Edit: fixed some bad typos I somehow missed.
'Captain we have arrived in the Locus system upon schedule. Your orders?'
Captain Kurwa Basu looked up from his desk and the small computer built into it to see the Holographic form of the Termenin's AI, hovering to the side about the size of a mid-sized dog. Though of course, as a Ship Ai, it had a human appearance. One that was becoming more humanlike as the months flew by.
He still wasn't sure how he felt about ship AI's, sure they helped make sure the more technologically tense parts of the ship stayed in working order and helped keep other minor things in working and operating order, but he did not like the idea of being watched at all times by something that could communicate to him even as simply as an AI did.
And that was to say nothing about the Ship Spirit rumor going about.
"I see. Then Retract the Astral Fins and have the crew begin prepping for Solar travel. I shall be up shortly." Kurwa said simply as he placed a hand on the computers monitor and pushed, making it sink into the desk and disappear flush.
"Understood captain. Note. XM Dee has already begun commanding the crew thusly with the same orders. It is expected we shall be moving under solar power by the time you reach the deck," the Termenin AI stated mechanically before blinking out of existence.
Kurwa scowled as he let out a sigh and got up from his desk. Executive mate was the same as a Captains first mate, their second in command, but it reasoned that the one in question was given the position by the head of the Human alliances Naval commandments board, and further still the man in question, a Jack Dee, was given the potion by none of the than the High Star Admiral himself. It was something that Kurwa could not understand no matter how hard he tried to. Though understanding the Star Admiral was much simpler than understanding Mr. Dee himself.
With that horrible thought on his mind Kurwa stepped out of the captains cabin and stepped up the ramp that led to the main deck, and threw open the doors to it.
The Termenin was a Exploration Caravel built upon the two plus one mast design, and as such the first thing that Kurwa saw when he came out of the ships interior onto the main Deck where the two main Solar Sail Masts coming up of the deck just a mast would for the sailing ships of old. Both Masts were grand columns of Metals, composites and Woods, and the shimmering iridescent Sails waved and shone in dozens of colors off and on as the solar winds struck them.
The second thing he saw was the massive umber of crewmen who were on deck doing their duties. Whether that duty was cleaning, maintenance on the Bow Turret, or working up in the solar Masts, a somewhat dangerous prospect to some, they all did their work equally and knew their work had meaning.
The third and last, and perhaps most invigorating and terrifying thing he saw was the Deep Darkness of the void of space all around them. It was not simply black however as motes of purples and blue floated around them, while wisps of other colors, more transparent but still noticeable, flowed along on the Celestial Currents and solar winds. He could of course still seethe twinkle of stars in the distance all around, and even further ahead of the ship, just over the half-mast sails that came away from the front of the ship on a tripod, he could see a sphere of green and blue, a planet of substantial size.
Just another reminder of the wondrous way humanity now sailed through the space between worlds!
"Ah Captain, Come to enjoy the solar winds have ye?"
Kurwa glance up to none other than his XM up in the main mast, quiet high up, simply standing upon it. Now most people would always clip themselves to where they were working with their gears safety clippings, three meter long heavy wires that could stop someone from falling at taking serious injury, and being that Solar Masts were nearly three times the size of historic sailing masts while the ships were twice the size at minimum, it was a prerequisite for anyone working on the masts.
Not for Jack Dee however. He stood high upon the mast, no safety harnesses connected to anything, or even on his person aside from a hook on his belt.
"The AI told me we had arrived, so it is only proper I come above to lead our mission to-" Kurwa began to say, only for Jack Dee to interrupt him.
"Ah yes, Quite proper for the captain to be on deck, don't you think? Shall I come and show you to the Wheel then, or will we be leading while meandering across the deck?"
"I am not the, no wait, that's not the point here," Kurwa said with a heavy sigh. "Get down here Mr. Dee."
"As you wish, Cap'n" Jack Dee declared loudly so he could be heard as he grabbed something and then began running down the length of the mast, The Solar sail billowing behind him. And in that moment as he jumped, Kurwa realized what he was doing. Dee has grabbed a rope rom the mast and when he jumped, he had gained distance from where it was tied, allowing him to fall, and then be pulled back into a wide swing that took him back across the width of the ships deck, and past it, and then back to it, landing right in front of Kurwa. "Down, as requested," Jack Dee said as he let go of the wire rope, allowing it to flow into the air, and then slowly shift back to where it had been. Yet another mystery of the Astral seas.
"Yes," Kurwa said as he sighed and then over Jack Dee's continued ridiculousness. He wore the same under suit that most everyone on the crew wore, same with the pants and boots, but instead of wearing the shirt and jacket most did that had the ships insignia upon it, he instead wore a long almost historically designed coat. His hair was much longer than most would allow, accented by beads upon some locks of hair as if to mock rule and regulations, and alongside the Dark Matter bead that every crewmember wore around their necks, he also wore a custom necklace with a variety of odd knickknacks and pendants. A small bottle of sand, a snowflake that looked made of ice, a small piece of coral carved into a pendant with a trident in the middle, a piece of bone carved into a the shape of a coin, what looked like a tiny baby squid entrapped within resin, the small centerpiece of an old compass, there were many more, but these stood out as some of the strangest, especially as he was never seen without this necklace on. Of course he was made even more ridiculous by the fact he insisted to be armed at all times, a pistol upon his belt, while across from it sat a sheathed sword. "You dictated commands to the crew before I came up."
