Revalation
Ch. 3 - Foriegn Investments
Author's note: Yeesh, been awhile, hasn't it? Kk, new ships, good dialouge, among other things. And now, back to writer's block. . . --;;
The replay slowly came to an end. And the chamber burst into a buzz of frightened conversation.
"As you can see, this new enemy is of terrible strength, and powerful weapondry. We currently have no defenses against them, however, recent breakthroughs in neo-organic hull-plating may possibly give us a defense against these corrosive projectiles. Now, as you have just seen, the enemy attcaks fast and suddenly, immediatly destroys all opposition, and then dissapears or gives chase, as they see fit. Their fighter class shipsare highly manuerverable, and operate on an oxygen-hydrogen mixed combustion engine, also giving them unparalled speed. Our only hope of advancing to these levels of design is to study one of their engine mechanisms ourselves. This is why we are seeking the Bentusi. We have reasonable doubt to the fact that the Bentus was really the last of the Bentusi, and this sector reains one of the last un-explored, and as an added bonus, we have seen no signs of any enemy actvity here for decades. Nevertheless, we are all to remain on the highest alert, espescially the 9 of you who are our pilots of the newly-designed Nexus fighters. Dismissed."
They had just finished watching the replay of Skar-Tel massacre, and Dren Sher-Ka himself was there in that room. He was captain of that particular Destroyer, one of three, with full Frigate and a Single carrier escort. There were also 2 Battlecruisers on standby at the closest shipyard (Nerr-Kun in particulr) and ready to hyperspace in if need be. Nuun-S'jet, his Firstmate, another survivor from Skar-Tel, was the one giving the speech. As he stepped down from the podium, Dren eyed him while he collected his papers and then came over to him. He saluted, Dren stood and did the same.
"Well sir, everyone seems ready."
"Ready for what?" Dren responded smirking at S'jet. He rolled his eyes in response.
"You know what I mean. Ready for anything." Then, in an afterthought, he added, "Sir."
"Well, I should hope so. And pray to Sajuuk we find the Bentusi."
"Yah"
"Right then. If you'll excuse me, I have to go command this destroyer now. Wouldn't want to steer us into anything icky, and with that new guy at the controls, that's just what'll happen. Bye."
"Farewell, Sir." S'jett turned and walked away.
"And don't call me Sir!" He called after him, then turned away himself and entered the elavator. He pressed the button for command deck. The elevator hummed to life, and rose quietly.
As the elevator was moving he opened up one of his file folders he had been carrying around everywhere. He had been doing this so he could finish reading everything in them. But the the file he kept going back to was the file on the Nexus fighters.
The Nexus fighters had just recently been made aware to the military, and it is of an obvious fact. These prototype fighters intergrate a radical new design along with breakthroughs in vernier rocket manuevering systems, and special condensed railguns. The frame of the fighter is built around the highly classified engine design. This particular engine is a recently-discovered concept, based upon slamming a proton and an electron together at high speeds. These smash together but do not explode or merge, they instead destabilize themselves, thus canceling each other out, at which point both cease to exist, creating a critical-mass after-image of both, a shell that collapses and gives off nuetrons and a new sort of plasma based off of a newly-discovered element (element 121 to be specific, yet it remains unamed). The plasma is then vented through a conical drive shaft that is created by the nuetrons given off (weaving themselves into a web that can contain the superheated plasma), and as it is forced through the narrow cone it increases in speed, at which it becomes far too unstable for a suitable use. However, it is possible (and nescassarry) to split a majority of the plasma off into side channels leading to the verniers located all over the ship's hull. The rest of the plasma has much smaller mass and is much easier to contain and control, and ironically, this smaller amount is more concentrated than the original mass and provides better overall speed and acceleration as it is propelled out of the ship, providing thrust and foreward momentum. The verniers are all connected to the same gyro control system, and are all linked to provide maximum capabilities and near perfect manueverability. The weapon systems are reinforced railguns (3 to be exact) located on the ship in certain points so as they are not affected by the extreme Gs the Nexus is capable of. Research has proven that a tight spinal mount for the three in a triangular configuration yeilds the best results. The ammuniton of these rail drivers are large tungsten rods 20 feet long and 1 foot thick, fired using a small contained he-3 nuclear reaction to the rods. He-3 is a natural opposite of tungsten's composistion, and thus the reaction easily propels the rods to near light speed. These rods are given the impressive force and speed as such, and are capable of shattering near any sort of armor with disturbing ease. However, one must ask where the rest of the force goes, specifically, the he-3 energy, seeing as every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This energy is shunted through a Particle deaccelerator and into the nearest 3 verniers, and as an end result, the Nexus' manuverability is best while pulling up, or to a downward diagonal. These complex systems are built into a semi-radial fashion on a vertical alignment, leaving litle room for the cockpit and lifesupport systems. As an end result, when designs were pushing the Nexus into corvette class, a 2 pilot split design was created, putting a pilot on either side and slightly above and behind of the frontal gun, with life support just in front of the engine array. There is one specially modified Nexus fighter, however. It has instead 4 railguns, and the 4 advanced verniers, and a longer nose to the fighter. It can barely sustain any sort of life, and therefore only one specific pilot who has undergone months of training is the maximum crew for the Nexus-AU.
