Admiral Serano stood on the bridge of his battle cruiser, the gray ghost herself, the HFS Enterprise.
He rubbed a hand on one of the consoles, getting a gentle trumm from turning reincarnated vessel, as they patrolled the fringe of New Terra.
Even this body of Hers was on the older, smaller side, that didn't mean the old ship soul that inhabited her was any less vicious. If anything, it made her more dangerous to get Into a fight, aiding her crew, screeching obscenities at those who threatened her charges and those she existed to protect.
Running a little over a kilometer long, she was still a respectable size, her design similar to that of a old Iowa class battle ship, but with several modifications. For one, she was upscaled dramatically, her foredeck flattened out rather then curved up, with a rail gun based launch system for fighter craft, aimed directly forward. Sitting above said launch bay were two monstrous MAC Turrets, with six barrels apiece, one slightly forward and closer to the deck, the other just behind her, slightly raised up above it. Each of the barrels on the turrets had its own very limited gimbal, allowing them to aim all at the same target, or all at different targets that were in the same field of view.
On either side of the launch ramp sat smaller Mini MACs, small, four barreled turrets that could fire 30mm rounds at a blistering pace, making for excellent point defense and anti fighter turrets. On the side of the vessel, because she wasn't sitting in water, but swam in the Void of space, another series of massive MAC cannons, each armed with two barrels apiece, hung off her side, symmetrical on each side, a pair forward, and a pair towards the back, with smaller broadside Mini MACs between the two, shorter range, but larger then the 30mm Mini MAC turrets that dotted her deck. The four larger, side mounted turrets were also able to aim underneath her should her opponent try and get out of the firing Arc of her main armament, preventing her from being unable to reach her foe.
Across her deck, nestled close to the bridge and the main turrets were more 30mm Mini MACs, out of the way of the cannons, panning back and forth in random movements, searching the stars hungrily to gift some unfortunate enemy vessel their wide variety of munitions.
Her bridge was of course modernized, sleeker, and had a shorter sensor tower, set a bit lower than the old Iowa class, her bridge sitting comfortably next to a quarette of larger Mini MACs, each with a set of four barrels, two on each side, to defend the command center, should the need arise, while the back of her had a trio of the massive cannons, staggered in height like the front two, bearing five cannons apiece rather than six, but given there was a extra turret, it really didn't matter. Below the triad of turrets was a fighter dock and intake, allowing for fighters to return to the vessel, small as they were.
Her engines were a quarette of large impulse engines, set in a diamond pattern, with a set of smaller impulse engines in between them to aid in maneuvering and for that little extra kick of speed. Around the engine cluster sat a ring system, similar to the one that was on the Event Horizon, but larger, bulkier. It was set just around the engine cluster, not poking beyond, allowing the cannons of the Enterprise to be able to cover the engine clusters without worrying about shooting their own FTL method.
"Sir! Gravitational disturbance off the bow!" One of the sensor techs called out. "Signature matches a early Vohle drive, looking for match in registry now!" The tech said, as the ship turned, hard, her RCS impulse engines burning.
Across his console, captain Serano saw a CMD terminal open up, even as the ship sang with anticipation.
:Ļíťțĺĕ §ìšţęŕ ìś ćømìñĝ ĥómə
He frowned. He knew the Enterprise had considered many vessels her 'sisters', and many had been lost…. So, which vessel…..
Wait… Vohle drive. EARLY vohle drive, a technology they had to rebuild due to losing it in a cataclysmic event that had destroyed the company that had made it, and resulted in the Horizon going missing when she misused her Vohle drive, but had kept Earth itself safe from an external threat of incredible technological power.
While they managed to remake the tech, it was nowhere near as small as what the Horizon had. Early post Cataclysm human vessels relied on massive ring shaped Vohle Carriers, or, later on, conventional FTL engines purchased from their allies for smaller vessels. At the current moment, the Enterprise had the smallest Vohle drive of the modern variation…..
"All hands, lock down the hatches and equipment! Full chronoton shields, hard forward!" Serano barked out, the elderly human standing at the command seat, overlooking the rest of the bridge. "Sir?" One of the command crew asked, nervously. "If it's the ship I'm thinking of, she has a bit of….flair for dramatics." Serano deadpanned, even as they saw a bright light before them, their viewscreens darkening to ensure the crew wouldn't be blinded as a small vessel launched out of the hole in reality. The gravitational wave washed over the Enterprises bow, the larger vessel shrugging it off, having expected it.
