April 5th, 003 SDE, Enterprise Conference Room:
Countryman leaned forward, “It seems we caught them off guard.”
“Agreed, but I wonder how long we can tap their military communications. I doubt our spy frigate will remain undetected indefinitely,” commented Greyman.
William sighed, “I hate agreeing with Greyman, but he is right. Our spy frigate can’t remain undetected forever. Sooner or later they will figure it out and eventually track it down. Stealth armor only helps so much. It helped this once, but I still feel it was a bad investment.”
“Perhaps, we already know they are moving fast to cut us off from valuable resources and potential points of resupply.”
Williams gave Countryman a look. “So what is our ‘all-knowing’ machine going to do about it? We’ve already used half our fuel reserves.”
Ruri interjected, “I have a few ideas to help with that. Our electro cannons are rather energy-intensive and they sadly struggled against those high-strength multilayered shields. On the flipside, we got a lot of new data on weapon performance. I think we can optimize them now, just give some time to finish going through all the data.”
“Sounds interesting, how much time do you think you will need for the project?”
“A month perhaps two. Electro Cannons aren’t simple weapons.”
Countryman was aware, the charged plasma stream they used was designed to disrupt energy shields and targeted subsystems. They were also in theory effective against powered armor. Not that they knew for sure, they never had the occasion to test it, and now it didn’t really matter. Unless they happened to engage an enemy who had a similar weapon. Something he considered possible, but given the weapons used a mix of exotic charged particles to produce its effects, it was unlikely. “I look forward to what you can do.”
Williams, now glaring, said, “I’m still lacking answers on what you plan to do about this damn war you started.”
Countryman laughed, “I didn’t start it, but I wouldn’t call it a war either. More of a conflict, one in which they just keep throwing ships at us.”
“You attacked them!”
He gave her a look, “Had to be done, they were closing a circle on us. The good news is we have figured out how they are detecting us. Better yet we were able to confirm that a simple modification of our distortion field was able to scatter their sensor beams. We can use that to our advantage, at least until they figure it out.”
Greyman interjected, “Unfortunately they seem aware of our current course. I asked Navigation to look into alternate routes. Not that we have many of those.”
Countryman knew what he meant by that, he had seen the star charts. The whole issue of the Velosa cluster had been what led them down this path. Especially in light of issues with the Valorians, but sadly avoiding their space hadn’t seemed to help. They still had a few options for changing their course, they could attempt to enter Valorian space and get to their goal faster. At the risk of an increased chance of encounters with Valorian fleets. They also still had the option of crossing Valorian space for Krall space. Both were not without risk, reaching Krall space had the merit of friendly ports and fleets to shield them, but it would involve crossing the Valorian core. Something he wasn’t willing to risk just yet. Moving into Valorian space would be risky as well. That meant the best option was to change course and put more distance from Valorian space.
The question remained, however, what systems would be safe. It didn’t help that the recent changes in the Valorian government had led to a rapid militarization of the Valorian fleet and an increase in power projection. Their fleets were now roaming sectors where little to no influence was expected. Something they all found problematic.
Williams gave Greyman a look, “and what route are you thinking of?”
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Several figures had convened for a meeting. Not all of them could be here physically so there were a number attending virtually. One of them spoke up, “Now onto the battle at checkpoint 44, by all acounts it was a disaster. We lost control of the system, a carrier and almost half the fleet. Didn’t help that captain Reidia of Clan Minara wasn’t in the system when the battle started.”
Someone else interjected, “She was exactly where she was supposed to be at the time. On schedule to take command, we can’t blame her for being out of position for it. None of us predicted they would strike before we had finished fortifying the position.”
“Agreed, we should be giving her a commendation. Not only did she manage to save the fleet, she gave us valuable new insights into Menace technology.”
“Oh? It’s only been a day? What could you have learned?”
“We are still looking into things, but we noticed that their weapons struggle against multlayered shields.”
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“Not that it did the Bountiful Treasure much good. I saw the combat data, over two hundred hull breaches, thirteen slagged engines, heavy damage to the shield grid, and multiple destoyed weapon emplacements.”
“Yes, but unlike previous ships to engage them at such close range, she survived. Against a Menace Battleship, no less.”
“It would be pretty expensive to outfit the entire fleet with multilayered shields. There is a reason they aren’t commonplace. Besides, only large capitalships like battleships and dreadnoughts have enough power to support that kind of shield configuration.”
“Agreed, but we need to look into it nonetheless. I would also suggest we look into a thicker configuration. At least three layers maybe more, the double layer was breached by the menace ship mulitple times.”
