26 Reply by [RPA] Matthias Bloodmoon (edited by [RPA] Matthias Bloodmoon 29-Dec-2011 07:55:35)

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Re: Of Darkness and Rocks

"I forgot we had refining equipment on board," Davidson remarked, arriving at the observation deck alongside Wheeler, who was intently monitoring an array of display panels.

Wheeler smiled. "We managed to squirrel away quite a bit in the ship assembly bay."

Davidson nodded. "The bay is quite large for the atmospheric shuttle on board. You've made good use of the additional space."

"I was always a bit of a pack rat," Wheeler noted. "You should have seen my attic years ago. Boxes upon boxes of failed and obsolete experiments, all meticulously labeled and filed and documented, just in case I ever needed something again. Then, Ellen made me throw it all out." He sighed. "God rest her soul. She was one remarkable lady, but she never really understood the need to preserve the products of basic research."

Davidson raised an eyebrow. "Did it ever actually come in handy?"

Wheeler grinned. "There was that one time I was looking for a power coupling for an electromagnetic accelerator, but nothing powerful enough to do the job was readily available. Then, I remembered I had built one for the teleportation experiment."

"Excuse me, the what?" Davidson interrupted incredulously.

"It was silly, almost not worth mentioning," Wheeler waved off the question. "But I had had a need to deliver gigawatts of power in a compact fashion, and it's incredibly hard to synthesize stuff out of ambitemp superconductors. So I reused one I had spent a year making that was sitting in a gadget that never worked, and now the Fleet has railguns."

"Wheeler."

"Yeah?"

"You're making this up, aren't you?"

Wheeler laughed. "Seems like it, doesn't it? I wouldn't have believed it myself. But there you go."

Davidson frowned. "Okay, Dr. Wheeler, suppose I take your story at face value. There was that one time. But that's one time out of countless opportunities. Don't you think the value for the effort is to be found wanting in the general case?"

"Not at all," Wheeler replied. "Even if it's just once, I think it's perfectly justified. See, I believe that every scientific discovery is a beautiful thing, and that if something enables the pursuit of new knowledge, it should be preserved."

Davidson was about to point out that Wheeler was the canonical mad scientist when a serious-looking technician approached them. "Commander Davidson. Doctor Wheeler. Two artificial energy signatures, six degrees spinward of our position in the asteroid belt."

Chills ran down Davidson's spine. "Details?"

"They appear to be strike craft, Commander," the technician responded levelly. "Hyperspectral analysis suggests they are of the same type of craft employed by the alien carrier."

"Two possibilities, neither of which bodes well," Davidson speculated, the back of his neck prickling. "Either they are looking for us..."

"Or this is their territory and their other ships know we're here," Wheeler finished.

"They have already demonstrated a lack of willingness to fire on us," Davidson noted. "I do not expect that luck to hold. The kill range on our particle beams is five hundred kilometers, but we could strike at longer range with patience, could we not?"

"The kill range on our particle beams denotes the distance within which one centimeter of standard armor would be penetrated in one second. At longer ranges, this would take proportionally longer, due to beam decoherence and lack of turret slewing precision."

Another technician walked up. "Sir, jump signature. It's the unknown battlecruiser, distance one mega-kilo."

Things had rapidly taken a turn for the worse, Davidson thought. "Cancel mining operations. Battle stations, immediately."

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Re: Of Darkness and Rocks

Seeing through the darkness and the clouds of debris and rocks, a mighty sentient entity watched and waited. It received staggering amounts of data from asteroid trajectory to planetary weather. It was nearing it's ten millennia long mission of predicting the events of this system for the rest of time. The last of the data was being processed when the unthinkable happened.

A metal coated vessel of some sort appeared from nowhere, followed shortly by another smaller one and then another larger one. The first few seconds after each arrival it was flooded with data. It had to cut the link to several of it's sensor drones other wise it could of corrupted it's extensive memory. The vessels were controlled by something, and every single choice destroyed years of data. It changed the flow of what was going to happen. Even now, something had touched an asteroid. The slightest bump had sent it off course and had changes the course of history, which was for a series of bumps and pushes, which would in a thousand years nudge a sizable rock through the darkness and straight into the planet where a smart race was becoming the dominant species. It didn't need them interfering with it's mission. Now everything had gone wrong.

So many things could happen.

It needed to eliminate these vessels, and return to it's work before too much data was turned into waste. It reached into it's offensive memory banks. It had small fighter craft stationed in various parts of the system. It reached out through it's link within the system and activated some. It turned its attention to the trouble makers in the outer asteroid belt. Two small metal and glass vessels were just inside the belt.

It sent four drones their way. It put ten more on standby. Then it activated all the data gatherers in the system that lay dormant and ordered them to where the upcoming killings would take place so as to record all the carnage and all the shrapnel and rocks that would be flung about. It needed to eliminate this threat first then move onto the bigger ones. It waited as the four fighter craft moved zoomed closer.

Then I lived.

