Captain Jan’Inar tapped her foot nervously as she watched the holo-tank displayed as a small hologram on her right armrest. Riven had to change course mid flight when the Eriador and Aldburg rippled to a new location. She knew Riven was talking to the Humans, and while she watched she was amazed at the g-forces they endured during their turning maneuver.
RIPPLE DRIVE DISENGAGING.
The Rivendell dropped from ripple space almost on top of the other two ships, although at nearly a ninety degree angle. The ship rocked slightly as all eight chaff torpedoes launched from their silos to intercept the ones coming in towards the other two ships. Then she watched as the four chaff torpedoes from task force bravo intercepted four of the incoming torpedoes from the Ulraar.
She didn’t notice she was holding her breath when their eight took out the remaining torpedoes just a few hundred kilometers from Eriador and Aldburg. “Well that was exciting.” She said dryly to her bridge crew. “Riven, I hope you have a plan, we’re out of chaff and down to two normal torpedoes.”
Just then the fishbowl view that was the bridge spun wildly as they began to change course to come in line with the other two ships who were ahead of them by ten thousand kilometers. “Twelve more torpedoes launched, four targeting each vessel in the fleet. It appears that unlike us, they do have reloads.” Riven stated over the speakers in the bridge.
From the simulations she knew the Rivendell would not survive four torpedo strikes, she gripped the armrest until her knuckles turned white as she felt the ship shudder, watching as the last two torpedoes launched from their silos. It was doubtful either would strike the enemy vessels, even if they were battle damaged from the earlier conflict.
Sighing to herself, Jan’Inar knew that this posting could lead to her death, she just hoped it wouldn’t be this soon. Hopefully point defense will take out a few of them. She watched her holo as the two torpedoes were not aimed directly at the Ulraar ships, but at the twelve incoming torpedoes. “What is Riven doing?” She thought.
The two Rivendell torpedoes spread out as they screamed through space, while inside her personal VR, Riven sat in the Captain’s chair, eyes glowing blue as she ran the calculations for maximum yield and maximum spread of the torpedoes. Running in millisecond resolution she watched her own algorithm count down to zero. “Mark!” She stated as the two torpedoes exploded in massive twin fireballs, spreading heat and liquidized shrapnel in every direction.
Seven of the twelve torpedoes were either vaporized or hulled with shrapnel from the twin explosions. Riven sat back, eyes returning to their normal blue as she watched the last five torpedoes closing in. “This was going to hurt.” She thought to herself as she activated point defense systems.
Jan’Inar was thrashed about in her Captain’s chair by the three back to back explosions that rocked the ship. Point defense knocked out one torpedo only a few kilometers from the ship, the other two hit them hard. The lights went out, bulkheads groaned, screens fell off the three hundred and sixty degree shape of the bridge, klaxons screamed as emergency lighting came online. “Riven! Are you there?” She shouted over the din.
There was a pause as Riven’s voice came back over the now busted speakers, her voice seemed distorted, in pain. “I’m here, but barely. Every system is down, secondaries aren’t responding, we’re dead in space.”
Unbuckling herself she looked over to Admiral Nar’Vala, “Permission to abandon ship ma’am?”
Holding a hand to a cut on her forehead she nodded, “Permission granted, Riven, activate the escape pods.”
The klaxons on board swapped to a pre-recorded loop, “All personnel, abandon ship, this is not a drill, repeat, all personnel, abandon ship.”
Captain Jan’Inar helped several injured crew off the bridge and into the escape pods, which launched from the ship and activated short range ripple drives to random locations before going dark. She watched as Admiral Nar’Vala climbed into one of the last escape pods with several injured and launched. She knew everyone wasn’t off the ship, she coughed as acrid smoke burned her lungs as she made her way aft towards engineering.
She passed two of her crew who would never get up again on her way there, she found Chief Engineer Ura’Boron under the secondary backup panel. She was working frantically on the wiring. “Chief, you need to abandon ship, there is nothing you can do.”
The Chief Engineer didn’t move, she kept working, “Without secondary power we can’t eject Riven from the ship.”
Biting her lip and looking around she cursed, “We don’t know how much time we have before they launch more torpedoes at us.”
Looking up at her through the console she said, “Go Captain, leave me, I have to get this working.”
Nodding she turned to check on the escape pods. There were two individual pods left in the corridor leading out of Engineering, the only other one was forward near the bridge. Checking the first one she found it was operational, the second one was damaged and offline.
Turning, she ran back to Engineering just as Ura’Boron slid out from under the console and jabbed at the flickering display. Nothing happened, cursing she went down on one knee and grabbed some wiring, stripped it with her teeth and wrapped it around another bundle. The display lit up fully.
She pushed the icon for emergency power and partial lighting came on in Engineering, although half of it flickered. She hit the switch for AI ejection and watched as Riven’s Core was launched from the ship and rippled away.