“I noticed, but I am at a loss on how they did that.”
“Dynamic Energy Sensors, they are short range high resolution scientific scanners found on most science vessels, but they can also be used to scan an active energy shield. Its the only thing I can think of that would explain how they did it.”
“That’s absurd you would have to be...” the figures eyes widened as their voice dropped, “within a few hundred kilometers,” she turned and rechecked the battle record, “Damn, they were almost close enough. Why would a warship have those?”
“Not sure, but I don’t know how we would counter them.”
“Nor I, if they were using such sensors they would have to be more advanced and powerful than those in contempory usage. Seeing as they were able to gather readings on the Bountiful Treasure’s shields despite the sensor scramblers used to prevent such sensors from working.”
“Are we sure its Dynamic Energy Sensors? Could it not be something else?”
“No, but to my knowledge, there are only three ways to penetrate an energy shield and we eliminate one since they weren’t using brute force. That leaves us with option A) they knew our shield configuration or option B) they were firing energy beams containing exotic particles. If it was B we would have taken far more damage as our shields wouldn’t have absorbed anything at all. By process of elimination, they were somehow able to glean our shield configurations.”
A collective breath was taken before someone asked, “So what is the solution?”
“Well we found it, we just increase the number of shield layers. Two help, but three seem to be ideal. I think the Bountiful Treasure would have fared better if it had a third layer of independent shielding”
“Well that is all interesting, but how would it help us? We didn’t even scratch that battleship.”
“No, but we did learn something. We noticed some energy fluctations when she was struck by that last volley of antimatter warheads. They were rather peculiar and we already have some of our best scientists working on the readings. Hopefully they will have something for us by the end of the week.”
“Agreed, even better if they discover some kind of weakness. That alien armor is something else. Especially on the battleship as nothing seems to penetrate it. Not even superheated plasma, which by all rights should burn right through it, nor did those antimatter warheads seem to work.”
“Well they are simply directed high-energy blasts, those warheads contain equal parts of hydrogen and antihydrogen separated by a thin containment bubble. The alien armor wasn’t exposed to antimatter but rather to the explosive results of the two mixing.”
“So what are you proposing?”
“We make an outreach to the Zxi’liri they are experts in antimatter weaponry. I’ve heard they have recently started placing antiproton cannons on the market.”
“Oh? What a wonderful idea, we should buy some right away. That way our fleet can have these new weapons in... four years!” responded one of the council members.
“Someone frowned, “four years? Where did that figure come from. Isn’t that a good idea?”
“It looks good until you look at a star chart. Your average merchant convoy has a cruise speed of warp three point eight, some can go faster at warp four point two. In either case you are looking at a trip of years to reach Zxi’liri space and years to get back. They are quite distant from our borders.”
“Agreed, we would have the Yinta II available before we get those weapons. Although we could save some time, if we requisitioned some Zxi’liri transport company to bring the goods. However I should point out we are still looking at several years for them to arrive. Lets plan around weapons we can get in more reasonable time frames. Does anyone disagree?”
No one did and the meeting went on. Not that anything important was really left to talk about. So it ended not long after, with a plan to meet again once the scientists were done looking into those energy fluctuations.
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Sali walked down the corridor. Following the guard, it felt rather normal to her these days. Ahead of her a few children rushed out of a classroom quickly followed by a young girl with black hair. She was cute and looked to be a young teen. The girl shouted after the kids, “DON’T RUN IN THE CORRIDORS!”
Sali usually didn’t come to these parts, so she didn’t know if it was normal, but seeing the kids coming this way she grasped her tool kit more closely. Just a sign that she was now a little more trusted. Now she got more than just odd jobs in the factory. Somebody had requested a new terminal on this level and her little team of three had been assigned to tear out the old one. The new one was going to be delivered in about an hour, but they needed to get the old one out first.
Idly she wondered what she was doing here given that all she had ever wanted to be was a pilot. Not that she had done much of that lately. Sali had no idea if she ever would, but there was something about the way her life was going that she liked. The cell and lack of privacy were starting to become normal to her, but it certainly wasn’t what she liked. Seeing the kids playing around her though was nice. It was also a reminder that this ship was as much a home to these people as it was becoming for her. She paused at the the thought. Not sure how to feel about this becoming home, but it wasn’t like she had much left for her in the Confederation. Not much at all.
Her line of thoughts broke when she saw something. Dropping her kit, she reached out and caught a kid who was about to get herself hurt. A moment later, the older kid showed up. “Thanks, I don’t know what I would have done if any of them got hurt. I was trusted to look after them.”
“Um, you are welcome.”