[b][i]EFG Curious, command deck, after the Marines left[/i][/b]

“Thoughts, XO?” Astra asked, slowly twisting the scan of the wreck in front of them, scrutinizing the details. It looked familiar, and yet so dissimilar with her own ship, it’s armor crystalline, but a mineral rather than metal. What looked to be a strike craft bay and a massive weapon emerged from the front of it, same as a P-15 cannon in caliber, but if it ran along the spine, woe was anything it locked onto.

“Can’t imagine aiming the spinal armament. Unless you want to kill something on a different orbit. How much do you think is missing? Half? Two thirds?” Linsis wondered in return, examining the aesthetically displeasing wreckage. “And perhaps more importantly, where is the rest? Think the debris field we ran into was the rest of the ship?”

“IF it is a laser, or high speed plasma cannon? Easy to aim, nothing like your guns.” Astra noted, “If it was on the attack, it would tear through a small fleet alone. On defense though, it’s limited to the agility of the ship, which I can’t imagine being too good.” the commander theorized. “I don’t think that debris was the rest. And there is still the mindspace disturbance. It feels like… a node, but there’s none there… I’m going to look into it, you have the ship.” Astra said, leaning back in her chair, her mind worming its way into the mindspace around, hungering to figure out the mystery.

The maneuverability was exactly what Linsis had in mind when noting the aiming difficulty. He didn’t even want to think about what that gun could do to a city, or perhaps half a continent.

There was something odd about the commander’s working position, as if she was taking a nap. Who knew, perhaps she was? Stranger still was the program itself, exchanging officers mere weeks after first contact. How was it that relations with an entire different species were going smoother and moving along quicker than relations between some pre-unification nations?

Suddenly, the Oracle gasped and straightened up in her chair. “Echo, none like what I ever felt before. Two ships cruiser sized, one corvette sized.” Cartis announced, rubbing her head. “Headed here, but where did they come from? The only way in here is through our systems and we would have known if they passed through there in the last hundred years…”

“Notify the rest of the expedition force and the away team. How long ‘til contact?” This couldn’t be. There was no way they could encounter two species in the first two weeks of their exploration effort. Could it be the original owners coming back to recover their stuff? If so, the boarding party could be an issue. “Is it in any way similar to what we’ve found here?”

“I do not know, I have not felt this thing jump before either.” The oracle responded, “But I can toss their jump point off course. In a random direction, mind you. I think that right now, they will emerge around here. The oracle on the Latanos confirms. Orders?” One look at Astra was enough to see that she would not be giving one, more than likely wanting to see how the XO would act.

Defense. He was aware that was not his forte. Combined with a ship and crew he knew little about, this situation was a recipe for a disaster. He had to trust someone would let him know if he wanted them to do something the ship couldn’t do. As he understood, power generation was an afterthought when this ship was designed and fully powering engines, weapons and shields at the same time was for all intents and purposes impossible. He had also been warned about the somewhat flimsy nature of its hull.

“Adjust shield to max. Oracle, can you tell how much time we have left before they arrive?”

“Shields aye.” Astra said from the helm’s chair, her tone of voice strange, like she was not really sparing any more attention on the command and control than was necessary.

“Less than a minute. Lieutenant Farsa sent an exact point of emergence, marking it on TacMap.” the oracle noted.

“If they emerge there, we’ll be at their mercy. Helm, can you get us to the other side of the derelict in time? Power down weapons if necessary.”

“Optimal range: Two kilometers. Optimal facing: Head on. Sublight maneuver impossible in given time frame. Brace for a nanojump.” Astra arrived at the logical conclusion, and the all too familiar chime echoed through the ship. In ten seconds, the Curious was enveloped in a mindstorm as it was forcibly repositioned. Given the disturbed nature of the Mindspace in the area, everyone was tossed a meter into the air save for Astra who was strapped down to the helm’s chair. “In position.”

Two kilometers? That was it? He didn’t have time to complain as he was launched toward the ceiling. He never wanted to be a pilot. Rolling back to his feet with the grace of a cat, he turned to the projector, expecting the unknown’s arrival. “Increase weapons power. Gunnery control, standby.” Red icons popped up on his HUD as all stations reported combat ready.

“Anything new from the away team?”

“Shipboard fight with something ugly, literally. It might have been them that woke them up.” the comms specialist noted.

“Ten seconds!” the oracle suddenly announced.

“Advising powering down rear shield quadrant to supplement weapons power. Do we go test their mettle slowly, or do we want a quick kill?” The Master gunner asked.

