Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders, only much of the convoluted plot, Night Wolf and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).
Chapter 18 – Jumping through rings of fire, you might get burned
RSCS Firefox's antigravs whined as they pushed the ship off the landing zone next to Research Outpost 3, pushing the sizeable ship through the clouds and out into orbit around the planet that Outpost 3 resided on.
Like all the planets which had Research Outposts on them, it didn't have a name, that honour would be left to…someone…according to UNIT and Geneva.
More likely they weren't sure what to name the planets, considering the general rule was to name planets, asteroids and whatever after people who discovered them…which in this case were various alien races who had crashed, attempted to invade, attempted assassination and whatever else…and they weren't exactly people who anyone wanted planets names after them.
"We stable Jude?" Captain Timms asked of his helmsman.
"Yes sir, I had to cycle the antigravs, the new systems have added a bit instability to our systems." She replied.
The new systems were the reason that Firefox had travelled the distance to Outpost 3.
While Outpost 3 was only the third permanently settled Research Outpost, it was the furtherest away from Earth.
It was also the only planet that they had found that had noticeable amounts of the element required to build the jump gate and jump engine systems.
However unlike the planets it did have a name…sort of.
The only spelling that Night Wolf's linguistics and xeno-archaeologists could find was extremely difficult to translate, owing mainly that they didn't have enough original text to work from.
All translations created an un-pronounceable word, however colloquially it was known as Q40, as it supposedly began with a Q and that it had more than 40 syllables…or quite possibly pieces punctuation.
Anyway, Research Outpost 3 was built as a site of research for both the jump gates and jump engines, and as a mining centre to mine and refine the Q40 element.
Night Wolf Command and Geneva felt that it was safe, considering how the jump gates worked and the some what experimental nature of their work that it was better to have them stationed off of Earth and closer to the naturally occurring element.
While they had access to an amount of the Q40 element it wasn't overly abundant, and had taken some time to locate a reasonable amount.
Over time they had perfected their designs, and had experimented, and refined their designs that could offer a replacement to the ASCS/RSCS interstellar engines and power problems.
"Nikita how's the jump engine going?" Captain Timms asked turning in his chair to face his Secondary Systems Officer behind him.
"Everything stayed plugged in and operational through our ascent, we can bring it online at any time sir."
"Send a message to Outpost 3, we're beginning systems test…and if we blow up it's their fault." He said with a smile to his comms officer to his right.
"I'll tell them that sir. I'm sure they'll be more worried about the engine than us."
Timms chuckled.
Firefox was the longest operating ship, the first ship from Night Wolf.
It was also the reason that it had been chosen for this test, not because it was the most expendable, the reverse in fact.
Firefox was much more a hybrid that any of the other vessels, with literally half a Dalek saucer built as part of its frame as a result it was much easier to add and adapt its structure and control systems to new and alternative technologies.
While the newer ASCS Flinders (and RSCS Victory to some extent) had been constructed with the possibly of adding a jump engine later when the element became more readily prevalent, it was for now limited to building two jump gates in the near future, considering the low amounts of Q40 they had access to.
Though for now they wanted to verify their 'on the ground' tests inside a ship, with real people using the equipment, rather than scientists.
Firefox did have a bunch of jump engine experts on board monitoring its output.
They wouldn't be entering into hyperspace today, rather simply going up to the edge of this system and opening a jump point to do some tests and perform scans.
"Move us out of orbit towards the outer edge of the system."
"Sir."
Firefox's 3 powerful engines hummed with life as they propelled the large ship away from the planet it was in orbit around towards what was considered the outside edge of the solar system that they were currently in.
RSCS Firefox sat in space, the planet that they had left some time ago, where Outpost 3 resided was barely a pin prick from where the ship currently sat.
"Are we ready yet Nikita?" The captain asked with a sigh, he had asked the same question 3 hours ago, and every half an hour since he'd been assured that they would be ready after the first assurance of 'it'll only be 15 minutes.'
"Umm…" Nikita started as he checked though the figures and reports again from the various section, and more importantly the power and engine room.
"Umm?" Captain Timms asked, they were here to do this, and while they were sitting in this area of space, not near…anything there wasn't much else to do but sit and wait to begin the testing of their new jump engine.
"They're just double checking the linkages at the front of the ship captain…10 minutes." Nkita Robertson replied slightly hopeful and guiltily, the Captain turned around to look at him.
