[b][i]One day after alliance formation[/i][/b]

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“NSS Ira, ECR Durable. requesting permission to traverse the Opportunity - Naris jump node. Sending the dispatch orders for confirmation now.” Lieutenant Val, CO of the cruiser in question, hailed the massive ship parked at the jump node. “Ugly boats, aren’t they? At least the things they call cruisers have a bit of color.” her XO, Specialist Lindos shot from her position helming the ship. “Aye. I hear the girls at Vanguard are calling all Narix ships ‘flattops’. When you see it, it makes sense.”

“How did that ship pass into production?” the Ira’s comms officer wondered out loud. “It looks like something my son would paint.” before sending the transmitted orders for Zorea’s approval.

“Durable, this is the Ira. Cleared to proceed, and welcome to Naris.”

“Copy Ira, we will enter the jump in T-60. Whom do we report to on the other side? I’m told to expect an escort.” Val asked, not yet being given a name of the frigate that was to be their shadow for the duration of their stay. Whatever the name, she could not believe how ugly the ship class was. It looked like somebody kicked it in the chin.

“Received, Durable. The NSS Privateer will be waiting for you on the other side.”

[b][i]Naris[/i][/b]

“ECR Durable, this is the NSS Privateer, adept Lindelt speaking. We’re here to be your guide, as well as make sure you don’t get lost and stumble somewhere you’re not meant to be. Do you need to dock first, or do you wish to start right away?”

“Privateer, Durable. We will be ready to go in ten minutes once our drives cycle. We’ll start our scan here while we wait, no sense wasting time.” Val said, turning around in her seat to point a thumb up to the leader of the oracle team on board. “Did anybody bring a pack of cards?” She grumbled to herself, not noticing her finger still on the transmission control.

“I’ve one right here if you feel like coming aboard to get it. Otherwise, I humbly suggest you handle internal requisition orders on a different frequency.” Lindelt quipped dryly, several chuckling crewmen heard in the background. Who knew the presence of Faira could boost morale?

“EHM! Sorry Privateer, we are commencing our scans now!” Val said a bit quicker and in a higher pitch, earning a chuckle from her XO as well. Fifteen minutes later the scan in the area was completed. “Privateer, Durable. We are sending over a travel plan for your revision. One of the stops takes us to the moon you use as a training base, is that alright by you? We’ll only need four jumps to complete the scan that way, otherwise we will have to do one more, as highlighted by route B.”

“Not an issue, Durable. Proceed according to plan one.” Ignis’ orbit was kind to them, the faira would mostly see a barren desert. Had the moon been 35 degrees ahead, the Durable would’ve been right over the main armor R&D compound. They might still get a glimpse of something, weather on that side of the moon was clear and the base was s hot spot compared to the rest of it. He could now see why the Faira were sent here. Scanning the entire system in four jumps was truly impressive. “We’re ready to jump when you are.”


“Proceed to point two. We’ll wait with the scan until you catch up, just in case something comes up.” Val said, terminating the channel. “Helm, initiate jump. Engineering, best speed, let’s tear their hides.” she said, the grin obvious in her tone.

Waiting for the Faira to jump, the Privateer arrived about three seconds later. “How long did you say your ship needs before it can jump again? Ten minutes, or shorter now? Hold up, what was that, sensors?”

A tiny jump window appeared some 600 meters off the two ships. Nothing happened for ten seconds, then a tiny vessel, about the size of one of the discovery’s crew modules, painted olive green and sporting a massive spherical pod, clearly containing cameras.

“Oh what in the, really?” Lindus hissed, forgetting to switch off the comms, “Who let someone like that have a jump capable ship? Get red section into the tubes and wave them off.”

“Privateer, Durable. Shall we engage EW suite?” Val asked, her tone telling that she has been briefed on what to expect.

“Negative, Durable, hold. Red section, clear for launch.”

Two Marauders shot out form the launch tubes at the frigate’s chin, moving closer to the journalists’ ship, telling them off on a different channel.