“Check on the shield, is the away team back on board?” If they had to run, he wouldn’t want to leave anyone behind. “Turn them to dust, no playing around. I’d hoped to avoid fighting, but it looks like that ship has sailed. All hands brace, DC crews standby. Gunnery control, fire at your discretion.” He left the gunners free hands to squeeze out all they could out of the guns.

“Latanos reports all civilian ships have jumped towards the node.” Niziz reported.

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Right after, three subspace windows of the same type as the Narix used popped up only five hundred meters from the predicted point, and Astra was already adjusting their facing to meet the threat head-on, where the Comet class could bring all of it’s firepower to bear. Lieutenant Pegsei was chaingun-speaking to the turret controllers on a separate channel: “P-5s target the dark cruiser sized vessel. P-15s, the lighter one, both firing points. Torpedoes, stand by.”

“Corvette sized vessel launching strikecraft!” Niziz announced, eight dots popping up on the TacMap along with visualizations of the craft, four of each class.
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No way these were the same species as the wreck. Based on the colors alone, they were the antithesis of the derelict. Yet the hostile ships bore strikingly familiar colors. For a moment, nothing happened. And then the lightshow begun. Blood red blobs of what he assumed to be plasma streaked from the unknown, now clearly hostile ships toward the Curious, dissipating against the shield. When the Curious returned fire, he noticed more of the unsettling similarity. “Is the shield holding?” he inquired following several tightly clustered hits to the front of the shield.

As the beam mode operating P-15s bit into the lightly colored cruiser, the ship all but disintegrated. “They will better now. Also, Marines are on board, battered but alive.” Astra said as she woke up from her mindspace trance. “By the stars, it’s them!” the commander exclaimed as she laid eyes on the appearance of the hostile ships.

“Latanos, Curious. We could use strikecraft cover so we can maximize our offense. Can yours help?” the commander asked.

“Curious, Latanos, we have your sensor readings, outfitting Marauders for interception, launch possible in forty seconds. Give us a jump point so we can bring out our guns.”

“Oracle, have the Latanos jump 600 meters positive Y axis, that will let us squeeze the hostiles in a 90 degree pincer.” With the Curious in front and the Latanos above the hostile ships, both the Faira and the Narix could fire their weapons without fear of friendly fire.

“[i]Them?[/i] Who ‘them’?!” the commander confused him, “Nevermind, later.”

“I’m not quite sure we need to bother the good primarch with a jump yet.” Astra said, “Torpedoes, one salvo, MIRV, cruiser. P-15s switch to the corvette.” the commander ordered.

“Shield at 35% charge.” another voice blared. The heavy plasma cannons of the enemy were not something to forget about in the fight. Astra shuddered to think what those ships could do with a beam mode weapon if they could switch. She’d rather they not. “Stop the engines, reroute to shield. Reserve the PDGs for warhead interception, only target the strikecraft with the ASBs.”

The main armaments flared again, shaving off a third of the predicted hull integrity off of the corvette. One of the shots must have went through the fighterbay, because it caused a massive secondary detonation. The small caliber cannons were finding little purchase on the other cruiser though. Two of the torpedoes were also intercepted by the enemy fighters before they split, but once the submunitions of the ohter two were out, there were too many for the four fighters and not numerous defense cannons on the cruiser to pick up.

“Confirmed detonations, by the heavens that is one tough bastard!” Pegsei reported when the cruiser survived both plasma and nuclear onslaught. “Most of its turrets are out though.”

“They’re running!” Niziz then reported, feeling the other ships spooling up their subspace drives.

“Just means they’ll be back with their friends. We either kill them now or run as soon as they jump.” Linsis noted.

“We can [b]not[/b] let them leave!” Astra said almost hysterically. “Not through the node where our civilians are, and under no condition must they ever get a message out! Master gunner, melt the cannons if you have to! Oracle, guide them onto their drives! Comms, tell Latanos to jump to the node ASAP!”

“Siege mode, ma’am?” Pegsei asked uncertainly.

The enemy strikecraft was closing in, but they would have to deal with it. “Authorized.”

All but the frontal shield emitter on the Curious momentarily shut down, and the turrets re-aimed onto where Niziz guessed their jump drives could be located. Then, not only the P-15s, but also the P-5s opened a salvo fire in beam mode. Both of the enemy ships were punctured, and the glows that dotted their hulls as well as their thrusters went dark, leaving only glowing, melted holes where the weapons hit.

“Brace for impact!” The sector controller barked as an enemy bomb found its way through.

“Curious, Latanos. Received, jumping to the node.”