"Sir! IFF match! Its……. It's the EHS Event Horizon!" One of the scanner officers said, jaw dropped as they saw the little vessel push its way out of the aetherium and floated, the two ships aimed at one another.
"Admiral, the Horizon is hailing us." The comms officer said, hand on their headset.
"On screen, please." Serano as they saw a old Mk astro robot appear on the screen. "This is ARC-CC-217, Captain Asimov of the Event Horizon to the HFS Enterprise, apologies for dropping in unannounced." Came the digital voice, making several people snort. "Understandable, Asimov. We hadn't expected to find the Horizon still operational. We had thought she was lost." Serano said, before nodding to one of the helmsman. "Your welcome to ride in our wake to the station. If you don't mind me asking, where did you find her?" Serano asked, curious as to where the captain had found her.
"She made me." Was Asimov's response, getting a hiss of surprise from the crew. An active cloner module. Joy. "I…..see. well then, easy enough to sort out. Be that as it may…." The Admiral said, catching the motions of his sensor officer. "Asimov, we are picking up four Saline life signals and one Trike on board. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's the Saline congregation who said that they were on their way here?" The human admiral asked, getting a nod. "Correct. All but the Trike, who is a part of my crew." The cyborg said, even as the Horizons engines glowed, pushing her above the Enterprises bridge.
The Horizon closed the distance to where she sat inside the Enterprises own gravitational field, her Impulse motors glowing softly, floating above the bridge, even as the massive warships engines glowed brightly, wheeling her about, before her primary engines lit up, accelerating rapidly towards Narish 7, the closest station with diplomatic capabilities and a functional transmat unit.
Serano could feel the Enterprise as she rumbled, burning brightly against the stars as they made their way to the station, the dusty planet already aware that the Enterprise was on its way, but not aware of the vessel she was escorting.
The warship's Admiral and captain could already feel the two vessels discussing recent events together…… he shuddered to think of how much trouble the Horizon had already dug herself into. The Enterprise was bad enough, and she was built for trouble. The scrappy little science/cloner ship she had adopted as her sister was worse in some ways.
And now she had a captain that she had literally created. Serano managed to stifle a chuckle. He wanted to keep an eye out for reports of that little craft, he wanted to see what the unmanaged hellion would do compared to her big sister. Preferably for another Admiral before him.
A beep came through his console, and he saw an after action report….
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
From the Event Horizon. Dated very, VERY recently. Slowly, the Admiral rubbed his face as he sat at his chair, reading the report, reminding himself that he was reading a report from a SCIENCE vessel with minimal weapons systems….. and apparently NO ammo, despite opening the Salvage scoops to try and collect enough raw metals to manufacture some.
She was going to be competing with the Enterprise at turning his hair white, wasn't she?
/-----------/
Stationmaster Jason was waiting by the airlock, watching as the old Enterprise drifted closer and closer, the Saline representative standing next to him. "They are earlier then expected." Kisa said softly, their simple, brand new, gold accented body suit covering their body, compared to the stationmasters well used, rugged atmosphere suit.
"If they were picked up by the Enterprise, I'm not surprised. Has one of the smallest of the current Vohle jump drives at the current moment. Odd though, would have thought there would have been a mass panic if she had popped into neutral space unannounced." He said, watching the gray warship drift closer, her hull still baring faint marks from asteroids or weapons fire she had shrugged off, or patches in the hull from her repairs. The Saline shuddered. "Do not joke about that. As much as your other warships and even merchant vessels are terrifying, that Ship has a mind of her own with a possessiveness that rivals that of the Saurian Roxes. The age of her…..Klabautermann, shipsoul, you called it, only makes it all the worse." They said.
It was true, probably one other the things that terrified most of the galaxy and fascinated the Glinch were their ships sentience. Honestly, it was a accident, but they took it. For most, it meant that humans could rely on their ships more, treated them as family…… and the ships the same. Many pirates discovered you didn't mess with an angry vessel, even if her crew wasn't in a position to fight. You also didn't disrespect a humans ship, or a human ships crew. And the older they got, or the more they experienced, the more and more sentient they got. Some crews actively promoted this growth.
