Empires II: Dark Messiah

I was thinking of the story line for Empires II (If we ever do such a thing) and decided to write it in story format. This takes place roughly 75 years after current Empires time. Ill post more as I see fit.

Empires II: Dark Messiah

The deck lurched upward amidst a brilliant eruption of sparks and flame, dozens of tiny explosions hurling charred plastic and metal across the embattled room as circuitry gave way to the unexpected influx of energy coinciding with unintended vibrations. The acrid smell of burnt wiring and scotched flesh breathed life into the already heavy clouds of smoke and ash bellowing from not only consoles and access panels but from ventilation shafts as well, its normally pale hue set ablaze by the red warning lights dancing feverishly overhead in a desperate attempt to warn the crew of some cataclysmic event. Around the large room a dozen men and women worked just as hard to correct what ever problem the lights told of, some manning their posts, some replacing fallen comrades, and others, relatively new to the bridge, arriving to douse flames and repair damaged circuits. With precision and skill each man and women went about their tasks, moving quickly to keep the inky darkness of space from flooding their vessel and ending all of their lives.

"That’s it!" a wounded Lt. shouted from a flickering engineering station, "They've blown out the disrupter array. Weapons offline!"

Captain Matthew Patterson swore under his breath. Without the disrupter array the only method to get through his opponents defenses was gone, any missiles he launched would be cut to ribbons by the network of rapid firing guns planted across a starship known collectively as the “defense grid.” Torpedoes moved fast enough to avoid the grid but were inaccurate at best, more like lighting a barrel of explosives and hurling it at your enemy.

"Captain" Lt. Masterson, the young communications officer recently assigned to Patterson and his crew, said with fear and apprehension, "It’s the Borodin they wish to discuss our surrender."

Patterson's dirty face twisted into a medley of surprised anger, "Response?" He asked in disbelief, "Aft torpedoes! FIRE!"

Outside the battered Heavy Cruiser, a half dozen shimmering specks of light leapt forth into the endless blackness of space, each representing a poorly guided, anti-matter tipped, projectile. Caught off guard by the Jekotian Star Ship Ramman's unconventional response to its demand for surrender, the Imperial Star Ship Borodin was slow to respond but, in light of the torpedoes poor guidance, managed to evade all but one of the offending projectiles.

"Direct hit!" squealed the new weapon's officer, his predecessor still lying motionless on the floor, a 5 inch shard of steel protruding from his chest. "Minimal damage though,"

"There coming about" offered the woman at the remaining science station.

Patterson didn’t recognizer her but thought it best to save that for a later date. "What’s the status of the GSW?" He bellowed instead.

The response, this time from his as yet unscathed first officer, was quick in coming. "Its in working order Matt but without the weapons array we cant channel enough power to get her moving."

Nearly an entire heart beat passed before the Captain, his plan unfolding within his head as he moved, reached the navigation console and began barking out orders. "Divert the Life support array to the GSW. If this doesn’t work we won’t need it anyway."

Commander Bruce acknowledged his superior's orders with a nod and busily made the necessary computations to retool the life support's power distribution grid to feed the Gravitational Space Warping drive that allowed for faster than light travel. Of course without the grid feeding the Ramman's hundreds of air reprocessing, water filtering, food processing, heating and cooling units, and the countless other subsystems that fell under life support, the crew would soon be taking shorter breaths and shivering in the cold. Without heating units people serving in the outer portions of the ship would freeze to death within only a couple hours, those within the refractory sections near the engine core would bake in less than one.

“I need a course set” Patterson explained hurriedly, leaning over the bulky navigation console, “To within 25 meters of the Borodin at maximum light speed.”

The Lt. Commander at the station blinked a couple of times in disbelief, “Meters Sir?”

The Captain nodded, “Meters. We have to get under their missile defense perimeter. Let me know when you’ve got it. Monroe!” He said now turning to find his communications officer briefly pausing from processing damage, injury and readiness reports, to look his direction. “Get everyone out of the forward sections, sound collision alarms.”

