AN: Here is an actual chapter for this fanfic. I hope you will enjoy it. R&R. Help with grammar would be nice as well.
Chapter 01
"Captain, remind me why we volunteered for this mission?" – Samson was tired. They were accelerating for full 12 hours at almost 5g and, after brief period on inertia, they were deaccelerating for 12 hours as well. It stained engine, reactor and nerves of engineers since they did not have too much propellant left for combat if they intended to return to Aptic III.
Their ship was traveling for hours in real space to check some unknown phenomena. Almost thirty hours ago, observers detected the bright illumination at the edge of the mapped Aptic system part. The HQ decided that it would be foolish to leave it alone right before the general battle and sent a single Roil-class assault ship to investigate. Somehow, that one ship became "Basroil".
"Chief Engineer, it was an order from the commander," – Lafiel was not enthusiastic about her current mission as well, but mission was a mission and it had to be completed. An investigation of such situation should be a job of local security force. It was not something that required a notion from Star Force. Nevertheless, the current circumstances left Abh forces in the system without any assistance from local militia because of the war.
"Our scanners found over hundreds of vessels in a relatively tight cluster," – The readings were somewhat strange, without proper definite results, but Sobaash managed to sort out space debris from actual ships. Still, it was hard to get clear readings from those vessels.
"Aviator, get us closer to one of those ships. Slowly." – They did not know the nature of this unknown fleet. It would be foolish to provoke them with reckless maneuvering.
"Basroil" reignited her engines for several seconds and turned to the closest vessel that looked like analogue of Roil-class assault ship. It had dagger shaped hull with some protrusions here and there, which looked like laser cannons of their own. The entire ship looked quite damaged but a number of small craft, likely drones, were repairing her.
"That is not Abh or any other humankind nation ship," – Jinto closely looked at the screen while "Basroil" illuminated another space vessel with projectors. The shape did not resembled any class of ships that were previously encountered by Star Force. Additionally, it did not even resembled engineering designs of any nations or habitable planet.
"But it was made by humans or their descendants…" – The certain starboard section came into view. There were familiar numerals, which probably was a part of the ship designation. Sobaash entered several commands into "Basroil" CPU and read out translation – "NUNS "Avenger". 497th New United Nation Research Fleet. Earth Defense Force."
"Is this… A generation ship escort fleet?" – It was the first assumption that came to Lafiel after she heard "Earth". She had read reports about such derelict ships that traveled for hundreds of years without any real purpose after their crews met some calamity in space – "Is there anything that could be a generation ship?"
"Yes, scanners get a clear reading of several possible objects. The largest one has a rough diameter of 500 WesDagh. Others are in 90 to 200 WesDagh range," – Sobaash displayed her findings on the screen and pointed out each object size.
No matter how anybody on the bridge looked, it was certainly a very large generation fleet that left the Earth hundreds of years ago. It left and never reached its destination, the world it should have colonized. Instead, it wandered for unknown numbers of years without purpose and only automatic systems maintained it, prolonging the life of this ghost fleet.
"It is a large graveyard…" – Samson nervously gulped. He was not afraid of the dead. It just the scenery alone was very nerve wrecking. The man turned his head to Lafiel – "Captain, we discovered the fleet. Maybe we should leave the deceased alone… Let specialists deal with it."
"We still did not find the source of that massive illumination," – As a member of Abh Royal family she wanted to properly conclude this mission. They had to investigate this lifeless fleet in order to avoid some more variables for the upcoming battle. The stakes was high. If Abh would lose Aptic System, the entire operation "Phantom Flame" would be compromised. These derelict ships were unknown factor in equation after all.
"Head Aviator, move us to the "main" ship!" – They should start from the generation ship, the center of the fleet – "Aviator, clean up debris."
"Basroil" slowly floated away with viener thrusters and turned her nose toward the massive object that should be a generation ship. However, before the main engine was able to start…
"Captain! The ship, NUNS "Avenger", weapon systems have been activated!" – Sobaash detected an activation of unknown vessel laser turrets, which immediately were pointed at "Basroil" starboard.
"Aviator, stop all maneuvers!" – Since they were not shot on spot it would be better to stop any movement for the time being. The Roil-class assault ships were designed for high speed, high maneuverable combat to protect the blind spot of capital ship but at this range they would likely receive several hits and soon would be swarmed by this vessel comrades.
"It seems, we are still alive…" – A sigh escaped from Samson when he relaxed in his chair. Several drops of sweat could be seen on his face – "Captain, I want a vacation after this mission… If we manage to get out alive…"
"I think the automatic defense activated in response to powering up our own laser turrets," – Jinto pointed out an obvious reason. It was good that its creators were not trigger-happy or else "Basroil" would be turned into debris.