As far as Dren was concerned, the whole thing was total higgedly-piggedly, but the diagrams were excellent. And that was all that mattered.
The elevator jerked to a stop. The lights went out. The pleasent elevator music stopped. The artificial gravity turned off.
"Huh?" Dren grabbed his communicator and radioed S'jet. "What the Hell just happened?!"
"Sir! We have just been hit by an EM pulse, sir!"
"Dispense with the sir! What's happening outside?"
"I'll radio the carrier and see what they've got!"
He switched to the ship's intercom wave length. "He didn't call me sir this time. Wow. Stress will do that to you." He activated the communicator and patched it into his headset, and turned on the PA. "Attention! Attention! All crew members of the destroyer Quen-Sal! We have been hit with an EM pulse, please stay where you are, return to your posts if possible! Emergency protocols 1, 3, and 8 please!" He thought to himself, "Those will activate the emergency power genreators, and it should get some gravity going. But I'm stuck in the freakin' elevator!" His communicator buzzed to life, jolting him back to reality. He realized he was sweating.
"S'Jet to Captain Sher-Ka! Come in please!"
"Go ahead, S'Jet"
"Faal-Shun (the carrier) reports that over half the frigates are down and out, but all of the Nexus fighters have successfully performed a manual launch. They still have power thanks to that new lead sheilding, or something. Where are you, sir?"
"Somewhere between the mess hall and the bridge"
"Ah, the elevator. Right, we're getting power back on soon, I'll divert some to your elevator, how bout it?"
"Do it and you'll be a rich man. I HATE not knowing what's going on!"
"Aye, sir"
Dren sat down in tha dark and fumbled with his wristband. "I know that flashlight's on here somewhere- got it!" A small beam of light appeared and he shone it around. He didn't know why he did that, just so he could make sure everything was the same and safe. He sat there, banging his head against the wall, when suddenly dull red lights flashed into existance all around him, as the female computer voice stated,
"Emergency power - Online" The elevator hummed back to life and rose at twice the speed it normally did, with some nice classical music on.
"Nice touch", Dren commented.
"Thank you, sir" The computer replied.
"Don't mention it" Why had they given the computers a personality? It didn't make sense! Oh well. He stood up as the elevator grinded to a halt and the doors finally opened onto a scene of madness. The red light from the emergency power weren't helping. Dren turned left and raced down the halway, or more, he bounced, he had forgotten about the reduced gravity factor. "Ow!" He exclaimed as he smashed into the Bridge door. It opened and made some remark about using your head, but he ignored it and ran inside. "Status report!"
"Sir, we have multiple contacts on incoming vectors!"
"Oh Sajuuk. It's happening again."
"Beg your pardon, sir?"
"Nothing, just find out what is going on!"
"Our Frigates were attacked by short-wave EMPs that were triggered by missile impacts. We have an ion-trail forming a web around our fleet's posistion. There is more than one of whatever's out there, and if you ask me, that was just a diversionary tactic."
"So you mean that-"
"Yes, they're coming from where we won't see it!"
Dren activated a comlink with the Faal-Shun. "Get everything that can fire a bullet on high alert and facing outward, something big's coming!"
"How can you be certain-"
"Just do it!" There was an explosion nearby that rocked the ship. "Too late! Launch everything! Attack whatever is out there!--" He was drowned out by another explosion. He looked out the window and saw beige-colored contrails mixed with the blue. He turned and saw a small fighter streak by and vaporize one of his fighters with twin Ion beams. "Wait a minute. . . Com 1! Open all hailing frequencies!"
"Aye, sir!"
"Attention Bentusi vessels! We are the Hiigarans! We are not your enemies! Why do you fire on us?! Have we not signed numerous intergalactic peace treaties!? What is the meaning of this attack?!"
Then, a new voice. A Woman's voice, soft yet firm. "Bentusi. When did I last hear that name? So many cycles ago, it has been. No, young Hiigaran, we are not the Bentusi. We are the Araan."
"The who?"
"The Araan, foolish flicker-being. We are exiles of the Bentusi race, a different unbound than our anscestors, the fools they were."
"I don't understand." The explosions stopped.
"No. You wouldn't. We apologize for the loss of your brethren. Please, come aboard our ship. We have much to discuss."
A hyperspace gate opened in front of Dren's eyes. It was not white, nor any color. It was infinitely pure, an ever-changing well, as a ship materialized out of it. "It's beautiful. . ."