"10 minutes...is this the same sort of 10 minutes that was 3 hours ago Nikita? You know I wouldn't mind…if the test area was somewhere less…black…a comet…an interesting asteroid that the sensor analysis people could scan and detail for me…" He trailed off.
"Yes sir…" Nikita mumbled as his screen in front of him announced that they had completed the adjustments.
"Sir! We're ready to test the engines!"
"Finally." He muttered. "Right, bring jump engines online, prepare to launch the proving device, ready all scanners…"
"Umm captain…" Nkita started he could tell the captain was about to stare at him again.
"Jump engines ready to come online captain." Jude announced.
"Bring them online, prepare jump sequence." The captain announced.
"Jump engines coming online…" Nikia announced and let out a slight breath as nothing happened. Supposedly there was a slight chance that just bringing the jump engine online would suck all of the power from the ship…
"Prepare to launch proving device, ready jump engine sequence."
"Ready sir."
"Activate jump engines." As they were activated most of the primary lights cut out, the gravity field around the ship diminished to almost nothing and many of the secondary and primary systems winked off.
Then in front of the ship a huge vortex opened up, the scanners that were still powered and the screens that had stayed powered on the bridge showed the vast vortex. It was almost 5 times as big as the ship, it was a dull oranage and was swirling towards a point that seemed to impose depth on the space it was in.
"Captain…" Nikita started a little worried considering the reports that were coming in.
"Launch proving device before it collapses." The captain said quickly as he stared at the vortex.
A small probe like device shot out from the ship, the captain, all the sensor analysis and any one else watching the vortex watched the small in fact tiny in comparison to the jump vortex fly into the 'middle' and disappear.
"Disengage jump engines." The captain said after a moment.
There was a long whine around the ship as power returned from the jump engines and all the systems around the ship returned to normal.
"Mr Robertson…what just…"
"Analysis is just beginning sir…the device should reach Outpost 3 within a few minutes."
The captain raised an eyebrow, considering the device wasn't exactly fast, its passage through hyperspace was amazingly swift.
"Captain?" Jude asked after a moment.
"Jude?" Timms asked looking away from his own screens which were scrolling through various pertinent information…
"While the jump engines were activated there was a…pull towards it, like a slight gravity field."
"How strong?"
"Not enough to pull us into the vortex…" She hit a button on her console, 'pushing' the reading from her console to the captain's.
The captain stared for a moment at the gravity field analysis against the power readings, the engines had stayed online during the initial test, but even if they had been totally without power…the gravity field probably wouldn't have been enough the drag them in.
"Jude, send your readings down to sensor analysis, I want to know everything about the jump vortex…before we even think about doing that again. Nikita…"
"Yes sir, same for me. Results down to speciality analysis, as well as everything else…sir." He muttered, the captain smiled to himself.
2 Hours later the captain was in the meeting room, a discussion room much like most of the labs on Firefox, except instead of work benches and whatever other technology it simply held a long table able to sit the heads of the analysis teams, the security squad and anyone else who needed representing at any given points during a mission. It also had screens lining most of the walls.
At this moment it currently held the captain, two of the scientists who had come along for the jump engine test, a representative for sensor analysis and someone for the engine and power room.
There were several graphics and raw data playing over the screens highlighting different aspects of the test.
The captain massaged his temples after listening to what was supposed to be an explanation, what it turned out to really be was something else.
He looked around the room after the scientists had finished explaining what had happened, he wished that his own people had explained it too him.
These people weren't usually on board ships, not like the men and women from the various departments on board his ship.
"So…let me just run it by you…to see if I got it right?" The captain said slowly holding up his hand to stop the jump engine specialists from launching into another tirade of information.
"Basically…we had too much power going into the jump engine, which in turn made a larger than we needed jump point? Correct?" He asked them.
The jump engine specialists started before the sensor analysis officer looked at the captain's eyes.
"Yes captain that's right." He said interrupting.
"So we can try for the second and third test, without draining 98 percent of the ship's power?"
"Yes captain."
"Good…how long…if I might ask?" He asked the jump engine specialists.
"An hour…"
"Is that an actual hour or the hours that we've been working with today?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
3 Hours later…the captain could swear he could feel the ship getting warmer, maybe it was the jump engine components at the front of the ship…maybe they were getting warmer.
But they weren't in fact he'd sent two sets of people to check both the bow and stern for any heat fluctuations, none.
