Oblivion
Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 12:35 am
Okay here is something that's been rattling around my brain the last couple of days. Any thoughts, suggestions or critiques are welcome
I. Prelude of oblivion:
"Spectral scanners are going crazy!" One officer shouted as Null-holes as they had quickly been dubbed ripped their way into existence.
The open portals like festering sores in the fabric of reality, a description possibly more accurate then Commodore Cody wished to think about as his ship was buffeted by a force as yet undetermined. The forever morphing fluidic edge of each portal ringed with…things. The best description he could think of were worms, long translucent worms which seemed to reach out and grasp the solid realm with a blind hunger. He knew of no worms however that could burn through the armored hull of a frigate and pull the stricken craft back into the vortex as had already happened twice to vessels daring to get too close to the null-holes. All contact ceasing almost the instant a ship crossed over, the distorted fragments received consisting of inhuman shrieks of terror.
"We are reading another three vessels emerging." The officer said gripping his station to keep from being flung from it.
"Composition?" Deth Bardess asked walking across the bridge despite the buffeting it was receiving, stepping over a Servitor which hadn't been as lucky.
The clockwork man flaying his limbs in the air uselessly as his simple engrained mind struggled to come to grasps that he was now flat on his back and his whole center of gravity had changed.
"One missile boat and two needles." Came the reply as the Visualizer shifted to focus on the latest additions to the growing fleet battle.
The bulbous cylinder shaped missile boat instantly started living up to it's code name. Pods extending from either side and unleashing a hellish amount of nuclear tipped missiles. The spinning chamber a blur as it unloaded it's stockpile and then retracted with mechanical precision, a few quick eyed individuals like Deth noticing the open ports reversing direction one hundred and eighty degrees before vanishing back inside their berths, where they were hastily reloaded and the process started all over again. The six particle cannons affixed to the ship's prow also adding to the carnage. A Vigilance class frigate shuddering as it's ray shields were fully demolished from such a salvo. It's point defense lasers weaving a deadly tapestry around it's self shielding off the slower missiles but the sheer volume pounded their way through.
"Do we have any more torpedoes!" Cody demanded from his command seat.
"We're still holding two in reserve!" Tong shouted from his station.
A Primape he wore his Republic uniform ill fitting around his bulkier and hairier and had more then once complained about not being allowed to use his feet to operate the controls but as a Tactical officer there were few finer.
"Lock one onto the missile boat!" Cody demanded as Tong helped direct the cruiser's cannon fire on one of the sleeker needle shaped warships.
"Aye sir!" He replied locking on to the target.
The heavy missile spat out of the dominating cruiser at high velocity as the missile boat curved around the injured frigate like a shark and unleashed a second volley of it's cannons. The struck side of the hull glowing incandescently as the ribbons of energy lanced down to the core of the vessel. Cody physically wincing as he imagined the onboard crew vaporized either from the energy itself or the breeched reactor undoubtedly struck. A cascade failure rendering the six or ten nuclear missiles which slammed into the hull redundant but this race didn't seem the type to count the odd missile. The mortally wounded vessel exploding spectacularly in the airless void of space, the hull splitting into thirds briefly before the whole thing was atomized. The expanding debris cloud obscuring the heavy missile as it soared through it, the missile boat giving no signs of detecting it or at least caring. A passing needle ship apparently did firing a low yield laser beam as it zipped past but thanks to the high density ray shielding rendered the shot inert despite the respectable dwell time the beam was on target. What happened next couldn't be seen but every bridge officer was familiar with. As soon as the hull of the target vessel passed through the ray shielding the "cap" of the missile would detach and the breeching charge inside it would detonate. A directed spray of super heated plasma cutting a hole just as the missile sled, with it's fusion warhead housed within, expended the remainder of it's fuel in a ramming maneuver. The heavily armored bomb would then be shoved into the vessel like a spike from a railgun at which point it would go off in all it's glory.
"Torpedo detonated sir." Tong replied as a miniature star flashed in existence behind the floating debris cloud.
The star shinning for several seconds before dieing out, it's fuel expended, a backlash of plasma shooting out in all directions from the circumference of the nuclear inferno milliseconds before total dissolution. While larger then even Cody's cruiser it was a tiny blip in expanse of space of course. The cubic volume it had occupied had been almost nonexistent, not even a threat to the needle ship which had been the nearest vessel to the incident. The ray-less ship requiring a heat-ray carving up it's hull followed by an atomic shell which detonated against it's naked hull before it joined the fate of the frigate and missile boat.
"The Crusader is taking damage!" Lt. Janet Wesly reported." Two needle ships are firing on her and rupturing their hull.
"Bring us about!" Cody ordered with a snarl.
The normally jovial commander both enraged at the Crusader, a fellow Constitution class cruiser, being assaulted and leaving ruthless enemies alive. The other needle ship which had emerged from the Null-hole limping away spewing atmosphere and reactants from where a Heat-ray had raked over it but limped away none the less. The ship vanishing from the Visualizer just as a shockwave nearly threw everyone to the deck plating. The klaxon for hull breach sounding as the ship tumbled over on it's port side. Deth barely managing to choke out a yelp as the Servitor crashed into him. The droid pleasantly asking him in the English Gentleman accent if he desired any tea or other refreshments as the two tumbled across the bridge.