"I think we were not shot down only because we powered up laser turrets. If we would power up proton cannon… NUNS "Avenger" would likely start shooting," – Unlike Jinto, Sobaash had a little understanding how A.I. could process and respond to different type of threats. According to her knowledge, the automatic defense system was currently performing "arrest of trespassers" – "If we try to move… She probably would start shooting as well…"
"Nice! We are stuck here…" – Samson sighed and looked at his screen. There was nothing requiring his attention but it distracted him a little.
"Would our shields withstand several hits?" – Lafiel tried to think through her options. They could try to escape or send distress signal. They could destroy NUNS "Avenger" as well but it would definitely interpreted as hostile action and other ships would likely attack "Basroil". The last option was a suicide one.
"It is hard to say. We do not know how powerful their laser turrets are… If they are as powerful as ours, we could take several hits but…" – Samson nodded toward the main screen where dozens of turrets were pointed at their own ship – "This one could achieve those hits in one or two barrages…"
"I agree with this opinion," – There was no reason to think that those laser turrets were less powerful as their own. Underestimation of enemy could lead to death more quickly than stupid orders from commander.
"I think I can dodge majority of enemy turrets but it would require high acceleration maneuvers" – Ekuruya, who was silent to this moment, suggested an escape strategy. She enlarged a keel portion of the ship where less turrets were stationed – "Enemy ship do not have proton cannon so we want be shot down in one salvo…"
"Jin… Supply Officer Linn?" – Lafiel corrected herself and turned to the young man after listening their opinions.
"I think we should try to contact…" – Jinto was not able to finish his part when Sobaash alerted everybody.
One of NUNS "Avenger" turrets turned forward to intercept incoming asteroid about tenth of her own size. The bright beam hit the space rock and after one blinding flash there was nothing… Only some warm gas…
"I think, we should contact HQ…" – Samson and Sobaash agreed with Jinto.
"Incoming transmission…" – Ekuruya flatly informed her superiors while a massive shadow covered "Basroil"…
"So, there was unidentified phenomena during the test run of the star gate facility…" – Hyun-Ae mumbled to herself while she was reading data from various systems. Everything so far suggested that her current situation was due to the reckless decision of the director Kazama. The entire research fleet was caught into this mess as well as nearby industrial facilities and space stations. Aside "Chang'E" only about one hundred of ships were still functional, many more was completely devastated. The burst of energy from superdimension destroyed the ones who was close to the epicenter.
The loss of personnel on other hand happened because of aftereffects. The data recorded enormous g-force that overwhelmed gravity control systems of every ship, which killed unprepared people almost instantly. The source of excessive gravitational force was not determined because it was followed by EMP wave that put main computers out of order for several seconds while many other subsystems shut down completely. She survived by the sheer luck. The control tube was equipped with ISC autonomous subsystem. Additionally liquid inside the tube somewhat reduced the stress on her body as well.
"That is so troublesome…" – the girl sighed. After several hours inside the tube she felt beaten and tired. However, she did not have a courage to wander into the corridors and move to the living quarters. Repair drones cleaned up the bridge, even the dead bodies and alike was removed without any traces, likely transported into a morgue. But, living quarters was not prioritized so…
Hyun-Ae walked to the one of bridge control panels and opened emergency shutters. There was darkness all around the ship, the same one she saw while being connected through neural link. Small dots of light, the distant stars were hardly an interesting sight to watch. The research fleet ships looked like shadows in dim sunlight of the system star, which was not particularly bright at this distance. It was quite depressing picture…
She pressed the button again to close shutters and walked to the captain chair. There was nothing for her to do and because of this many unpleasant thought surfaced in her mind. Would the escort fleet arrive soon? How long she had to live here, in the middle of nowhere, alone? And many other things that flooded her with uneasiness.
"Yutu, did you manage to update your protocols to the latest version?" – An insanity could come from loneliness. It was something that even as eccentric person like her had known for a while. That was the main reason to remove some restrictions from the ship A.I., to create a talking partner of sorts.
"Yes, Ma'am. Everything is in order. The update was successfully installed," – The somewhat artificial woman voice replied to the question and displayed the report of the system update. The lines were still stiff and unnatural but at least it was an improvement to the previous ones. It at least could be seen as human-like answers.
"Good. Is repairs going according the schedule? How long it will take us to fold out of this place?" – As it was, there was nothing interesting in the system. The third planet was habitable and even had some space capable civilization on it but without proper training, it would be unwise to establish the first contact.