In fact they had complete two more successful tests of the jump engines, and now were settling back, like Research Outpost 3 probably was analysing their data.
They would probably be heading back to Outpost 3 soon, once the scientists had made sure they'd conducted all their tests, they did have two more test devices ready should they want to…
Nikita leaned back into his chair and scrolled through the next series of reports that had been shunted his way, all reports both the summaries and the full reports were channelled toward the SSC officer, not that he was expected to read everything, but some of it was useful in his duties.
Battle Analysis had been scanning their region of space developing a battle space…just in case, but then that was what they were there for…
"Prox-imity Al-ert! Prox-imity Alert!" Nikita unconsciously flinched, no matter how long he'd been on Firefox that voice still annoyed him.
That voice was of the Dalek battle computer, most of which had been removed, however some of it had been integral to the part of the Dalek saucer which was part of Firefox, the particular part was part of the sensor arrays linked to the interceptors, which had a vastly better accuracy than anything else. Also left in there were the 'slightly paranoid' proximity detectors, which were also a part of the saucer's original design and something that the Northern Highlands facility had decided to leave in when they had re-fitted the ship after its first flight.
They did sometimes detect an asteroid as a 'proximity alert'.
Nikita hit a button silencing the grating tones of the Dalek modulated warning and ran an eye over the scans coming in.
The alert had originated on the ultra-long range sensors, which were more or less a fuzz on the sensor scopes.
The shape however bore a 35 percent match to a ship which had been sighted by RSCS Victory and had engaged ASCS Hattah during a supply run to Outpost 2.
"Oh crap…" He muttered hitting the image down to battle and sensor analysis, the latter who were obviously too busy studying the effects of their new drive on the gravity on board the ship.
"Captain…" He started as he hit a series of buttons the three screens at the front of the bridge were replaced by incoming scans and the original scan, the middle screen swapped from a reviewing of the latest trial to a forward view.
The captain only looked at the images briefly before hitting a button in front of him.
"Battle Alert, Battle Alert." A Voice, not Dalek sounding went out around the ship, the tertiary lights flicked blue for 5 minutes signalling a battle alert situation.
"What's it doing?"
"Too far captain, we only noticed it because of the Dalek sensor array."
"Gotta love the pepper pots don't you Nikita?"
"Sir…battle analysis suggests moving in for a closer look and to launch Thylacines…"
The captain thought for a moment, the unknowns were obviously there watching and had probably seen them testing their new drive…
"No, turn us around Jude back towards Outpost 3, launch Thylacines order them medium range defensive positions, they have permission to fire at will on any approaching vessel." The captain said quickly giving orders to his helmswoman, communications and SSC.
RSCS Firefox turned and moved much more gracefully than it really should and fired its three powerful engines moving it swiftly back towards the planet.
As soon as it had finished turning three compartments opened near the bow of the ship disgorging 6 Thylacines from its belly, flying easily out of the moving vessel they took up defensive positions in groups of 2 along the port and starboard sides of the ship.
This manoeuvre had not gone unnoticed.
The ship that had been watching the unknown ship that had markings similar to vessels previously encountered by their acquisition parties scanned it one more time before signalling the fleet.
The ship's commander had been studying with the rest of its crew this ship and the others like it for what some might call 2 years.
They had been watching these new ships and the technology they wielded, had seen them develop it.
This new…vortex generation device was something they could use…and something they would take, there was only one vessel and several smaller vessels.
The ship's commander moved in the comparatively light gravity compared to many of its conquered vessels and gripped it's 'chair' with its multiple limbs.
Had anyone been able to understand its warbling pulsing language it would have been translated as 'Begin attack!'.
"Prox-imity Al-ert! Prox-imity Al-ert! Prox-imity Al-ert!" Nikita cringed again cancelling the announcement, however this time he wasn't cringing because of the voice.
"Nikita I thought you cancelled the…" Nikita was busy staring at the scans that were coming in, they were already being tagged by weapons analysis, a division of battle strategy and analysis.
The screens at the front of the bridge flashed signalling new…and more worrying information.
The thylacine squad outside the ship was…at least mildly worried.
The one ship that had been on ultra long range had moved coming up behind them at a very quick speed.
There were also 5 vessels approaching on all except forward vectors, the were surrounding the ship and while there technically wasn't any level in space, they were relative to the ship's position approaching; above, below, from the starboard and port with the original ship they had seen taking up the rear flank.