Author's note: Yeesh, been awhile, hasn't it? Kk, new ships, good dialouge, among other things. And now, back to writer's block. . . --;;
The replay slowly came to an end. And the chamber burst into a buzz of frightened conversation.
"As you can see, this new enemy is of terrible strength, and powerful weapondry. We currently have no defenses against them, however, recent breakthroughs in neo-organic hull-plating may possibly give us a defense against these corrosive projectiles. Now, as you have just seen, the enemy attcaks fast and suddenly, immediatly destroys all opposition, and then dissapears or gives chase, as they see fit. Their fighter class shipsare highly manuerverable, and operate on an oxygen-hydrogen mixed combustion engine, also giving them unparalled speed. Our only hope of advancing to these levels of design is to study one of their engine mechanisms ourselves. This is why we are seeking the Bentusi. We have reasonable doubt to the fact that the Bentus was really the last of the Bentusi, and this sector reains one of the last un-explored, and as an added bonus, we have seen no signs of any enemy actvity here for decades. Nevertheless, we are all to remain on the highest alert, espescially the 9 of you who are our pilots of the newly-designed Nexus fighters. Dismissed."
They had just finished watching the replay of Skar-Tel massacre, and Dren Sher-Ka himself was there in that room. He was captain of that particular Destroyer, one of three, with full Frigate and a Single carrier escort. There were also 2 Battlecruisers on standby at the closest shipyard (Nerr-Kun in particulr) and ready to hyperspace in if need be. Nuun-S'jet, his Firstmate, another survivor from Skar-Tel, was the one giving the speech. As he stepped down from the podium, Dren eyed him while he collected his papers and then came over to him. He saluted, Dren stood and did the same.
"Well sir, everyone seems ready."
"Ready for what?" Dren responded smirking at S'jet. He rolled his eyes in response.
"You know what I mean. Ready for anything." Then, in an afterthought, he added, "Sir."
"Well, I should hope so. And pray to Sajuuk we find the Bentusi."
"Yah"
"Right then. If you'll excuse me, I have to go command this destroyer now. Wouldn't want to steer us into anything icky, and with that new guy at the controls, that's just what'll happen. Bye."
"Farewell, Sir." S'jett turned and walked away.
"And don't call me Sir!" He called after him, then turned away himself and entered the elavator. He pressed the button for command deck. The elevator hummed to life, and rose quietly.
As the elevator was moving he opened up one of his file folders he had been carrying around everywhere. He had been doing this so he could finish reading everything in them. But the the file he kept going back to was the file on the Nexus fighters.
The Nexus fighters had just recently been made aware to the military, and it is of an obvious fact. These prototype fighters intergrate a radical new design along with breakthroughs in vernier rocket manuevering systems, and special condensed railguns. The frame of the fighter is built around the highly classified engine design. This particular engine is a recently-discovered concept, based upon slamming a proton and an electron together at high speeds. These smash together but do not explode or merge, they instead destabilize themselves, thus canceling each other out, at which point both cease to exist, creating a critical-mass after-image of both, a shell that collapses and gives off nuetrons and a new sort of plasma based off of a newly-discovered element (element 121 to be specific, yet it remains unamed). The plasma is then vented through a conical drive shaft that is created by the nuetrons given off (weaving themselves into a web that can contain the superheated plasma), and as it is forced through the narrow cone it increases in speed, at which it becomes far too unstable for a suitable use. However, it is possible (and nescassarry) to split a majority of the plasma off into side channels leading to the verniers located all over the ship's hull. The rest of the plasma has much smaller mass and is much easier to contain and control, and ironically, this smaller amount is more concentrated than the original mass and provides better overall speed and acceleration as it is propelled out of the ship, providing thrust and foreward momentum. The verniers are all connected to the same gyro control system, and are all linked to provide maximum capabilities and near perfect manueverability. The weapon systems are reinforced railguns (3 to be exact) located on the ship in certain points so as they are not affected by the extreme Gs the Nexus is capable of. Research has proven that a tight spinal mount for the three in a triangular configuration yeilds the best results. The ammuniton of these rail drivers are large tungsten rods 20 feet long and 1 foot thick, fired using a small contained he-3 nuclear reaction to the rods. He-3 is a natural opposite of tungsten's composistion, and thus the reaction easily propels the rods to near light speed. These rods are given the impressive force and speed as such, and are capable of shattering near any sort of armor with disturbing ease. However, one must ask where the rest of the force goes, specifically, the he-3 energy, seeing as every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This energy is shunted through a Particle deaccelerator and into the nearest 3 verniers, and as an end result, the Nexus' manuverability is best while pulling up, or to a downward diagonal. These complex systems are built into a semi-radial fashion on a vertical alignment, leaving litle room for the cockpit and lifesupport systems. As an end result, when designs were pushing the Nexus into corvette class, a 2 pilot split design was created, putting a pilot on either side and slightly above and behind of the frontal gun, with life support just in front of the engine array. There is one specially modified Nexus fighter, however. It has instead 4 railguns, and the 4 advanced verniers, and a longer nose to the fighter. It can barely sustain any sort of life, and therefore only one specific pilot who has undergone months of training is the maximum crew for the Nexus-AU.
