| Author |
The End Of It All |
Cold Death
Admiral
Joined: July 24, 2011
Posts: 106
From: Right behind you...
|  Posted: 2012-06-26 09:28
Chapter 1
The Beginning of The End
I have always wondered why this had to happen. If there was some sort of reason for this all. Perhaps there really was a god who predetermined our destiny. But, even if there was such a god, he hasn't been around for a long time. I'm convinced that whatever destiny god had given us, it was now locked into place, as He had abandoned us.
It all began over eight years ago. I was ordered to take my ship, the CSS Disturbance, to the Kaus Borealis system. There, I would attempt to repel unknown enemy forces from capturing Melando Decimus. At the time, the planet was a main port and shipyard for the ICC in the system. Scouting vessels reported a massive armada of ships, but they we lost signal before we could receive the rest of the information.
My ship, which was docked at Kona at the time, was a class M-230 Heavy Cruiser, a fine vessel. We had recently finished an almost year long overhaul of her main systems. After I had received the order I immediately got up to the bridge and sat down in the captain's chair and ordered all my senior officers to the bridge for them to assume their positions.
As we undocked, I had some sort of feeling we would be dealing with the K'luth. They were most active in the Kaus Borealis system, and were usually the dominant force there until recently. After we undocked, we plotted a course to the Borealis Gate, which would take us directly into the system. But even after we exit the gate, there was still quite a distance from the gate to Melando. As we exited the gate, scanners showed nothing of interest in a range of 4000 GU, which was their maximum range. I was convinced there was nothing near us, so I issued the order to jump to Melando Decimus.
The ticking timer of a Jump Drive aligning itself with the target location always made me nervous. I always wondered what we would find after we finish the jump, and if it would mean certain death. As we jumped into hyperspace, there was a sudden and strong jolt which almost made me fall out of my chair. The engineering section reported earlier that one of the stabilizers was malfunctioning, but I did not listen to it as I was pre-occupied thinking about what we would find at the planet. It was a minor inconvenience, it just meant that we would be a little bit shaky during jumps and high sub light speeds.
The helmsman reported we were traveling through hyperspace, and that we would be at Melando in less than 20 seconds. I sat in my chair, waiting for the jump to complete and for us to arrive. Those 20 seconds seemed like 20 hours. Like every other captain, I was afraid for my ship and my crew. There were always casualties during these kinds of skirmishes in space, but this was nothing like those skirmishes.
After the painful wait, we had arrived at Melando. The scanners took a while to kick in, but when they did, what I saw sent shivers up my spine. We were looking at a massive armada of Machine Intelligence ships. Longheads, Legion Cruisers and even Nexus 14. I was so frightened at the sight, I froze on spot. I had no idea what to do, our Jump Drive was still recharging and 3 Legion Cruisers were already heading our way. I ordered to fire all available weapons at the closest ships. It had no effect - they were still coming toward us. I began to panic, something my years of training was suppose to stop from happening. As they began to fire, shields dropped rapidly. We tried to rotate the shields to compensate but it was no use. Soon, all our shields were down and they started shooting at the ships armor. Alarms of hull breaches and depressurizing went off shortly after. We were soon heavily damaged, with most of our weapons almost completely destroyed and one of the aux reactors offline. Energy levels began to drop rapidly, and soon there wasn't enough to recharge weapons or shields.
I needed ideas, and I needed them fast. I decided that drawing power from the engines was our only option to recharging the Jump Drive back up and getting out. I ordered us to stop completely. We were sitting ducks in the middle of space, surrounded by 3 Legion Cruisers. But, that decision saved my crew and my ship. The Jump Drive was recharged, and I ordered an immediate jump back to the Kona gate. We barely managed to escape, hull integrity was at 36% and almost all armor plates were destroyed. Most of our weapons were damaged beyond repair and one of the aux reactors was a lost cause. We barely managed to get enough energy to get into the Kona gate, and back to Dres-Kona, where we would dock at Kona for repairs.
That was our first encounter with the MI at that planet. It was not in their usual tactics to capture foreign to them planets, they would usually prefer to defend their own planets than to capture others. But, they seem to have adopted new tactics. I sent a report to ICC command, asking for further orders.
ICC command was shocked at my report. They ordered me to stay in dock and wait for orders until they gather more intelligence on these attacks. But the truth is, they weren't multiple attacks, they weren't chaotic or disorganized. They were very well planned out and executed, something which was not typical for the MI. Usually their attacks consisted of a lonely Longhead Dreadnaught killing thousands of people on planets, rendering that planet defenseless. But they would usually never go and capture it.
