Sorceress meets Andromeda
Strangers in a strange land
Space is generally known as a dark, cold and empty with the exception of the numerous star systems and the ships that travel between them.
A great bright tear in space opened up crackling with energy; this was the telltale sign of a slip point opening up from a region known as slipspace which all local space faring races with interstellar flight capability knew about. An elegant ship came out of the slip point flying out at high speed, the Andromeda Ascendant, one of the last known Grand Heritage class cruisers of the now destroyed Systems Commonwealth, recently bloodied in battle with the Magog World Ship, a dozen worlds linked together around an artificial star with trillions of Magog onboard. Still carrying various battle scars and hull breaches she limped her way across space to the nearest asteroid field to find the raw materials the crew needs to repair her and also a safe place to hide from various scavengers who would take advantage of her current weakness.
One of Andromeda's various sensor drones then picked up a very powerful energy spike which anyone in the home universe of their new visitors would recognize as an unstable Jump Point. Out of it three ships tumbled out, the twists and turns of the unstable Dimensional Jump Point making them and several fighters go all over the place, everyone on those ships knocked out by either the G forces or getting flung into various bulkheads.
Captain Dylan Hunt, commanding officer of the Andromeda, was sleeping for the first time in three days since they had escaped from the Magog and evaded the Magog swarm ships that they sent after them. He had only gotten perhaps two hours of sleep when Andromeda's holographic avatar buzzed him.
"Dylan, I'm sorry to have awakened you, but we have a situation developing in local space."
"More Magog?" asked Dylan wearily, fed up with his sleep getting interrupted by one of his least favourite species, with only one exception that with Rev Bem.
"No, but there has been an unusual energy spike, similar to a slipspace portal, but more like a wormhole yet not, you are needed on the command deck sir."
Dylan got up and dressed, taking a little longer than usual due to having had very little sleep in the last three days, being chased by Magog and felt like he should just send them all straight to hell, preferably with the biggest bang he could find.
He got up to the command deck, finding it still in a state of disrepair and only just starting to get repaired. Beka was at the helm, still using the makeshift temporary control console that she cobbled together ready to make a hasty retreat if things turned nasty.
"Dylan," said Beka as she noticed him enter. "You should take a look at this, Andromeda show him."
At her order the main view screen showed a visual record of what they had detected only a few minutes ago. All Dylan saw empty space, and then a new star appeared then changed and expanded into a blue funnel like opening in space with what seemed like lightning striking out at random intervals.
"That's different," said Dylan watching curiously.
"Wait for it," said Beka, knowing what was coming next.
Three large vessels looking like large rectangular slabs of armour with large gun turrets all over them along with a large number of what Dylan and Beka identified as fighters, two types to be precise, all tumbling like crazy out of the opening, the capital ships firing their thrusters as automated stabilization systems kicked in and brought their mad tumble to a dead stop. The fighters continued to tumble for a few more seconds before their pilots, no longer under the strain of heavy g forces that they experienced during their crazy flight through the Jump Point, got themselves stabilized and started forming up into squadrons in what looked like a picket and getting ready to get back to their ships.
"Andromeda, have you been able to identify those ships?" asked Dylan looking at what is obviously warships, with all that armour and weapons and their basic design screamed don't screw with me unless you have a death wish.
"I can't get anything on them, but I did find a partial match with an early Earth warship design, pre-Commonwealth era," answered Andromeda displaying a ship design that looked similar to the two more boxlike vessels, except that this ship had a rotating section, the ships that came out didn't and were a fair bit bigger and had oversized guns.
"Time travel perhaps, like when we went back in time to the Battle of Witch head?" asked Hunt.
"I don't think so boss," piped up Harper, their chief engineer and resident genius.
"Earth never had warships that were this big in the 23rd century, according to old Earth calendar. These ships are oversized and over gunned and if I'm reading this right, are best described as particle beam and plasma based," he said slightly impressed.
"Not exactly long range weapons are they," remarked Dylan. "Andromeda can you at least give us the names for these ships?"
