Gurdians Downfall: Chapter 3: It Gets Even Better!
Chapter 3It Gets Even BetterDate: Niovember 9, 2777Location: Traveling, 1 light year from Leben.Time: 0100 (Military Time)The Captain made his way through the hall, stepping over metal platings and debris. Wires dangled from the ceiling. The hall was filled with light smoke and sparks flew from damaged panels on the walls. Crew Personnell were scrambling to assess the damage done to the deck and help the crew members that needed it. God fucking damn it! The Captain thought. He was both angry and worried. Angry at the fact that the most advanced ship ever designed by both Humanity and the Pelzigens was outmaneuvered and outgunned by a Lothian ship. Worried for Akutenshi and his squad. All the possiblities of what could have happened to them rushed through his head. He picked up his pace. The ship shuttered from the stress to the already badly damaged hull. The jump wasn't doing the technicians any favors either. The minute that got one thing fixed, whether it was activating the shielding at the hull breaches that failed to activate to fixing one of five gravity generators onboard the ship, something new would prop up. A new hull breach, a part of the hull would tear off due to the stress that the worm hole would cause, and the FTL Drives where beginning to overheat meaning that they would have to exit the worm hole soon enough. It didn't fucking help that the planets in the Epsilon Eridani System where so far apart from each other. He came upon a single door that lead into the Med Lab. Sparks flew from it as the mechanisms worked on opening the door. It slid open and he walked in and attempted to shut and got stuck, sparking even more. One of the Med Lab Technicians typing on a pad looked up at the Captain and saw the door. He rushed over and grunted as he gave it a heavy kick and the door closed all the way. "Where are they?" The Captain said watching the Technician. "Down the hall to the left." He responded. The Captain gave him a nod and proceeded down the dimly light hall to a door on the left side of the hall, looked up at it and took a deep breath. Hold it together, they're fine! He thought. The door opened to a sober scene. Kijani was on a medical table with a bandaged leg, looking over at the Captain with a bit of a smile, Miranda stared up at him with a few scraped and bruises and gave him a gentle smile. Jack, a male human that had went with the group looked over at him from the corner of the room with a patch over his right eye and nodded. He smiled back at all them and scanned the room to find Cale and Akutenshi. Where were they? He looked over at Miranda and she nodded to the right of the room to a curtain. The Captains smile faded as he walked towards the curtain and opened it slightly and saw Cale sitting in a chair with a bandage around his left arm and chest. He was fine, thank god. He looked to the left of Cale and his eyes widened. Akutenshi laid in a bed with a bandage over his left eye,
one around his right paw, around his chest and waist, and he saw several stitches showing from where the bandage didn't cover on his chest. His fur was caked in some blood still and a resperator was placed to help him breath. The machine monitoring his pulse gave off stable beeps showing his condition. So far, he was stable. Cale looked back at the Captain with lowered ears. "What happened?" He said in a hushed tone staring at Ishimura. "Well..." Said Cale "Captain, after we landed in the Hangar....or more of well crashed into the hanger, Ishimura had regained consciousness and had apparently stood up went up to the cockpit and pulled me out and threw me into the cargo hold, then threw up a shield....He threw himself in harms way to protect us." The Captain gave a quiet sigh and looked at Ishimura. Damn kid, always had to throw himself in harms way. The Captain looked over at Cale and nodded. "Sir." Jack said. "We did find the Flight Recorder and were able to recover it, it's partially damaged so it'll take time to repair it and find out what happened, but we also found a survivor, he goes by the name Josh Lupin, Lance Corporal, assigned to the Valkyrie when she launched. We were able to pull up his background and details after we were checked out. He's currently unconscious still." The Captain gave a nod and looked over at Kijani. "Sir, There are people in worse condition than Akutenshi." He said looking at him. "I know. We've set course for Leben, our ETA is approximately 30 minutes, once there we're getting the wounded to a hospital where they'll undergo Nanite theorpy and start the recovery process. While there, HQ wants a debrief and we'll receive orders once that's done." They all nodded, Cale looked over at Ishimura with concern and took a deep breath. The Captain saluted the squad and walked towards the door. "I'll....be on the bridge if anyone needs me." And with that, he walked out the room and back to the bridge.Location: Orbiting Leben. UGSM Serenity nearing Docking Station OmegaTime: 0130 Military Time onboard Serenity. 1430 Military Time on Leben. "Serenity to docking station Omega, requesting permission to initiate docking procedure and undergo repairs and unloading of critical personnel." The Ensign looked at his console, the coordinates slowly changing as the Serenity aligned itself with the station. "This is docking station Omega, request is approved Serenity, begin docking procedure, heading zero-zero-nine point three-five-four. Copy?" "Affirmative, heading zero-zero-nine poin three-five-four. Thank you Omega. Lian, begin Docking Procedure Alpha please." "Already on it Ensign Nielsen." He rolled his eyes. Their AI had only been active for a few days, and already it was getting a personality, he kind of liked it. The ships viewport angled to reveal a massive cross shaped station with three large circles revolving around it