As far as Dren was concerned, the whole thing was total higgedly-piggedly, but the diagrams were excellent. And that was all that mattered.
The elevator jerked to a stop. The lights went out. The pleasent elevator music stopped. The artificial gravity turned off.
"Huh?" Dren grabbed his communicator and radioed S'jet. "What the Hell just happened?!"
"Sir! We have just been hit by an EM pulse, sir!"
"Dispense with the sir! What's happening outside?"
"I'll radio the carrier and see what they've got!"
He switched to the ship's intercom wave length. "He didn't call me sir this time. Wow. Stress will do that to you." He activated the communicator and patched it into his headset, and turned on the PA. "Attention! Attention! All crew members of the destroyer Quen-Sal! We have been hit with an EM pulse, please stay where you are, return to your posts if possible! Emergency protocols 1, 3, and 8 please!" He thought to himself, "Those will activate the emergency power genreators, and it should get some gravity going. But I'm stuck in the freakin' elevator!" His communicator buzzed to life, jolting him back to reality. He realized he was sweating.
"S'Jet to Captain Sher-Ka! Come in please!"
"Go ahead, S'Jet"
"Faal-Shun (the carrier) reports that over half the frigates are down and out, but all of the Nexus fighters have successfully performed a manual launch. They still have power thanks to that new lead sheilding, or something. Where are you, sir?"
"Somewhere between the mess hall and the bridge"
"Ah, the elevator. Right, we're getting power back on soon, I'll divert some to your elevator, how bout it?"
"Do it and you'll be a rich man. I HATE not knowing what's going on!"
"Aye, sir"
Dren sat down in tha dark and fumbled with his wristband. "I know that flashlight's on here somewhere- got it!" A small beam of light appeared and he shone it around. He didn't know why he did that, just so he could make sure everything was the same and safe. He sat there, banging his head against the wall, when suddenly dull red lights flashed into existance all around him, as the female computer voice stated,
"Emergency power - Online" The elevator hummed back to life and rose at twice the speed it normally did, with some nice classical music on.
"Nice touch", Dren commented.
"Thank you, sir" The computer replied.
"Don't mention it" Why had they given the computers a personality? It didn't make sense! Oh well. He stood up as the elevator grinded to a halt and the doors finally opened onto a scene of madness. The red light from the emergency power weren't helping. Dren turned left and raced down the halway, or more, he bounced, he had forgotten about the reduced gravity factor. "Ow!" He exclaimed as he smashed into the Bridge door. It opened and made some remark about using your head, but he ignored it and ran inside. "Status report!"
"Sir, we have multiple contacts on incoming vectors!"
"Oh Sajuuk. It's happening again."
"Beg your pardon, sir?"
"Nothing, just find out what is going on!"
"Our Frigates were attacked by short-wave EMPs that were triggered by missile impacts. We have an ion-trail forming a web around our fleet's posistion. There is more than one of whatever's out there, and if you ask me, that was just a diversionary tactic."
"So you mean that-"
"Yes, they're coming from where we won't see it!"
Dren activated a comlink with the Faal-Shun. "Get everything that can fire a bullet on high alert and facing outward, something big's coming!"
"How can you be certain-"
"Just do it!" There was an explosion nearby that rocked the ship. "Too late! Launch everything! Attack whatever is out there!--" He was drowned out by another explosion. He looked out the window and saw beige-colored contrails mixed with the blue. He turned and saw a small fighter streak by and vaporize one of his fighters with twin Ion beams. "Wait a minute. . . Com 1! Open all hailing frequencies!"
"Aye, sir!"
"Attention Bentusi vessels! We are the Hiigarans! We are not your enemies! Why do you fire on us?! Have we not signed numerous intergalactic peace treaties!? What is the meaning of this attack?!"
Then, a new voice. A Woman's voice, soft yet firm. "Bentusi. When did I last hear that name? So many cycles ago, it has been. No, young Hiigaran, we are not the Bentusi. We are the Araan."
"The who?"
"The Araan, foolish flicker-being. We are exiles of the Bentusi race, a different unbound than our anscestors, the fools they were."
"I don't understand." The explosions stopped.
"No. You wouldn't. We apologize for the loss of your brethren. Please, come aboard our ship. We have much to discuss."
A hyperspace gate opened in front of Dren's eyes. It was not white, nor any color. It was infinitely pure, an ever-changing well, as a ship materialized out of it. "It's beautiful. . ."