He too, with a nod, acknowledged his superior’s commands and began to execute them without question. Patterson had a good crew, had being the key word after this disastrous encounter.

Damnit Brandy, what were you doing out here?

“Brumby-“ The Captain said aloud but stopped short, remembering the man who had served as his colleague for over 5 years was no more. “Sh*t, weapons.” He clarified, unable to bring Brumby’s replacement’s name to mind, “Program all forward batteries to unload their salvos when we come out of light speed, send the program to navigation when you have it.”

A violent jerk forward, or as much as there was such a direction in the void of space, let everyone know the Borodin had reentered weapons range. With the Ramman’s own defense grid still operational her foe would have to resort to particle weapons to pierce her thick armor or, at the very least, to knock out a handful of Anti Missile turrets so that a battery could make it through. Once there was a hole large enough to squeeze in high yield explosive projectiles there was little hope of coming through alive.

Turning to look forward at the partially functional view screen that dominated the entire wall, Mathew Patterson locked his jaw and glared menacingly at the sleek Imperial Dreadnaught as it strafed his vessel from the rear before shooting out ahead. He hadn’t been ready for the Borodin when it appeared out of no where 30 minutes ago, interrupting the supply transfer for which Patterson had brought the Ramman to that sector in the first place. Ignoring the lightly armed supply vessel, who returned the favor and sped out of the system at full speed, the larger, more heavily armed Imperial vessel concentrated all of its efforts on its Jekotian counterpart, with devastating results.

“Engineering reports ready” The first officer explained, the first trickles of blood beginning to emerge from a new head wound, “auxiliary cooling units have been moved to the refractory sections and life support has been cut. We’ve got two hours.”

Navigation decided to join in, “Course set in conjunction with weapons parameters.”

“Com?” The Captain asked appearing not to hear the reports form his crew, “Where are we with those evacuations?”

The blonde haired woman shook her head in frustration, “it’s a real mess down their sir, we’ve only got the first 3 departments sealed.”

Another sharp thud coupled with a loud pang and jerk from above further illustrated the urgency of the situation. “We’re out of time, it’ll have to do.” Inwardly Patterson grimaced and fought off the knot developing in his stomach. With such a risky maneuver at such high speeds the likelihood of actually hitting the Borodin was great and with any impact came to the risk of explosive decompression and, or course, death for anyone in that compartment. He would rather not have to right letters home for those men and women explaining how and why they died but it was far better that he write them for his men, rather than his Admiral writing them for the entire ship. “All hands” He said after taking his seat and flicking the com switch nestled amongst other controls in the arm, “Brace for impact.” A pause while the intercom was switched off, “Helm, engage!”

Dozens of immense coils lined front to back within the Ramman’s pair of stubby, thick nacelles began to pulsate with an influx of energy. Quickly the very fabric of space/time surrounding the embattled vessel began to bend and ripple in response to the growing gravitational field emanating from the now glowing engines. Directly in front space was shrank into a small pinch while simultaneously expanded to the rear creating a pseudo wave that all together propelled the Jekotian starship forward at nearly 6 times the speed of light. In a span of time measured only in nanoseconds the distance between friend and foe had been bridged and what had once been a pinch in space now rapidly expanded into a gravitational mountain of invisible space in order to bring the speeding vessel to an abrupt halt.

 

As had been planned, the JSS Ramman was now but scant meters from the ISS Borodin and still coasting forward. With that part of the maneuver completed the computer proceeded to unleash as many salvos of explosive tipped projectiles as could be loosed at one time. Nearly three dozen such missiles made the split second journey from launch tube to detonation, their fiery deaths shattering the Imperial armor and tearing deep within the vessels super structure. So ferocious were the blasts and so close was their launch point that the Ramman too began to jump and break under their combined shock. As had been expected rushed navigational calculations proved to be flawed, if only by a slight margin, and as stringy fireballs bathed broken steel within the cold vacuum of space, the two vessels collided. With an otherworldly groan the scotched hulls of both vessels slid across one another, the bottom of the Ramman grating hard against the top of the stunned Borodin. Tearing as easily as fabric in the wind, the Jekotian’s main shuttle bay buckled under the strain and vomited its continents into the vacuum of space via explosive decompression. While not as singly devastating, the Borodin suffered instead a long, continuous gash across nearly 2/3s of its upper decks, each fissure mimicking the now defunct shuttle bay and spitting all within the compartments into their inky graves.

