Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Rendos II:

Reidia watched her sensor plot, as her crew worked. "Secure from warp speed, shields and weapons coming online now."

"Contacts?"

"A few civilian vessels, and a single battlegroup. I'm reading a battleship and several cruisers. Nothing too threatening, they've spotted us and are moving to intercept."

"Jam any transmissions. What about our target?"

"The War Phantom is currently docked at Slip Four. Exactly where it should be, and scans have confirmed that the vessel is in the final stages of construction. More importantly, I can confirm the presence of the cloaking device."

She grinned, "Excellent. Any chance they can leave the port?"

"Her hyperdrive module hasn't been installed, and her deuterium tanks all read empty."

This was perfect, she just had to eliminate the local patrol and knock out the shipyard's defenses. A plan quickly formed in her mind, just as the patrol in question came into range.

Her shields flared as several bursts of energy slammed into them with deadly force. "Shields holding, no damage."

"Tactical, lets try those new cannons out, return fire forward batteries. Target the battleship."

The forward batteries lit up unleashing a barrage of orange-red energy bursts. They slammed into the shields of the Voskar warship with impressive force. The protective energy barriers broke apart in less than a second, and the energy bolts tore into her hull. The armor plating shattered, as entire sections ruptured, sending out flaming debris and burnt bodies into space. Flames that were quickly extinguished in the vacuum of space.

Yet it was clear that the first ship was finished. It broke apart seconds later, as the cannons were targeting the escorts with equally deadly results. Leaving behind only shattered, charred wreckage, and dead Voskar, they made for the shipyard.

Her own escorts were already entering range and were engaging the local defensive emplacements. That distraction gave her the chance to deploy the strike team before the Voskar could expect it.

"Strike team reports they've boarded the War Phantom, and are meeting moderate resistance."

"Sir, new contacts. Three battleships and a War Phantom have entered the system."

"On screen," she commented and started to appraise the second Voskar War Phantom. She wasn't cloaked, her hull was pockmarked with battle scars, and she was venting burning plasma from her port rear quarter. Evidently the vessel had retreated from battle. "What's the extent of that damage?"

"I'm reading significant damage to her engines, and shield generators. Her weapons, however, remain fully operational."

"So she's slow and fragile, but still has all her teeth; noted."

The ship quickly drew into range, while Reidia maintained their position and kept an ear to the strike team, who wasn't yet in possession of the cloaking device.

"Target their main generators, all available batteries."

Her tactical officer nodded and opened fire. Just as the Voskar vessel fired her own barrage. She was quickly informed that the shields were holding at seventy-eight percent, but the same couldn't be said for War Phantom number two. Her weakened shields couldn't withstand the barrage, and the energetic bursts of plasma ripped her hull apart in short order. Entire sections ruptured in a fiery display sending scorched debris and dead bodies flying off into the void.

Several bolts tore through the central engineering section, setting off a chain of secondary detonations. A sudden shock pulse ripped out from the vessel, sending her closest escort into a spin, but the other vessel stabilized and opened fire with a barrage of torpedoes.

The ship rocked when they slammed into the shields but failed to do any real damage. She shouted orders to return fire and watched them go down in quick order. She was just glad they'd engaged the Voskar and not been ambushed. The Voskar were never that good in a slugging match, but they excelled at ambush tactics.

It did matter, however as more wreckage was added to the system, she turned to comms, "Status of the..."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"The strike team has secured the cloaking device. They report it as intact, and their engineers are detaching the module now. Their second squad has secured the computer room, and are gathering any useful data they can find regarding the device."

Like many high tech systems, the module was half the equation, they also needed the Voskar software. That was why the strike team had several objectives to complete.

"Sounds good. How about our distraction? Any word from Fleet?"

"Things aren't going as well over there, the flagship Osu's Bounty has taken heavy damage and is withdrawing from the front. Command of the fleet has been transferred to the Jalyla. However, they have certainly drawn the attention of both local Voskar forces and the Toral fleet."

She sighed, "Tell them to withdraw. They aren't going to do much more good, if they are taking that much damage."

"Done sir."

For a moment things felt a little tense after that, but no further Voskar or Toral forces arrived. Allowing them to recover the strike team with little incident, who had planted charges on the Voskar War Phantom. She watched them blow, just moments before they jumped, leaving behind one more shattered wreck and a ruined shipyard.

