April 4th, 004 SDE:
Reidia looked out the viewport. Her ship was certainly looking better after almost ten months in dry dock, that last battle with the menace had not done her ship any favors. For a moment there she’d thought she was going to lose the ship, but thankfully one of her engineers had managed to jettison the main reactor just before the containment field failed. The resulting detonation had slagged a good chunk of the ship, but the vessel had remained largely intact. More importantly, the core superstructure was largely undamaged, but the Bountiful Treasure had certainly taken a beating.
It had taken a huge chunk of her personal funds to save the ship but she was certainly happy with the results. A part of her couldn’t wait to get aboard and see what the refit had done for her ship.
Her gaze drifted to the next slip where a nearly completed Yinta II class Dreadnought was undergoing the final phases of construction. It was one of several ships that promised to revitalize the Valorian navy and she had to admit the specs were really promising. It was larger than her War Spirit class dreadnought, which was officially being redesignated as the War Spirit II.
Her own ship was going to be the first War Spirit of the War Spirit II configuration and featured many of the same upgrades the Yinta II had. Idly she recalled the specs she’d been given. The Yinta II was a truly massive vessel, measuring 6100 meters long with 240 decks and four large hangar bays, allowing it to support a fighter complement of 5550.
The hull was standard duranium construction and featured no additional armor mass which helped keep the weight of the hull down. This allowed the ship a fairly impressive maneuvering profile, and if the specs were believed, the ship would be able to keep up with the menace warship Enterprise, which had already proven to be remarkably agile for her size.
The real improvement were the shields. Reidia was certainly looking forward to what they could do. With nearly a year to work on them, the scientists had made significant leaps forward in shield design. Especially once they understood exactly how the menace torpedoes were bypassing their shields. The new shields on the Yinta were theoretically hardened against shield-penetrating warheads. The ship featured a multilayered shield grid with each layer having its own rotating band modulation with a completely redesigned shield matrix. If the simulations were right, it would take a concerted bombardment to bring those shields down.
Combined with the new generation of shields, the Yinta featured a new generation antimatter reactor and upgraded warp drive scheme, allowing her a cruising speed of warp five point one. All that extra power however also allowed her a very impressive weapons array.
The ship was armed to the teeth, with numerous heavy plasma torpedo projectors mounted port and starboard, along with over a hundred forward-mounted tubes and seventy-five aft. The torpedoes alone were enough to destroy most capital ships, but in addition to that the ship carried a massive array of heavy Concussion Pulse Cannons.
These were new-generation plasma cannons that were in part based on Cathamari weapons technology and they were truly impressive in testing. Having seen the damage they could do, she considered them a revolutionary new weapon. The weapon retained a respectable fire rate of about 2500 bolts per minute. Each bolt was a highly focused concussive plasma shell with a yield comparable to a plasma mortar, a weapon she knew effective against menace armor, although somewhat lacking in penetration. It worked more to drain it than anything, but she didn’t think it would be the same with the new Concussion Cannons.
Her own ship had been refitted with some of the same technology. Her old mortars had been replaced with Concussion Pulse cannons, she’d been outfitted with a new point defense array and concussive flak turrets of the same type being mounted on the Yinta II. Along with a new reactor of the same type as the Yinta II and a similar shield grid upgrade. In fact the fleet was looking at her vessel to create a cheaper and faster line of dreadnoughts for when a Yinta wasn’t warranted. Minus the hull plating naturally, as they weren’t convinced it was worth the cost.
“Impressive aren’t they,” said someone from behind her.
Without looking, she replied. “Quite, they’ll be something else once they are done.”
“Right, and we are going to need them if the reports I’ve been getting are right. The Malora and the Toral recently signed a treaty.”
She turned to face the admiral talking to her, “That’s... concerning.”
“Agreed, but no war has come yet. In the meantime, I was looking for an advisor on a different matter.”
“Well I have plenty of time, how can I help you ma’am?”
The admiral chuckled, “Plenty indeed. The fleet lost track of the menace. Seeing as you survived the most engagements against them. I was hoping you would have some insight.”
She blinked, “Um, sure?”
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Captain’s log April 4th, 004 SDE
The last year has been hard on the crew and fleet, morale remains okay, but our reserves have been hard hit. I’ve been informed that our fuel reserves are nearly gone, we have what’s in the reactors and that is just about it. We are also running low on spare parts and materials due to heavy fighting with the Valorian fleet. I’ve had far too many run-ins with them, but they have outposts throughout the quadrant. I’ve also heard more than one rumor of concern, but there is little I can do about the Valorians and their insistence on engaging and cutting us off at every turn. By now it’s become apparent that they have some method of tracking us, but we know it’s not perfect. As we’ve been able to evade them on more than one occasion.
Sadly our little spy ship was unable to remain undetected forever. We lost it to a Valorian patrol vessel earlier this week. The last data burst confirmed the spy ship had activated her last-stand protocols and long-range sensors picked up an energy burst in the area consistent with a Rydium drive detonation. I would like to build a replacement, but finding the materials for that is proving prohibitive and with the constant hunting we barely have time to repair our own ships. Finding resources to resupply is also growing increasingly difficult, and now we face a choice as it seems we won’t be reaching our destination if we maintain our current course.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Countryman sighed as he turned off the monitor. The latest log entry was a little short and felt rather incomplete, but it was currently time for him to get to the meeting. There was a lot to talk about as the council was going to be discussing a change in destination. With their current fuel reserves and the recent failures they’d faced with trying to resupply. They weren’t even in Valorian space and were currently over two hundred lightyears from their nearest Valorian colony, but they had encountered a Valorian battlefleet just last week, when they’d attempted to refuel at a neutral world, or well, formerly neutral.