The entire maneuver took only 30 seconds.

“We’re clear”

Captain Patterson wasted little time, “Set course for the Zeta 9 Asteroid field. Maximum speed. Engage!”

The now mostly steady view screen painted an endless star field as it bent and wavered into a gravitational slip stream. Only a moment passed before the distorted star field finally gave way to a rapidly moving mixture of white and black streaks that indicated the transition into faster than light speed had been reached. There was, however, an aspect of the journey that stood out as unusual.

“What the hell is that?’ Demanded Patterson at no one in particular but expecting an explanation from engineering.

Almost on cue the intercom blinked to life with the thick guttural accent of the chief engineer. “Keeptain,” Lt. Commander Sparks said with a thick Northern badlands draw, “The deestabuton Array iz feeding pewer to thA engines unevenly.”

Patterson nodded even though the body belonging to the voice was 12 decks down and 30 sections to his rear, “That’s why we’re shaking to pieces up here?”

A newly repaired console burst forth with a shower of sparks and debris in agreement with the Captain’s assessment.

“Aye Keeptain,” the engineer replied, “Weeve Got ta slew down ta meenamize tha stress on tha systems. She’s bypassed lyke a chrismass tree. Nozing more than fewr past lyte speed.”

“Helm?” Patterson began.

“Taken care of sir” came the quick reply and as quickly as it had arrived the violent shimmies and shakes eased to a still present but altogether more manageable frequency. “New ETA on Zeta 9 Asteroid fields, one hour, 49 minutes.”

-- Imperial Star Ship Borodin --

Neatly uniformed officers trotted quickly around both decks of the large open command center as they rushed about in an effort to complete what ever task had been given them from above. Along the rim of the lower deck communications, engineering, tactical and helm consoles chirped and hummed in much the same way the science and auxiliary consoles did 10 feet above them, their metallic chorus forming the lucid heart beat of the ship. Moving in and out among the sitting officers and tech sergeants, the lower crew members, each wearing clean, light gray jump suits, carried messages and tools, reports and coffee as if they had enlisted in the Imperial star fleet with the hopes of becoming a servant. To the rear of the vacant captains chair stood a large circular holo-projector normally saved for displaying and coordinating fleet engagements but now instead hovered a semi transparent florescent schematic of the wounded warship, the damaged areas flashing red.

Captain Samuel Gardner shook his hairless head, his arms crossed, his aged face twisted into an uncharacteristic scowl. “I’m never going to make Admiral like this.”

Gardner’s first officer, the young Commander Smyth, sighed as he too examined the slowly rotating light show. “The damage is hardly catastrophic sir,” he offered, slowly fidgeting with his hands behind his back, “we’ll have restored faster than light capability in a little over an hour.”

“How could they” The Captain went on without acknowledging his subordinate, “Have torn out the nacelle coolant lines? Not to mention rip a hole damn near across my entire ship?”

“Well” Smyth began, unsure if the question was a rhetorical one, “at that range our defenses were useless, the armor could only-“

“Patterson has been” Gardner went on, interrupting his new Commander, his predecessor having recently been promoted to Captain and given a ship of her own. “A thorn in our side for over two years now and I nearly had him, he was right there…”

The new Commander smiled, seeing an opportunity to recover from bungling the rhetorical question a moment earlier, “You might yet have another chance sir”

Captain Gardner jerked his head over to look up at the taller man, “How so?”

“Computer” Smyth said in apparent explanation, “Display star charts for this sector.”