“One of the [i]joys[/i] of a free state.” Lindelt spat. “Self-professed truthseekers. Note that emblem on their ventral hull. This particular group is known for seeing military black projects in everything. Quite the read, one surely can’t doubt their vivid imaginations. Sadly, they have the right to be here, as we are in a region of space accessible to public.”

One of the fighter pilots joined the conversation. “Sir, they are adamant in their requests to speak with the Faira, no doubt about to ask when they are planning a takeover of our government or somesuch. Do we get more persuasive or let them play sixteen questions?”

“Up to you lieutenant. Fancy meeting our little intruders?” Lindelt asked the faira CO.

“They’ll be sorely disappointed, but I don’t see the harm. We do not like them, yes?” Val asked, wanting to be sure.

“Don’t let me tell you what to think.”

“Then yes, let us form an opinion.”

The pilot sighed. “Now this is something new.” she logged off the channel to talk to the invading journalists before logging back. “I’m bouncing their comms off my fighter to you, lieutenant. You may speak to them through me.”

“Hello, Faira. What’s the reason for your visit?” a new, slightly noisy voice came over.

“ECR Durable to private ship, this is a military channel. Unless you have an emergency, please vacate the frequency.” Val said in a flat and ever so slightly arrogant tone of voice.

“What’s your rush, nothing bad is going to happen here, the First is keeping order, what’s a few questions do? Are you really here just to search for subspace nodes, or is there something more to it? The people want to know the truth!”

“We are here with the knowledge and approval of Narix authorities and command. If you want more information request it on proper channels.”

“We didn’t scramble here to hear their side. We came to hear what you have to say about it. Do you treat your journalists the same way, or is there more to your silence?”

Patching back to the Privateer, Val has had enough: “Would even allowing them to follow us be enough or are they on a hate trip?” 

“Damn it, lieutenant, I’m good, but I’m no moron charmer. I don’t know what they’re on, but whatever it is, they’ve done too much of it. Unless you let them stare over your shoulder the entire time, I doubt they’ll be happy.” He knew what he was talking about, his colleagues at the NSS Starlight had the misfortune of having them sent on board. “Red section, feed them a polite story and send them home.”

The small ship turned and jumped away with considerable delay and the pilots turned to land. “Sorry about that, Durable. Twenty years earlier, civilians weren’t even allowed to own spacecraft. Good times. Hope they didn’t leave too big of a stain on our species reputation. Where are you on those scans, anything interesting?”

“Negative Privateer, both on the image and on the scans. We are almost there, couple more minutes. Does this happen often? I can not imagine Admiral Cygnus not giving them a few words.” Val hinted.

“Only whenever we forge an alliance with another intelligent species. Outside of that, they mostly stay on the ground or near Ignis. And I doubt few choice words are going to cut it.” It was clear Lindelt did not know the Faira admiral. “Some of these people got monthlong public service sentences for trespassing private or state property, invasions of privacy, hearsay, you name it. Apparently, spending 16 hours a day cleaning sewers for a month isn’t enough to make one reconsider their ways. But I suppose it could be worse. Rather deal with them than a Nightmare battlegroup. Would you happen to know anything about the derelict our brothers and sisters in arms found together? We’ve seen pictures, but nothing about what they found inside. Any useful tech or something of that sort?”

“They should be sent to help us survey the nebula. If anything can give you ‘nightmares’, that place can. Shield fails, you cook. Navigation fails, you’re lost forever. And don’t get me to the fact that the nebula gas conducts sound. It is one thing to have audio alarms loaded for when the ship’s weapons are firing, it’s another to hear a P-15 tear through something. I swear that weapon sounds like a child screaming.“ Val hinted at what the poor sods in the fifth fleet were getting into. “Hold on, let me share our fleetnet to your ship…”

[b][i]Faira FleetNet News[/i][/b]

