4905 words (19 minute read)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 

 

 

It was a Cold day, but every day is cold in space. Aboard the Federation Dreadnought Avenger, the ambient temperature was colder than usual. “Damn Life Support system, always frizzing out on the worst times” Commander Henderson thought to himself. As Executive Officer aboard the Avenger, part of his duties were to manage the engineering department, and this was certainly on his list of items to have a ‘chat’ with the ships Senior Engineer, but that would have to wait. His current duties left him in sole command of the Dreadnought as her captain is enjoying his off duty.

 

“Ensign, watch our lateral drift, we are veering too far off point oh oh eight.” Commander Henderson stated to the helms officer, Ensign Charlene Carr

 

“Aye sir, it’s just the lateral thrusters are giving me a little trouble, acting slight sluggish” Ensign Carr stated

 

Yes, the Lateral thrusters. Another item on this list, in fact he had already brought up the thruster systems to the engineering team, the memo must not have gotten to the senior staff. Another time for that chat Henderson thought. Sometimes when items like this he regrets his command position, after all at age 27 he was the youngest person in naval history to take up a command position, however his passion lies with engineering. He was the youngest senior engineer in the fleet! He was stationed aboard the Avenger during his tour as the senior engineer. He remembers the days, not two years ago, when the Avenger actually ran smooth, flawless. Nothing broke. She was the best ship in the fleet! Now, due to incompetence, she’s showing her age.

 

(Beep)(Beep) The sound of a warning system brought the Commander out of his trance.

 

“Sir, Long range sensors are picking up Four ships coming in at point three three nine. Bearing one two five mark seven. Unknown configuration” An officer stated reading the panel in front of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Avenger is tasked in guarding a mining crew mining a rare ore out of a comet that is not coming quite close enough to Earth’s solar system, the Sol system, for proper protection. Even though since the formation of the Federation of Nations, that united all of the nations of Earth under one unified leadership, Piracy, has almost been eradicated. However, the Naval Admiralty board had expressed fears of danger since the Pegasus expedition was lost some time ago. The ship was tasked to colonize the Pegasus system for Federation expansion. It was one of 3 ships sent out. The other two made it to their destinations and had formed their respective colonies. Each on Betelgeuse, and Orion. Oddly enough, also strengthening the Admiralty’s decision for protection, the Pegasus crew found a derelict ship. No idea who the ship belonged too, but they had found a derelict Hyper drive and Hyper-buoy on board. This find was a revolution in expansion for the federation. However, it cannot be used for exploration, the Hyper drive enabled for instantaneous transportation between two known points, enabling supplies and other civilians to travel from Earth to the colony worlds, further expanding them.

 

“How far out, and what’s their vector” the Commander asked

 

“Sir, looking at twenty-five hundred kicks out, their vector is right to us sir”

A surprised and concerned look came to the Commanders face

 

“Do we have a visual?” Henderson asked

The Comms officer nodded as Henderson walked over to the screen. He saw the four ships, two of them were massive. Giant ships looking like their long claws and hollow center, while the other two were solid ships with massive docking bays. Although none of the crew had ever seen this before, Henderson had a small encounter with them during his first years as a fighter pilot about nine years ago. He knew exactly what they were.

 

 

Oh this is not good, Henderson thought to himself as a look of concern came to his face. He is not in a fighter this time; He is not in a fast maneuverable small ship that could outrun them with ease. He is aboard a Dreadnought, a massive Warship built for one purpose. Protection and Defense. Although the dreadnaught can be extremely fast for a ship its size, due to its extensively massive Sub-Light Engines, it is extremely sluggish, slow to maneuver and very slow at acceleration. Where the ship lacks in Agility, it more than gains for in pure Strength! Its size allows for the largest and most powerful Power Generators known to man at the time A Dreadnaught has a power output to power the entire United States for more than a few decades! This allows for Shields, Overpowered Laser and Plasma Weapon Turrets, Missile and Torpedo Launchers, she truly is a powerhouse, which is why raiders and pirates, although crime is rare, would rather not hit a target protected by a Dreadnaught. Nothing survives her might!

The Commander jumps up from the sensor readout and starts to yell out a few commands while hitting the switch to broadcast to all hands.

 

“All hands to Battle Stations, Alert condition One! Captain Mahoney to the Bridge!”

The command switched off the Comm system

“Ensign, bring us to One-Three-Seven Mark Six, I want a Fifteen Percent rotation on the Ventral side”

There was a reason John Henderson was in a command seat. He is by far a tactical genius! He is able to win in situations where all cards are stacked against him. He turns an Impossible situation to a mere win.