"Yes sir, their all broadcasting IFF's, I'm translating them into common now!"
"No need Rommie, I already know their names," said Harper quickly, eager to show off his linguistic skills.
"They're called the EAS Sorceress, EAS Bismarck and EAS Hood, all common Earth based names for ships, although I don't know exactly what the EAS stands for," says Harper.
"I finished translating the ships IFF and I found that the EAS stands for Earth Alliance Starship, which if Harper were a little more patient I would have told everyone," said Rommie in a stern voice.
With that little revelation everyone thought where are these people from?
EAS Sorceress
Bridge
Meanwhile on the three Earth Alliance ships, and the fighters that came with them through the unstable Jump Point turned dimensional portal, the crew was just beginning to stir.
Commander Corwin woke up to a bridge with numerous small fires, sparking consoles and the artificial gravity offline. He was floating weightlessly just getting his bearings, when he realized he had gotten quite a few injuries which included a lot of bruising, a few cracked ribs and his left wrist was broken, probably from being flung around during the wild rollercoaster ride through the Jump Point.
He spotted his captain floating nearby, his head at an odd angle. Corwin used a nearby bulkhead to push off and flew straight towards his captain. Upon checking for a pulse he discovered that Captain Denisov was dead, his neck broken, probably caused by being flung into a nearby bulkhead when his seat harness failed. He said a silent prayer for his captain then continued to see if there were still people alive on the bridge.
Luckily there were no more fatalities among the bridge crew, most sharing the same story as Commander Corwin, a lot of bruising, a few with a couple of cracked ribs and another with a broken forearm whom was swiftly ordered to Med Lab. One of the few who escaped serious injury was Maxwell; she had strapped herself firmly into her seat at the tactical station, she always seem to either fall out of her seat or loose her footing during a Jump. The only injury the statuesque brunette had sustained was a nasty bump to her head which, along with the heavy G forces, resulted from a flying computer pad had knocked her out. She was quickly shaken awake by a loud Commander Corwin.
"Wake up commander," he said brusquely.
"What happened?" she asked groggily. "Last thing I remember is going through the Jump Point, then some heavy Gs and something hit my head."
"I don't know, but we've got to get the ship back up and running again, see if you can get communications back online," suggested Corwin as he went around the bridge, checking up on the rest of the crew. A few minutes later artificial gravity came gently online and main power returned.
EAS Sorceress
Engineering
In Main Engineering it was quiet, only the emergency lighting was working and several of them were flickering on and off, the crew was only just beginning to stir from being knocked unconscious during their little side-trip. Chief Engineer Marie Scott woke abruptly when she bumped her head into a bulkhead while floating.
'Uh, as if I need an even bigger headache,' she thought to herself, her head feeling like bongo drums were pounding inside her head. She reoriented herself and noted that artificial gravity was off. She took a look at the status boards of the ship and noticed that they were all dark.
A short woman with a figure that belied her military background, yet still had some femininity, and long red hair in a tight pony tail and a temper to match thought, 'Great, what have the idiots in command gotten us into now?'
She got moving quickly, moving with a grace that belied her experience on zero G ships like older Hyperion's and Nova's. She shook several of her fellow engineers awake and got them to work, getting the reactors powered up and got a team to work on the artificial gravity system, which was quickly restored slowly to bring everyone gently down to the deck so as to not hurt anyone. Soon she got a call from the bridge.
"Scottie," she winced at that name, the nickname had been stuck with her ever since her academy days, ever since she proved to be somewhat of a miracle worker. "What's your status down there?" asked Commander Corwin.
"We took quite a beating, but according to internal scanners there are no breaches and we got primary systems back online. However it looks like whatever happened to us has rendered our supply of Q40 useless, we couldn't open a Jump point even if we wanted to until we find some," she said distressed. No Q40 meant any possibility for opening a Jump point into Hyperspace was practically zero.
"Understood, we'll check in with the other ships, se if the same thing happened to them, although they both look a bit worse for wear," said Corwin looking at the main view screen.
Scottie began to feel a sense of dread in her stomach; her younger sister was CMO (Chief Medical Officer) aboard the Hood.