[i]Reverse engineering the Great War derelicts[/i]
The progress on reverse engineering the technologies of the Unknown race falls behind plan with the hunt for Ancient fighters still being conducted in Terminus, however, several of new technologies are already being reverse engineered and tested.
The first technology encountered by the Marine group were nanofluid conductors. While nanotechnology is employed by our fabricators, manufacturing the nanobatteries necessary for the power storing capabilities has thus far turned difficult.
The armor materials employed by the Unknowns are stronger than what either the Faira or Narix have developed. The material appears to be a non-magnetic nano-engineered crystalline growth with interlinked crystal grids. The material is extremely resistant to kinetic force and moderately resistant to heat and other radiation. The production method thus far eludes us, but our fabricators were able to replicate the crystalline matrix from native materials. With other advances suggested to our armor technologies, we are looking at doubling the survivability rate of our next generation of ships compared to current hardware.
It has proven difficult to hunt down the Nightmare fighters in such a manner that doesn’t result in their total destruction. The main appeal to the admiralty appears to be their miniature jump drives.

“Everything else is beyond my clearance. Did you see the records of that fight though? That little cruiser the Ancients brought could stand up to almost as much as the Corvette. No doubt they are looking into it’s armor as well. There’s also been a lot of hushes in the fleets about the computer systems of the Unknown derelict.”

“Yes, the Lilith class, right? At least it’s easy to tell from its flimsier sibling. Though if a shielded ship managed to get most of its turrets busted, we might be looking at a very grim future. With the volume of fire we can put out, we may be able to do the same to them, but as far as actually crippling the ship an any way, I’m afraid we’ve wasted our resources on the Privateer class. What bothers me is that we haven’t seen any more of them yet. A species so advanced, you’d think they would have caught wind of three of their ships getting destroyed and came to see what happened, but there’s nothing. Why? Think this lance got isolated when the node collapsed?”

“Well, the commander busted her ship trying to ensure they didn’t escape to tell the tale. Perhaps she succeeded and the rest do not know. Or, as we shall soon enough see, maybe there aren’t any more of them left here and they have no way to get to this area of space. We’ll be told when we need to. Anyway, it doesn’t seem the Lilith class is a standard on armor toughness, so there’s that. And considering the superdestroyer we found on our… we found, we are lucky their vessels are not shielded. Now that, that would be a bother. Ready to proceed to point three.”

“I know they attacked first and all, but still, the thought of possibly driving a species extinct… Confirmed, see you at point three.” Lindelt finished, the Privateer departing.

“Us or them, Adept. Us or them. Helm, engage the drive.” Val ordered and the Durable sunk again into the red and white vortex. As they Emerged at point three, Naris prime and it’s Marine filled moon came to view. “Oy, the planet looks like… a wound gone bad.” the XO frowned as she looked at the visualization. “Aye, so much brown, looks like rust.” Val agreed readily. “Any areas you want us to avoid, Adept?”

“The other side of the moon.” He didn’t specify further, as he knew very little himself. “Nothing secret on the - on Naris.”

“We’re concerned about space, Adept. If there is a Jump node close to the surface of the moon, let the Ancients come, more wreckage for us to sift through.” Val said with a smirk.

“In that case, no. Though if what I’ve been told is true and a large number of people in one place can be detrimental to you, you might want to avoid the New Frontiers.” the Privateer sent the coordinates of the orbital complex of stations, berths and ships at Naris high orbit. “And the asteroid belts at the outer edge of the system are full of various mining and security outposts once we get there. Where security is concerned, just the first gas giant. Pardon my curiosity, but how does this ability of yours work?”

“Imagine a parallel universe running along what you would perceive as Normal space.” One of the Oracles answered the question, “Normally inaccessible, due to it’s hostile and violent nature. Take the worst explosion you have ever seen, multiply it by ten and throw in gale force winds. That’s the standard. Now, gravity has a stabilizing effect on that bundle of mess. If one is looking for a ship, you would be trying to look for a slightly calmer spot in the noise. A jump node would, translated to geometry, be basically a tornado in permanent space, usually between two objects of high gravity, stars or gas giants. Same effect on a smaller scale is temporarily generated by in intrasystem jump drive, hence how we are able to tell where a ship is jumping. The Tornado creates a tunnel of relative calm that is safe to travel through, you can even see it on the appearance of the jump corridor. Do not worry about the station or the belt, they are merely a footnotes in what we can sense, if we can sense them at all. That would be more of a speciality for our Marines, but we are nowhere near close enough for their ranges.”