Gardner’s face dropped, his apparent optimism replaced by the kind of disappointment only a senior could feel towards an inexperienced junior. “He’s going to be well out of the sector before we regain power Commander.”

“I don’t think so Sir,” came the smug reply, “Just before the Ramman struck we detected a system wide shut down of their life-support and environmental systems. Factional GSW systems use the same power array as do their disrupters meaning after we knocked it off line they were dead in the water. The drop in life support means they must have rigged that array to channel power to their GSW. Without life support however, they must come out of light speed within two or three hours to avoid loosing crew members to the cold.”

The Captain unconsciously nodded in agreement as he looked the younger man over with a renewed level of respect. This kid might work out after all “Well which one is it Smyth?” He asked aloud, his irritation dissipating with the thought of completed his mission, “A ship can travel a great distance in an hour.”

“Two” He replied quickly, “After two you start to loose a few men and Patterson’s profile tells us he wouldn’t waste their lives needlessly.”

“So” Gardner said carrying on his subordinates thought, “He will need a safe haven within two hours to drop out of light speed and make repairs.”

“Here” The Commander pointed out, his hand gesturing toward the flashing asteroid field. “It’s only an hour out at their maximum speed and gives them a tactical advantage over our larger vessel.”

Gardner again nodded, “Why not that gas giant?” He asked testing the young man, 20 years of command experience had already given him the answer he sought.

“Hull breeches sir,” Smyth replied with confidence, “Our collision ruptured their shuttle bay, they’ll need a relatively calm portion of space to seal that off.”

“Helm” The Captain called, apparently pleased with his Commander’s work, “Set course for the Zeta 9 asteroid fields, maximum speed. Execute as soon as the GSW is back online.”

Commander Smyth smiled as his commander officer crossed the deck and took his seat, Tally hoe…

 

If only we could play that one :p

Nice stuff right there...

 

Ive dreamed of a starship simulator with a simulated crew, boarding ships, FPS view, sub systems, space combat, etc true, real to life starship simulator.

 

Yea, the origional idea for Star Trek Legacy was that, but they change it

 

I had that same dream but with more elements for a game -=x if only I can create things from my mind in a second. oh well im lazy ^__^

J/W who won the war -=o or are they still fighting o_O?

j/c for a history lesson of the time that passed -=o

 

The war raged on for many years without eaither side being able to completly conqure the other. After the advent of the GSW by Samule and his team a fear of orbital bombardment and mass destruction led to the sighning of the Acords of Westphalia which froze the lines at thier current locations and forbid either side from useinf orbital weaponry of any kind. The ensuring decades saw a cold war and space race in an effort to colonize the most new worlds and thus claim them for one side or another. IN space and on those worlds combat flairs up and down much in the same way the US and the USSR fought by proxies. Life on other worlds has been discovered but no sentient beings with the exception of a race of preindustrial humanoids discovered on a new Jekotian world, they are now slaves.

Imperial and Jokotian Republic (After the acords were signed the struggling cavilian goverment within the Northern Faction was able to establish itsefl as the offical goverment but Imperial soldiers still refere to them as "Factionalists" as a slur) star ships often lock horns in open space but hostile actions are forbidon within the home system. Convoy raids, hit and runs, forced conquest of other worlds, sabotage, etc takes place frequently, basicly the war has just moved off the home planet.

 

Sweet, also just to put to note, im studying your writing, mainly dialogue cause im probably gonna redo that one story, so hehe

HAIL JEKOTIAN EMPIRE! ;D

 

And Her Prime Legion!

 

Yeah I also day dream of a starship simulator of that magnitude... Now thats a true idea for a MMO; with every position being filled by a player; from the marines that assult another starship; to the diffrent people running the ships to the ship captians to the admiral that says "Move dis shiet right ther'!"

MmmmMm... I would pay per month for that no questions asked...