He wasn’t sure if it was just poor timing or deliberate, but the Valorians had entered the system with the intent to take it. They’d managed to escape, but not without taking a few licks and using more ordinance then they could really spare to use. It was also becoming much harder to replace spent torpedoes as they were having a harder time sourcing materials. Every time they found somewhere to resupply, the Valorians were there. It was certainly frustrating, but he’d given them more than one bloody nose in exchange for the effort.
Stepping into the meeting room, he put his thoughts aside and glanced at the faces gathered. A number of officers were gathered here, Williams was glaring at him as he came in, while the others were chatting. Creating a low buzz throughout the room. Countryman walked around the chairs and sat down next to Reynolds and Drakes. Not far from him were the faces of Greyman and Ruri. A moment later another one entered, as Richards, their engineer, came in looking a little harried.
Seeing things were ready, he started the meeting, “Okay I think we are all familiar with the current status of the fleet, so let’s jump right into it. Our fuel reserves are nearly depleted and our chances of refueling out here are looking slim to none.”
Greyman nodded, “Yes, I think it’s about time we started looking for a friendly port.”
“Didn’t we try that last week, the Valorians showed before we could get fuel.”
“Yes, but the locals weren’t exactly equipped to protect themselves.”
Drakes nodded, “Sounds about right. I’ve been looking at the charts, with the current fuel we have a few options. The first is looking up the Toral, our few encounters with them have been generally cordial.”
Reynolds frowned, “Generally yes, but they have taken shots at us before. There’s also the Valorian twenty third fleet between us and them. It’s doubtful we’d reach Toral space without being detected, and we know they can see us. They figured out how to track us months ago.”
Williams interjected, “Let's not seek help from those ugly four-armed gorillas.”
Countryman ignored her, “Well it’s an option, although getting past the net might be difficult. If we had more fuel, I’d consider going around.
Eri interjected, “We have just enough fuel to reach Krall space.” she pointed at the charts. If we conserve energy properly, I can chart us a course through the Valorian core, to a Krall outpost here.”
“The Valorian core!?” Asked Williams, “are you nuts!? That area will be crawling with scum.”
Countryman frowned, “Hmm that might not be a bad idea. It has the virtue of them not expecting it.”
“Why not look up the Chi’ran? They were pretty friendly...”
Eri countered, “Too far, we’d run out fuel long before we got to the nearest Chi’ran outpost.”
“So our options are to run a Valorian blockade to reach Toral space, or cross Valorian space for the Krall territories.”
“Sounds like we might have to deal with the Valorians either way.”
“Agreed.”
The officers looked around and Countryman noted the grim faces. He leaned back, before returning to the star chart. It displayed the Valorian border, the Toral border, and the distant Krall stars. The main bulk of Toral space was located just past a region of space known as the Velosa Cluster. A dangerous region of space he’d taken into account when he plotted the original course. It was right up against the Valorian core too, but that section of space had largely limited their spread in that direction. Of course the Valorians had territory on both sides of the cluster, but the majority was located to the galactic south of it. Idly he recalled that they had been closer to Toral held space almost a year ago, than they were now. A seemingly disconnected pocket, but space wasn’t two-dimensional.
Regardless they were faced with a hard set of choices. Many of the safer and closer port picks were already closed to them. It didn’t help that the local power was ill-equipped to stop the vast fleets violating their space. As it was they were basically capitulating to the Valorians who had their own ideas about the sector.
“So vote, which way are we going?” said Countryman. Toral space was closer by about two weeks, but there was that blockade to go through, while Krall space required flying through the core territories of the Valorian Trade Confederation. Both routes had their risks, but it seemed the crew already knew which way they wanted to go.
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Reidia settled over the holotable and frowned, “That doesn’t look like a star chart.”
“No, it’s the other item I wanted to talk to you about. We encountered it recently in the Lykal Beta system not that far from Starbase 59.”
Reida looked over the lines of the hull, it was black and silver with the smooth rounded lines of a menace vessel. Separated nacelles and a primary saucer-shaped hull, but no secondary disk. Still it was clearly one of theirs, but generally smaller than any ship she’d encountered before, outside of their fighters that is.
“I’m guessing you want me to help track it down?”
“Actually no, we managed to destroy it, but we didn’t get much from it.”
She frowned, “what do you mean?”
“Our patrol fleet engaged it and prevented it from escaping. What followed was a prolonged engagement that ended with the ship in question exploding. It was quite the explosion too, we lost twelve cruisers to the blast.”
Reidia blinked, “12? How big was the blast?”
“Big enough, but that’s not what I wanted to discuss. Rather I wanted your insights into the ship.”
Reidia nodded and started reading the files. The ship was about eighty meters long, and its sensor signature was virtually non-existent. Its armament was nothing more than a dozen low-yield particle cannons, no beam array. The ship didn’t have any torpedoes either, but she was fast, very fast, which was shown in the combat footage. The local patrol cruisers had been hard pressed to keep up with her and several times that speed had nearly allowed the alien frigate to escape the net.
Her armor however seemed rather minimal, as the ship proved vulnerable to standard pulse cannons. Although it had taken quite a few hits before anything actually got through the alien plating. Frowning she commented, “It looks like some kind of stealth vessel perhaps. Armament is quite limited, no torpedoes, but fast. Hmm, the sensor nodes are notably larger too and it has a massive comm array.”
“That’s what I was thinking. We suspect it was a spy ship.”
Reidia’s mind jumped to a few incidents in the past. “That would explain a lot. If this ship was scouting our movements for them...”