“The Gas giant is actually an object of high concern. If you can give us precise point and a spherical radius or even tighter fit, we can exclude the smallest zone. Not that we would be able to tell anything about it other than ‘there’s something there’, to which you basically just admitted, but eh.” Val noted, “Generally the Oracle needs to have felt a ship class at least several times to distinguish it from the others.”

“You’ll be told what lies there, sooner or later. The gist of it, anyway. Low-ranking commoners like you and I are rarely shown the full picture.” The Durable would then receive three sets of coordinates and their given radii. “Everywhere else is a go. We are certain there are no nodes at those coordinates. The orbit of the gas giant Artorias houses the main shipyards of the Narix Republic. If there was a node, no intrasystem travel could be achieved in a 2500 meter radius around it with Narix drives.”

“That is interesting. I’m certain the engineers in the OEP will figure that one out. Might be something connected to the fact our drives use different channels.” Val shrugged. Some time after the scan of the area finished. “Alright, next one on the list. Will your drive need a cooldown?” the Faira asked.

“As far as intrasystem travel is concerned, the Privateer can jump seven times in a row without suffering any damage to the drives. We’re ready to jump.”

“Alright, one more scan and we’re out of your antennae. Hair. Whatever.” Val said, nodding to the XO to take them through. The last point would take them on a polar orbit perpendicular to Naris’ ecliptic, with their point of emergence right on ‘top’ of the star. “They all look so tiny from up here!” Val smirked, zooming in on the planets with the ship’s telescope, the large celestial bodies little more than specks of light.

“Dead end so far, I assume?” he guessed by the Faira silence. “Here’s hoping for number four, but I’m skeptical. No disrespect to you abilities, but we’ve been over this system at least two times. Granted, eighty years ago and with much worse equipment.”

“Wait a minute. What is…?” the sensors officer perked up in his seat. Reorienting one of the ship’s telescopes at the small object, it revealed a probe. “That wasn’t there eighty years ago.”

“Durable, can you see it? Vector one-three-three inc six eight, range eight thousand.”

“Yes. What is that? It’s moving insanely fast, must have come from outside the system.” Val noted as she took a look at the instruments. “It’s so tiny the Oracles can barely sense it, but with all our minds put together, we just might be able to hold the ship together long enough to jump close enough to make a grab for it, should we?” The Faira asked, deferring to the owners of the system.

“Go get it if you can, lieutenant, but don’t do anything too dangerous. I don’t think it’s ours, I don’t recognise the shape. And given it’s speed, i don’t think it possibly could’ve been launched from this system. Can you take it on board, or should we clear some space? Our cargo bay is mostly empty, you’d have a big margin for error if you jumped it there.”

“I don’t think we can jump it here, we’ll have to go and get it ourselves. Do you want anyone on board for that? It is going to be a bit of a bumpy ride though, fair warning.” the Lieutenant said, her tone slightly challenging, but with an undertone of worry.

“Scrambling two marine technicians to help secure it.” Lindelt sent. “Approach the port side docking ring that matches yours, 5 or 15 meters diameter. We’ll turn the ship to make the airlock face you.”

At the airlock, the two engineers waited for the ships to dock, large bags with various tools at their feet and thruster packs attached to their suits. “Away team standing by.”

“Pressure matched, you’re good to go.” Val said, waiting for the Narix team in the cargo bay. The iris of the airlock opened. She was a bit disappointed that the Patrol fleet got the short end of the stick with the OEP, but now her curiosity was about to be vindicated. Giving the two technicians a salute, she beckoned them to follow. “Hope you brought magboots and pressure suits, we’ll be receiving the object here. Buckle up, there are marine positions here.” she said, taking one of the seats herself, intending to stay with the guests.

The engineers jogged onto the Durable with their stuff slung over their shoulders and arms across their chests in a salute. “Both aboard, suits check, boots check.” the marines secured their equipment in place and took their seats as instructed. Locking their feet to the floor and palms to the harness, they both locked the joints of their suits to keep them as stable as possible.

“Set.”

“Set!”

