Future Vision: Chapter 3
Chap 3
Location: Itary System: Planet 3 - Moon 1 - Orbital Station 1
"Sir, I'm picking up... Really? That's too small; it's like half a ship"
"What is it Nexus. Stop taking time to think to yourself and just spit the info out"
"It's a warp signature, but it very small, even smaller than an interceptor..."
"Well it look like someone got themselves in a little trouble. Prepare the main docking bay, we have little time. Oh and since we learned last time, or I hope we did, turn the damn radiation nullifying system online"
"Yes Sir, preparing the system and dock now and personnel are standing by outside the bay doors"
"Good, keep your eyes open, he might not have thruster control. If he is on a collision course with us, we will need emergency power to the lateral shield grid. We don't want to repeat what happened in the simulation do we?"
The recruit didn't reply to that comment, but what the commander was saying was true. He wasn't by any means the quickest thinker on the block, or even innovative. The only reason he was here was because he showed amazing calmness in overly stressing situations. For a young fox, this one attribute alone was something to cherish. Most foxes his age would scram into a hole and cover their heads with their tails.
The commander himself was a Panther, and a scary one at that. He was about 228 centimeters, and weighed damn near 174 Kilos. Nexus had gotten an erection the first time he had laid eyes on him, given he was shirtless and was wearing pants that clearly showed off his "package". No one really knew the commanders real name, and all his nametag had to show was "GP". It came to be that in the second week of training, someone had given him the name of "Grand Prick" after being forced to clean the entire station with bleach and his own shirt. After the commander had found out, he was forced to reclean the station with bleach, this time naked and with his own pants and a bowtie clamped to the end of his tail.
[BEEP BEEP BEEP]
Nexus brought back into reality stared into his console to find that the ship was 3,000 meters away from the lateral side of the station. "SHIT!" Nexus exclaimed out loud as he mashed a button on the screen"
"Attention! Shield lock in progress. Target locked and trajectory acquired. Engaging Engine Enervator. Ships current velocity is 500 meters per second and slowing. Soft impact shield systems standing by. Estimated time to impact... Now"
Nexus sighed as he heard a silent thud echo through the station and the small and fragile ship bounced of a matrix of loosely interlaced shield grids. His day dreaming almost got the best of him again, and he knew this time it would have caused him his career.
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Viper had to hand it to himself that he was a pretty good pilot, but a ship without emergency systems, or for that matter any sort of redundancy backups, made his job of piloting his ship harder. He could have missed the station easily if he had backup thrusters but his interceptor class ship was too small to include such systems. The most he had was a failing fusion reactor and hydrazine stabilization jets, which only offered their assistance to keep him from barrel rolling out of control and were completely automated.
Viper also had to admit he was not panicked easily, though this was probably more from his many near death experiences than it was his mental disposition. Space was a dangerous place and even with both paws he could not count the amount of times he had almost died. The last time he nearly died, he was flying his high tech battleship, "As Dark As Dusk", stealthily around enemy territory. This ship was fitted with a Class SA5-B cloaking unit which allowed him to move and warp freely however he wished. He was parked 320KM off of a ship construction yard when out of know where a cosmic anomaly hit his ship caused an EM discharge from the field generators blacking out his systems. If it wasn't for the poor number of guards he would have died quite quickly, but he and his ship survived due to his impressive jury rigging skill, though it was at a cost of 38 million credits to have the armor plating repaired.
"So we see that you've lived somehow... again" GP's voice rang out from the COM system of his ship.
"I thought you are supposed to be happy for me, I didn't come back like this on purpose. Turns out they have a new ship. Well, a modified classic would be a better way to put it"
"Oh. What is it exactly?" GP responded with great interestest.
"It was Mark-VII Chaser style hull configuration, but it was putting out enough juice to power one of the stolen sensor jammer prototypes, I believe by the strength a 54 megawatt Y-S7 series." Viper did he best to guess the actual series of the stolen prototype, but the only one that was strong enough to jam that far away had to have been the cruiser sized module."
