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Part 1 - Lost at Sea
The UESC Icarus was a colossal orbital station built upon the remains of the UESC Marathon that had set out to colonise this system almost five hundred years ago. The planetoid colony ship, built out of the Martian moon Deimos, had been the first human vessel to encounter the Pfhor, and the orbital station that it had become was as lethal as the Phobos station that provided defence for its home planet. Although the original colony and its occupants had been completely destroyed by the Pfhor, the aliens were unable to affect the Marathon itself, and instead left it hanging in orbit, fusion cores deactivated while they plundered it of anything useful, particularly the two remaining AIs. Tycho, the science and engineering AI was reanimated in the image of Durandal and used by the Pfhor, and was destroyed along with the Western Arm of Battle Group Seven in the L'lowon. Leela, the ship operations AI, was lost without trace along with the transport ship assigned to take her core to Pfhor Prime. Durandal, the life support AI who left aboard a stolen Pfhor scout ship with almost a thousand of the marathon's crew, disappeared also after the defeat of Battle Group Seven, and no person has heard of him since Robert Blake and his men escaped aboard a Pfhor refuelling ship. It was with the technology aboard the vessel that humanity had learnt the process of faster than light travel, and armed with this they were able to quickly return to Tau Ceti, completing the journey that had taken the Marathon over three hundred years in just under a month.
Admiral Blake sat in the command seat of the UESC Icarus. Unlike his second in command, Admiral Jones, who had wanted to continue the fight against the Pfhor, Blake had decided to return to the colony he was born to serve. He had not wanted to become embroiled in another war against an alien race. Aboard the giant station his life could almost be considered peaceful.
A voice cut through the static on one of the FTL signal receivers on the bridge, down to his left. The voice was faint, but Blake could still hear the urgency in it. The operator turned round and reported. "Admiral, I have just received a distress signal from the UESC Aegean."
Blake fully snapped out of his thoughts, and his mind became focused upon the task in hand. "What sector was the report from?" he replied, but the real question on his mind was 'is it the Pfhor?'
"Sector TC five, thirty seven, eighty nine, sir."
"Do they have any information on the nature of the attack?"
"I'm broadcasting a reply now sir."
The thought of the Pfhor returning to Tau Ceti preyed upon Blake's mind. The atrocities committed against his people, both upon the Marathon and on L'lowon, were vivid in his memories.
"Sir, the Aegean is not replying."
Blake's military instincts responded. "Scan the entire sector. I want a report of any anomaly in that area."
"Sir, the scans results were negative. No debris found, to an accuracy of ten cubic metres."
This was confusing. Blake thought for a moment, and then he ordered a scout craft to be dispatched to explore the area. He hadn't expected a situation such as this. All he could do now was wait for the scout ship to report.
Stephen Hall was a mechanical engineer aboard the UESC Icarus. He was a second generation colonist, and had originated from Mars. Currently his work involved maintaining the gargantuan docking and repair apparatus in Hangar 96. This was one of the large hangars, and could easily fit an entire dreadnought. Currently it was occupied by the UESC Entropy, a Thunder Class cruiser, one of the two most advanced ships in the UESC fleet.
Hall wiped his oily hands on his orange overalls, and pulled a power wrench out of his belt kit. He unscrewed the ceramic plating over the main power junction and continued his inspection of the giant docking clamp. He checked the main power leads. He checked the control wiring. He checked the auto firing electromagnetic system. He checked the mechanical override. Everything in working order.
The only thing that was unusual for Hall was the sight of the vessel's commander running across a suspending walkway towards the ship. Hall watched him for a moment, and then moved onto the next stages of the maintenance. Surely a commander running didn't mean that much? Hall continued with his work, but he felt somehow uneasy for a reason that he didn't completely understand.
"Sir, the Mirata has been attacked."
Blake snapped out of his thoughtful state for a second time. "What do they report?"
"We received a mayday signal, and then the message ended sir."
"So whatever attacked the Aegean is still there then."
"No sir, the Mirata was attacked in sector TC five, thirty four, sixty two."
"They're getting closer. We can't risk sending another reconnaissance craft. Do a full scan of the entire system immediately."
"Sir, are you certain? The sweep will take over two hours, and the FTL transmitters cannot be utilised by anything else while it continues."
"Yes. It is a risk, but I believe it is our only chance to identify the attacking craft before it attacks the Icarus; if it attacks the Icarus."
Hall was puzzled. During his inspection he had found a main fuse blown in one of the docking clamps that was not in use. The fuse had been fine last time it had been used, and no power had been routed through this piece of equipment since it had been deactivated. He could not think of how the fuse had gone; another strange event that would only increase his anxiety that he did not even understand. He called for a replacement part to be brought.
Admiral Blake sat nervously in his chair. He had been waiting in silence for over two hours now. He just wished that the scan would finish so that the operator's voice would break the stagnant air.
"Sir, the scan is complete"
"Has it been analysed?"
"Yes, and the results are negative. There's no other craft in the system sir."
"There must be something. What attacked the Aegean and the Mirata then?"
"I don't know sir, but whatever it was it's gone now."
The first salvo slammed into the station at that moment. Even through the mass of the planetoid the fierceness of the impact could be strongly felt, and it was sustained. For a moment there was chaos on the bridge, and then the command crew went into automatic response mode and voices rang out as commands were issued to all aspects of the ships systems.
"Comms station, re-scan the sector! Get a visual report!"
"Aft engineering centre; start the Bussard! We need orbital repositioning thrust!"
"Damage control; have any bulkheads collapsed?"
"Life support, isolate high risk areas to minimise system damage!"
"Activate all Trident systems!"
Information and reports were being relayed all across the ship to the command room, and even within its confines there were many transitions occurring. The main centre of action was centred on this final operative.
"Trident active; relative co-ordinates tracking. Sir, do we launch trident?"
"Fire at will" replied Blake.
Trident was the main attack system aboard any UESC ship or station. It consisted of three high energy attack systems that all used the vessels fusion generator. Electro-magnetic rail and gauss accelerators used electrical energy from the generator to propel a large solid, high explosive or armour piercing shell at high velocities. Aboard the orbital stations the cannon were individually mobile, allowing a much greater field of fire than that of the ship board guns. Also used were high power fusion cannon, which fired an ion particle stream at the target for the electrical discharge to travel along; the same method as bolts of lightning use. The third was the use of fold enabled munitions; devices that could be transported directly into the enemies midst. Along with the conventional weapons of the fleet which includes conventional and fusion torpedoes the system has presented a strong front against any enemy encountered. The system did however rely on continual and uninterrupted delivery of huge amounts of power, something that is not always possible in a battle situation.
"Sir, the Bussard is preventing Trident from operating at full potential."
"What is the alternative?"
"Without the Bussard active the incoming fire will put the Icarus into unstable orbit sir, there is a chance off atmospheric entry."
"That is not a chance that we can afford to take. What does damage control report?"
"We are taking heavy damage in sectors alpha and bravo sir" another operative replied. "The aggressors are using some kind of high power particle beam."
"Aggressors? There is more than one ship?"
"Yes sir" replied the comms operative. "Scanning shows a collection of vessels in the region of several fleets force."
This was not a good turn of events.
[Edited on 10.19.2009 11:06 AM PDT]