Future Vision: Chapter 9
Chap 9
As Nexus ran down the hall all the light dimmed to half their normal brightness, which was then followed by a proximity alarm.
"Warning! Incoming warp signatures detected! All personal to combat station, this is not a drill!"
Nexus stopped as his COM chirped and vibrated. Pulling it out of his pockets he saw that is was an encrypted message as needed his verification. He punched in his numbers and a second later the system confirmed his verification and unlocked the message.
From Adjutant 003-382 :
You are hereby ordered to pilot: Battleship, Tier III - Stealth Codename: Harbinger
Ship Details: Weight: 32,000 tons Length: 550 meters - Width: 314 meters Max Speed: 295 M/sec - Afterburner 647 M/sec Weapons: Heavy Point Defense Pulse Lasers Drones: Engine Stabilization and Shield Repairers Armor: Dalnor Plating - 2.5 meters Shields: Adaptive, Passive Charge
Personal required to fly ship: 1 Docked: Hanger 5, Section 1
Just as he finished reading his orders, the voice over the internal COM voiced again. "Large fleet has warped into proximity of station, 200 kilometers off front. All personal all required to fight off the intruders."
Nexus turned on his paws and sprinted down to the hanger. It was on the same floor, but on the other side of the station where he had come from. As he ran he nearly ran over and got ran over by various Vari getting to their designated places or ships. Nexus had little idea why his own orders were so bizarre; in his entire career service he had never been order to fly stealth and was in fact not technically certified.
He rounded the corner on jumped down a small flight of stair and into the hanger, and it was not until than that he remembered he had no idea what his ship looked like. He had never heard of a Tier III stealth class, let alone a battleship with stealth technology. While it was possible to cloak any size ship, the area of space being occupied by said cloaked ship got easier to spot by the naked eye as ship size increased. Though this really wasn't a problem since it still through off sensors and always came up as "Gravimetric Disruption"
He looked around the hanger at the ships until his eyes landed on a glossy black, sleek and curved ship, that was actually quite a bit smaller than a standard battleship, and much lower height wise. It reminded him of an ancient Earth creature that lived in the ocean called a stingray. Assuming that it was his ship, he headed towards gantry that lead up to the ship's hatch.
As he approached the ship within 2 meters, the hatch opened automatically as if expecting him. From the distance he could see that the ships appeared to be completely powered down. No running lights were on, the interior lights were off, and the engines were still cold. All of this stuff should be active by now, and he started to doubt the reactor would even be warm.
He stepped inside the ships cold black interior and that hatch closed behind him with a silent sucking sound and than a hiss. With a sudden pop, the entire interior lit up in an amazing blue and green hue, and doors to the bridge slid apart to permit entry. He could see now that the interior of the ship was not bigger than a cruiser, but the outside was long and sleek no doubt holding the entire tech this ship had to work with.
He sat on the only chair in the bridge which was surrounded by holopanels showing various statuses about the ship. He was surprised when he looked at the panel titled "maintenance" that the ship was actually on the entire time. The reactor was hot and ready to go, the lasers were charged for their initial volley if needed, and the ship actually had no running lights.
He selected the button for engine status to discover something odd. The engines were a prototype which did not feed directly off the reactor, rather a large energy storage array, when then converted the energy it needed with the gas to ignite the engines. Taking a closer look at the diagram he found that the array could also power other systems for a while if the reactor was damaged, though doing the quick calculations in his head resulted in the answer of it being a very temporary solution.
He was about to look at the energy consumption of his ship in total when he felt the docking clamps release his ship. A screen popped up from his chair indicating that the docking computer had connected to his ships launch preparation systems and that in 30 seconds his ship would be launched from the station on a parallel course of the enemy.