"How exactly could it have powered a system that demanding and still be able to pump out enough juice to fire 4 small rapid induction style blasters at you. I'm looking at the video feed from your ship and the schematics of the ship, and I can tell you right now that unless that solar-panel had its own fusion converter, there is no way it supplied the juice alone. It might add 10 megawatts top to the ships total grid. By the way trash that ship when you dock, it's not worth the 8 million credits in repairs. This time we will equip sensor boosters and a little something I'm not allowed to disclose yet."
"Oh... what would (click)" Viper sentence was left hanging by GP closing the channel. Shaking it off, Viper headed towards the hanger and allowed the automated gravity manipulation system park his ship safely in an empty rack. He had been lucky to contain the core breech safely while in warp so there was only a minimal radiation leak, but it was nothing that a scrubber shower could fix in a minute or two.
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"Nexus!" GP called out loudly after he ended his COM with Viper "I want a damn analysis of that ship. Rescue vessels should not be there yet and it hasn't been all that long. Get a fleet of Class-B Tactical Assault Battleships with no less than 6. If they have more of the buggers laying around we need to be able to fight. And make sure they are EW fitted!"
"Yes sir. Should I get a Carrier to back them up with an armament of fighter drones?"
"Good thinking. Get on it."
Nexus sent out a message via encrypted text to all the pilots currently on duty throughout the station. Though GP said 6 would be fine, no doubt that over 15 would end up joining. These kind of Ops always provided useful information and since the Vari loved having the upper hand, it was really "the more the merrier."
In less than 5 minutes Nexus had received more than 17 confirmation from pilots station what kind of ships there were taking and what their roles was going to be. All together they had 8 Class-B Tactical Assault Battleships with 7 of them being EW fitted, 4 Class-C interceptors, 3 Class-B Tactical Cruisers with heavy firepower, and 2 Class-A Covert Frigates. As far as a Carrier, none had responded to the call. However it was not surprising since most Carrier pilots lived in space rather than in a station, and they preferred it as such since the 1KM plus sized ships where pretty much a small station themselves, and they were damn hard to kill.
"Sir, I have no Carrier responding within the station or system. We currently have 2 station owned Carriers in hanger 3, but no one with the certifications to fly them. Orders?"
"I see. Nexus you have command until I come back. Make decisions based on how I would make them. Do not let personal matters influence what you decide to do."
"Sir?" Nexus asked more confused than ever. There were many other people who were higher rank than he was that could most likely do a better job. GP however just gave him a sly smile and walked out of the command center. 5 minutes later all the ship were sitting outside of the station aligned to the next systems jumpgate. Nexus had an idea of what to do, but this was truly a first for him. As he watched the ships spin up their drives and prepare for warp, he could have sworn he saw something in GP's eyes before he left.
Before they left, Nexus sent out a voice COM wishing them good luck. Everyone except GP replied back wishing him the best of luck and some pointers on what to do. GP's Carrier simply flashed it's thrusters to finish it's alignment to the gate, than gave full power to its main engines as it disappeared into the black of space. Maybe Nexus was just hallucinating again, and he honestly thought to himself that he really didn't fit being in the military.
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GP was the first the reach the gate leading into the next solar system. He knew that the other would wait for the all clear before they warped in behind him. Their ships were faster in warp than his 2.7 KM long Carrier so they would be here within a minute or two when the all clear had been sounded. In warp his ship was only able to manage a weak 1.2 AUs a second, whereas most standard ships could push 3.5 or 4 AUs, but that was just due to the sheer mass of the ship. Even though there is no technical such thing as weight, there was still Mass and Force which played an important part of how fast a ship could warp.
GP maneuvered his Carrier up next to the gate and signaled the All Clear via encrypted COM text. Within a minute all the other ship pulled up next to him prepared to jump on command. They all reported that their damage control system were online and their weapon were at the ready. GP signaled for the Class-B Tactical Assault Battleships to jump first and for the 2 Class-A Covert Frigates to go in right after. He signaled for everyone else to wait 10 seconds and jump.
The designated ship vanished in flashes of blue-green spatial ruptures with repair systems and guns at the ready. The rest of the fleet waited the 10 seconds and followed right behind. GP was the last one through the gate since his ship was more for defensive purposed than offensive. GP however could not stop thinking about Nexus, and what would happen to him if he were to die in battle. He really did not like going out to Ops such as this since the risk of confrontation was high.