“How bad is it going to be, sir?” one asked with curiosity rather than worry, although the way the Faira told them to buckle up was a good indication.

“I don’t know, from experience, something like 7 to 9 Gs. But we have a bunch of Oracles to guide us and we were given some extra personnel to make the jumps in case the drive failed for whatever reason so we would finish the job. Between them, even this far out of the system they should be able to smoothen the jump. Here goes!” she said as the chime came in. The ship could be felt accelerating slightly before it sank into the jump window. It started as a bump here and there, but as they went further out of the system, it took a second to go from vibrations through shaking to hits as if the ship crashed into another. Finally with a massive kick, the ship emerged back to normal space. “Ow.” Val groaned, her antennae crushed when her head was rattled around in the helmet. “All crew, report!”

“You know what? I take it all back. No offense, lieutenant, but I no longer feel bad for getting my OEP application denied.” the younger engineer hissed through his teeth as he stood up, leaning against a wall. “Ow. Suit reporting force trauma all over. Nothing but bruises though.”

“Same here. Tools seemed to live to tell the tale.” the other reported. “All jumps can’t be this bad, can they?”

“No. Our ride gets better the stronger gravity field we are in. You would barely feel we jumped in the inner star system. Oracle, where are we in relation to the object?” the CO asked, having received the positive report from the rest of the crew.

“We’re approaching now, set up for zero-g zero-atmo.”

Checking her seals over, she locked her boots to the ground and looked at the Narix technicians in question.

Fastening the toolkits to their suits so they didn’t float off, the engineers switched to closed-circuit breathing, engaged their magboots and  gave the lieutenant thumbs up in silence, eager to see what the unknown object held. Finally they would get to see something first instead of the Fifth, and they didn’t have to travel unfathomable distances to do so. And hopefully, they wouldn’t have to fight an ancient species over it either.

The airlock opened after the bay depressurized again, and as the cruiser rose, the object gently floated inside. Raising her arm, the Lieutenant pointed an omni sensor installed in her palm on the object, revealing which branch she came from to command. “It’s… primitive, by any standard. The tech base seems closer to yours than ours, what tech there is, I am mostly guessing form material compositions. There is a large concentration of gold on one point, can you see it?” the LT asked, reading further into the scans.

“What’s this? Year 3675?”

“Pretty much spot on. I think I see the gold.” he pointed to a disc at the side of the craft. “It looks like there are some symbols, but it’s, well, eroded. Maybe it passed through a nebula, or a dust cloud? I can’t make any of it out. Think it still has power? Can’t see any obvious solar panels.”

“This looks like cameras.” the engineer pointed to an assembly mounted on an arm. “Like someone taped a museum to a dish and sent it to space.” he came upon some letters that weren’t worn beyond recognition. “Definitely not ours. And it doesn’t look like any other debris we’ve found, Nightmare or Ancient.”

“Oi, the gold plate is loose. Should I take it off, or do we leave that for later?”

“There’s hardly any propulsion, just maneuvering thrusters really! How did it get here in the time it had in this universe?” Val groaned, unable to crack the mystery, “Navigation, plot the reverse trajectory of the object, see where it meets the closest star, please.” She asked, wanting to see if the Narix didn’t have neighbors. “Be careful. I don’t think there could be anything as sophisticated as a boobytrap on this piece of recyclable waste, but let’s not get cut on something sharp with it’s crude manufacturing...” Val snorted, approaching the object herself.

“Steady as she goes.” he whispered, removing the plaque and leaving it floating beside him. “What do we have here? Lieutenant, does this look at all familiar to you?” he pulled out a golden disc with circular grooves on its face. Upon closer examination, one could see it was actually a spiral, not rings. “There’s another one in there.” he handed the strange disc to the lieutenant. “More of those glyphs, letters, maybe.” he pointed at the center of the disc.

“Huh… there are some pictograms on it, a message perhaps?” Val said, examining the discs. “Should we bother trying to guess what it’s for, or do we just hop on home, give it to the blackyard workers to brain over and go do something fun… huh.” She said as she noticed the engraving matched the looks of a part of the machine. “I think it goes in here. It has no power though and I am a bit skeptical about plugging it in without a thorough documentation on how it works.” she frowned.