The screen quickly cleared and for the first time he looked out to the front of the bridge. There in the center of him roughly 2 meters was a weird cylindrical pillar which stuck up from the floor roughly a meter and a half. It hummed loudly and figments of light focused and collected on top of it until it formed the rough figure of a feline. It re-scattered the light and refocused with more clarity and precision. He could see now that it was a female lion that was covered in what appeared to him as a black latex suit. She also wore goggles on top of her head that looked roughly like spec-ops class and wielded a M-164V 22mm Guass Rifle on her back. Her hair was tired back in a neat, but not tight ponytail and her left bang hung freely over the left side of her face.
The translucent figure turned and faced Nexus. She put her hand to her head as if thinking, and then waved dismissively. "They certainly can give a girl a lot to work with." she finally said. Her voice wasn't the cold metallic voice of a computer, but rather a sweet angel. It sounded as if she was an actual person over the internal speakers.
Nexus's ship suddenly fell slightly than stabilized, and then he felt a sudden rumbling underneath his seat. "The docking computer has been dismissed and I taking over the launching sequence. The engines will be warm in 20 seconds and we will be pinpoint warping to the enemy fleet."
Nexus saw the navigation screen go through a series of math equation in such a rapid pace he barely had enough time to recognize them before they were all completed. The maintenance panel flashed and the engine diagnostic screen came up. Nexus read the panel showing that the engines were hot and were ready to ignite. As he went to push the button the panel went off and the translucent A.I. looked at him.
"Before we jump, since I have 10 seconds to waste, let me introduce myself. My name is Mirage, and I am the Artificial Intelligence of this vessel. This vessel is a prototype battleship that can engage in prolonged combat if need be, but that is not what it was designed for. This vessel was designed as an Exploration and Force Recon ship mixing the best of both worlds. It features 12 Heavy Point Defense Pulse Lasers, Adaptive shields that adjust to the oncoming damage, and one of the thickest hulls in history of 3.2 meters of Dillireum and Dalnor mix. Let's see a projectile even punch through the armor, which is 2.5 meters thick. Now you just sit back, and I do suggest strapping the seat harnesses on since not only are pinpoint jumps jerky, but require a rather significant expenditure of energy."
With that Nexus felt a sudden rumble under his chair as the engine came to life in full fury. He saw the station leave his view fast than any other battleship he had been on. He felt the acceleration too as he was pushed further back into his chair. He looked up at the navigation panel and saw the ship was already doing well over 400 meter a second in less than 10 seconds. There was a timer right above the current rate of speed counting down the time left until the ship was able to initiate a warp and was stopped at 0:00. Before Nexus could ask he felt a sudden jerk and all the panels and light around him died with the exception of the A.I.
"We are now cloaked and warping in at 25 KM. The power to the systems will be restored roughly 20 seconds after we drop from warp, which will be... now" Mirage said and Nexus was jerked forward as the warp bubble collapsed and reverse thrusters fired in full force. They sat in darkness drifting slowly at the fleet for the 20 seconds it took the ship to power back up.
"How many ships?" nexus dared to ask looking into the space beyond that held the massing fleet.
"All human ships. 1 Capital, Carrier Class. 17 Battleship, 23 cruisers, 37 frigates, 12 interceptors." Mirage replied in a not worried tone.
"How long until they are in range of the station and defensive fleet?"
"Going no more than 165 meters a second, 5 minutes until the battleships 1200mm can hit anything. However the main station lasers will be firing shortly"
Pondering his own ships offensive and defense ability he looked for the armaments panel but could not find his way around this new panel system. The A.I. having an uncanny sense of knowing decided to answer for him.
"This ship's lasers have an effective range of 12 KM optimal with a 3000 meter falloff and fire a 4 second burst of 8 pulses. The shields this ship are equipped with can handle as big of a projectile as a 1700mm, for a limited time of course. As for the armor and hull, it can handle the same but let's hope we don't have to test that since on the official report it said that it is not confirmed." Mirage triumphantly dictated.
