| Author |
The Luyten Shift |
Doran
Chief Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 29, 2003
Posts: 4032
From: The Gideon Unit
|  Posted: 2008-01-07 16:15
Looking back, I suppose that's how they all start. Formal dinners, committee meetings, schmoozing with dignitaries and heads of state. A facade of civility, best foot forward and all that, but the lines are drawn, and those lines are all to often literal. Tension builds a charge on both sides, the equation destabilizes, and all it takes is an idle boast, an insult intended or perceived, a simple catalyst, a scathing remark. Then, a flash, a bang, and all that kinetic energy is free, released with nowhere to go but onwards and outwards, till its spent. As is often the case in the aftermath, maps are often redrawn, but that does not necessarily reflect a change in territory. The battle of Luyten was no exception.
The stage was set for something big. The ICC and the UGTO had both been quietly increasing their fleets in the system, in full view of each other. A cruiser here, a pair of destroyers there. Another day, another dreadnought, another recon scout makes a high-speed pass by a planet. Every day for a month more ships trickled in.
The ICC held the position of strength, the formidable Mycopia Cluster, four rocky moons orbiting the large icy planet that gives the cluster its name. True to their nature, ICC adapted a defensive posture within the cluster, huge orbital stations served close point defense around Mycopia itself, the moons bristled with defense bases and fighter bases, sensor arrays on the ground pulsed out tetra-joules of electromagnetic energy and ship-borne interdictors ensured no hostile ship could get close without a fight.
The UGTO for part still had control over a pair of barren planets orbiting Luyten's primary star, but these were little more than glorified supply depots or way stations. The bulk of their fleet camped out in the midst of an asteroid field deep with in the nebula situated 'eastward' relative to the galactic center, and therefor slightly up-spin against the clockwise rotation of the galaxy itself. Although it was a more ethereal fortress than Mycopia, the background radiation in the vast cloud of hydrogen gas interfered with sensors enough that all but the largest ships in the UGTO fleet were all but invisible to ICC observers.
Some historians would later say the UGTO were the aggressors in the coming battle if, in hindsight, they were not the largest threat. This statement is true enough, a sizable UGTO force having just recently driven the alien K'luth out of Luyten, inadvertently opening a window for the ICC to capture the Mycopia Cluster. Nothing of the K'luth had been seen in system in the past month, but historians debate if perhaps a few still hiding there, their cloaking devices certainly would have given them a front row seat for what would unfold, but by large it was agreed that the K'luth had bigger problems to address.
January 6, 2348 began in Luyten as had the day before, but the uneasy peace between the amassed warships would not long endure. Theories abound as to exactly what happened and how, but explanations in that regard are a matter for scientists, not historians such as myself. What unfolded follows thus: space, for the lack of a better word, vomited. Something very large blew through Luyten, east to west, at an incredible speed. A considerable swath of the nebula was rippling with wake of whatever had passed, and a trail of ionized gas from the nebula drew a glowing red line past the ICC fleet at Mycopia. Just west from Mycopia the trail ended spectacularly, as a crimson shock wave coalesced, flared to incandescence and vanished. The effect was similar to when a ship ends a jump at faster than light speeds and rapidly decelerates through tachyon space, but this was quite unlike anything ever seen in the human quadrant of the galaxy, not even the anti-matter drives on K'luth ships were known to do this.
At this point, both sides snapped into action, each believing the other had fired some super weapon, or somehow fitted one of their ships with a stolen K'luth cloaking device. Regardles the battled was joined. ICC ships moved away from their cluster towards the nebula, UGTO ships jumped in to the edge of the ICC's interdiction field, where upon both side began exchanging long range fire as the battle lines rotated and danced across the system. Within hours the many ships, and even the battle lines themselves ceased to exist, as the battle dissolved into a chaotic melee at close range. At this point it is not enough to say they merely fought, this was a brawl, a no holds barred, drop down, drag out, slugging match. Throughout the day the battle pulsed, one side would seem to gain an upper hand, only to fall back. Intense combat raged, broken only as each fleet retreated to resupply, a brief respite before they were back at each other's throats.
Twelve hours later, the arena of the Luyten system was littered with wreckage and blackened shells of formerly space-worthy ships of the line lay strewn about. The ICC and UGTO forces were now at a fraction of the size they were before all this started, and were even now fading back to their respective havens to regroup and lick their many wounds. Neither would get there. Space, it seemed, had vomited again. A great dark shadow passed over the Luyten system, blotting out distant stars, the local stars of Luyten 726-8 A and Luyten 726-8 B, the planets within the system, and even the ships themsleves found they could no longer see each other, despite their proximity. Yet as suddenly as it had come, the inky blackness was gone, and the entire system of Luyten was no longer where it once was. Luyten now resided much closer to its nearest neighbor, the star system of BD+4344 and was now south south-east of BD+4344 (again, relative to the galactic center) rather than south west.
The human ships hung there in space, stunned by having moved (or been moved) such a vast distance in little more than the blink of an eye. As they caught their collective breath, space turned itself inside out for a third time that day. From points all around the dazed vessels, tachyon shock waves collapsed into singularities, each one disgorging a massive ship, sleek yet blunt-nosed, fins bent back in mathematically beautiful arcs, cold blue light emanating from gleaming green hulls reflecting light off the suns.
But here is where this account of the Battle of Luyten ends. As the newcomers fell upon the human fleets, a few of the scout ships to keep an eye on their opposition made panicked jump into the relative safety of tachyon space and returned to their respective territories to tell the tale. At the time it was supposed that no battle damaged ship Luyten, either of the ICC or of the UGTO, survived. This supposition later proved its factuality a week later when sensor scouts, deployed under government inquiries, failed to find evidence that there had even been a battle in the first place.
Historically speaking, something of great importance happened that day in the Luyten system. The rest, as I said, is for the scientists to determine.
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Coeus
Grand Admiral
Sundered Weimeriners
Joined: March 22, 2006
Posts: 2815
From: Philly
| Posted: 2008-01-07 17:26
Damnit Doran... gonna make me write a new fanfic to reclaim my title aren'tcha 
Nice brother.
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Do I really look like a guy with a plan?
'I'm gonna go crazy, and I'm taking you with me!'
ICC Security Council Chief Enforcer
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Grimith
Grand Admiral
Templar Knights
Joined: August 09, 2003
Posts: 836
From: Your local future farm.
| Posted: 2008-01-08 17:01
Now that's a pretty sweet explanation for why I logged in today and found Luyten moved off into its own little realm and Epsilon Caranie returned to the playing field. Cool, Doran.
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2008-01-08 17:02
Awesome !
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Little Pet Slinki
Admiral
Joined: April 16, 2006
Posts: 836
From: United Kingdom, South West.
| Posted: 2008-01-08 17:36
+20 Epic Points.
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