As the months went by and my ship was fully repaired, we received our first bit of information since the attack on Melando. Scouts, who managed to survive, reported that the Kaus Borealis system was under full MI control. That was frightening by itself, but they managed to go even further. We had recently lost contact with scouts in the R33 and Cincinnati systems. Long range scouts reported seeing big movements of MI ships in that area.
We feared the worst, that the MI had taken those systems. But we couldn't know for sure as scouts that went there would never manage to transmit enough data before we would lose contact with them. I was ordered to take the CSS Disturbance to the R33 system and see why so many Scout ships had gone missing there.
As we arrived at the R33 system, we expected to see UGTO ships. But, our scans reported no such ships in range. No ships of any kind, in fact. We ventured deeper and deeper unto the system, until we got into scanner range of Haven and Grace. However, we did not need scanners to confirm what our own eyes saw on the monitors. It was both magnificent and so scary that it sent shivers up everybody's spine. Both Haven and Grace were covered in mass amounts of metal. It was obvious what it was, only to be confirmed by the scans. The planets were being consumed for their bare resources. And, the metal on the surface seemed to be expanding and growing, almost as if it was alive. Scans also reported that the planets had 23% less mass than previously recorded. It was now obvious what we were dealing with. A full scale MI invasion. We feared that after they took those systems, they would come after the ICC. We feared this was how the end begins.
Chapter 2
The Painful Journey
After the first attacks, everyone was left in shock. Entire populations on planets were running and screaming in chaos. I understood them, as I was terrified of what would be to come as well. So far, the MI seemed to be focusing on UGTO planets only. Killing off entire planet populations, after which they would build a skeletal structure over and around the planet, which would later grow as it mines out the planet.
Three months since the MI took over R33, they have been mainly focused on the UGTO planets. Last we heard they had taken the Lalande system.
Early in the morning, I had received a message from ICC Command. Chief Marshal Jeffrey Anders wanted to personally relay my orders. I was still asleep in my cabin as he transmitted a message from the planet we were orbiting. “Good morning, Admiral. Slumber is something we would all want, but these are very dark times and such things may have to be limited. Come on, on your feet.” He said as I got up to respond to his call. “Yes, sir, First Rear Admiral…” At that point the Chief Marshal had interrupted me “Yes, yes admiral, I know who you are. I’m calling you because I wanted to relay your orders personally. Your job will be of immense importance. You are to take the ICS Disturbance to the Procyon constellation in an attempt to disrupt as many MI central operations as you can. It’s obvious that the MI have managed to organize themselves. The question is how they managed to do it, and why now. And, if there is a way to stop it, your orders are to pursue that action until you have either cause chaos in the organization of the MI, or…” a brief moment of silence follow after this statement “Needless to say Admiral, this may or may not be a one way trip. Your mission could decide the faith of all of known space for the future. Good luck, and I hope I will see you after your mission is complete . Chief Marshal Jeffrey Anders out.”.
I stood there, gazing out through my cabin window, realizing this may be a one way trip. But even so, whatever data we can get about the MI in these times is as vital as anything. Sadly, not a lot was known about the Procyon constellation. Many ships which entered it usually never came back. The only visual records of anything there was a garbled old tape which showed an object of great size firing weapons at the ship.
The next day, all personal was ordered to assume their battle stations. A tactical alert was sounded as we approached the Procyon wormhole, which was the only way to the constellation. I saw that all my officers were scared of what we would find there. But, the idea behind this mission was based on the assumption that a lot of MI forces were redeployed to Sagittarius and it’s systems, leaving Procyon vulnerable. As we got closer and closer to the wormhole, we began to feel it’s gravitational power. Soon, we didn’t have to use our engines at all, it was pulling us in. Traveling through a wormhole is something not many captains could say they have done. Even though ICC had developed such technology, the wormholes were usually unstable and did not last more than a few minutes, which was just enough time to get a few ships across, but not for an entire fleet.
As we entered the wormhole, the ship began to shake violently. Shield began to weaken and power conduits on decks began to burst. It felt like the ship was falling apart.
“Status report!” I yelled.
“Sir, we are experiencing extreme gravimetrical forces from the wormhole! We won’t last much longer in here!” yelled back one of my senior officers.
“How much longer could we stay in here?”