"What kind of weapons do the human ships posses" Nexus decided to question full well knowing the battleships were going to have long range projectile turrets and the small ships were going to have a mix of short range blasters and midrange guass cannons.
"Scanning" Mirage said and then paused. Her face seemed to scowl a bit as she replied "The battleships have 1200mm projectile turrets, the cruisers are using dual 250mm guass cannons, the frigate have 125mm neutron blasters, and the interceptors have engine enervators. The Carrier has one 4500mm mass driver and 22 2000mm projectile turrets."
As nexus was about to ask why a Human Carrier could be here, bright neon green beams of light shot past their ships hitting the leading battleship. The ships armor bubbled as it lurched port and narrowly missed another ship. As it regained control it fired all 16 of its projectile turrets at the station. Mirage activated the ships rear camera and tracked the projectile as they impacted the stations shields. Small dim green ripples appeared like small wave in a lake than vanished like fading stars.
"No damage to the station or its shields" Mirage announced as she moved the ship slightly port to get out of the line of fire. "The lead battleship is intact and is holding. They must have upgraded the armor on them or else it was a warning shot."
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"I want those laser batteries on rapid charge and firing every time they hit 100%" GP commanded. "Move our interceptors to engage in combat with the smaller ships and give them cruiser support. Tell all battleships to break formation and to engage at will to anything that threatens the cruisers ships."
"Orders sent sir. Viper is on COMs requesting permission to cover the cloaked ship" announced a black furred Doberman by the name of Axel.
"Permission denied. They are fine and in the event all hell does break loose, a force assault ship won't be able to handle protecting them. Order him to stay behind the battleships and fire long range lasers" GP barked
"Sir, an unknown A.I. is sending us data regarding the Human Capital" Barked over the thumps of the station being bombarded with projectiles.
"Decrypt the transmission and feed whatever strategic data it holds to the stations A.I." Turning to a young female fox with golden red fur "Moxxie what is the status of our shield array"
She tabbed through a number of screen regarding the stations systems until she reached the one indicating defensive systems and replied "Green sir, 100% charge. They have not been able to outgun the generators" Her glasses gleamed as she turned her head to take a look at the laser battery power "Laser will overheat in 5 minutes at this rate of fire, but the capacitor and generators are both holding."
"Pump supplementary coolant into the system."
"Coolant pumping but they are still running hot, 10 minutes at most before the focusing crystals will melt"
GP knew that the stations guns would not last any longer than that and he knew he would have to slow down their rate of fire. Right now he was firing an array of 32 Long Range Gigawatt lasers at 6 second recharge rate, which was beyond their normal 15 second recharge rate.
"Sir, large incoming warp signatures detected, 75 KM off Starboard. Orders sir?" Axel yelled over the commotions of proximity alarms
"Are they within range of the main laser array Moxxie?" GP demanded with haste
"No sir, they are out of optimal and within tracking falloff. We might be able to hit them when they come out of warp but once they start moving we may not be able to track them with the main laser array. The calculations come to an effective tracking of 162 M/sec." She managed to scream out as she diverted more power to the laser array
"Damn it that slower than their battleships. Keep the lasers on their current targets. Prepare point defense systems. How much time is left before..."
The station shuttered as a large mass driver round impacted the lower portion of the station. The stations shields flared in a dark green neon light with the visible dodecagon lattice structure that supported and gave strength to the field. Raw energy from the impact bled into space as the shields heated from green to a bright white silver, than cooled and faded with no trace of the impact.
"What the hell was that?!" GP demanded as he steadied himself on the railing on the upper portion of the floor.
"Sir, it was a 4500mm mass driver round from the carrier. Shields at 87% and regenerating." Moxxie replied with haste and she squelched another alarm alerting them to the already past impact.