"Report!" Cody screamed, the restraint straps cutting into his flesh as the ship tried to correct itself."
"Massive exotic energy disturbance detected." Moxie, the ship's calcutron, answered uneededly.
"Another Null-hole opened up sir…at a million Kilometers from our position. I mean roughly half a million miles sir." Tong said correcting his terminology.
"Impossible. We've had vortex open up a quarter mile from the hull and they didn't toss us that much!" Cody said fearing the spectral scanners had been misaligned.
"It's…it's big sir." Which was all Tong could say, the Visualizer showing everything else.
"My God!" Cody said in an awed voice.
Deth looking up from below the still delighted to serve Servitor could only whistle at the massive Null-hole. He wasn't fully sure of the scale of it, the swirling nature of it's perimeter making it's exact size ever changing anyway, but he could sense it was big. The void large enough to allow passage of something nearly as monstrously huge, a solid sphere. The protoplasmic tendrils, microscopic in comparison, twitched and twirled around it as the giant ball of rock exited the unnatural realm. The rear side of the sphere was aglow from the exhaust from an untold number of engines of sizes rivaling a Republic Assault cruiser. The Null-hole thankfully retracting back into itself once the object cleared instead of depositing another foul war machine into an already cluttered system.
"Read out!" Cody demanded as the planetoid moved at a snail's pace away from it's entrance point.
"The circumference is over one thousand miles. It is being propelled at three hundred miles per second via an Orion derivative based propulsion, possibly Heliosian in design. I am reading large quantities of nickel and iron in it's crust as well as a few other precious metals and granite like rock. Spectral scanners are also reading massive colonization both on the planetiod's surface as well as deeper structures but an energy damping field similar to what is employed by the warships are shielding the instillations." Tong answered watching as the moon like body drifted through the raging battle, as untroubled by it as a whale would be plankton.
"They fly moons?" Deth asked the quiet bridge." That can't be possible!"
"Nothing we can do. Wesly, what is the Crusader's status?" Cody said fully realizing that even if his ship was in prime condition with it's full compliment it wouldn't even scratch the giant floating into their midsts.
"Sir?" The officer said staring at the orbital body.
"The Crusader we were supposed to deliver aid. What is their status and exact location for bombardment fire."
"Their gone sir. The Crusader…broke up." Wesly replied tapping back into the frantic com traffic going across the battle.
I. Prelude of oblivion:
"Spectral scanners are going crazy!" One officer shouted as Null-holes as they had quickly been dubbed ripped their way into existence.
The open portals like festering sores in the fabric of reality, a description possibly more accurate then Commodore Cody wished to think about as his ship was buffeted by a force as yet undetermined. The forever morphing fluidic edge of each portal ringed with…things. The best description he could think of were worms, long translucent worms which seemed to reach out and grasp the solid realm with a blind hunger. He knew of no worms however that could burn through the armored hull of a frigate and pull the stricken craft back into the vortex as had already happened twice to vessels daring to get too close to the null-holes. All contact ceasing almost the instant a ship crossed over, the distorted fragments received consisting of inhuman shrieks of terror.
"We are reading another three vessels emerging." The officer said gripping his station to keep from being flung from it.
"Composition?" Deth Bardess asked walking across the bridge despite the buffeting it was receiving, stepping over a Servitor which hadn't been as lucky.
The clockwork man flaying his limbs in the air uselessly as his simple engrained mind struggled to come to grasps that he was now flat on his back and his whole center of gravity had changed.
"One missile boat and two needles." Came the reply as the Visualizer shifted to focus on the latest additions to the growing fleet battle.
The bulbous cylinder shaped missile boat instantly started living up to it's code name. Pods extending from either side and unleashing a hellish amount of nuclear tipped missiles. The spinning chamber a blur as it unloaded it's stockpile and then retracted with mechanical precision, a few quick eyed individuals like Deth noticing the open ports reversing direction one hundred and eighty degrees before vanishing back inside their berths, where they were hastily reloaded and the process started all over again. The six particle cannons affixed to the ship's prow also adding to the carnage. A Vigilance class frigate shuddering as it's ray shields were fully demolished from such a salvo. It's point defense lasers weaving a deadly tapestry around it's self shielding off the slower missiles but the sheer volume pounded their way through.
"Do we have any more torpedoes!" Cody demanded from his command seat.
"We're still holding two in reserve!" Tong shouted from his station.
A Primape he wore his Republic uniform ill fitting around his bulkier and hairier and had more then once complained about not being allowed to use his feet to operate the controls but as a Tactical officer there were few finer.
"Lock one onto the missile boat!" Cody demanded as Tong helped direct the cruiser's cannon fire on one of the sleeker needle shaped warships.
"Aye sir!" He replied locking on to the target.