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Re: Of Darkness and Rocks

Jaren had been sitting in his pilots seat for almost half an hour. The scientists were just outside the eagle and were working through the rocks they mined. One of them was much further out, verifying the results. A few more minutes of silence passed for the pilots before Jaren looked up at the mission timer. Forty minutes had passed. He pushed his chair back into flight position. His co-pilot had noticed the movement.

"They are ten minutes late." He said confused. "He is never late." He added. He primed the engines and activated the comm output.

"Eagle two-zero this is leader, you're late for your scheduled check in." Jaren said. There was no reply.

"Ok somethings up." The co-pilot said. They strapped in and he called for the scientists to abandon their work and return to the transport. They dropped the tools and jumped back. With the very minor gravity of the large asteroid, the tools seemed to float. The other scientist was still over two hundred meters away. Then a call came through the ships speakers.

"Investigated some odd moveme..." It was full of static and parts of words were cut short. "Attacked us, we're... ing, they are catching up!"

"Holy crap! Tell that scientist to move!"

"Firing we... at us, we've been hit! Lost number 2 eng... ost control of the Eagle!" a loud whining could be heard before it was cut short. Less then a second later a small bloom of fire could be seen in the distance. Four dark shapes could been seen crossing through the flames, heading straight towards them.

"How far away is that scientist?" Jaren shouted.

"Still two hundred meters! He won't make it." The co pilot said. Jaren made the decision. He closed the back hatch and fired the engines, full burn. The transport rocketed off. It turned and fled deeper into the asteroid belt. Seconds later the four shadows zoomed past the asteroid in pursuit of the Eagle.

"Four contacts, they're moving fast!" The co-pilot stated. Jaren maneuvered the eagle around an asteroid and pushed the acceleration throttle to the max. Behind him the attackers did the same. He turned around another smaller asteroid and pushed it again. They followed but lagged behind a little.

"Their turning arcs are huge! Keeping dodging!" The co-pilot said. Jaren turned the eagle once more and gunned it through a tiny gap between two asteroids. Seeing they weren't directly behind him he quickly changed direction and turned behind another large rock. He weaved in and out of the various rocks floating about. Thankfully there hadn't been any of the bullet sized meteorites that could easily kill them and Jaren wasn't about to test his luck too much. He turned another corner and ahead of him the meteorites seemed to thin out considerably.

He pulled a high-g turn and skimmed along the rocks forming the edge of the strange void. Behind, the attackers shot out of the rocks and took a moment to notice where they were. They turned widely and rocketed off after the eagle.

Jaren turned the eagle once more and entered the rocky field again. He piloted the eagle with precision, through tiny gaps and around the largest rocks. He was nearing the edge of the belt again.

"Calculate a moving jump when we clear the asteroids!" Jaren ordered.

"Are you serious?" His co-pilot asked incredulously. "Do you know the amount of stuff that can go wrong?"

"No more then being killed by what ever is chasing us!" Jaren snapped back as the side of the eagle grazed an asteroid as he piloted around a tight squeeze. An explosion of asteroid showered the vehicle with small rocks. Jaren fought with the controls for a moment.

"They've opened fire!"

"I figured that!" Jaren said dryly. He ripped the controls around and the eagle pulled a quick 90 degree momentum change.

"As soon as we've cleared the field, jump us!" Jaren ordered. The other man didn't answer and concentrated on inputing the correct sequence of numbers.

Jaren powered the engine to full and zoomed straight through two asteroids just before they closed the small gap. The field opened up quickly and only a handful of rocks could be seen ahead of them. Behind the attackers dodged around the asteroids and closed in on the fleeing vessel. Jaren pushed the eagle as fast as it could go.

"Any time now!" He shouted. The followers opened fire with some sort of machine gun. Before the deadly bullets reached the eagle, a white light enveloped the craft and it disappeared.

Alone in the asteroid field, the lone scientist stood still on the large asteroid he was left on. When the eagle lifted off he thought they were going to hover closer so he can get in, but the moment they cleared the rock, four shapes appeared from around another large asteroid and the eagle was off. He watched the five craft weave in and out of the asteroids. He lost sight of them a couple of times then suddenly there was a bright flash and he knew now he was alone and abandoned. Then the realization set in. His body seized up and his breathing became sharp and quick. He looked out at the slow spinning rocks above him and around him. He walked slowly, careful to keep a hold on the wire that had been dug into the rock. There was nothing for him to do. He saw the distant blue star just before it disappeared behind an asteroid and the glare of the yellow one on the rocks around him. He sat gently on the asteroid. Fear of the unknown seeped into his veins. He had no family or friends, he was a loner. It was why he had chosen to join the crew of the Deliverence. He decided his fate. He walked to the point closest to where he suspected the yellow star to be. There was a small rock, ten by twenty meters he figured above him. He gripped the mining pick he had with him and jumped.

The rock above him came closer and he readied the pick. As it got closer he swung hard and the pointed tip dug deep. He hit the asteroid and almost bounced off again. He gripped tight and steadied himself. He crawled around the rock and the bright yellow star appeared. He smiled through the fear and stood. He aimed, muttered a prayer and jumped up towards the star. He planned to cremate him self in the mightiest force in the universe. He smiled and closed his eyes, hoping to fall asleep and never wake up again.

Then I lived.

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