“So what now, pack it neatly, finish the survey and drop it off at the Opportunity outpost for someone smarter to lose sleep over? Weird they put all of this extra mass on but neglected to include schematics.”

“You think it might be some kind of a message? Something like “We live here, and this is how to kill us, come quick?” Val snorted. “I am wondering whether we can pack it neatly enough to survive a jump anyway. This thing looks like it would disintegrate if you move around it too quick.”

“CO? I’ve plotted the course. As it is, it would have intersected with a star some hundred fifty thousand years ago.”

“Come again Navigation? My instruments are telling me this is five hundred years old tops.” Val said, surprise on her face.

“I’ve no intent on eradicating a species, but to each their own.” the engineer quipped, “No, I am more interested in what wire connects to what capacitor and for what reason. Since this thing doesn’t have any proper propulsion, it couldn’t have left a stable orbit accidentally. That leads me to think it was supposed to be far away from its point of origin. And if you’re sending something this far out someone may indeed find it one day. Unless religious people are launching satellites now. Can’t speak for other species, but our freaks believe they are alone in the universe.”

“Shows what they know. Hey, lieutenant? What about the immobilizing foam they told us about? Can’t you use that to keep it in one piece during transport?”

“Or we could wait until we get back to the Privateer by sublight means and they could tow you to the node. This ship’s small enough to allow that. If that’s the case, we might need that deck of cards.”

“Hold, on, I am still trying to process the impossibility of this object.” Val snorted. “Uh, yeah, the foam would fix it, but the vibrations are still an issue. Engineering, any ideas?”

“We could shunt all coolant into the engines and haul ass into the system on sublight until it is safe to travel through FTL. Depending on how much air the Narix have, we’d need most of the other systems off to have enough sink to cool the jets. We’ll need about eight hours.”

“Right, that’ll be a problem, we’ve about 54 minutes of air left.”

“I can give you life support if you can go without gravity and navigation.”

“Braining our way home? I like the sound of that. Been a long time since anyone flown one of these things by the sticks but let’s go, there’s nothing here we can possibly crash into.” Val said and popped her fingers. “Okay, let’s bolt this thing down and foam it so it stays in one place as we accelerate. Then you are invited to the bridge gentlemen.” Val grinned, checking into a tool locker and bringing out a few pieces of flat iridium to hold down to the legs of the alien probe and a welder to fix it to the floor.

“If you’re worried about us wasting too much air, the consumption drops by a certain margin when we sleep. If we can connect our suits directly to an air tank good enough to last a few hours, it’d do. Can’t believe I’m suggesting a nap to an alien superior officer as means of conserving air. That, or any way to refill would do.”

“We can gather up the air before we go. Shame, I wanted to drive.“ Val pouted.

[b][i]Several agonizingly long hours later[/i][/b]

After the very short in distance but very long in time trek through normal space and nearly melting the engines, they reached well into the system to jump safely, and emerged by the Privateer’s starboard. “Privateer, Durable. We’re ready to hand over the object and your crew. And to go for a recharge.” Val grunted.

“Durable, Privateer. Received, standing by to transfer crew and cargo, port side airlock. What is it you’ve found? We’ve logged the discovery with command, anything we should be aware of before getting it on board?” He couldn’t wait to see the probe, even if he wasn’t particularly good when it came to engineering. “Your guess, was the time at least worth it?”

“Disappointment.” Val snickered, “There is more interesting on how the thing got here rather than on the thing itself. You’ll see for yourself. Most important thing though, we detected no jump node, and I received communique that the fifth fleet found none in Exodus either. That leaves the Nebula. I don’t know whether to wish for one to be there or not to.”

“Damn, what a crap day.” First journalists a now this. There better be some good news too, however insignificant. “At least you don’t have a set lifespan. Is it at least in decent condition, or just scrap for salvage?”

“It’s surprisingly intact for being hundreds of years old. We’ll see what the brainiacs figure out, We are ready to depart for Opportunity, our mission objectives are complete.” Val said, sounding tired.