 

Actually I was thinking you could have a persistant universe server that the ships lived in along with the planets, star bases etc with every person as an AI control charicter. A player could enter any of these bots and take over so if a player had ranked up to, say, Marine commander, and led a team onto an enemy ship, after he was killed he would take control of one of his comrads and keep going. This way a ship can be ran without nearly as many people and without some people haveing to watch over the collent intake valves for 4 hours. Engineers could rerout power when things were damaged, repair damaged equipment, etc. Tacticle could operate the weapons (auto lock works great for Disrupters and particle weapons, pretty good for missels and not at all for torpedos) and/or aim manually if they want to or if the targeting computer is knocked out. At the main menu you would see a map of the known galaxy (which could be explored further) with displays of all the ships, stations and planets for your side, you then can choose where to spawn, see if a ship is in combat, if its being borded, if its on a mission, or spawn at a ground battle ala traditional Empires. You could rank up and gain greater ability to order other bots, repair thigns faster, create your own missions or even command your own vessel.

All of this would be in first person view, so if a ship is boarded you have to fight in the coridors and mantanance halls, all with AI crew members doing thier part or running away. The crew could be a resource too, where a ship has to go back to a station to get crew replacments as you kill them off.

 

I feel compelled to post this.

"Make us go that way."

 

Wow your ideas were close to mine,
heh i was about to post something totally unrelated to the story ^_^

There should be an off-topic category(unrelated to empires) for stories, cause I would love to share my other stories with you guys.
But then that'll require me finding years of lost work ;x

 

I would want something more personal; where you get attached to your charachter (ala something like RPG'ish where you make it from scratch).

That was what I was oringialy thinking but my mind drifted into an MMO instead :p

 

I think the last time there was an Empires 2 topic Duke and Krenz closed it, bah.

No worries though, I have the next 3 posts in my head, Ill write when I can.

 

I'm not so sure about that subtitle "Dark Messiah" it just doesnt quite have the creative motto that fits empires especially after Dark Messiah coming out not to long ago.

 

The sub title referes to what happens later in the story. If up to me Empires II would have a story line strong enough for a single player game.

 

In 5-6 years we will be looking back at this thread saying "Lawl" while playing a retail stand alone Empires II :D

 

“We laid out the entire city in the computer then used the printers at school to print out the buildings. It took us all day to build the right hills and valleys for the buildings but when we got done teacher said it looked just like the Ancient Imperial city! We even put tiny people on the streets and real steam coming from the power units planted around the city. Jimmy wanted to run a power cell to a bunch of lights but I told him we didn’t know if they had electricity and lights and this was supposed to be as close to history as possible. If we win the show teacher will take me and mom and Jimmy and his dad to the real Ancient city! I wish you could come but mom says you won’t be home for another month, just in time for school break. I was think-“

“We’re receiving a code blue message Captain”

Captain Patterson sighed as he leaned back in his large black desk chair and ran his hands tiredly through his dirty blonde hair. The JSS Ramman had sat motionless within an unpredictable maze of spinning rocks and debris for nearly five hours while attempting to mend the countless wounds inflicted not seven hours earlier by a visiting Imperial Dreadnought. Its taste for blood unquenched the same dreadnaught had arrived in the system a couple of hours ago but had so far been bold enough only to hold position outside the field and launch assaults of scans and drones. With the Ramman tucked neatly beneath one of the largest of the spinning mountains of rock the Captain knew their efforts to find him and his battered crew would be fruitless but also that they couldn’t stay there forever. The Borodin and Ramman would have to lock horns again.

“I’ll take it in here,” He said aloud, leaning up and switching off the video letter from his son. Like the rest of his senior staff, Patterson had been on duty for nearly 24 hours now and had stepped off the bridge to his adjoining office for a moment to remind himself what he was fighting for. His wife and son was as good a reason as any.

The youthful image of a 11 year old with his fathers playful blue eyes and strong jaw vanished in favor of the cool silver and red hues of the Jekotian Republic’s duel eagle crest, a trio of stars supporting their weight in honor of the Northern Faction, now Northern Province once again, who had saved them all from tyranny and oppression. In accordance with blue level transmissions the computer next asked for the Captain’s retinal scan followed by password and thumb scan. Only maroon level was higher and most people who received those messages didn’t exist and never would.

