Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, Federation Fleet Command
Date [standardized aurigan time]: Heather 3, 1 AA
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After the predator escaped with my first mate and the venlil pilot, I received the uncomfortable news that two of our military outposts had gone silent. Normally, we'd suspect the Arxur, but this time they were specifically outposts that were being used to stage an attempted assault on Venlil Prime, to liberate the venlil from the predators.
I was more than happy to join in the attack, on my way to rendezvous with other ships getting ready for the attack. Our launchpoint was lodged on a large asteroid, just beyond one of our younger colonies’s orbits. I spotted a few Gojid patrol ships, adrift in the system’s outer reaches. Spacecraft were ready to fight at all hours of the day, in case of any Arxur incursions.
Everything appeared to be normal, but our prime minister's warning lingered in my mind. Predators loved stealth and ambush tactics. If our attackers were the mezari, that was more proof they were the same as the grays. It was their nature to catch others off-guard and helpless.
“Halt out of docking range!” I shouted. “Scan the perimeter for ship activity. Better safe than sorry.”
Our sensors didn't pick up any subspace disturbances, nor were they picking up any gravitational anomalies. For a hot minute I thought that maybe our Prime Minister had been wrong, and that the mezari weren't going to attack the station.
Then reality folded right in front of me, and half a dozen angular ships appeared out of the void of space, like an implosion being played in reverse. Our sensors detected no subspace signatures, just the sudden mass of the ships before us.
"What is their shield capacity!?" I barked at Zarn, who was acting as Recel's replacement on my bridge. Zarn’s eyes stretched wide in panic. "Uh, I don’t know? How do I read this shit?!"
"I miss Recel immensely. Let me see." With a sigh of irritation, I pulled up the data feed on my workstation. "Hmmm… not a trace of ion generators! I don’t think they even have shields." I then turned to Jemic, my weapons officer, ordering him to charge the plasma railgun.
Before Jemic, could respond, our shields were impacted by missiles that somehow disabled them, which were then followed by massive warheads that flew in through the gaps, lodging themselves into our hull.
"What the hell was that!?" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Some sort of ionic disruption, sir. Whatever the payload on those missiles, they negate the ionic shielding!"
My heart was nearly in my throat. These predators could completely disable our shields without much effort. No wonder they'd conquered the venlil so quickly. What hope did we have?
An alert snapped me out of my thoughts, the internal comms of our ship springing to life. "They're on board! Protector, they're taking everyone! Someone-" The transmission was cut with a thud, and everyone on the bridge was filled with dread. The larger warheads- Had the predators flung themselves onto our ship inside of missiles?
"Everyone fall back to defensible corridors! Set up barricades at doors, and keep control of critical areas! We must not let them take the ship." I barked over the comms, before looking over at Zarn. "Zarn, you're in charge on the bridge. Keep me appraised of what's happening. Jemic, you're with me."
With Jemic in tow I made my way into the corridors of the ship, where by now gunfire abounded.
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Moving down the corridor, my hands were shaky, claws depressed around the grip of my pistol with more tension than ever before in my life. Not even the arxur boarded our craft like this.
Peeking my head around a corner, I saw the beasts rounding up prisoner, my blood boiling at the sight. Steeling myself, I looked over to Jemic. "Cover me. We need to save those crew before they become cattle."
Jemic nodded, and I immediately fired upon the predators, red blood splattering the back wall. They then all immediately turned to face me, and circular energy shields burst from their wrists, while their truncheons grew blades made of the same energy.
This was madness- this shouldn't be possible. This wasn't technology, this was sorcery!
I ducked back into the corridor and motioned for Jemic to get ready to overlap his field of fire with mine, but before we could, a small bomb with a fuse on it rolled into our line of sight. Rather than exploding into shrapnel, as soon as the fuse extinguished, a curtain of lightning shot out along the floorboards, electrocuting both of us, making us lose control of our muscles. We both fired wildly at the wall, and by the time the electricity stopped flowing, we were on empty mags and too sore to move.
Then the mezari came to grab us, and despite how much I wanted to scream and shout, my muscles were not responding. So this was it, then? I was destined for some cattle farm, no doubt right next to Governor Tarva.
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Memory transcription subject: Raudd Klapatch, Vaulter Seeker
Date [standardized aurigan time]: Heather 3, 1 AA
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"Priority Target captured, ma'am. We'll make our way to the bridge next." I informed our captain over the comms, before putting the cuffs on the captain that'd tortured Serz. This one was going gift wrapped straight to the Venlil, I imagined.
Readying my... Rifle? Yeah, that was the word, I ordered my men to split up and capture any other stragglers they could find, while I headed to the bridge with a few more marines.
We were all using the new weapons the Argosy computer had made for us using Venlil technology. While they were better than crossbows in a lot of ways, the recoil was still a nuisance. Hopefully that would be something the scientists could figure out.
Creeping towards the door to the bridge, I was considering using another lightning charge, but ultimately decided against it. "I'll take point, you take left, you take right. We want them in one piece. If they fight back, aim for the knees."
After setting up a breaching charge on the door and blowing it wide open, we burst through, and the first thing I saw was an alien with a hide like a yirmak's mount, this must've been Zarn. He raised his arms in surrender, and I slowly crept towards him, rifle aimed. "On the ground! Hands behind your back1" I shouted, and he complied.
"This is for Serz, kurva." I whispered into his ear as I put the cuffs on him.
The rest of the bridge crew were equally easy to capture, everyone on this ship seemed terrified of fighting, and I wondered how they managed to survive against the reptilians for so many centuries.
"Alright, let's bag them up and get this bird flying again. Congratulations, men, we have our very own Gojid warship now!"
The men snickered at the proclamation, and our scientists set to work figuring out the controls. Looking out the viewport, I wondered how Ghost was doing with the station.
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Memory transcription subject: Rill Kata, Vaulter Guardian
Date [standardized aurigan time]: Heather 3, 1 AA
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"Prepare another salvo of Ion Torpedoes! After we cut through their shields, aim the plasma beams right at the critical systems here and here." I barked at the crew.
I was thankful that commanding a space crew wasn't that different from commanding a bathysphere crew, even if the environment was drastically different, and hull breaches caused a different kind of death.
"Ma'am, they're charging plasma railguns!" One of my bridge crew informed me. "Evasive action!" I shouted back, watching the tactical readout on the ship's command terminal. This was definitely not something we had in a bathysphere , but I was definitely going to love it.
With a complete overview of the movements of our ships and theirs, it was quite easy to plot new maneuvers in battle. "And power to shields!" I then added, which my bridge crew immediately followed up on.
"Aaand brace!" I finally said as the gojid's plasma projectile skimmed our shield, causing the entire ship to shudder and vibrate. "All stations, report!"
"All stations clear, no damage!" Came the reply.
"Alright, good. One more salvo should take out the rest of the defenders. After that, bombard that outpost into rubble."
"Aye-aye, ma'am!"
And with that, another outpost was destroyed. Let's hope this teaches their Federation not to try anything else any time soon.