EVE Fiction

[OOC-- Thanks SF, I'll go with the option of warping with nearly empty capacitor, rolling against Reasoning. Calculated to drop out of warp 200km from the object.]

He directed comms directed only to Sepherim and AstraPardus: "I've scanned down a unidentifiable metal object about 10k kms away in the direction of the sun. The object is artificial and about the size of a carrier. I'm leaving the area to approach the object and investigate. If I don't return, it will be because of some mishap or something beyond my control." He aligned the Jaguar to the sun's signature and began calculating a low-capacitor warp. His goal was to drop out of warp after 10,000 km. But minus 200 km. He didn't want to drop right onto the object; he wanted some room to carefully approach it under sublight propulsion. "Ha, quiblling about 200km, when the 10,000km distance is just a gross approximation. Chances are the Jag will drop a thousand or more kms from the thing anyway," he thought. He remembered something his dad used to say. The usual engineering procedure: You measure it with a micrometer, but mark the spot with a grease pencil, and end up making the cut with an axe. What he was doing now pretty much matched that metaphor.

He calculated a capacitor level that he thought would yield a warp precisely 9,800 km long. Then he drained off cap to match that level and engaged the drive.

The comm line entered just as the Jaguar was starting to change its alignment. Something the size of carrier could certainly be a problem to all, specially if they all had the FTL lines closed and, thus, the chances for cloning limited. But he was not someone under my command, so he'd have to decide on how to act, he was not my responsability.

-Captain Sam, do exercise caution. It could very well be the ship used to measure and analyze the effects of whatever the wreck did, so maybe they know about us and our situation. Could get messy easily.-



The voice of the other pilot came in through the comms as I finished replying to Telegram. And I couldn't help but grin when I heard the question.

-Let's say I've been known to take several enemy ships when the chance for that came, captain AstraPardus. Want me to give you cover fire while you board the other ship? My scanners show no hostile enemy in the vecinity, but I don't trust them excessively after the massive EM impact we suffered.-

I saw that the kitchen of the Omen and some other of the staff rooms were back online as the technicians were starting to bring back into functioning the secondary systems. But the FTL comms remained downed. "Hell, how long does it take to restart that computer? Or maybe it has something permanently fried?". With the doubt, I asked my engineers for a status update on the situation of the FTL comm unit, while I checked how the capacitator was slowly refilling itself.

I also set my scanners to analyze the fourth ship that had undocked, which still remained silent and stationary even though one of my cannons was targetting it. Maybe there were permanent damages to the ship? Certainly, there was apparently no activity on the Thrasher. Maybe it had taken a more serious blast from the wrecked ship's explosion.

I had to admit that I hadn't thought about such a course of action. But lasers very well could cut through the hull of the ship with the precision of scalpels, so it was indeed worth a try.

-I see. Take some distance, captain AstraPardus, as debries can result from the impact of the lasers. I'll need you to guide me, though: I know there are life signs inside, but can't point where. I'll strat cutting off the zones that are less prone to having people inside, such as the motor section, and wait for you to pinpoint the position of the person inside in the exactest way possible.-

As I was talking, I started to lock on the wreck, taking the cannon away from Telegram Sam's ship and aligning it with the target. I would start with the easy parts, and leave the most sensible zones for the moment in which had more intel on where I wasn't supposed to hit. So, I zoomed in on the rear motors of the ship and started to open fire with precise shots aimed to start tearing away the ship. That zone should still be away enough from Astra, so that debries should not be a problem to her if she wanted to take some distance.


OOC: I invoke my "Ex-imperial navy commander" aspect spending a Fate point on it, as it should include the proper training with the cannons, to grant me a bonus on the Perception roll. With that roll, I start opening the ship from the safest area to the more complicated ones.

Sam:

It takes you a moment to do the calculations (Reas 3 + 0, 0, 0, 1 = 4) and hoping for the best you initiate warp. Slipping into the warp bubble is a reassuring feeling. The ship always complains when it doesn’t have the power to reach its target but so be it. The warp bubble begins to collapse and you decelerate and start entering regular space. Your camera drones reactivate and you see the carrier a few hundred km off to your left. You’re outside of range for a camera drone to zoom in so you begin to burn towards the object activating sensors as you go. There are minimal power readings and the object seems to be stationary at the moment.

Astra:

Once you verify that Sepherim is as accurate as he needs to be, you move the salvage drone back in. It latches on and you have it rotate and turn the wreck, thus allowing the lasers to slice and carve the hunk of debris in as short a time as possible.

Sepherim:

Outside the heat of battle you are easily able to aim your lasers (Perc 3 + 1, 1, -1, 1 I+2 = 7*) with surgical precision. You work with Astra to sear through the proper sections of the hull and within a few short minutes, the bridge section of the wrecked ship has been separated. You can see that the bulkheads are secure and evidently no atmosphere has been vented from the compartment.