“Captain Patterson” A slightly overweight balding Admiral asked once his sitting figure arrived on screen, “I was beginning to wander if I was going to get through,”

Patterson forced a tired smile, “Forgive us Admiral, our current position dictates a few extra precautions when it comes to communications.” A pause, “What can I help you with?”

The Admiral, his hands folded neatly on his clean, polished wood and steel desk, leaned forward and answered his subordinate with a question of his own. “What’s your condition Captain?”

Mathew tilted his head to one side and looked down for a moment in order to collect his thoughts. “Sir,” He began sheepishly, “A few hours ago while re-supplying with the Köln-“

“I’ve read the report” The Admiral interrupted flatly, “What is your status?”

Patterson took a breath and bit the bullet, “We took quite a beating Sir, we barley managed to limp to these fields and have been doing our best to affect repairs but progress is slow. We’ve only regained full GSW power within the past hour.”

Admiral Blackburn nodded in the kind of mock sympathy only an Admiral could convey, “I’m ordering the Ramman to rendezvous with the Oznerk just out side the Denubla system. I’m not going to transmit the coordinates over the air, once you get in the system the Oznerk will find you.”

Captain Patterson blinked a couple of times trying to contain his surprise, “Sir,” He finally said with a hint of gravity, “Perhaps I didn’t explain our situation clearly enough. The Borodin is just out-“

“Your situation is understood Captain,” The Admiral snapped, “but a greater situation has developed that requires the best the fleet has to offer. No matter the condition of your ship Matt, that’s still you.” Blackburn stopped to regain his composure. At 62 the gray haired officer had been among the first to fight for the new Republic in a new frontier in a new type of war. His accommodations from the military and government, even one from the Empire, were actually to many to wear on his dress uniform. Countless years of service and above average performance, however, had not made him forget what it was like to be on the receiving end of impossible orders that carried an impossible weight. What surprised him was how much worse it was to be the one giving those orders than to be he who was receiving them. He began again, “The DI has uncovered something that could undermine everything that we’ve built over the last half century. Matt,” He leaned closer to the camera, “It could mean the end of the entire Republic, of everything.”

Mathew swallowed hard, remembering to take a breath and nod to show his understanding of the situation. The recently vanquished image of his young son came to mind, of his wife, of his home. last time I look for a reason to keep fighting… “I understand” He forced out with renewed determination, “When is the rendezvous to take place?”

“14 hours from now. The Oznerk will top off your supplies and provide some personal and an additional engineering detail. You’ll also receive an undisclosed number of guests who will need secure accommodations. They will have complete details of your mission and give you further instructions.”

Another nod, “Understood Admiral, we’ll be underway within the hour.”

“Godspeed Matt, and good hunting.”

Without further salutations or farewell the plush office nestled cozily back on Patterson’s home planet blinked away and revealed once again the strong but stoic double eagles atop three stars of the Jekotian Republic. In the mostly black background of the glossy image Patterson caught a distorted reflection of his tired visage and still dirty, blood stained, crimson uniform. Once they got underway he was going to have to find time for a bath and some sleep.

Making a mental note to that effect and to order his senior officers to do the same, Mathew tapped the glowing blue button inlayed into his desk that activated the com system. “Jonathan?” He asked, knowing his voice was being reproduced just outside his office door, “Can I see you in my ready room?”

“On my way” his first officer’s voice replied and a moment later the tall striking commander walked briskly through the clunky metal door. Republican vessels were all built far more for function rather than form.

“I just spoke with Admiral Blackburn” Patterson began after his comrade and friend took a seat, “We are being ordered to the Denubla system. We leave within the hour.”

The Commander’s eyes grew wide as he sat crooked in a chair clearly not large enough for his bulk, “Does he not know-?”

“I explained our situation” Patterson interrupted, “We’ll be re-supplied and given another engineering detail to complete repairs at the rendezvous.”