The ship began to change course. At first the ship was faced toward the comet, but angled just slightly, with the ships coming at the Avenger from the rear and side. Henderson initiated a command for the ship to turn slightly, bringing the engines away from the line of fire, also positioning her starboard side directly in the line of fire, the ship also rotated 15 degrees to port, allowing for the ships Ventral Weapon systems to take adequate aim. Normally this tactic is not used in a field of battle, simply because this tactic creates a targeting blind spot for the Missile, Torpedo launchers and the ships Point Defense system. The targeting sensor is located on the top of the ship, along with all the other communication and sensor equipment. It didn’t matter anyways, Henderson was putting the Dreadnaught into full assault mode, sacrificing defense for pure firepower. He knew what was about to hit him, he knew they needed to survive as long as possible, right now pure firepower was the way to do it. He also knew the ship would not complete her maneuver until a little bit after the battle had started!

 

 

 

 

The Captain’s quarters were a decent distance from the bridge, the commander knew this. For the time being everything was on him.

 

“Lieutenant get all pilots to their fighters, instruct for close protection only, do not engage those cruisers. Protect the Miners at all costs, do not engage outside of containment zone” Henderson gave orders to the deck chief, whose duties were to maintain orders and communications to all fighters, and outside duty personnel. Including the Civilian miners

 

Henderson knew enemy fighters were inbound, but it did not matter, their shields were strong enough to defend against fighters, The Avenger had to worry about those two cruisers coming in. However, the small civilian Mining freighter and driller were not as tough, fighters could easily tear them down. Not to mention the dozens of workers outside the protection of a ship could easily be killed from fighters. This area between the Dreadnaught and the mining crew, was called the Containment zone. It is where the line of fire is protected from the cruisers. Outside the Containment zone, which would be between the Legion ships and the Dreadnaught is called the Kill zone. Any fighter in that area would be running a suicide mission, getting caught in the crossfire would not be difficult.

 

“Lieutenant also inform the mining crew to start getting inside their ship, and prepare for a hyperspace jump. Instruct them to stop what they are doing immediately and get in their ship”

“Sir” the Lieutenant remarked “They are already disobeying orders, mining operations are continuing and more miners are exiting their ship”

“Continue giving them the orders, state that if they don’t, their operation will be destroyed, and we can only stay here for so long to protect them, also get their estimated time for hyper drive cool down to be complete”

 

Just then the Captain walked in. Captain James Mahoney was a tall but large man. Well into his Seventies, he weighed around 300 pounds standing at 5 foot 11. He was no small man, but he was experienced. He was a Captain in the Navy for a little over 40 years, as a result he is one of the most well decorated captain’s in the navy. In all his years he never saw any major war, he never saw any major conflict only small disputes here and there, but he also never saw anyone as brilliant as Commander Henderson. At a very young age Mahoney knew Henderson would go far, as a result he took him in and treated him like a son he never had. It fit well, after all John Henderson never had a real father. His real father left his mother before he was born. As a result of their early friendship Mahoney was responsible for Henderson’s desire for space travel and interest in the Academy. Thus he soured through schooling, ever since he was first able to be assigned to a ship, Captain Mahoney made a personal request that Henderson be stationed aboard his ship. John Henderson did his entire career to date under the leadership, and mentorship of Captain Mahoney.

 

 

“Report” Mahoney said as he was walking into the bridge finished buttoning up his uniform.

The Commander brought the Captain up to speed on what has happened so far

An ops officer stated “Sir E.T.A inbound is Ten minutes”

“Sir, I have seen these ships before, nine years ago when my squad was patrolling a corridor near Pegasus. They call themselves the ‘Legion’ sir, and they are not friendly, we believe these are the forces that destroyed the Pegasus colony crew some time ago, and at this range, we only have a few minutes before they arrive not ten!” Henderson was explaining to the Captain

Just then the Security officer chimed in, nothing positive to say of course, he was after Henderson job, and Mahoney’s. He tried everything he could to undermine Henderson and make him out to be a hot headed person who would cause a war over talk things out.