The bomb must have been massive as the ship noticeably shuddered upon impact. Still, it would appear the enemy has been vanquished.

“Commander, should we continue firing to make sure?” Linsis turned to his superior officer. “And what did you mean by ‘them’?”

“Yes, I am interested in armor alloys form the second cruiser, but debris will do just as finely. We do not need to research anything else, it has already been done. Which ties us neatly into ‘them’, and to that I say, ask your superiors. We warned your race, perhaps now they will see it fit to act on it.” the commander said, not really authorized or in the mood to explain. “Good work with the ship, prefect Linsis. It may have been a short fight, but well handled.”

“Err, commander? We can’t quite continue firing, unless you want us to peck them to death with PDGs. The cannons are…” Pegsei said, the TacMap zooming in on the Curious, showing barrels hideously bent out of shape, and one of the P-15 turrets slowly drifting into space where the enemy bomb hit.

“Spare the expense and let them have a few more massive load torpedoes. Leave the remaining strikecraft to the fighters from the Latanos.”

“Ma’am the strikecraft… they jumped. Not to the node, and we didn’t catch their vector.”

“Thank you, commander, the crew deserves a lot of the credit. If the lost turret is made out of something ferromagnetic, our fighters should be able to recover it. Might take several of them, depending on its weight.”

Jump-capable strike craft were something to be worried about. It meant their home ship could be on the other side of a planet, or system for that matter, safe from harm. Worse still, they could be deployed in ambushes unexpectedly on unprotected flanks.
“If the fighters have jumped, that brings us back to what I said before: Do we retreat, or bring the rest of the fleet here? They will be back to avenge their comrades. Question is: how long ‘til that happens?”

“Curious, this is Pike leader. Be advised, enemy strike craft appeared to be equipped with a shield similar to yours. 50 mm had little to no effect, 75 mm got through after six to sixteen rounds, depending on the hostile craft. Worse still, sensors could not acquire aspect lock. It would seem the ships have some form of advanced EM insulation or something. Thermal signature was also fairly low, but enough for the missile to track. Radar tracking was not impaired.” one of the Narix interceptor pilots reported.

“I don’t believe so, XO. I think I know what the interference is. No wonder it feels like a node, it used to be one. My guess is that the ship exploded while exiting, and the window shaved it in half. The energy released in the explosion must have destabilized the local mindspace. By all accounts, the node we came through should be less stable than it is. My guess is that it formed after said event.”

“In any event, the fighters have nowhere to run. Explorer is blockading the only node out on the other side, and the Latanos is on this side. We will need to hunt down those fighters anyway though, if not for the research on their miniaturized FTL then for the research on the shipwreck to be safe. It looks like this ship will only be headed to the yard though.” Astra sighed. “I for one have had enough of being the first ship in, the Studious can pick up it’s slack for a time.” A round of agreeing murmurs went around the C’n’C.

“So the Latanos’ jump engineer was right? Wonder what caused the malfunction. More importantly, how do we avoid having that happening to us, especially if it has the potential to destabilize a jump corridor?”

“That’s assuming the unknowns didn’t do it on purpose or weren’t engaged by the Ancients while traversing said node. I would wager one of those - Either they were hoping to cut themselves off before they were overrun, or…” she shook her head, “All speculation though. The Marines on the other hand gathered some data that might shine some light on the situation. Call them up for debriefing, I and Virgo will be interested to hear your and the Centurion’s evaluation, since we don’t have much experience.”

“Experience in what? Space combat? Neither do we, not counting simulations or exercises.” Linsis said as he sent the summon through his suit. “Oh, not sure whether you’ve been told, but of the twelve simulated, two training and this live defensive engagements, this is the first time I lost less than 50 percent of the crew.”

“I meant marine combat, but now that you mention it, this has been the first time we have engaged in ship to ship combat as well. I will take the statistic as compliment, we did gear up our ships to go against bigger threats and with crew survivability in mind.” she explained, “I’m… sorry. It can not feel good to go into a fight knowing that even in tests the equipment can not save you.”

“You misunderstand, commander. Equipment was fine, as evidenced by the numerous success of my comrades. Your temporary XO usually doesn’t know where his head is at when he’s not the one to start the engagement. The marines are done servicing their equipment and the suit logs and helmet camera feeds have been pulled. They are waiting in the briefing room. Good news is they are all unharmed and have located a functioning airlock, IF we can keep a foothold here.”

“Then let’s not keep them waiting. After that, our shift ends. Perhaps I can persuade you to a sim game? Let’s see what you got, perhaps we can give one another some pointers.” the commander challenged.