Looking up from her console, "Interesting, it seems our strike team got more than just data on the cloaking device. That War Phantom was equipped with enhanced cannons."

"I guess it's a good thing we blew it up, then."

Hylis:

Countryman looked out the window. He had quite the view of the alien cityscape, which was dominated by tall gleaming towers. Silver metal with painted trim combined to produce a vibrant gleaming cityscape that seemed to be quite busy. Shuttles filled the air, while below countless ground cars could be seen streaming by like busy little ants. Beyond the city and in the distance was a pristine coastline with miles of sandy beach, and little boats out on the water.

The view was rather spectacular actually, and certainly a change of pace from the views he usually got. From beside him the merchant commented, "Quite the view isn't it. I do enjoy the sights from this room."

"It certainly adds quite the backdrop."

"Well it pales when compared to the young ladies that came with you, my dear sir."

Megumi giggled, "Thanks for the compliment."

Eri smiled and took the sofa, but didn't say anything. Countryman replied, "They are skilled too, but my companions aside we do have some business."

"Right, I had my people look over what you brought. Good food is always in high demand. The nutrient value of that paste you brought is quite high, I know a few military factories that would pay good money for it. Factoring in my fee after sales, I can get you about 1500 Imperial Dukats per crate. Those small arms would be popular with the local security forces, light weight, good power, effective charging mechanism and an effective stun setting are all good features. I can pay you 27,500 per crate, again after my usual fee. I have a few buyers in mind that would pay well for them."

"Sounds good, better than I thought for a first offer. What about the gems, how much are you offering?"

"Ah, I have use for those myself. How does 41,000 per crate sound?"

Countryman blinked, he'd known they had collected some high quality gems, but he thought they were worth around 38,000 on the local market. "Not bad, I can work with that price."

"Great, now I understand you were looking to buy a large amount of supplies in bulk. Anything I can help you with?"

Countryman gestured to Richards, "My engineer here has the full list. In short we are looking for parts and equipment required for high-performance structural integrity field generators."

"Well you are in luck, my wife and I produce the best such systems on this side of the Velosa cluster. You won't find better systems in the sector."

"I'd hope so," responded Richards as she produced the exact list of things they were looking for.

The merchant looked it over, he frowned, wrinkling his scales, a bit, "Hmm, quite the list. I think I can get most of this for you easily enough, a few of the items will be harder to source. How long do you plan to be in port?"

"A few days, while we are making repairs, I was going to look for some new star charts. I don't suppose you have any recommendations?"

The man nodded, "I don't really sell those, but I know a few people you should talk to. I'll put a list together for you."

"Thanks, now I guess we should discuss prices and delivery," said Countryman.

The other man nodded and the group of them launched into a long discussion with a lot of haggling over exact prices and amounts. The numbers quoted earlier merely gave him a baseline of what he could get from his available stockpiles of trade goods.

In the end he managed to get everything Richards was going to need for the repairs, along with several leads on a good source for new star charts. With all of that done, and new acquisitions arranged, he had a few more meetings lined up along with a good old information hunt. Countryman was already hearing a great deal about the war. It sounded like the Valorians would be rather distracted, which meant getting underway sooner rather than later might be in his favor.

While they were fighting their neighbors, he would have time to locate a suitable world for a colony and potentially rebuild the fleet. Richards had numerous engineers working on designing the vessels of the new fleet. They were going to need personnel to man this fleet as well, which is where Ruri's AGI project came in. Rose and her sisters gave them a template upon which to base a potential army of robotic soldiers.

Those same robots could also help fill out the crews of their new fleet. Yet leaving the design entirely robotic wasn't in the plans. He would want to retain the option for organic crews, which was going to shape their fleet. Honestly, the plan was somewhat ambitious, but he didn't see any way to change that.

They were going to have to rely on robotic manpower for generations to come. After all, predictions indicated they would number a few million in about fifty years. It would take decades more before they reached the numbers they enjoyed before the Cathamari war. For a moment he allowed himself the chance to envision humanity's future. Rulers of a vast empire, with thousands of legions under their command. Robotic armies occupying every world in the galaxy. It was a pipe dream of course, rather unlikely to happen in his lifetime, even with the extended lifespan he enjoyed. Not to mention, he had more pressing, more immediate matters to consider. Galactic conquest was perhaps something to consider, but not for centuries.