“Come on!” Captain Jan’Inar shouted as she grabbed her by the elbow and drug her from Engineering as parts of the ship’s ceiling fell as gravity on board began to get both heavier and lighter as they moved towards the corridor. Reaching the escape pod, Jan’Inar pushed the Engineer into the cramped space and slammed the door shut before pressing the launch button.
The Chief Engineers eyes went wide as she watched her Captain salute her. Then she was launched from the battered ship with all the power the escape pod could muster. She saw what was left of her once beautiful ship, it’s outer hull was shredded, she could see down to the inner hull that had protected her and so many of her crew. It was as if the torpedo that made it through the shields peeled the ship from aft to stern. Then the ripple drive activated, and she was taken away from her ship, floating in the darkness of space.
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Alex grinned as the second frigate detonated from his volley of torpedoes. He was getting in his licks, but the Missive was about to take a pounding. Point defense lit up space with maser beams as they struggled to destroy the twenty four torpedoes baring down on his ship. He watched the sensor count down from twenty four to eight, then was tossed around his cockpit as they impacted the Missive.
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Looking at his cockpit he saw it was more red than green now, maybe he needed to get with Kara about toning down the realism of his cockpit AI. Those attacks broke off armor, crumpled bulkheads, knocked out more torpedo tubes, sheared off point defenses, the shuttle bay was leaking atmosphere, and number three engine was destroyed. On the bright side, there was only the cruiser left, and it seemed to only launch a dozen torpedoes at a time, which was good, as he only had eighteen chaff torpedo tubes that weren’t trashed.
“Fuck! I just lost contact with the Rivendell! Erin and Ally report she’s dead in space, she stopped most of the volley of torpedoes heading for them but point defense only took out one of the remaining, she took two direct hits.” Kara whispered into his ear.
The holo-tank showed twelve more torpedoes launched from the cruiser, Alex launched twelve chaff torpedoes from what few silos remained. He watched weapon group one, willing it to reload faster, there were only twelve of the hafnium torpedo tubes fully operational. Swiping the holo-tank to the other ships he asked Kara, “I’m showing the Eriador and Alburg empty of all weapons, what are they doing?”
Kara whispered in his ear, “They are running, it’s all they can do, they won’t be able to ripple back to us for another few minutes at least, they both have almost no shielding left, both of them also ate a torpedo.”
Looking at his display he saw that his ships nose was almost lined up with the enemy cruiser, just a few more degrees. Launching all twelve torpedoes at the cruiser he sat back and watched as his chaff torpedoes canceled out the enemy weapons. Then the cruiser launched another dozen fighter craft.
“You have got to be shitting me.” Alex stated.
Kara whispered in his ear, “That last attack knocked out almost all our point defense turrents, I suggest we use chaff torpedoes on the fighters and what few point defense cannons we have on torpedoes. The cavalry is about to arrive.”
Nodding he watched his holo as one enemy became thirteen. Then the Missive shuddered as a large boom reverberated through the VR cockpit. Engine three was offline, that left only one working engine, and he could barely control the angle of the nose. To his relief the twelve torpedoes he launched managed to get two through the cruisers point defense. Sadly shields were still up.
Then he cursed as multiple railgun darts hit the Missive in rapid succession. “Engine one down, we’re dead in space. Kara, any chance we can get one of them back up?”
“Not a chance, it’ll take days of repair to get even one working again.” Kara whispered. “On the bright side, here comes the rest of strike team alpha!”
Grinning once more Alex opened a channel to Izzy and Valarie, “Glad you could make it, afraid we’re a bit banged up, I’m showing you have a full compliment of chaff but only four regular torpedoes?”
The Isengard and Valmar came out of ripple space ten thousand kilometers from the Missive. Izzy was the first to respond, “Launching our torpedoes at the cruiser, we’ll get those fighters off your back.”
Then six chaff torpedoes from each of strike team alphas vessels roared towards the tiny fighter craft. He watched in satisfaction as twelve contacts in his holo-tank disappeared, exploding in tiny pinpricks of light. Which for some reason gave him an idea, checking the orientation of the Missive relative to enemy cruiser. “Kara, blow the main shuttle bay door.”
“Why would you want me to… oh, I see.” Kara whispered to him.
A boom rumbled through the ship followed by a shudder the blast of atmosphere into space was just enough to push the nose of the missive just a few more degrees in line with the enemy cruiser. Smiling savagely Alex pressed the button for weapon group three.
“Let’s see your point defense stop this!” He said as the ship shuddered as it fired its spine mounted rail gun directly at the triangular cruiser from only one hundred thousand kilometers away. The round was a solid chunk of tungsten six meters across and twenty meters long being thrown out the barrel at .1c.