“I estimate shield will drop in less than five minutes! We need to get out of here soon, or we won’t have any defenses when we get out!”
He had a point. Our shield were dropping rapidly and soon after the hull began to bend under the sheer forces of the wormhole.
“How much longer until we exit the wormhole?!”
“I don’t know, sir! Scanners are offline, we’re flying blind!”
At that point, I became very scared. Hull breach alarms sounded on decks 5 through 7, and one of our engines was receiving heavy damage. But then, suddenly, the shaking began to slowly stop. There was no longer the screeching metallic sound of the hull bending. We were out of the wormhole.
“All stations, damage and casualties reports!”
“Sir” said Commander Bradley, my first officer “Decks 4 through 8 report heavy casualties, major and minor hull breaches. Hull integrity is at 97%, Shields are down and our armor is very badly damaged”
Luckily, the internal communication systems were still online, and soon after I received a report from engineering
“Admiral, one of the Ion Engines is very badly damaged. We could probably reinforce it with some bracing, but I doubt it will hold for long. Other than that, one of the aux reactors is damaged and is under repairs as we speak. We should have it operational in less than 5 hours. The same can’t be said for the Tachyon Drive though, sir. It overloaded half way through the wormhole, but we should have it back online in a couple of minutes. Engineering crew, out.”
For some time, I sat in my chair wondering how we would proceed. We were very badly damaged, our top speed was less than a third of what it could be, and we were deep into MI territory, at risk of being attacked.
Our situation did indeed seem grim.
“Commander Bradley” said I, “I require your tactical analysis and advice while taking into consideration our current situation.”
There were a couple of minutes of silence, while we were both thinking it over, when an alarm went off, signaling that we had detected a very faint signature of an unknown ship. It was barely in range of our badly damaged scanners, and we couldn’t get a clear reading. I now had a choice. To stay here, and wait to be detected and destroyed, while doing repairs on our own, or to go and explore a faint unknown signal.
I took a minute more to think it over, after which I stood up from my chair.
“Helm, align us to that unknown signal and prepare for a jump.” I ordered the helmsman.
“Aye aye, sir”
We were jumping toward the unknown signal, when we detected a communication coming from it. The ship which sent it was a civilian supply ship, which got pulled into the wormhole in mid jump due its gravitational forces.
When we arrived in scanner range of the ship, we saw an MI Legion Cruiser attack the civilian ship.
“Load all available weapons, charge shields if possible, and pray to God we survive this.” I ordered to the entire crew.
As we got closer and closer, the MI Cruiser seemed to pay little attention to our being there.
“Fire all weapons!”
As I gave that command, the enemy vessel turned right for us, charging its own weaponry. We knew what Legion cruisers were capable of, and with the ship in such a dire condition, survival did not seem likely. And indeed, five minutes into the battle, our shields had dropped to less than 30% and hull integrity was at 84%. I feared that if we stayed, the ICS Disturbance would have been destroyed, along with everyone on it. I decided to take a step which many military tacticians would have called madness. Before we left Kona, some platoons of army units boarded our ship, just in case we needed their services. I ordered them to get into their pods, and prepare to board an MI vessel. Some were shocked, others were excited, but I was nervous. If this desperate attempt had failed, we would have all died, gasping for air in space.
After they launched, we did our best to protect them, drawing as much fire from the cruiser as we could. Hull integrity was dropping and our shields were almost gone completely. For 10 painstaking minutes, we were receiving direct hull damage from the MI ship. I had no other choice, but to give the command for us to jump to a set of random coordinates.
After we had jumped, we received another communication, coming from the MI vessel.
“Admiral, the MI cruiser has been successfully secured and under our full control. When we get back, I’ll make a full report and give it to you personally” said the Major of the attack group which we sent to the MI ship. We later returned to the site where we had to flee, to find the now friendly cruiser approaching us.
We decided to get every piece of useful technology on the MI vessel. There were torpedoes, hull bracings, armor plates, and even an engine to replace our currently broken Ion one.
I, like the rest of the crew, was thankful that we had such good luck. But good luck came at a price. Most of the army units we sent on that ship were killed, and over 200 people on the Disturbance were either dead or missing as well. Actually, when we went back to the initial scene of the battle, the missing crewmembers were there. Their lifeless and emotionless bodies floating in space completely drained of blood. It was a terrible sight. Some bodies were even split in two from flying debris in space.