 

“Sir, there is no evidence that these ships are hostile, this is our first true contact we should talk to them, not deploy our forces in a show of hostility”

 

“Sir we don’t have much time” the Commander stated, he then directed himself toward the comms officer “How long until their Hyper drive is ready”

“Sir they said approximate Three hours until Hyper drive is ready for another jump” the Comm officer stated “they are also not responding to our orders to pack up”

Just then more beeps chirped from the consoles. The Legion ships had initiated a ‘Micro Jump’ quickly closing the distance between them and the Avenger. This allowed them to close into firing range extremely fast, and started launching their fighters, also just a mere moment since their fighters were launched they began firing on the federation Dreadnought.

 

The ship shook, sounds of direct fire rained down on the dreadnaught, bulkheads creaking, metal falling, pure chaos erupted, the Ship was under direct attack with no warning. Henderson was right!

 

Sirens going off everywhere on the bridge, utter chaos was happening, however the Bridge crew kept calm as the Captain gave orders

“Return Fire all batteries engage the closest target” Mahoney shouted out as he looked to the Commander “John, shouldn’t you be in your fighter?”

This is true, in a normal battle scenario all Pilots should be in their Fighters, and as the Commander is the Flight Leader he of all people should be in his seat, however this was not a normal battle situation. Henderson firmly believed he should stay right where he was at, giving his tactical genius to the frontlines in hope for survival

 

“Sir” the commander replied “With all due respect, I believe my talents would serve us better right here on the bridge, for example I believe firing on the closest ship will do no good”

Mahoney is not used to his crew questioning his orders, he demands the utmost loyalty among his crew, and he gets it. He is one of the most respected Leaders in the navy, however when Henderson questions his orders, he knows from experience that it might be a good idea to listen to what the young commander has to say.

“Explain” Mahoney said

“Sir, look at this” The Commander directed as more shakes and explosions rocked the ship, which was still attempting to complete the Maneuver Henderson previously had ordered

“Sir three of the four ships are in firing range, the two cruisers and a carrier. This carrier here is the closest, however it is doing the least amount of damage to us, it is of no threat to us, and the Legion know it” The Commander was beginning to say

“What about those Fighters?” The Security officer asked

“Those Fighters are of no concern, right now they are ignoring us and heading to the Mining crew, our fighters are taking care of that as we speak, right now we have to worry about those cruisers, that cruiser there is doing the most damage, not only are we in firing range of her cannons, but she is starting to get torpedo locks on us, we need to direct all fire on that cruiser” The commander pointed out

“Sir, picking up a text message on all comm channels, it reads ‘We are Legion, you are a threat to our existence. You will be eliminated. Do not resist’” The comm officer points out

“Sir we need to evacuate” The Commander stated

The Captain went to the comms officer “Ensign, that should be motivation enough for the miners to get back in their ship, instruct them to prepare for an emergency burn”

“Sir, they won’t like that, they risk losing their ship!” the Comms officer replied

It is true, an Emergency burn should only be performed under the direst of circumstances. Best case Scenario, you just pop a few drive circuits and are unable to use the Hyper drive until you fix them, and they cannot be repaired unless you are in dry-dock! Worst case scenario, your entire drive core explodes taking out the entire ship! Emergency burns are rarely done, this situation however, clearly calls for one!

“Tell them they will lose everything if they stay here!” the captain stated.

“Sir” Ensign Carr chimed in “I should be in my Fighter; the Maneuver is now complete”

“No, the fight is almost over you wouldn’t have time” The Commander Chimed in

 

 

 

Yes, Ensign Charlene Carr. Pilot, Chief Pilot for the Avenger, should be in her fighter at this point. While Commander Henderson is a phenomenal pilot, capital ship and fighter alike, Charlene Carr is astronomically better. She makes Henderson look like a complete beginner to flight all together, She has been able to pull off stunts that were beyond impossible. This is why she is where she is now. Henderson met her in Flight school, they teamed up in fighter combat and maneuvers in their tour, their team became known as “The Impossible Duo” The only thing impossible when both Henderson and Carr were flying together, was Failure. Thus as a rule wherever Henderson was stationed, so was Carr. For the simple fact, that Failure was never an option for them. But for some reason in this situation, the Avenger carried the Federations two best Fighter Pilots, yet neither of them were at the helm of a Fighter. It didn’t matter, their place both of them was on the bridge that day. If Henderson was fighting, they wouldn’t have known which ship to attack for maximum damage, nor would they of known to start the advanced combat maneuver on the ship in time, the battle would have been lost at this point already. If Carr was fighting, no one could have successfully piloted a ship as large as a Federation Dreadnought to Henderson’s exact specifications to complete his advanced maneuver nearly as fast as Carr did. What took tens of minutes for her, would’ve taken the next best pilot nearly several hours to complete. Even when not behind the wheel of a Fighter, the Impossible Duo always out does the Impossible!