The first round struck in less than a third of a second from launch, punching a hole completely through the vessel. It staggered in space and lost all power. The second round blew what little of the vessel that was left into millions of small pieces.
Alex took his finger off the button and collapsed back in his cockpit chair.
“Um, guys, a little help here?” John called out over the comms.
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Monty sat in her mad scientist lab. She had tables with beakers full of chemicals and towers that had electrical arcs that climbed to the ceiling as well as blueprints everywhere. She sat at her command center in a futuristic chair that was far too big for her tiny frame. In front of her were six huge monitors showing each vessel. With some swipes and inputs on the control panels she brought up the ten ripple torpedoes she launched nine days ago.
They were moving at a paltry .1c, which may not have given them enough umph as a kinetic impactor against five fully shielded Ulraar vessels with perfect point defense, but against two battle damaged Ulraar frigates? Maybe.
Punching in the final coordinates for where those ships will be compared to the trajectory of where the torpedoes were still slowly climbing in speed she nodded to herself, “It just might work.” She thought.
Then she heard the comms traffic from John. “Um, guys, a little help here?”
Grinning viciously she activated the ripple drives on her ten little torpedoes. Ok, they weren’t little, about fifty tons, but who’s counting, right? She watched her screen as they disappeared from their location opposite the star only to appear directly in front of the Ulraar vessels in pursuit of the Eriador and Aldburg.
Point defense flared to life on both vessels, but it was too little too late, even the torpedoes they hit turned into shrapnel flying at them at 300,000 kilometers per second. Both vessels were torn apart from the hailstorm of flying debris their own point defense caused.
After a few milliseconds John responded over the comms. “Uh, thanks Monty?”
Spinning around with her feet up in the air, Monty threw her hands up, “Score!”
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Isengard and Valmar dropped off all but a skeleton crew back at shipyards one and two. Then headed out to find the escape pods of the Rivendell as well as the core matrix for Riven. It took the better part of two days to gather everyone and bring them back to shipyard three. It was from there that the surviving crew members from the Rivendell were gathered.
The black box data from the wreck of the Rivendell showed that Captain Jan’Inar attempted to reach the forward escape pod, but ran out of time before the next salvo of torpedoes struck the vessel, turning it into a floating debris field. The mood on board shipyard three was somber, they had lost their Captain and a few good friends, but in the end they triumphed.
“We should name a ship after her.” Lieutenant Lar’Iel commented as she batted her mug of beer at the bar.
Admiral Nar’Vala raised an eyebrow, “The Humans tend to name vessels after places in historical fiction.”
“Yeah, but if they’re serious about them being our ships, maybe we should get a say in naming them.” Lar’Iel countered.
Shrugging she looked up at the ceiling, although it wasn’t necessary, “What do you think Riven, should we name a ship after her?”
Riven answered through the speakers above the two women, “I think that’s a fine idea.”
The dozen or so women at the bar all raised their glasses in salute.
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The pub was busy. Waitresses bustled about serving drinks and food to all manner of VR customers. Alex raised an eyebrow at Erin, “Whose idea was it to add Alandrans in with the normal clientele?”
Ally giggled, “I did, I wanted it to feel like we were down on the surface together.”
John spoke up as he stabbed into his chili cheese fries, “No complaints here, I think it adds to the atmosphere.”
“Agreed!” Stated Valarie as she sipped her red wine.
Alex cleared his throat for attention, which did nothing for the pub as a whole and very little for those present. “Alright Kelly, what’s the story about things planet side?”
Kelly stopped hugging Monty for a moment and turned to Alex, “Well, after your report that the fleet was defeated with minimal casualties and only one ship lost, the Empress and pretty much the whole of parliament are relieved to say the least, although some of the more alarmist claim we have simply traded one overlord for another.”
Alex shrugged, “Can’t please everyone can you? Anyways, after we get the Missive repaired and refit we’ll turn over shipyards one and two to the Alandran government.”
Kelly nodded at this, “Why not shipyard three as well?”
Alex turned to Kara, who answered Kelly, “We’re going to be doing upgrades to shipyard three to allow for construction of bigger ships, what we consider cruisers, something on par with the Missive. I expect it to take around four local years.”
Kelly put her elbows on the table and held her head, “Ah, I feel the headache coming on from those same blow hards saying Human’s are building something nefarious there, why else wouldn’t they want to give them to us?”
Luke grinned across the table, “I’m sure you have a file on those idiots, surely there are things they don’t want the public to know? They’re politicians after all!”
Monty bounced in her chair, “Eww, eww, I wanna watch when you show them what dirty little secrets you have on them!”
Kelly nodded, “I do, and of course you can watch Monty, it will be fun showing them the information with a Human present.”
Monty cheered and hugged Kelly while the rest of the table enjoyed the food, the drink, and the company.