Commander Bruce looked down and took in a long, deep breath. He had more questions to ask, more he wanted to know and argue about how ill-equipped the ship and crew were to undertake any sort of mission let alone one that warranted a code blue transmission but in his five years as Patterson’s first officer he had never known the man to miss a point or back down when it came to his ship and crew unless there was no other option. “What about the Borodin?”

At this Captain Patterson flashed a large, devious smile, “I have an idea.”

 

-- ISS Borodin --

“The field is several thousand kilometers across Commander-“

“And the imaging arrays on the Borodin” Commander Smyth interjected, “Are more than capable of handling the load.” He stopped to make a clean break between aggravated admonishment and stern encouragement. “We need these charts and we need them now Lieutenant. Can we count on you for this?”

The young brunette nodded quickly and returned her attention to her cluttered display screen but not before squeaking out a weak “yes sir” for her demanding commander.

Temporarily satisfied with the woman’s renewed efforts, Smyth made his way towards the rounded stairs that would allow him to return to the main level of the command center. Captain Gardner’s most recent adversary was no fool. Not only did the asteroid field provide good cover and give the smaller factional ship an maneuverable advantage but its expanses were uncharted and, worst of all, composed primarily of Tritanium which absorbed energy signatures and made it damned near impossible to detect anything smaller than a battleship. A series of probes had been dispatched to conduct a visual search for the cowardly vessel but that was a shot in the dark.

Their greatest hope of smoking these particular rats from their holes came from the Captain himself who suggested flooding the field with low level radiation and monitoring its dissipation levels then using that information to draw up a make shift chart showing which rocks contained the most Tritanium. Patterson would naturally hide his ship within the highest concentration of the mineral in order to prolong his ruse. With those areas red flagged a new search pattern could be formulated and, with a touch of luck, Patterson’s troublesome ship and crew would be dispatched with Imperial efficiency.

Maybe the old goat has a few tricks up his sleeve after all

“Commander” Captain Gardner growled from his slender, light gray command chair, a data pad in one hand and coffee in the other. Like many of the senior staff members, the Captain had been on duty for nearly 24 hours effecting repairs and it was beginning to show. “Where are those charts?”

“On there way” he replied with confidence as he completed his journey from above to stand by his captain’s side. “Computer hiccups slowing things down bu-“

“Sir!” an excited science officer from the upper deck shouted without thinking to use the com system. “We’ve got an energy reading!”

With the renewed strength only hope can bring, Captain Gardner handed his still steaming silver mug to his near by first officer and quickly moved near the science station to see for himself.

“It was very faint sir,” the short haired Lt. explained, sensing his superiors had drawn near, “But it was there.”

Gardner frowned, “was?”

The Lt nodded, “Yes sir, it’s gone now.”

Having taken longer due to his new hot beverage, Smyth finally finished the short trip up the polished glass and stainless steel stairs that lead up to the science stations from which he had just come. “Could it have been a malfunction?” He asked wishing he had some coffee of his own.

“No Sir,” the short haired man sitting before them replied, “All instruments check out.”

Gardner took a breach and folded his arms, apparently in deep thought, silently contemplation his options, the possibilities and their costs. The Captain hardly needed an Imperial Intelligence report to tell him that Patterson was crafty, he had read enough reports and spoken with enough friends, not to mention his own humiliation not so long ago, to determine his opponent’s skill and cunning. The last thing he needed was to march into another trap. “What do you think Smyth?” He finally said aloud, looking up slightly to find his subordinate examining his steaming cup with interest.

“With readings that small,” He replied looking up at the readings, “there isn’t even a guarantee that we would have caught it. Kind of a big risk if it’s a trap don’t you think? Most likely something went wrong with repairs.”

“hmmm,” was all the Captain offered as he again looked downward to contemplate his options. “The risk is acceptable,” he decided while leaving the tiny chirping science station for his command chair below, “Set course for that energy reading, nice and slow. Sound general quarters.”