 

The Legion fighters were in range now, fighting the fighters from the Avenger, while a few of them breaking off and going for the mining ships. At this point the Dreadnaught is finally in its offensive position all the full might of the ship was raining down on that one cruiser. One on One the cruiser was no match to a Federation Dreadnought, as proof here the cruiser was destroyed in a matter of a few minutes of the Dreadnaught, however the Dreadnaught is no match for four Legion ships. Not only was there two Cruisers firing on the ship doing as much damage as they can as fast as they can, but two carriers carried enough fighters to completely overwhelm the dreadnaught, a grand total of three hundred fighters, and bombers were now in play, most of them were hitting the Avenger, with only a very small number going after the miners. The Dreadnaught could take most of the fighters and bombers, however three hundred of them takes a toll on a ship, even one as massive as the Avenger.

 

Sparks, and fire now begin to rain down from the consoles, wall panels, and ceiling with each lunge, shake, lunge, and explosion coming from the bridge. No one needs a computer readout to know, the Avenger is taking serious damage. With the First cruiser down, the Dreadnaught is now concentrating on the second cruiser, however her weapon systems have suffered a major loss. Power Conduits are exploding everywhere, power relays have to be put in place, and even the relays are starting to give out. Pretty soon the Relay for the Relay will be giving out.

 

“Comm, I want a report on those miners NOW!” the Commander stated

“Sir they are all aboard and are preparing for emergency burn, they are estimating initiating Hyper drive in a matter of a few minutes”

 

At last, the battle was almost over. They were not here to destroy the Legion forces, after all they couldn’t. This is why Henderson put the Avenge in full offensive mode, the goal was to protect the miners only as long as they could safely initiate a hyperspace jump, then the Avenger would initiate hers. Unfortunately, like the Miners, the Avenger had her Hyper drive on Cool down, in fact much larger than the Miners. The Avenger’s Cool down was almost at 15 hours. No possible way they could safely get out of there in time.

 

“Good” said the Captain “Start our preparations for our emergency burn”

“See char,” Henderson told the Ensign in a playful friendly tone “By the time you got there it would be over!”

 

Just then a very large explosion rocked the ship, and all power flicked for a very short time, luckily the emergency power relays prevented the main computer from going down, however the weapon and shield systems relied on the secondary power systems. While emergency shields were up and running, the Main shield systems were completely down, along with the weapons.

 

“Sir” the Security officer stated “Shields are down, Emergency Shields are up but only at twenty-five percent, expect total shield failure in a matter of minutes, Main power systems are fluctuating, all weapon systems are down. We are defenseless!”

 

“How the hell did they pull that off” the Captain asked

“It doesn’t matter, we need to recall all fighters now and prepare for an emergency burn”

 

Just then, with a blink of an eye, the Mining Freighter and Drill ship both Disappeared into thin air, like they were covered by a massive cloak, one minute they were there the next, gone/

 

 

“Sir” the comms officer chimed in “All Civilian craft has successfully made the jump into Hyperspace”

 

“Good, Start Burn Procedures now and initiate jump when ready” The Captain ordered

“Sir, no can do” The Operations officer chimed in “The hyper drive is not responsive. We cannot initiate Jump”

 

 

 

 

This was a problem indeed. Without the Hyper drive working, the Avenger was stuck there until they could get it repaired. With shield and weapon systems down, she only had a few minutes before the Legion would fully destroy the ship. Without even saying a word Commander Henderson jumped out of the room, running into the long corridor behind the bridge that would take him to the aft sections of the ship. Pushing and shoving anyone that was in his way, not a worry at all if he hurt them or not, even knocking trays of paperwork from people’s hands. Shoving equipment out of the way, he even knocked an Injured crewmember off his stretcher. He sprinted as fast as he could, not caring at all for what was in his way. He finally got to the aft section, popped open a hatch and began climbing down the emergency hatchway that would lead directly to Main Engineering, or the Engine Room. The entire time he had to battle with his own balancing with the ship shaking and bouncing all over the place. It was so bad; the internal inertia dampeners could not keep up. Even the Artificial Gravity generators were frizzing out. Henderson found him floating more than a few times.

