Star League DropShip Logan

Unexplored Star System, Deep Periphery

1 April 3025

The fighter had come out of nowhere.

Nothing that Captain Helena Elphinstone had seen before, two scimitar-like wings sweeping forwards from a comparatively tiny main body.

"Any response?" she asked as she watched the wireframe image generated by the Logan's computers sweep around the icon representing the much larger dropship.

"No ma'am," Sergeant Abbot reported solidly. "I've tried English, Mandarin, Spanish, Cantonese, Japanese, Hindi, Welsh -"

"Welsh?" Elphinstone asked in surprise.

Abbot shrugged. "Closest I could come to Gaelic, ma'am."

She nodded her understanding. Abbot was an outstanding linguist, one reason she'd used to justify stealing him from Division HQ to serve on the Logan for this mission. Some of the smaller colonies out here in the Periphery didn't use English much, or at all.

"And Russian, ma'am. Nothing - if they're listening, they aren't saying anything."

"Try something a little more universal," Elphinstone ordered. "It's a long shot but some of the knuckle draggers they put in fighters these days know the classics." The command deck was too small for it to be worth moving but she turned her chair's shock frame so that she could see the radar display. "Still no sightings of the mother ship?"

"No Ma'am. For all I can tell it might as well have jumped here on it's own," Lieutenant Honda replied with a smirk at his own jest. Then the smile slipped from his lips. "Aspect change! It's making an attack run."

Elphinstone's reaction was one ingrained in her since her teenage years. "Weapons free, engines to flank, squirt our logs to Helm's Deep."

"Missiles incoming," Honda snapped, eyes tracking the radar display. Beneath her feet Elphinstone felt the vibrations of the Logan's engines as they stopped idling and punched the little Condor-class dropship ahead at just over one gravity of acceleration. "They're tracking," reported Honda grimly. "Big bastards, ma'am."

"Drop the nose," ordered Elphinstone. "One eighty degree turn - get him in our sights with more than the aft lasers."

The dropship's nose dropped and the tail rose as it turned. It was still perpendicular to the direction of travel when the first missile hit.

"Situation report!" coughed Elphinstone as smoke from burning computer systems began to make itself known. Sergeant Abbot was down - his shock frame had failed and he was wrapped around the radio controls.

Honda looked at what functionality he had left. "Radiation levels are... high," he admitted. "Must have been a nuke. Port wing is just gone. Troop decks are open to space, engine's not in a good way."

Elphinstone looked at the radiometer, rubbed her face, looked again. We're all dead, she realised. It was only a matter of time when that much radiation swept through a ship. "Weapons?"

"What?"

"Weapons," she demanded again. "Can we hit him back?"

Honda stared at her for a minute and then back at the radar. "We're still spinning. If he doesn't maneuver then he'll be in our field of fire in about a minute."

Elphinstone unstrapped herself and made her way to the gunnery station. "Corporal Suang?"

"Ammo feeds are gone in the right wing but the lasers are alright and the nose guns are still active," the older woman - one of those NCOs who moved up the ranks when in the field and down them back on base - reported. "Get him in front of me and he'll be laughing out of the other side of his face."

The captain clapped the corporal on the shoulder. "Just make it count Suang. We've only got one shot at this."

The minute crept by with sadistic slowness, everyone watching the movements of the hostile, willing it not to change its course.

"Firing," Suang said calmly, centering the hostile in her crosshairs.

The first shots to hit were lasers, hammering into - in one place through - the fighter's left wing, laming it to match the Logan. A moment later the particle cannon mounted in the nose of the Logan raked across the 'face' at the front of the fighter's main body. The second impact shifted it sufficiently that the following cannon rounds and missiles missed but it was a non-issue. The fighter was dead in space.

Elphinstone straightened and turned back to the rest of the crew. "Right. Who wants to go EVA and get that heap secured? Back up will be here soon and I want everything shipshape when they get here." And I'd better update the logs.

Because by the time they do get here, none of us will be in any condition to explain what just happened.

.o0o.

Military Communiqué

From: Ringelli, Major Octavia (CO, SLJS Helm's Deep)

To: Elgin, General Samuel (CG, SLDF)

At 22:37 03.01.25 SLDS Logan (Elphinstone, Captain Helena commanding) detected a single fighter without apparent support in system 7-74-66-02. Per standard orders, Logan ceased emissions and attempted to avoid contact.

At 00:03 04.01.25 said fighter altered course towards SLDS Logan. Captain Elphinstone deemed contact unavoidable and attempted radio communication. No response was received.

At 01:05 04.01.25 said fighter increased speed of approach markedly. Deeming this a hostile action, Captain Elphinstone took evasive action and transmitted a warning to SLJS Helm's Deep, then located at the Nadir Jump Point.

Four missiles were launched by said fighter at SLDS Logan. At least one missile carried a nuclear weapon that inflicted severe damage upon SLDS Logan, killing thirteen (13) crewmen and one hundred forty-seven (147) members of the survey party embarked. Secondary radiation effects inflicted mortal injury upon all survivors. Return fire from SLDS Logan destroyed the hostile fighter. Captain Elphinstone ordered the recovery of the fighter, such as was achievable given the limited resources of SLDS Logan, for intelligence purposes.

SLDS Elric (Buskhin, Captain Piotr commanding) reached SLDS Logan's position at 06:32 05.01.25. At that time, all crew and passengers of SLDS Logan were found to be dead. Full logs were recovered along with the essential structure of the hostile fighter, which matches no design on record within the databases of SLJS Helm's Deep. SLDS Logan was deemed unsalvageable and stripped of all recoverable equipment and bodies before being towed into a unavertable course for the stellar gravity well.

Based upon this encounter, the survey expedition has been aborted and SLJS Helm's Deep is returning to base. The fighter has been tentatively determined to be unmanned, using technology superior in some respects to that of the SLDF. In particular it is believed that certain components may comprise a Kearny-Fuchida drive smaller by several orders of magnitude than any on record.

Based upon the logs of SLDS Logan, Captain Helena Elphinstone is recommended for posthumous award of the Medal of Valour and promotion to the rank of Major.