It left the thylacine squad and RSCS Firefox one direction to go, to conitue toward the planet where it's gravity would play part in the fight…and the squad leader knew that while he hadn't had any 'good' contacts in space, this certainly wasn't going to be it.
"How many Lt Robertson?" The captain asked quickly.
"4 new ships, 5 including the one we had on scan…"
"Send an encrypted message the Outpost 3, attack on base likely." The captain ordered his communications officer.
"Interceptors?"
"Ready…" Nikita read off.
"Open blaster ports."
"Opening…" He replied.
The blaster ports were two barrels at the from of the ship and were in effect the same technology as Night Wolf's stun/kill guns…albeit on a larger deadlier scale.
A magically force grown crystal with a series of focusing lens would blast out various 'curses', on Firefox they had a choice of a blasting or cutting curse that they could fire.
"Blasters ready to fire."
"How long?"
"5 minutes till they're in probably optimum firing range…" Nikita said his eyes going over the various bits of information, there were already several vessels scanned with tags guessing what weapons they had.
"Ready all weapons." The captain said to the weapons office to his left.
"Blasters are ready to fire, all interceptors have a full scanning range, all cannons are ready to fire."
The cannons were more a directional beam of hot destruction a cross between a Dalek gun and a plasma bolt the cannons were placed on equal placing along the starboard and port side of the ship, while the interceptor placements were on the top and bottom of the ship.
With 6 cannons and 4 interceptors ASCS Firefox's original designers and outfitters had hopped this would be enough to ensure its safety.
Outside the ship the thylacines adjusted their speed and angle of attack as Firefox slowed and altered its trajectory shifting away from Outpost 3.
"…Squad Leader, prepare for attack, open fire when in weapons range…"
"Roger Firefox. Alright squad you heard them. We're going for tag team attacks, two to a ship, if they've got fighters we'll be taking em on, leave the big things to Firefox."
He glanced at the heads up it flashed full of 5 confirmation signals.
The small fighter craft adjusted their angle away from Firefox further.
Behind them the interceptors twitched, their 'eyes' watching for the enemy which was approaching at a constant fast pace.
"Ships in range…"
"Interceptors?" The captain barked.
"Locking onto ships…ships firing…."
Around the ship the interceptors whirred as they spewed out energy at the incoming weapons fire.
Inside the ship there was only a soft dull thudding as the interceptors fired.
"Fire all weapons."
"Cannons firing, blasters taking aim and firing…" Forbes said as his hand flew over his controls, ordering or in some cases activating the weapons systems.
At the front of Firefox two gun ports were open and a moment later two beams of bright orange barrelled out towards a one of the ships which had come around to face the ship. The orange light moved through space faster than any ship could hope to, even if space hadn't been noiseless this weapon was.
It hit the bulky triangular ship blasting one large hole through the middle and blowing away half of its side.
"Battle space up captain." Nikita stated.
The screen to the left of the bridge flickered as they took a hit to some part of the ship.
The battle space displayed their forces…and the enemies.
"Is that…"
"Affirmative…we're just separating out the sensor fields." Nikita double checked the information.
"Each ship had what looks like 10 fighters…"
"So that's…50…"
"40…the ship just destroyed…" Nikita frowned there was a rather large flashing warning coming at them the starboard side, the cannons were busy tackling the fighters..
"Missile Alert…brace for impa…." He shouted grabbing at his console…
The missle exploded as the emergency force-fields activated around the starboard side of the ship, the explosive force vibrated throughout the ship.
Generally they didn't use the force-fields, simply because of the extreme amount of power they used should they need to wrap a forcefield around the ship.
"Damage?"
"Negligible…but we've lost power centre starboard cannon…strategy is…" Nikita muttered to himself…
"Stretch back the gravity field."
"Aye…" He said grabbing at the straps behind him pulling them tight as the warning went out to the rest of the ship.
Maintaining gravity was one thing that they could do away with, during battle.
The inertia absorbing charms, mass and weight lighting charms would stop them being squished to an infinity when ship manoeuvred but it didn't rid them of all the g-forces involved.
Had anyone been able to see the gravity field it would have slowly warped back towards the rear of the ship, maintaining some gravity to the various departments scanning and planning the battle.
The bridge around 3/4 of the way up the ship, plus another quarter behind it slowly lost gravity.