 

Henderson finally got to the Engine room, shoving anybody that was in his way, including the Senior Engineer, crying as he hit the ground, he demanded Henderson explain himself. Henderson didn’t care, he lurched directly to a panel, ripped it open and began cutting, and re-routing wires, conduits, circuit boards and panels. With only a few minutes of time he spent he lurched up again, pulled another cable out, stretched it as long as he could, which only spanned about a quarter of the room’s width, he lurched for another panel on the other side of the room. The Senior Engineer simply cried out “What are you doing! You are tearing apart my Engine room. NO NO STOP Don’t do that, you will break it!” To Henderson simply replied “Get me a Ten foot, Twenty-Five-gauge cable NOW” Without hesitation the officer began to find the cable, he knew it was career suicide to disobey an order from an officer, no matter what said officer has or is doing. After all, Commander Henderson is attempting to repair the Hyper drive, the only thing that would save their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Hyper drive is a simple piece of technology. Found about one hundred and fifteen years ago on the Pegasus mission, the device has allowed for instantaneous travel between two points in space. These points must be known. Although the drive enables for literally instant travel, it has two major flaws which prevent this drive to be useful in Exploration. The first flaw, is you must already know the location to where you are traveling. A Destination address must be placed in the Nav computer. The Destination address is calculated quite complex actually, but the nav computer does not do this. A device, at the destination point, or ‘Hyper-Buoy’, does the calculations. It constantly calculates its current coordinates, taking in account for Galactic Drift, solar winds, and all other anomalies that would affect the correct coordinates for a successful destination address. As a result, if you do not have said Address, you would come out of hyperspace at a completely random point in space, anywhere in the universe. You could be a mere mile from where you are, or several million light years from any civilized space.

 

The Second flaw, which restricts the amount of time a ship can initiate a jump, is the Hyper drive must “cool down” or reinitiate its ability to create a hole in the fabric of space and time. The Typical time for this “Cool down” period is 72 hours. However, it can run all the way from 283 hours from a really cheap, inexpensive model, all the way down to a mere 34 hours from a really expensive model. The only way you can initiate a hyperspace jump within this timeframe, is if you initiate an Emergency Burn, which overrides all safety procedures. The Hyperspace jump is successful 100% of the time, however almost all the time it completely burns out the hyper drive, and they are not cheap. Or worse, some ships have been reported to suffer a full engine failure, and then explode. Captain’s only order an emergency burn when it was absolutely necessary!

 

Within a matter of a few minutes the Senior Engineering officer came back with the cable the Commander asked for, setting it on the flow he simply asked “What are you doing” The commander did not reply. He then completed ripping, rewiring, and routing all the wires, cables, and circuits on this side of the room, grabbed the cable and attached it to a conduit on this side.

 

“Lieutenant, go to that panel over there” Henderson pointed out to the panel just above where he had just finished working on the other side.

“That’s the Hyper drive control panel” the officer pointed out, which Henderson ignored

“When I tell you, Initiate the sequence that was already queued in the system”

 

 

 

 

The Senior Engineer nodded, he knew this was simple. If the Sequence was already pre-programed all he had to do was press one button. And this was true, he walked over and saw the sequence already queued up, all the panel read simply was “Start” flashing red and blue, with the complex command structure blurred a little bit behind the start button.

 

Henderson got up, grabbed the other end of the cable, then grabbed the other end of the short cable ripped out of the way on the other end and simply stated “I hope this works...” he attached the two sides, and instantly sparks, explosions and pure chaos erupted from the two panels he had worked on, and just at the same time, Henderson simply shouted “NOW!” The Engineer officer pressed the pretty flashing Red and blue button labeled “START” And start it did. With that press, lots of strings of commands flooded the screen, carefully executing each one, and only a mere few seconds later, the engine room started a loud hum.

 

A Control panel started chirping and beeping on the Bridge

“Sir” the ops officer stated “Hyper drive is online; we are initiating a Jump!”

 

With that the ship began to shake. Out the viewport, watching as the Legion began to rain terror upon the doomed Dreadnaught, reality began to stretch. With a matter of a few seconds everything stretched out, then in a quick instant, out of a hole in the center, a giant planet exploded into view out of nowhere. A Big blue planet. EARTH! and just like that, The Legion was gone, no one was firing on them. But it wasn’t over, just as earth came into view, the biggest explosion of all rocked the ship. Almost the entire aft section of the ship exploded. The Main Engine and Drive system overloaded, Half the Avenger was destroyed, bringing the ship powerless, lifeless, a derelict drift in Earth’s orbit.

 

 

 

Next Chapter: Chapter 2