"Is the Hood intact," she asked with a slight wavering, barely keeping herself under control.
"Apparently so, she's still intact, which is better than what happened to Bismarck," said Corwin. The Bismarck had been raked along her port side and her trip through the Jump Point had caused massive internal damage, exposing several sections to the hard vacuum of space.
"The Hood is showing no external signs of venting atmosphere, so the crew should be safe, they may just simply be in the same situation as we are in, they just don't have you," said Corwin teasingly.
"Watch your mouth mister or you'll find your vibe shower reprogrammed for ice water," she jokingly threatened back, knowing that the Commander knew it was well within her power to do so.
"I'll keep that in mind, I'm sure your sister is fine, just give us some time to get communications back online."
She nodded to herself and signed off the com, immersing herself in her work, getting Sorceress back to full operational capacity.
Thunderbolt Starfury
Raptor 1
Being one of the few pilots that woke up first and got in contact with Sorceress, was David Sheppard, an ace pilot and squadron leader of Raptor squadron, they're ships showing individual art on top of their birds, his being a Hawk, which came from his call sign Hawkeye, he was put in charge of the CAP, shepherding the various Thunderbolt's and Aurora's to the Sorceress, taking on as many as they could.
'We sure took a beating,' he thought to himself as he cruised along the hull of the Sorceress with one of his squad mates, Lt. Forbes, call sign Viper. A young pilot with exceptional skills, she could handle a Thunderbolt like no other. They peeled off towards the Bismarck as soon as they cleared Sorceress's bow, making a beeline for the stricken ship.
"Man, she sure took a beating; looks like she took multiple hits to her mid section, the trip through the Jump Point exacerbated the damage, tearing her apart. It's a wonder how she is still relatively intact," said Lt. Forbes.
"Looks like she's only worth for salvage, maybe as spare parts for the Hood, Let's move on to the Hood, check her condition, the Chief Engineers sister is on board, you know," said Hawkeye.
'Damn,' thought Forbes, silently praying for her family back on earth.
Suddenly the Hoods running lights came online and her engines fired up, taking her closer to the Sorceress.
EAS Sorceress
Bridge
On the bridge the crew had finally managed to make contact with the Hood, but it wasn't the captain they got in touch with.
"Where is your captain and 1st officer?" asked Commander Corwin.
"Both dead sir, there was a power surge on the bridge, killed everyone up here. We only just got the doors open, and found everyone burnt to a crisp," answered a young lieutenant.
"What've the rest of the crew, anymore similar power surges?"
"Yes sir, but not as severe, the rest of the crew only got minor burns and injuries, it was a freak accident."
"Very well, get together a damage report and get yourselves sorted. Oh, one more question, what's the state of your Q40 supplies?
"Completely useless sir, corrupted beyond recognition, even became dangerously radioactive, so we dumped it."
"A shame, our supply was also rendered useless, but not radioactive. Take care of your people, lieutenant?"
"Addams sir, Mark Addams, Hood signing off," and the com line were cut.
"Well, that's one problem out of the way, let's get a search and rescue party ready to go over to the Bismarck…
"Sir, long range scanners have detected a ship closing fast," said one of the sensor operators. "Design is completely unknown, bringing up a silhouette of it."
An image of a ship was put up on a side monitor, looking vary artistic and curvy, more like a pleasure cruiser than a warship, but seemed to radiate a sense of power, like a Nova would.
"Pretty," commented Maxwell, admiring the design.
"It's too far away to gat anything more from it, but at its current speed it will be in visual range in two and a half hours time."
"Communications, try to hail the vessel," said Corwin.
"Already tried sir, either they are ignoring us or they don't have Tachyon communication technology," answered the communications officer.
"Very well, switch to radio; hail them at regular intervals until they respond."
The officer nodded and started to transmit.
The crew continue to work on getting they're ship back to full working order, hoping that the ship approaching were friendly. If not they would blow them out of the sky, or at least try to.
AN: what do you think?
R&R please, my muse feed on constructive criticism.