"Uh…..sir?" One of the deck hands said, looking at his Vox unit with confusion. "The Enterprise isn't docking. Something about her sister ship needing repairs and a once over after her passengers disembark?" They said, before Jason spotted a smaller vessel within the Enterprises wake, now that the ships were closer. "......huh. wonder which of her sisters it is?" Jason said, mentally trying to figure out where most were. He wasn't a clone, or mentally augmented, short of his dataport, so he couldn't just check mental files…..
He frowned as the vessels got closer. "Control, this is Stationmaster Jason. Did the Enterprise say which vessel is docking?" He called in, using his suits Vox. Silence hung for a moment in the air, making him antsy before a voice replied. ".....the Event Horizon, sir." Jason balked when the reply came. "Repeat, control. I could have sworn you said Event Horizon. That's not possible, history books said we lost her Centuries ago." Jason said, as the Saline next to him loomed at him in confusion. "That's what we said sir. Credentials all check out…..not to mention we picked up a gravitational wavefront a few days ago. A wavefront the Enterprise went to check….."
Jason never got to respond as they felt the deck shudder and heard a thump reverberating as the ship successfully docked, hissing of atmosphere slowly Increasing in volume as the pressure equalized, and then the doors opened.
The Saline congregation stumbled out, looking a little ill. "Representative Kisa" Hota said, managing their version of a bow. "Diplomat Hota, how have you fared?" Kisa asked, Jason stifling a chuckle as Hota closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "In truth, better than we could have. Our…..eventful, if short, trip notwithstanding." He said, glancing nervously back at the Horizon. "Our flight plan had to be altered….. pirates as soon as we undocked. The captain of the ship….dealt with the threat. If what he said on the trip from where we popped out to here is to be believed, there's nothing but a fried, melted husk of a pirate vessel. Courtesy of a Dilitium Cascade and a gravitational wavefront generated by the vessel leaving realspace more aggressively than needed." Hota said, as Jason snorted.
"Sounds like the ship. Madam Kisa, if I may? I need to speak with the ships captain." Jason said, as the Saline representative nodded, as she took the Delegation with her to their temporary quarters to discuss what was so important they made their dangerous trek from where they had been stationed to here.
Jason relaxed a bit….until he heard the telltale clicking of mechanical foot claws. The ancient Mk12 frame was completely unexpected, especially bearing the Captains rank, its head panning about, scanning its surroundings. "Captain….Asimov?" Jason said, stepping forward, the cyborgs head locking onto his gaze in a moment. "Stationmaster." The cybernetic clone said, holding a claw out to shake, which the smaller stationmaster shook with a grin. "Mind if I ask for a tour of the ship? She's got quite a place in our history books."
--------------------------------------
"ORDER! ORDER!" The centauric chancellor cried, manipulator banging their gavel hard down on their podium. "The Emergency meeting is now in session, representatives Kisa, Hendricks, and Nigha have the floor."
The representatives in question appeared above the Chancellor in holographic, the human in a military uniform, standing beside an aging Saurian Trike, their three horns long, carved with gentle swirls and layer with a metal within them. Between them stood Kisa, looking worried, while Trike looked troubled.
"Honored sentients, we come bearing worrying news. As most know, the Everwatch station went dark at the farthest galactic north arm. As of a few hours ago, the Saline delegation who had been passing by as finally arrived with their findings….." Kisa said, her gaze grim as the image of the trio blinked out, replaced with the image of the station, heavily altered.
Originally, it had looked like a simple disc in shape, like a great Frisbee, with two dishes, one at the top and one below, one aimed deep into the void, the other aimed at the galactic center. Turrets, plasma and laser turrets to be precise, being a nonhuman station, were set up in concentric rings, expanding out from the dishes that acted as piles for the station, on the upper and underside of the stations shape. A simple design, not meant for much other then deep void sensor systems, and relaying information from the vessels that braved the uncharted void, searching for new life, new planets in the starless skies.
Now…… it looked corrupted. Fleshy pustules dotted the station at complete random intervals, pulsing and throbbing. Several looked to have ocular organs on them, locked onto the thing that had taken the holo. Glowing crimson lines pulsed on its hull, forming brutal looking runes, geometric shapes, jagged lines and more, like a transmutation circle of some form. Below the station, long fleshy tentacles hung, like some strange jellyfish, armored at random intervals, clearly armored with parts from large vessels, ripped off and plastered, fused with its manipulators.