Needless to say, the first couple of days in MI territory were a disaster. And, it felt as it would turn into an even larger one as we went deeper and deeper into this hostile sector of space. It honestly felt is it was the start of a painful journey.
Chapter 3
Evolution
After the first disaster in the MI infested territories, we were very badly damaged. Most of our main systems were in need of crucial repairs and we had almost no fuel left. The plan when we got in here was that there would be supply platforms, previously scattered around by engineering ships sent here specifically for that purpose, but we weren’t detecting any other friendly signals in the area.
We had no other choice but to go back to the supply ship we had detected earlier and see what we could scavenge from it.
“Admiral, we’re approaching the coordinates of the supply ship, sir.”
“Good. Scan it and tell me if you find anything of value we may use.”
“Aye sir”
Just as we initiated the scans, a communication came through from the supply ship. It sounded like a human voice, but it was heavily muted, almost robotic.
“Cancel the scan on the ship’s systems and focus on life signs.”
“Sir, scans reveal that there are indeed people on that hulk. But, I do not understand how that is possible as their hull is filled with holes. The entire ship is depressurized.”
The entire bridge crew looked at me, awaiting orders.
“Helm, take us closer to that hulk. Close enough so that we can see through one of the breached hull plates.”
“Aye, sir”
As we were closing in, everyone was anxious to see what was creating those awful noises. The sounds that were being made seemed to be just random. The computers didn’t recognize them as any known language.
“Sir, we’re in position”
“Alright, raise the sun screens from the windows.”
As the sun screens rose, what we saw through one of the hull breaches was terrifying. And the noises which it produced did not make it look any better. We were looking at a big pile of metallic components, which seemed to constantly move, as if trying to walk.
“What is that thing?” Commander Bradley exclaimed.
“Scans show it contains 93% metallic components, and…” Lieutenant Olsen tried to explain.
“What is it, Lieutenant?”
“Sir, I’m reading 7% organic components.”
“Can you be more precise?”
“Admiral, according to the scans, the organic components is mostly brain tissue and blood vessels.”
“What!?”
The entire senior crew looked back the Lieutenant with the same amazement as mine.
After some thought, I decided to send a squad to investigate this… contraption on the civilian supply ship hulk. I would also launch in a pod with them, as I wanted to see this for myself.
“Admiral, we are ready for departure” explained one of the specialists on the squad.
“Thank you, Specialist. Depart when ready.”
As we flew away from the ship and closer to the hull breach, through which we observed the monster and where we would ultimately land, we began to hear the creature’s terrible noises. They almost sounded as signs of agony and torture.
Suddenly, there was a strong jolt. We had landed inside the supply ship. As we exited the pod, what we saw was absolutely terrible.
“Oh my god” We all exclaimed.
We were seeing a most disturbing picture. The mechanical abomination had been left on the supply hulk, or so we thought, but after the destruction of the closest ship, it became confused. Not knowing how to grow, it consumed any and everything in reach. It’s shape was jagged and imperfect, it had mechanical arms sticking out of it, almost at random. It had no way of moving, and even with our arrival, it did nothing to notice us as it was struggling to consume more metal to keep itself alive, if you could call it that.
But that wasn’t the scariest part. Not at all, as we got closer and closer, we saw some sort of pink tissue through the imperfections of the machine. They were brains, covered in blood, and hooked up to the metallic beast with cables. Obviously, the MI abomination had tried to consume the crew, but as they are not made of metal, it had no idea what to do with the tissue, so it just kept trying and trying to incorporate it into its own systems.
The most terrible thing of all was that it had some sort of way to produce sounds. But, as the brains were hooked up to the machine, we presumed they were long dead. But we were so terribly wrong. The machine had been keeping the brains alive, not turning off any receptors. This meant only one thing that, they were alive, feeling pain and agony but they could never die as they were being forced alive.
The sounds which were being produced were not just random noises. They had gotten worse and worse. They soon became painfully screeching noises which almost deafened us. Those were the screams of the people, who were able to control the sound producing technology that the mechanical abomination had. It was absolutely terrible.
We wasted no time with our decision, we had to destroy the machine as soon as possible. We got back in our pod, which was only slightly damaged due to the fact there was no pressure and nothing to hit while landing.
After we got back to the ICS Disturbance, I immediately got on to the bridge.
“Arm all available weapons and target that thing.”
“Sir, target has been acquired”
“Fire.”