The heavy missile spat out of the dominating cruiser at high velocity as the missile boat curved around the injured frigate like a shark and unleashed a second volley of it's cannons. The struck side of the hull glowing incandescently as the ribbons of energy lanced down to the core of the vessel. Cody physically wincing as he imagined the onboard crew vaporized either from the energy itself or the breeched reactor undoubtedly struck. A cascade failure rendering the six or ten nuclear missiles which slammed into the hull redundant but this race didn't seem the type to count the odd missile. The mortally wounded vessel exploding spectacularly in the airless void of space, the hull splitting into thirds briefly before the whole thing was atomized. The expanding debris cloud obscuring the heavy missile as it soared through it, the missile boat giving no signs of detecting it or at least caring. A passing needle ship apparently did firing a low yield laser beam as it zipped past but thanks to the high density ray shielding rendered the shot inert despite the respectable dwell time the beam was on target. What happened next couldn't be seen but every bridge officer was familiar with. As soon as the hull of the target vessel passed through the ray shielding the "cap" of the missile would detach and the breeching charge inside it would detonate. A directed spray of super heated plasma cutting a hole just as the missile sled, with it's fusion warhead housed within, expended the remainder of it's fuel in a ramming maneuver. The heavily armored bomb would then be shoved into the vessel like a spike from a railgun at which point it would go off in all it's glory.
"Torpedo detonated sir." Tong replied as a miniature star flashed in existence behind the floating debris cloud.
The star shinning for several seconds before dieing out, it's fuel expended, a backlash of plasma shooting out in all directions from the circumference of the nuclear inferno milliseconds before total dissolution. While larger then even Cody's cruiser it was a tiny blip in expanse of space of course. The cubic volume it had occupied had been almost nonexistent, not even a threat to the needle ship which had been the nearest vessel to the incident. The ray-less ship requiring a heat-ray carving up it's hull followed by an atomic shell which detonated against it's naked hull before it joined the fate of the frigate and missile boat.
"The Crusader is taking damage!" Lt. Janet Wesly reported." Two needle ships are firing on her and rupturing their hull.
"Bring us about!" Cody ordered with a snarl.
The normally jovial commander both enraged at the Crusader, a fellow Constitution class cruiser, being assaulted and leaving ruthless enemies alive. The other needle ship which had emerged from the Null-hole limping away spewing atmosphere and reactants from where a Heat-ray had raked over it but limped away none the less. The ship vanishing from the Visualizer just as a shockwave nearly threw everyone to the deck plating. The klaxon for hull breach sounding as the ship tumbled over on it's port side. Deth barely managing to choke out a yelp as the Servitor crashed into him. The droid pleasantly asking him in the English Gentleman accent if he desired any tea or other refreshments as the two tumbled across the bridge.
"Report!" Cody screamed, the restraint straps cutting into his flesh as the ship tried to correct itself."
"Massive exotic energy disturbance detected." Moxie, the ship's calcutron, answered uneededly.
"Another Null-hole opened up sir…at a million Kilometers from our position. I mean roughly half a million miles sir." Tong said correcting his terminology.
"Impossible. We've had vortex open up a quarter mile from the hull and they didn't toss us that much!" Cody said fearing the spectral scanners had been misaligned.
"It's…it's big sir." Which was all Tong could say, the Visualizer showing everything else.
"My God!" Cody said in an awed voice.
Deth looking up from below the still delighted to serve Servitor could only whistle at the massive Null-hole. He wasn't fully sure of the scale of it, the swirling nature of it's perimeter making it's exact size ever changing anyway, but he could sense it was big. The void large enough to allow passage of something nearly as monstrously huge, a solid sphere. The protoplasmic tendrils, microscopic in comparison, twitched and twirled around it as the giant ball of rock exited the unnatural realm. The rear side of the sphere was aglow from the exhaust from an untold number of engines of sizes rivaling a Republic Assault cruiser. The Null-hole thankfully retracting back into itself once the object cleared instead of depositing another foul war machine into an already cluttered system.
"Read out!" Cody demanded as the planetoid moved at a snail's pace away from it's entrance point.
"The circumference is over one thousand miles. It is being propelled at three hundred miles per second via an Orion derivative based propulsion, possibly Heliosian in design. I am reading large quantities of nickel and iron in it's crust as well as a few other precious metals and granite like rock. Spectral scanners are also reading massive colonization both on the planetiod's surface as well as deeper structures but an energy damping field similar to what is employed by the warships are shielding the instillations." Tong answered watching as the moon like body drifted through the raging battle, as untroubled by it as a whale would be plankton.
"They fly moons?" Deth asked the quiet bridge." That can't be possible!"
"Nothing we can do. Wesly, what is the Crusader's status?" Cody said fully realizing that even if his ship was in prime condition with it's full compliment it wouldn't even scratch the giant floating into their midsts.
"Sir?" The officer said staring at the orbital body.
"The Crusader we were supposed to deliver aid. What is their status and exact location for bombardment fire."
"Their gone sir. The Crusader…broke up." Wesly replied tapping back into the frantic com traffic going across the battle.