attache to it by several long tubes. the bottom portion contained rib like cages with ships entering and exiting them, all of which were large ships from Carriers to Capital Ships. The middle ring contained smaller vessels, Frigates and Cruisers came and went. The top portion allowed smaller vessels such as yachts, transportation shuttles, convoy escorts, and small fighters to dock to the station. Each had several of the rib cages which were used to do repair on ships that needed them. The large station grew bigger and bigger the closer they got and the ship began angling itself into a trajectory that would allow it to dock into the biggest rib cage. "ETA to Repair Station Zero One, two minutes and thirty seconds. Slowing to Impulse speed!" Nielson said to the captain. A loud shuddering was heard throughout the bridge as the hull stressed. Hold it together baby. He thought punching in several other commands into the console. "Two minutes, slowing to quarter impulse." He relayed back to the captain. The console in front of him flashed several warnings at him regarding the hull integrity as well as several other issues that were beginning to occur due to the stress on the ships hull from the deceleration. "One minute and thirty seconds. Cutting engines and beginning docking procedure....activating forward thrusters to slow us down." He worked furiously as he continued to maintain control of their approach to the cage. "Beginning to drift, thirty seconds until we've reached the repair station." The Viewport was filled with the stars and parts of the repair station as it entered it. Several lights flickered within the station and smaller repair vessells began to ignite their thrusters and begin their trajectory to the Serenity. "Thirty seconds, almost dead in the water sir." The ship gave a loud protest to the stop as it floated into the station where several tracter beams locked onto her and stopped her all the way. "Docking procedure complete Captain, getting word from the repair station that they will start assessing the damage and begin repairs immediately." He looked up at the old man and saw him nod at him. "Captain, High Command is wanting you planet side. They want a debriefing in two hours." "Understood Nicole, tell them i'll be on my way once the Umbillical cords are attached and i have a shuttle ready." "Yes sir." A young female began to relay the message through a console next to him, her golden hair was rather eye catching. "Beginning to shut down all Engine reactors and FTL drives, Umbellicle is attached to the docking port. Have fun Captain." Nielson said with which he got a reply from the Captain "Comical." As the Captain stood up and walked out the bridge. "Everyone that is not needed to help with repairs is granted shore leave. Get our injured to a medical station as soon as possible. That is all." "Yes sir." Nielson looked over at the console to double check everything was good to go
before he stood up and stretched and made his way out the bridge.Location: Leben Capital City, Wächter. Unified Systems Military HQTime: 1630The Captain entered the dimly light war room with it's holographic table in the center along with several other holographic emitters aligned on the walls and ceiling. There where no windows and the low blue lights were the only source of light within the room. The emitters began to move and bright blue figures appeared before him. To the left of him was an elderly woman, there was no color but from the winkles on her face it told him that she was older than him. Leader of the Army, General Powell. The one next to her was a younger man, Leader of the Airforce, General McCullin. Asshole of the UGSM. The man in the middle was the Leader of the Navy, Admiral Harper. About the same age as the Captain, and a reasonable man. Then an old hound appeared to the right, The Highest ranking among the Guardians, and a well respected teacher at the Academy. Ardan. He gave the Captain a slow nod and a gentle smile. "Reporting as ordered." The Captain said. Powell looked over at him and took a deep breath, "Captain." McCullin stared at the Captain with a low scowl, They never got along, let alone see eye to eye. "Scheck." Said Harper and gave the captain a welcoming smile. "Tell us, What had happened and what did you do to our brand new ship?" "Not exactly a story we can laugh about..." Replied the Captain. Within a matter of a couple hours the Captain gave them the long winded version regarding how he had deployed Ishimura's team to the Valkyrie soon after receiving her distress beacon to how their sensors had gone off reading a fleet of Lothian vessels up to their encounter with the new hostile ship. It took a few minutes before anyone spoke after he was done. "We loss alot of good people aboard the Valkyrie, we lost a good ship." The Captain said. "Agreed, but we haven't lost the Valkyrie yet." Harper said looking over at the Captain. "According to some of the scans you took of her before being engaged and forced to flee, she looks like she can be repaired and ready again in a year or so. Granted it'll cost us a fortune to rebuild the parts of the ship that are missing." "Agreed." Replied Powell. "The only good news is that the Serenity made it out in one piece." "Which is where you come in Scheck" Said McCullin. "We have your next orders, once the Serenity is repaired we will send her as well as a fleet to recover the Valkyrie. " The Captain glared at the man. He wasn't for recovering the Valkyrie, but he knew that there was something else going on in that mans mind. And they weren't the things he would more than likely not hear. "As well as hunt down the enemy ship and either scan it, give us a report on it. Or destroy it." The Captain widened his eyes and stared at the General. "Understood, I'm expecting that you give me the details of the fleet that will be with the Serenity and the tugs as we
retrieve the Valkyrie?" "That is correct Scheck. We will be sending the details to your PDA in a few minutes, i expect you to look over them." The Captain nodded. "As for reconning the enemy ship if possible we will be tasking a small stealth group to the fleet that will cloak and begin surveying the area. If they find the enemy vessel, they will monitor while notifying the rest of the fleet. The Prowler will be assigned to head that operation. Take good care of her." The General stared at the Captain for a moment. "I understand and look forward to seeing them at the Valkyrie's coordinates. Anything else?" He took a look at the Admiral and took a deep breath and sighed. "Yes, we have been getting whispers around Foraoise. We want you to take the fleet after retrieving the Valkyrie and after you have finished your job on finding out if that ship is still in the Valkyrie's area as well as recon it. After that you are to report to Station Gamma Three and retrieve a set of coordinates where the whispers originated from." "Expecting trouble?" "Sadly yes. Approximately three weeks prior to the attack on Aegis, we had detected Whispers and had dismissed them as fading transmissions, that is as what they had appeared to be to us. We're getting the same thing with these whispers and fear it's a way that the Lothians are communicating with each other. We already have fleets one, five, six and eight en route to the planet in case it is what we think it is." "And if it isn't?" He responded. "Well, we can breath a sigh of relief on that part." He nodded in agreement. "Anything else?" He asked as politely as possible. "That should be all, if anything comes up we'll notify you Captain. You are dismissed." The holograms faded out one by one and the room began to get bright. The Captain turned and walked out the door knowing that the mission was not what the crew wanted, but what needed to be done.