to his position middeck and declared to the whole bridge "Right people, this is it the gallant last stand, but without going down with the ship. My motto is get the job done and do it well, but my other one is leave no man behind and believe me know when I say I am honouring that tonight. Take one last look people for it will be your last view of the Titan. The Dimari want us, I say we give ourselves to them, DOWN THE BARREL OF OUR GUNS! Are you with me?" In unison with a full salute the crew echoed with "Aye Sir" With a sigh of relief the captain returned to his chair "Good, now full ahead."
The crew braced themselves as the ship moved ahead at a massive speed, as the chatter from the stations between each became louder the Captain settled in to his chair. The Dimari ships quickly loomed closer in the view screen he gripped the arms of his chair in anticipation. Suddenly above the chatter the captain heard a cry of dismay, "Incoming homing missiles sir". The captain quickly turned to the navigation post and barked "drop us down below them crewman" Almost instantaneously the commander interjected "But captain, our Kinetic barriers can take those hits easily why was..." "Just do it the" the captain interrupted "Aye sir" was the only response.
The hull creaked as the ship dropped barely avoiding the flaming missiles burning through the blackness like fireballs. A crewman shouted out "All missiles avoided sir but they are coming around for another pass" with a nod from the captain the crewman turned his head back to his station but it flicked around again so quickly that for a second his features became blurred, "Captain two Dimari cruisers are closed ranks directly ahead, they are blocking our flight path." With this the Captain stood up and spoke with a commanding air "Increase power to the forward kinetic barriers and take us to ramming speed we will take them head on". The ship shuddered even more and began to shake profusely as she picked up speed. A klaxon sound across the ship and a red light blared across the deck. "All hands brace for impact" was the only voice that echoed across the deck as the Dimari ships loomed closer and closer, soon blocking out everything else from view. Suddenly the ship jarred and crew members and officers were thrown across the bridge in turn as the Dimari impacted with the Titans kinetic barriers. A screeching noise echoed through the ship and systems across the bridge flickered as power was drained for the barriers. However, as soon as it had started the screeching stopped and the ship shot forward as coasted across the Dimari hull. "Midshipman" the Captain barked to the man at the navigation "take us into the centre of their formation and then begin evasive manoeuvres, I want you to use everything possible to evade their fire we won't last long in a fire fight".
The ship nimbly flowed forward and moved toward the centre of the Dimari ships, it rolled around a salvo of fire as nimbly as a ferret and fired a volley in return causing a Dimari frigate to list and drop below the main fleet as small explosions blossomed across the main hull. On the Bridge the lights dimmed and flashed and the ship rumbled from an unknown cause, the Captain stumbled forward moving towards the crewman at the engineering station "Report" he yelled at the crewman. Her hands were whipping across the keypad as systems reports streamed in, she turned her head to the captain and spoke in an agitated voice, "It's the reactor sir, it cannot support the power and its shield is failing we will have meltdown in mere minutes.
"Dammit" muttered the captain, "I was hoping for more time". As more damage reports were shouted across the debris strewn bridge a single voice discerned itself above the clamour, "Sir unknown contact jumping in" the captains head quickly spun round in the direction of the voice, as he did this the bridge began to shake violently more so than it had during the fight, glancing at the view screen he saw something that shook him to the very core of his body. A massive jump gate had opened twice the size of the fleet he was currently engaging, for a second he thought it must be some sort of super weapon developed by the Dimari, but looking at the panicked way their ships scurried out of the way it was clearly another alien force that even struck fear into the hearts of such emotionless beings as the Dimari