"It will take approximately 278 standard hours before fold drive system on all fold capable ships would be repaired to functional level. Another 371 hours is needed to repair hulls of all present ships for safe travel. Approximately 173 hours required for weapon systems and normal space travel system to became fully functional on all ships," – the report was a nice mumbo jumbo for Hyun-Ae but she understood one thing – it would take a lot of time to fix everything important.
"How long will take the unidentified ship to get to our current position?" – Almost 28 hours ago, long distance scanners detected a sub-relativistic spacecraft on a collision course to the 497th fleet cluster.
"The unidentified ship is already arrived to our position and currently completely deaccelerated to manageable speed." – The large halo-screen flashed in the middle of the bridge with schematically depicted positions of all ships, including the unknown one.
"Mark it as a "Guest One", affiliation "Unknown", allegiance "Neutral". All warships should hold their positions and allowed to return fire in accordance to danger level." – Hyun-Ae tried to imitate orders that she heard on the bridge when Rear-Admiral Pavlov was in charge of "Chang'E". She did not know if the regulars would follow her orders but the A.I. managed to interpret her words into commands, which could be followed.
"Guest One" mark slowly moved to "Avenger" mark, the Northampton Class Stealth Frigate with full A.I. control. She was one of the few ships that was decommissioned and retrofitted for the new Ghost program. There were no other similarities aside the hull in comparison to normal, man-controlled Stealth Frigate. Each retrofitted frigate had better firepower, more CIWS and launch pods, new efficient power source and full shielding in addition to thicker armor. "Avenger" was one of the least damaged ships in the fleet at moment and had almost full complement of Ghosts ready to launch.
The unknown ship started inspection of "Avenger", which continued, according to orders, to "hold position" and performed deep scan of "Guest One" in return.
The ship was made of some kind titanium alloy with quite a lot of composite materials that theoretically increased it thermal resistance. Additionally hull was partially coated with some kind of ablative material to protect from heat type attacks. The bow section had a mechanism that allowed it to open; hiding behind the bow armor was likely some kind of powerful weapon. Closer to the ships aft were positioned two turrets, currently hidden inside shafts. If the reading were right, they were short-range lasers but it could be a similar type of energy weapon.
"What is this?" – Hyan-Ae pointed at unknown device that had no purpose in its description. It meant that A.I. was not able to compare the device functionality with database and make guess of its purpose.
"Unknown device. No direct analogue in New United Nation database," – That was quite "informative" but the girl pressed button and ordered computer to determine properties of the device through analyses of its structure. The additional columns of numbers appeared with a rough 3D schematics.
"Is it some kind of shield generator?" – It looked like one, similar to the first iteration of omni-directional barrier. However, there was no traces of fold energy signatures.
While Hyun-Ae was examining the structure of unknown ship, the said ship completed its inspection of "Avenger" and started to drift away. When "Guest One" distanced herself enough from the stealth frigate, she alerted the frigate systems.
"There is a message from "Avenger"," – The A.I. informed its operator about changes in situation. The girl closed the projection of the ship and looked at the video feed from the frigate. It seemed that "Guest One" activated their laser turrets and provoked reaction from A.I.
"The captain of this ship is quite careless one…" – Hyun-Ae sighed. She did not want to open diplomatic relations by herself. It was the main reason for her stealthy "fully automated fleet" approach. Nevertheless, at current circumstances there was no choice but to establish the first contact. The other way around would be to remove "possibly hostile" allegiance from "Guest One" but it could make the crew of that ship more daring. Which would be troublesome in different ways.
"Neo Nupetiet-Verginitzs bis Class Fleet Command Ship "Armadillo" is moving to intercept "Guest One"," – The nonchalant voice informed Hyun-Ae about another change in situation on the other side of metal plating of her own battleship. She completely forgot that there was a small detachment of Zendradi elite strike force. They had been assigned for testing new active stealth systems that would be applied on allied Zentradi forces with close ties to central government.
The massive blue colored ship got closer to the small "Guest One", shadowing her with its own hull. The numerous turrets emerged from it and pointed at the intruder. It was not good. She personally knew the of this Zentradi ship. That woman was a very short tempered one. Especially if no civilians were in vicinity.
"Connect me to "Armadillo"!" – Hyun-Ae saw that Command Ship already established connection to "Guest One" and could not comprehend why the did not asked for her opinion. The green colored message "Advanced Stealth System is active!" was flashing in the bottom left corner of halo-screen unnoticed by her…