"Aye, that I did, only proper to keep the crew on their toes, and no sense in wasting time either," Jack Dee answered with a strange smile.
It unnerves Kurwa something fierce. He could never tell what mister Dee was thinking, and it was like he knew what orders would be given before they were spoken, like he had years more experience that it looked like he did. "Yes well, try not to do that too much kindly." Kurwa said as he waved a hand, telling Dee to follow him, as he turned and walked over to the stairs that led up to the quarterdeck, and the Helm. Up there Kurwa found the Helmsmen, a Jamaican man with oddly red hair name Micque, standing there with a smile on his face.
"Ah Captain, we have arrived out of the currents on time, and on XM Dee's words the solar sails are out and we are on our way," Micque said with a friendly smile. "We be reaching that planet in the distance shortly I believe."
"Good. Take us in at a casual pace. Once we get close enough to orbit we can let the AI do its scans," Kurwa said as he stepped up beside the Helm to the Captains Stand and looked over the instruments and dials. Everything seemed to be in order.
Only for a bell to ring out from high above.
"Contact, 23000 of Starboard Bow and closing!"
Kurwa and Dee, and most of the crew, immediately turned in that direction, seeing something off in the darkness. A mass of some kind , outlined in a bit of pinkish purple haze courtesy of the ships dark matter fields.
"Columns."
Kurwa turned to Jack Dee to find he had pulled out a pair of subspace binoculars and was already looking through them. "What?"
"The object. It is a ship, that looks like it is made of multiple columns," He said as he removed the binoculars from his face and smiled at Kurwa. "Looks like we may have found it."
"Yes," Kurwa said as he reached and touched a switch on the panel. "To all Crew of the Termenin, we have a possible first context scenario. All crew are to enter alert level 4. Helmsman turn our starboard to that ship and cut our speed."
"Yes Captain," the Helmsmen said as, with a couple of flicks of switches on the sides of the wheel, the Front tripod Mast of the ship began closing down. The other masts however were not shifting, as much of the crew was still staring at the oncoming objet.
"Ahoy you yellow bellied Bilge suckers! All hands get to it, batten the hatches and prepare for all actions!" Jack Dee roared, his voice bellowing out across the whole deck in a way that made many a crew members body's shiver from the command, setting them to action in an instant.
Even Kurwa found himself staring a bit at how easily Jack Dee had gotten the crew out of their shock at a possible first contact. His voice held power, but not in a way he could really understand as even he felt a need to move and do something before he squashed the thought. He was the captain after all; he had to remain confident and stoic. "Thank you or that Mr. Dee. . . . Is that ship, approaching us?"
"Aye, slowly," Jack dee said as he simply just looked at the other ship, a big grin on his face. "So, what shall you bring us I wonder?
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Across human explored space, almost to the opposite side of the Termenin, another Exploratory ship was encountering a first contact scenario as well. The Caracal, a small Exploratory Clipper that had been looking into the Solar winds in the area, and the additional Space clouds, had been blown off course slightly by a storm, and found itself in a system and situation it did not expect itself to find.
As around the only habitable planet of the system was a bright blue, elegantly designed spaceship like from science fiction, and a very large telescope that did not match the ships design.
"Sir," the ships Second officer in charge of security, a clean shaven man by the name of Jack Harper, called as he ran up to the Quarterdeck. "We are getting uncatchable signals from both the ship, and that celestial object. Both are also showing increases to power."
"I see. All Hands Alert level 3!" the captain of the Caracal roared before turning to Harper. "Has the AI managed to get a connection to these objects to make it clear we are not hostile?"
"It is trying, but finding it difficult," Harper said as he looked at the blue swept wing ship, a large hole on its underside glowing malevolently and visible even at the distance they were at. "Their technology base is radically different than our own. If we want to prove our desire for peace, we should draw in the sails and wait to see their reaction.
"I agree, we will look as unassuming as possible and-"
"And I also suggest we turn out port broadside to them and load the guns," Harper said, causing his captain to stop and look at him.
"What? But we want to not anger them!"
"I know that, but I believe that glow pointing at us is a gun of some kind. So we should be ready in turn."
The captain seemed to have mixed feelings for a moment before he shook his head. "No, we are not starting a fight. All hands heave to and bring us about. We shall approach the ships at slow speed and all weapon systems off!"
" . . . . This will not go well," Harper said in a defeated and pessimistic tone.
"We do not know that, no one does," The captain said simply as the crew did their jobs, moving the ship closer to the two unknowns.
Only for fate to have other plans.
"Contact 14230, Port side!" Harper and the captain whipped their gazes that way to find a startling sight. Another ship, a blocky red ugly thing, burning full speed toward the other ship and the celestial telescope.