"Track its recharge time till the next volley so we can reinforce the shield grid before impact"
"The Harbinger has lost its cloak; the magnetic distortion from the mass driver depolarized its shield matrix. They're out in the open and the cruisers are going after them" Axel blurted out in panic
"Damn it! Move lasers to focus fire on those cruisers" GP cursed himself for refusing to take precautions. "Get GP up there as fast as his ship can go and give the order to open fire when in rage"
"Aye Sir. Orders sent. Laser alignment and tracking in 10 seconds" Moxxie replied with haste
"Open fire as soon as they are aligned" GP said in quivering tone, he didn't want to lose Nexus anymore than he had."
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As various alarms went off inside the bridge of the Harbinger, Mirage was desperately focusing all of her processing power to restore the cloaking system. It was badly damaged from the EMP pulse the mass driver made as it fired; this was not something she'd expected. She managed to draw enough power from the ships power grid to restore a basic shield around the ship, but unless she managed to boost its strength it would not hold.
For a quick second she monitored Nexus vitals, and although he did not seem to be in shock or panicking, he was very uneased. "I have established a light shield around the ship but I require more energy to reinforce it. As a result, I do suggest you hold your breath for..." She calculated the amount of time it should take, than added 10% for problems that may occur "93 seconds. I will be turning off all environmental systems. You have 5 seconds"
The environmental systems themselves did not draw a significant power from the ship, but she was shunting power from every grid she could which added up overtime. She had recycled the energy charge in the lasers leaving them cold, she reduced engine power by 25%, she took all the sensors offline except those that she needed to see into space, and she disabled every light in the ship including her holo-image. She waited as Nexus took a deep breath and dumped the environmental systems. She dumped every ounce of power she could muster from the ships into the shield array but it still wasn't enough to reinforce the internal lattice of the grid. She quickly scanned through the ship for any additional power and the only thing she saw was herself.
Quickly writing a program to do what needed to be done, she sent it to the main computer and set herself on a temporary power stasis. Once her main core was disconnected, the computer took the extra power that kept her external arrays and processors active and shunted them the shields. A silent crackle and the green flare of the dodecagon lattice appeared outside of the viewport and held as the shield reinforced its entirety. It quickly faded and Mirage was brought back online.
She checked the shields as confirmed that they were back up at full capacity and that they were holding. She than checked the drained reactor and found that it had not burned out and was recharging the main energy matrix. She turned the environmental systems back online which caused the reactor to flicker, but nothing that would be of a concern.
Nexus exhaled and gasped for air and relaxed a bit in his chair. Mirage pinged his vitals again, and other than his blood oxygen level being 63%, he was fine. He rubbed his head and ears trying to reestablish himself and tapped the button on his chair to bring up the holopanels.
"One second" Mirage interjected "I will have power for that in a few more seconds" In truth she had the power for it now but she killed the command to switch them on. She needed to bring all of the ships sensors back online and warm up the laser batteries.
As she brought the sensors back online, she read energy spikes on the newly perusing ships weapons array. She quickly fired the port thrusters and the ship jerked starboard. 14 of the 32 projectiles she detected graced the shields with no noticeable damage.
"Permission to oppose the enemy" Mirage asked. While she was indeed capable of doing it, it was required of all A.I. regardless of their class to always ask their biological counterparts permission before engaging in dangerous activities.
"Granted. I'm not dead yet so I trust you" Nexus replied with his biological systems back within tolerance for his sub-species
Mirage fired to bow thrusters at full force and angled down at 45 degrees. She did this as the ships main engine fired at full burn effectively turning the ship upside in relation to the station. As the ship tumbled she reduced power to the main engines to 10% as not to lose forward momentum, now backwards momentum, too violently.
As the front of the ship turned to face them enemy ships, she charged all twelve of the lasers and fired and the closest ship, 7234 meters off the bow. Twelve ice-blue streaks of light pulsed across space at the nearest cruiser. Its armor boiled away and the lasers cut precision lines through the ship and its reactor. It listed port and collided with another ship damaging a good majority of it starboard armor as it exploded.