With trademark Imperial efficiency the helms officer retrieved his desired coordinates from above while an intrusive alarm klaxon let everyone know it was time to find their places of battle. Across the ship missile and torpedo crews moved their explosive charges into temporary homes within slender launch tubes, large rapid discharge capacitors filled with energy ready to unleash via particle cannons, repair teams donned protective suits and new squads of Marines took post at critical junctions. By the time the Captain reached his sleek, grey leather chair his vessel, among the mightiest among the stars, was ready to fight to the death and destroy all who stood in its way.

Gardner straightened his dark blue uniform and planted his weight in his swiveling seat, “take us in.”

Out side amidst tumbling stones and racing debris the immense Imperial dreadnaught fired its sub light engines and cruised swiftly toward a phantom energy reading hopefully attached to a crippled Jekotian heavy cruiser. Minutes passed as the sleek silver and grey starship dove deeper into the hectic maze in which its prey had sought cover, ducking and weaving around obstacles too large to dispose of, annihilating anything smaller. Nearly 10 minutes at half light speed inched past before the vessel was close enough to the massive barrier to plot out a safe approach.

Just as the Borodin began to circle around the nearly moon sized mountain behind which the signal had originated, it discovered its “victim” had swung around the other side and was making for the edge of the cumbersome asteroid field, its half repaired weapons systems spitting fire as it went. Unsurprised by the deception, the Borodin came about hard and began to unleash a hellish fire of its own in the form of bright red daggers of super charged particles. While the Ramman boasted greater maneuverability and could more efficiently weave in and out of the bumbling mob of stones, the Borodin had greater firepower and, perhaps more importantly in this situation, a greater top speed, making escape an impossibility. At least, that’s what her Captain thought.

At a predetermined time, with the Borodin still five minutes from the freedom of open space, the Ramman began to pummel the smaller globs of minerals and debris with high yield nuclear weaponry, the brilliant pure white flash of each detonation illuminating the surrounding space like a tiny nova. Still carried aboard starships for their use as EMP sources, nuclear arms had largely fallen out of favor due to their relatively low destructive ability but, as the Ramman was now demonstrating, they had other uses as well.

“What the hell?”

Captain Gardner smiled at his first officer’s confusion. With each run away reaction of radioactive material that unleashed its power amid a flash of raw energy, his opponent was blinding his ships sensors and forcing it to grope around deaf and dumb. The armor and EMP shielding aboard the Borodin was such that the vessel could sustain even multiple direct hits from nuclear arms, and fortunately so as many of the blasts were occurring only meters from the hull, but the siring heat, wide range of light and sudden influx of high radiation incapacitated nearly every sensing device aboard; temporarily.

“Relax Commander” he said leaning back with a wider smile, “it’s an old factionalist trick. He’s hoping to blind and circle us like a Parthian eel. Honestly I expected something a bit more audacious from someone like Patterson.” Gardner laughed with an almost boy like giddiness at the idea of completing his mission so quickly, “take us out the same way we came in” He told navigation, “clear the road ahead of us.”

As dozens of nuclear blasts danced around the now blind warship its destructive power suddenly moved forward in an attempt to destroy anything that had drifted into its path since its navigational array had recorded its path within. At only slightly reduced speed the Borodin managed to blow its way clear of the Zeta 9 fields in only six minutes; just in time to whiteness the Ramman streak away at five times the speed of light.

Captain Gardner frowned, He knows he can’t out run us, what’s he up to?

“Pursuit course” Smyth ordered from his own station, anticipating his Captain’s wishes, “Maximum speed.”

It took only another few moments for Captain Patterson’s true plan to become clear as reports began to stream in from around the perpetually busy command center of failed systems and sporadic readings. “Helm is not responding,” “GSW reading error,” “Navigation deflector offline,” “rear defense grid showing tracking failure.”

Now it was Gardner’s turn to swear, “What in the hell!? Engineering?” He shouted slamming his hand on the politely blinking blue com button, “Why aren’t I moving?”

“GSW is fully functional Captain,” came the quick response, “We just can’t seem to form a stable gravitational field.”