Around the ship the small fighter craft continued to explode under fire of Firefox's weapons.
The cannon that was rendered useless suddenly returned to life spewing deadly fire at the fighters and around the thylacines and the main ship.
"Get us moving Jude…between those two ships…"
"Strategy suggest they're some sort of HQ…linguistics is getting a lot of heavy info traffic from them…"
"Anything we can understand? Negotiate?"
"They're trying, all of em since the other attacks…nothing intelligible."
"Prox-imity Alert…" The Dalek voice announced over everything else on the bridge.
Usually it didn't during a battle…but there was a ship on approach…flanked by 8 fighters…
The captain whacked his communications link.
"Thylacines 4 & 6 attack incoming craft 34 by 27 relative!"
The thylacines in question spun around from their fighting coming almost 'face' to face with their counter parts, blasting the fighters slowly out of the way, unfortunately they didn't stop the triangular shaped 'pod'.
Nikita almost groaned as the ship again vibrated, and then the flashing red symbol highlighted over a section of the ship made him hit the security squad comms button just a little too hard.
"Breach, we have a breach….Squad to level three outer section…boarding party!"
Missiles on approach…
That's what the screen read…the vision was a lot less appealing.
10 missiles fired from the two ships they were moving towards.
"Jude prepare for high velocity rise corkscrew…"
She nodded not turning instead looking at her own battle space and sensor read outs of the ship.
"Captain at this angle and this speed…interceptors won't be able to lock onto in coming targets…"
"Force-field…"
"Not unless it's something very worrying captain…security squad is approaching breach…" He paused for a moment. "Reading 10 life forms in compartment."
"Missiles 2 minutes and closing." Jude announced.
"Initiate manoeuvre."
Firefox grappled at whatever power it had available, channelling some of it to the antigravs pushing the up and had there been ground below them they would be going 'up, vertically.
Firefox continued up…with the missiles following.
"Missiles still following…thylacines 2, 3 and 4 are following taking down following missiles."
"Ready…" Jude muttered to herself as the ship spun around and applied full power thrusting it toward the apposing two ships.
"Fire blasters, continuous fire…"
"Enemy weapons fire close in fire…thylacines taking down fighters…more missiles on approach."
"Time to main ships."
"At this speed 4 minutes.
"Interceptors at 80 percent…"
"Blasters…why have we blown the ships out of the way?"
The battle space and the forward vision clearly showed they were still there.
"Fighters are flying into blaster beam…it's decreasing the efficiency of them…"
"Damn it…slow out approach Jude, continue firing, direct forward cannons to the ships, I want them out of the battle space."
"Yes sir." Forbes answered quickly.
"Captain…without the cannons, it's going to put further strain on the interceptors…"
"I know Lt. Hull integrity…"
"All charms in place…Security squad reports they have the breach under control…Xeno-biology wants a look at the bodies…Linguistics also wants up there…"
"Negative, get the squad out, seal the level against a breach. They can have their fun later." Nikita nodded despite the fact the captain was looking forward.
Nikita's screens flashed red again, this time it wasn't any additional weapons fire…there were already dull thuds around the ship as weapons fire got through the interceptors.
"Captain…many of the fighters are turning away from the thylacines towards us…on our current trajectory we can't manoeuvre around them."
"How many shots till we get the ships?"
"Many captain…even with additional weapons…"
"How many ships Nikita?"
"Ummm…3 thylacine squad leader and 6 have disabled one…there's the two in front of us and one 80 degrees port…"
"Get all thylacines to attack that one." The captain stated to the comms officer. "Continue attack…we'll worry about the fighters when they attack."
"Captain
they're not…they're going for a kamikaze
run!"
"Shit…Force-field…"
"Not enough power…unless we stop firing…strategy suggests that's what they're trying to make us do…" Nikita hit a button zooming in on the two ships they were practically drifting towards. It showed 6 more breaching pods.
"Then we won't do that…Continue firing…seal all bulkheads…"
The enemy fighters gained quick ground, the interceptors barely stopping them, they had been designed to stop enemy fire not the enemy itself…
The two ships that Firefox was baring down on were using their agility to dance around it's continuous weapons fire, ejecting whatever matter they had to take the hits of the blasters giving the effect of hits from the increasing weapons fire from the ship that continued to gain ground as they backed away from the looming ship.
"1 minute to enemy ship collision…."