And then it shot. Blue flashes of light came from what looked like rods coming out of its center, sending glowing pale blue marks of some form toward the other ship. The first few struck the swept wing ship, causing a strange barrier like wrapping around it to flare up, but one of the shots went wide and struck the Telescope, obliterating it in a blast of fire and debris all while the swept wing ship tried to turn and bring what was assumed to be their main guns about.
"Fuck, nothing can be simple," Harper said as he jumped down off the quarterdeck onto the main deck and began running to the front of the ship while yelling. "All hands to battle-stations, set the guns to full charge, turnabout and prepare to give that new ship a full broadside!"
Crew members moved about immediately, and by the time that Harper had reached the ships forward, and only, turreted gun, the ship was already turning its broadside to the new ship.
It was still firing at the blue swept wing, and now the blue swept wing ship was firing back, flashes of blue from both sides striking shielding on the other to seemingly little effect.
"Harper, I hope you know what you are doing, joining in on a conflict we know nothing about-"the captain began to say to him over radio.
"I am aware captain. However that stellar object was a telescope and was not the same as that other ship. We possibly stepped into the middle of their own first contact, the least we can do is help protect it," Harper said as he climbed into the Turreted gun and began turning it on, letting its systems whir to life. "Blast that ship with some broadsides, it should soften it up for the Aurora."
" . . . I don't like this, but fine." The captain said with a sigh. "All hands, fire the guns, full cascade broadside!"
The ships side guns erupted in an instant, though the effect was hardly impressive as a small exploratory vessel, the ship was only Equipped with three Polaris class Polaron Cannons to each side and the Aurora at the bow in the turret.
But that did not make the effect any less spectacular as Purplish balls of condense matter rushed way from the guns and out into the void. They shot through the darkness with coats of flame and struck the red ship dead on just to the side of its front. The first two merely impacted its of blue shielding, while the third seemed to pass through, striking metal and exploding in a sphere of purple energy that seemed to physically push the ship to the side at an odd angle a bit. Shots from the blue swept wing then struck it a few short moments later, punching into armor with little light or flashes of explosion. More Polaron shots were fired and struck the red ship as it seemed to try to turn to escape.
And then the Aurora arrived.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In'irra Tketo, Captain of the Asari republics Scout Frigate the Nail of Belief, could not believe how strange her day was going.
Encountering a new and just barely spacefaring race by nearly crashing into a just launched and deployed space Telescope was the start of everything, and while odd and a bit panic inducing, it wasn't all bad. A call back to her superior's made it clear she was to hold position and try to initiate friendly contact while they sent the proper people, and she was fine with that.
Then the other ship had appeared barely two hours later. It had come out of nowhere, not even close to a relay, and with nothing on the ships scanners to mark its initial appearance. And it appearance was confounding. It looked like a ship meant for water, not space. With a deep body, great massive sails of some kind, and most impossibly, an open deck with, according to the ships scanners, some kind of aliens walking around on the deck in the void of space!
Ignoring that straight impossibility though she and her crew hadn't been able to get much more info on the craft other than it was rather small and did not seem to be armed. They could not detect any element zero upon it, in fact they could not detect any kind of energy on it and had only seen it initially due to magnetic anomalies caused by its sails somehow, but the situation became truly complicated when a third ship, a Batarian Pirate Frigate, had come into the system.
How it had snuck up on them was unknown, and ultimately did not matter. What mattered was that pirates had found them, and the home world of a pre-spacefaring species, and In'irra knew that if Batarian pirates left with information like that, it would be the end of that race's freedoms. They would be constantly attacked, their people taken as slaves for Pirate lords and Batarians of the Hegemony alike.
The Batarians fired while her ship had its back to them, the kinetic barriers accepting the shots at staggering force. And before the Nail of Belief could turn around to bring its own gun to bear, small as they were, they detected an unknown signature from the impossible sail ship. Strange bolts that the ships sensors could not understand, marking them as energy, but still kinetic, obliterated the Batarian Pirate ships shields and seemed to knock it to the side, making it unable to use its guns for a time. This allowed them to finally train their own guns and get some shots off, but their small guns did not do much.
And then the light came.
A simple blast of luminescent light was shot from the impossible ship and slammed into the Batarian ship. But instead of merely exploding or penetrating it, the shot seemed to fray and expand, bursting into an array of colors that washed over the Batarian ship like a splash of water of gust of wind.
It looked beautiful, but moments later it became horrible as explosions began appearing all across the ship, small in size, but so numerous it had to be the result of some kind of mass system failure. As the explosion occurred the Batarian ship lost all power, but before In'irra could say anything, the entire Batarian ship erupted in a blast of light and color that, according to the ships sensors, was from their Mass effect Core going critical.
She was so stunned by what she witnessed, that she could only manage to say one thing.
"By the Goddess, what have we encountered?"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Authors note: Managed to get this cap out as I had it envisioned already, just took some fiddling and planning for power scaling. In other words, no, the aurora gun would not one shot a ship normally. It'll be explained later.
I should probably add codices to these chapters for that kind of thing, huh?