As I gave the command, the screeching noises stopped. The only sound now was the metallic parts of the machine hitting the outer hull of the bridge after its destruction. I ordered Commander Bradley to take the chair, and I left for my cabin.
The engineering crew reported they had managed to salvage some armor plates, tools and a couple of chemical lasers. They also managed to salvage some hull plates and seal some breaches on decks 5 through 7.
The terror we encountered on that ship will truly never leave my mind. I still always remember that abomination of the sector. The MI were originally confused, unaware of what to do, just like that creature, they just went on random raids of ships and fleet, devastating them all the time. The only thing they needed was organization. They seem to have evolved over the years, organized themselves. They are now aware of the potential in their power, and who knows what that might mean. Sooner or later, they might consume us, our planets, and our ships. This was the next step in their evolution, to conquer.
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27.06.2012- Chapter 1 posted
28.06.2012- Chapter 2 posted
29.06.2012- Chapter 3 posted
I'm trying to make this into a kind of episodic story. Every day, or every other day(it is summer now, and I have plenty of time on my hands) I will try and post another chapter. Obviously, these chapters are not so long, but nowhere is said how long a chapter should be.
[ This Message was edited by: Cold Death on 2012-06-29 03:27 ]
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Bardiche
Chief Marshal
Joined: November 16, 2006
Posts: 1247
| Posted: 2012-06-26 09:30
Bit too much of an info dump, needs more dialogue.
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Fattierob
Vice Admiral
Joined: April 25, 2003
Posts: 4059
| Posted: 2012-06-26 10:12
It looks like your copy pasted this into the forums from something else and it used nonstandard apostraphes. You will need to go through it and fix all the garbelled symbols and add some line breaks.
I would do it for you, but I can't seem to edit your post.
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Cold Death
Admiral
Joined: July 24, 2011
Posts: 106
From: Right behind you...
| Posted: 2012-06-26 10:17
Quote:
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On 2012-06-26 10:12, Fattierob wrote:
It looks like your copy pasted this into the forums from something else and it used nonstandard apostraphes. You will need to go through it and fix all the garbelled symbols and add some line breaks.
I would do it for you, but I can't seem to edit your post.
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Well, I originally wrote this in MS Word. And, I don't really see any symbols.
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Fattierob
Vice Admiral
Joined: April 25, 2003
Posts: 4059
| Posted: 2012-06-26 10:43
Quote:
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On 2012-06-26 10:17, Cold Death wrote:
Well, I originally wrote this in MS Word. And, I don't really see any symbols.
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Quote:
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But, even if there was such a god, he hasn’t been around for a long time. I’m convinced that whatever destiny god had given us, it was now locked into place, as He had abandoned us.
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all I see is "’" in place of the usual " ' "
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Cold Death
Admiral
Joined: July 24, 2011
Posts: 106
From: Right behind you...
| Posted: 2012-06-26 23:02
Quote:
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On 2012-06-26 10:43, Fattierob wrote:
Quote:
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On 2012-06-26 10:17, Cold Death wrote:
Well, I originally wrote this in MS Word. And, I don't really see any symbols.
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Quote:
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But, even if there was such a god, he hasn’t been around for a long time. I’m convinced that whatever destiny god had given us, it was now locked into place, as He had abandoned us.
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all I see is "’" in place of the usual " ' "
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Well, idk why, but when I check out the text with my smartphone on here, they really were symbols. But, on my PC they just seem like a comma on the top. Maybe it's the browser you use? I use Google Chrome, and I have no such text issues...
Edit: Ahh, ok. I checked forums through the DarkSpace client, and I see what you mean. I didn't notice this, I usually view the DS website on google chrome... Ok, I'll see what I can do about fixing them up.
Edit2: Well, I went through and fixed them all up. Thank you for pointing this out, I may have to write these in something else..
[ This Message was edited by: Cold Death on 2012-06-26 23:08 ]
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Blackjack [DBL]
Grand Admiral
Faster than Light
Joined: February 25, 2011
Posts: 344
From: The land of venomous reptiles.
| Posted: 2012-06-27 06:04
The lack of paragraphs made it a bit of a chore to read but interesting premise. I would advise double spacing the existing ones and make more paragraphs.
Just a bit of a nitpick, civilian and converted civilian ships are designated C.S.S, the dedicated warships are I.C.S.
[ This Message was edited by: Loyalty *TO* on 2012-06-27 06:05 ]
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Names I used: Da Bes Loser, Perseverance, Loyalty.
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