"All hands brace all decks close in collision, sealant teams on stand by…"
Nikita could only stare at the sensors which were scanning the ships for weapons fire.
The one to their port was being attacked in a tag team fly by attack from the squad of thylacines, their complicated and dangerous dance around that ship's weapons was worrying…considering that the ships they were attacking were firing at about 50 percent less than the one firing on the thylacines…
"30 seconds to impact."
Nikita stared at the scanners and then quickly punched in a series of angels, plotting their position relative to the kamikaze ships and the two they were attacking.
"Jude! Increase speed and roll us over!" He almost shouted as he stared at the scanners, 15 seconds to impact.
She didn't even question the data which streamed on to her console, neither did the captain.
Everyone on the bridge, and everyone who was in a section of the ship without normal gravity hung onto their stomaches as the ship doubled it's current speed accelerating towards the two waiting ships while simultaneously it engaged its anti-grav engines and the remaining engines of the Dalek saucer, usually used for precise manoeuvring and flight through an atmosphere, they whined in the vacuum of space against damage and various cracks on the ship's superstructure as the ship rolled, it's remaining cannons taking aim and destroying the fighters while all the while the blasters at the front of the ship continues to spew hot death.
While the view of the ship outside the ship may have been graceful inside was a different matter.
The charms holding back the worst of the inertia were still intact…more or less, but without the softening effect of the gravity field the crew were subjected to much of the g-forces and effects of rolling a 320 meter long space craft moving at a speed that some of the designers would have advised them from doing.
There was also the fact that during the manoeuvre there were two missiles lodged in starboard side, just out of view of the interceptor scanners and thus far unnoticed by the sensor, battle and weapons analysis departments.
"I think we're alright…" Nikita said as they levelled, there was still a loud impacting noise from weapons fire impacting with the hull.
"Weapons status?" The captain said swallowing whatever he had in his mouth from that manoeuvre.
"Blasters are overheating, they're being fired constantly…"
"How long till we destroy the…."
It was at this point that the two missiles exploded, blowing a sizeable hole in the side of the ship.
"Breach Alert, Breach Alert." The not very helpful computer voice that someone in the Northern Highlands facility thought would help during a battle situation to alert the crew that a hole had just breached the ship.
That person who had thought of this useful addition would be the focus of more than one captain's wrath.
The explosion did not help Jude who was still working to manoeuvre the ship back onto a steady axis, the explosion did nothing to help this, instead unbalancing it, throwing the ship more out of alignment…it also increased the gravitational effects on the ship.
"What the fuck was that?" The captain swore many more expletives as the ship and many more warning alerts at its crew.
Nikita was trying to ignore the various warnings and alerts and instead trying to make sense of the various reports which were still coming in, despite the hole in the ship, which was comparatively small to the explosion.
"Cargo hold on the starboard side…taken out…lost all pressure…there are cracks along the hull…might turn into breach…"
Nikta continue to rattle off to the captain as the straps of his harness continued to dig in holding him to his chair as the ship rocketed around.
This movement was not helping the weaponry officer nor the people maintaining the blasters.
Being at the front of the ship they had almost no gravity, tethered to the ground with various sticking charms and harnesses they made minute adjustments, the sorcerers among them, casting cooling and heat deflection charms, waving various elemtns over the crystals which continue to glow dispelling attacks out into space.
And it was space, the explosion so jarring the ship was only just maintaining interceptor efficiency, the cannons hitting anything that came near, the blasters, which the weapons team were trying to aim were pointing in the direction the ship was; just off target of the ship.
The Thylacine squad leader watched satisfied as the ship his squad had been attacking for the past 10 minutes exploded.
"Sir, Firefox!" One of his team said worriedly.
His scanners were still flaring from whatever weapon had attempted to hit them in the last volley.
He spun his thylacine over to see and immediately sent the form up order.
The 6 thylacines flew steadily and fast towards their labouring ship, he could see from even this distance that it had several minor breaches, and the targeting was off on the blasters and while it continued to fire the ships its was aiming for moved slowly away.
"Form up X attack."
"What about Firefox sir?"
"She's still flying, we're taking out those ship…"
The half dozen thylacines flew past forming quickly into an X pattern, as they approached minimum effective range they started opening fire.
Twin bolts of energy leapt from each thylacine speeding towards the two remaining ships.
As the first of the energy fire began to impact the least damaged ship turned on it's axis firing something to the other.