As the ship rotated the face the "relative up" position, Mirage fired the main engine full force. The internal compensators could not calculate for the full force of the acceleration and nexus was jarred back against his seat.
Nexus strained an arm to put the rear view in front of the other holopanels and watched as the remaining cruisers follow pursuit. He saw bright yellow flashes of light as they fired their guass cannons at his ship.
Mirage evened out the ship but not quick enough to outrun the projectiles and most of them made contact with the shields. Nexus watched on the camera as the dodecagon field flared dark neon green from the impacts and fade. He took a quick glance at the ship maintenance panel and saw that the shields only went down 1% from what he saw as 27 impacts.
"Don't get comfortable yet" Mirage warned as she adjusted the rear camera's angle. "Looks like the battleships are about to fire at us. We've just become a high value target. Hold on to your tail, that is if you don't trust it to stay on your body"
"Huh?" is all Nexus could utter as the ship jerked port and did a full 180 and burned towards the battleships. Nexus watched as she took the ship into a barrel roll and off to starboard. If not for the internal compensation system, as little as it was helping with Mirage's piloting, Nexus was sure he would have barfed. Nothing in the training courses were near this rough.
He looked at the ships speed which was an outstanding 536 M/sec, which was nearly impossible for any battleship alone, and unheard off of a ship this size doing sudden maneuvers at said speed. Some off the battleships tracked their sudden course change and being over 50 kilometers away, their turrets tracked with ease as they fired.
The Shields flared silver as the 24 1200mm projectile rounds blasted the ships shields. Nexus watched as the indicated dropped from 99% to 83% from the first 10 impacts and than 83% to 78%. "That's what adaptive shielding must mean" he thought to himself.
Nexus felt a sudden jerk in the opposite direction than the ships course. The speed panel flashed red and read " Engines Enervated". "How the hell" nexus said aloud as the rear camera zoomed out to show 3 interceptors rapidly approaching the ship with small magnetic diffusion beams extruding from their bow.
Mirage shot beam pulses at each one and missed. She recalculated and tried again with the same result. "Too small and fast, turrets can't track them, to which none is my fault" she admitted in a disappointed voice, though it was shown for the ship rather than herself.
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"Sir" Axel shouted out "The shields are at 50%. The boosters are at 160% but they are overheating. The point defense systems are effective but there are so many ships"
"GP was watching the battle through cameras around the perimeter of the station. The laser could hit the Carrier which was 260KM off but they would not be effective at such as extreme range. The group that warped in immediately burned to within 15 KM of the station and were pounding the shields which all different matter of projectile rounds. The dodecagon lattices that gave the support behind the shields were warping from the heat and were failing in heavily fired upon locations.
GP was thrown back as a pair of mass driver rounds pounded the station. Sparks flew out of conduits and all the panels flickered for a few seconds.
"Shields are..." Moxxie paused "dodecagon lattice collapsed. We are in pure field strength now. 15% remaining and draining fast. Estimated time maybe 5 minutes; boosters are burned out. And we've got another problem, the Harbinger is under heavy fire."
"How far off are they?!" GP shouted the exploding console next to him
"97 Kilometers sir"
"That's within optimal. Shoot the ships shooting them" GP ordered
"That may not be such a wise idea GP." came a smooth and calm female voice over the intercoms. "One More mass driver hit and we will be out of shields. We are the ones in immediate danger, Mirage can handle herself.
"The the Carrier is reorienting, it's taking aim at the Harbinger." Axel announced with a bit of tragedy in his voice. It will be able to fire in 5 seconds.
GP could do nothing except watch as the Mass Driver flared and fired.
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"We are going to have a problem" Mirage sudden announced as she focused a camera on the Carrier. "It's taking aim at us"
"Can we outmaneuver it?" eyes wide open with fear
"I'm launching drones now to try to restore our speed, but no doubt the enemy will fire at them. If they get destroyed, I won't know what to do"