Below it, it was slowly ramming a few of the manipulating limbs into a large combat vessel that had belonged to the Ka'ri, a warlike race that had contested the space the station occupied, tearing the vessel apart, small, fast moving objects below it flitting in little blinks, flashes seen as the crew of the vessel fought desperately to fight off the corrupt looking station, failing miserably.
Suddenly, part of the stations disk opened, splitting open like some sort of mouth, and crimson shapes launched out….. the hologram changed to a still optical photo of what was launched. A biological warship, fused with technology, impulse engines glowing, some brighter then others, it's front a long, jagged muzzle, dotted with eyes of various races, larger then they should have been. Jutting out of its skin/hull were cannons, again, ripped off various vessels like the engines, while around it, coiled tentacles were bound up, ready to be deployed to Grapple with another vessel.
"These were the last images that could be gathered before the ship was set upon by the shown ship. The crew was barely able to jettison their vessels escape pod through the Webway gate before the gate was sealed." Kisa said grimly.
Still images began appearing above the Chancellor, grainy, old, of massive creatures, mid roar or attack, swinging a club, or armed with crude looking energy weapons, punching a hole in an armored human soldier. Other images flickered into view, showing horrific creatures, amalgamation of multiple different species, combined together, some having multiple heads, some in the wrong place, warped, twisted, but always terrifying.
"These," the human representative said grimly. "Are old, but show some of what our attackers, or at least their troops are." "The first images we called 'Demons' due to their similarity to the creatures from our religions. Extremely strong, augmented heavily by both biological modifications as well as technological, both what looks like their own and stolen. The second are poor beasts we call amalgamation." The human slowly took a breath and let it out.
"I'd rather have old 4-LOM here to explain, but he's needed to prepare our fleets for this. What you're looking at is a combination of a psychological weapon as well as the 'Demons' ability to use dead or captured troops or civilians to create cannon fodder. We suspect some of the other races seen are others who fell to them, however ...." Another image flicked up, showing a demons horned head on one of the amalgamation, its jaw open in the facsimile of a roar, though it's eyes were like the rest, dull, lifeless, the body clearly shambling forward. "It could also be another caste or subspecies we haven't encountered yet."
Silence hung through the silent auditorium, horrified expressions plastered on some of the more peaceful races faces, while some of the more warlike ones looked excited. "The biological mass that has control of Everwatch station is also likewise made up of the crew's former biomass, amongst other things. The…..markings, are either to taunt or are a part of the process, we aren't certain. We have encountered several vessels like it in the past, however we haven't seen them since the Cataclysm nearly millennia ago. Until now. It's suspected that Everwatch is a foothold for a larger invasion force….. or the starting point of an infection meant to soften us up for a larger force." The human finished, before nodding to his Trike friend.
"Unfortunantly, I too bear dire news." The aging Trike said, as another station of similar make and design appeared, and like the other, it sent chills through the representatives' spines. Or spine equivalent. Before them, the new station appeared to be…converted to a completely different technology, a different metal. Gone was the gentle white, gleaming in the stars, and in its place, a deep blue color. The turrets were all gone, replaced with strange rings, deep ones that seemed to glow a deep crimson. The running lights were all red as well, portholes, everything.
The hanger was open, and a still of what looked like several objects, deep blue, speckled at random with red circles, hexagons and the like, spherical with long pseudopods extended out, clutching a Saline vessel, dragging it in.
Around the station, everyone could see more of these spheres, larger, moving with no visible form of propulsion, blinking out of existence and back in in another place, racing at insane speeds, taking sharp turns without slowing, ignoring the G forces involved that would wreck even a Glinch inside them.
"The station next to Everwatch, DeepSight, had also been lost. This time, we do not know what we are looking at. Humans have a few….theories, some being ironic, considering their history, but nonetheless concerning. Scouting teams managed to leave without being spotted as far as we could tell, but at the humans rightful paranoia, we left the scouts ships behind, and sealed off the Webway gate. As of now, we are placing Interdiction fields around both stations, in hopes to prevent the spread wnd to buy time to figure out what one is, and prepare for war with the other….."
The aging Trike explained, his deep, growling voice heard in the silent chamber, grim as his expression that flickered into view.
For a few moments, the auditorium was silent………
And then exploded into a symphony of chaos.