Then a moment later it glowed red and disappeared.
"Battle space clear captain…no remaining vessels attacking." Nikita stated as he grabbed at the straps of his harness pulling tighter in an attempt to get some equilibrium.
"Power down blasters, keep the interceptors ready, cannons also…I don't want to be caught out…Jude…?"
"Nearly there captain…the explosion really hit us…"
An hour later Firefox sat in space, not spinning on its axis.
The thylacine squad was doing scans of the surrounding area marking out items to transmat for further study…once the transmat was repaired.
Five hours later.
No one had died.
That was good news.
Despite the hull breaches, the cracks along the composite hull, the internal bulkheads had stayed shut reinforcing the superstructure, preventing any wide-scale breaches.
Captain Ian Timms left the meeting room behind the bridge, allowing Lt Robertson to organise the patch up repairs to enable them to for starters; transmat all the debris from their battle into the cargo hold for UNIT officers to study and pick apart, they'd need to firstly fix the transmat, and then the teleporter to allow the jump engine scientists to return to Outpost 3…then there was everything else.
The engines were relatively untouched…the power systems had gotten close to all hitting maximum…it would be one of the many things he would be addressing in his report to Night Wolf.
The smell hit him, it was the first thing he noticed as he walked into one of the smaller meeting rooms, more of a multipurpose lab than a dedicated meeting room.
The smell was coming from the xeno-biologist's medical jacket, they had obviously come straight from their autopsy.
"Captain." One of them exclaimed excitedly as he came in.
On one side of the room were the xeno-biologists, on the other, obviously trying to stay as far away from them and the smell were the linguists (and diplomats).
"So…what can you tell me about them?" He said stretching, he was glad to be in a part of the ship that had gravity.
The bridge was still operating under zero gravity while the power systems and drive systems were assessed, they wouldn't have an extended gravity field.
Even here it was less than the moon, but at least you stuck to the ground…more or less.
The screens in front and to the side of him flicked, one showing the first autopsy, the second some uniforms and weapons.
"We should be thankful captain for the…" She paused. "The single mindedness of the military mind." She smiled slyly, she was a linguistic that had worked within UNIT as a deciphering technician working with various pieces of unidentifiable alien tech.
The captain closed his eyes, she enjoyed a good discussion in the mess over various topics, however right now he had a headache…from several different sources.
"Sarah." He fixed her and her colleges with a stare, she took a breath and the captain despite enjoying being in a gravity environment looked around for a chair.
"The single mindedness of the military mind is useful…because we can look for similar symbols and recognition signs that are use on Earth." She clicked a button and a cleared up zoomed in image of a round…thing, he frowned, and then cursed himself, she'd noticed.
"It's a weapon…I think…under it…" The picture zoomed in on a series of symbols.
"We've isolated a set of symbols that appears on their uniform, their weaponry and several other pieces of unidentifiable technology…" She hit the button again and the symbols, a set of 8 symbols in different colours and from different sources appeared on the screen.
"These as far as we can tell point to a star system…we think that the other symbols dicatate some sort of possession something like 'military force of…' or 'leader of', or 'space command of…' or 'made in/on'…that sort of thing."
"So, what are they?"
"That would be our field." One of the pungent biologist said proudly, Captain Ian Timms was trying to work out what the smell was…it was like…rotting sea weed or…something…
Another set of images flashed up, the one the looked the most intact seemed to be a head, around the size of a human skull…with limbs coming off around it.
The captain shook his head.
"They all had various back packs on, analysis indicates that they're probably not used to our gravity, the limbs may have been added, or they were genetically altered…" Another set of images, the limbs on the…aliens differed around them.
"So what are they Sarah?"
"Well…it's a bit of an approximation…but we think they would call themselves…from our perspective at least Arcturans."
--//
Another long chapter.
I'm getting better at writing 'space' but I still feel it's a little too long.
I'll be returning to Earth next chapter, with more magic and other stuff.
If no one is getting my reference, the Arcturans appeared in a Doctor Who story called Curse of Peladon (wikipedia it if curious, it's on there).
They only appeared once…so I'm being creative as far as the ships go…
I hope everyone can work out what's happening in this chapter (I had to draw more than one diagram for myself just to write this).
Any future chapters that involve space travel I will perhaps vary my perspectives a little more (or have more than one ASCS/RSCS ship in play.
Thanks for reading, please review, I try to respond everyone.