Astra:

You carefully bring the detached bridge section into your cargo hold (Agil 3 + -1, -1, 1, -1 = 1) However it is large and once the artificial gravity takes hold it slams down to the deck with a unsettling crunch. You quickly seal the bay doors and re-pressurize the compartment. Your crew then begins the process of cracking the nut. You monitor an internal video feed and see that your entry team quickly opens a bulkhead door. Moments later you receive a report that an unconscious man is found, injuries consistent with impact trauma.

Sam:

Now that you’re in range you send a camera drone in. As you close the distance your cameras verify that the construction has a distinctive Galente signature the glint of green metal flows over the ship in organic lines with lumps and bulges haphazardly placed. The ship, which you can now identify it as one, is large, perhaps four thousand meters from prow to stern. The thing is as wide as it is tall, but, typical with the Gallente, asymmetrical. You suppose it could be described as a spoon held on its side. The “handle” of the spoon is short perhaps a third of the length of the hull. The main thrusters are mounted here. The head portion presumably houses internal workings and housing facilities. Finally what you do recognize sits in the “cup” of the spoon.

Construction frames and scaffolding surround and support a partially completed jump gate. The clues start falling together now as you realize this must be a seed ship. It would have been sent out on a journey to a distant star. They travel as close to light speed as possible, all the while, the crew on board would spend the months, sometimes years, in transit, building a jump gate. Once it reached its destination it would connect to a gate in the system they left from. Why they are sitting here and not continuing on their way is not immediately apparent.

Some movement at your peripheral is the only warning you have as your overview populates with signatures. The bulges on the hull, that you originally thought were part of the ship, detach and begin to thrust towards you. Another reason you suspect the ship is Gallente becomes apparent as you recognize the rogue drones swarming towards you.

Perhaps two dozen in total, you see that they are mostly frigate sized, but there are a few destroyers and cruisers. Back at the seed ship a large protrusion comes away and you see that at least one battleship sized drone is coming towards you as well.

Upon receiving a report of the crew's success of breaching the bulkheads, as well as the state of the captive, a big smile crosses my face.

"Marines! Get that prisoner into the brig, on the double! Medical! I want a physician down to the brig BEFORE the Marines arrive with the captive. I want the wounds dressed and I want them conscious as soon as humanly possible."



I'll admit, I was a little taken aback by how swiftly he made the request, "Permission granted, Captain Catillah. The captive is currently...out of order. Board at your leisure."

I decided to wait until the captive was ready for me to disembark my pod...best to keep on my toes.

So, there it was, permission to board the ship. It was frightening. Even without the FTL, being inside the pod of the Wraith granted me some security, a certain sense of control about what surrounded me. But it would be lost once I left the pod and entered another pod pilot's ship, I'd be at Astra's mercy. Well, guess that would be today's leap of faith, or something. Just as I was issuing the orders to leave the pod, in came Sam's transmission, together with two sets of coordinates.



A seed ship here? Overtaken by rogue drones, none the less. Well, rogue drones sometimes find their way into secure space somehow, but there would be no seed ship in secure space, not even in lowsec. Somehow, we had to be in the middle of nowhere. Great.

-Captain Sam, I would suggest you join me and Captain AstraPardus in her ship, so we can together try to sort this mess out. Afterall, the seed ship has nothing to do with us, and the Federation isn't paying us anything to recover it.-

Not that I'd accept Gallente money, anyway. Not that they'd offer me any sort of job, either. With that in mind, I ordered a sequence of movements to the ship that would set it beside Astra's. Then I ordered the pod to empty itself of goo and the connection between us to be severed. For a second, I was blind, and from then on I was reduced only to my human flesh and ressources. Covered in goo, feeling sticky and tired, I left the pod and felt the contact of the metal of the ship on my feet. I headed to the nearby shower while issuing commands to the ship through the voice recognition software.

-Wraith, open box 3 in my chamber and let the contents on the table. Make sure all the crew members continue bringing everything back online, and prepare the boarding bridge while I cleaned myself. Oh, and send a message to Captain AstraPardus that I'll be in her ship in ETA: 6 minutes.-

[OOC : runs into the thread, holding an oversized pocket watch : "I'm late ! I'm late !"]

"Oh crap."

No FTL transmissions, death a real possibility, an unknown system... and three other ships.

"Great. That's just... great... Ok, guys, are you all right ?"
"...", answered the com.
"Come on, come on ! Just tell me you're in this **** with me."

Nothing but silence, again. Adreena was lost in the void, practically blind, probably deaf and mute, with severe moving disability on top. The image of a too-old deer ready to be eaten by wolves crossed her mind.

"Err... Please ?"
That's right, she thought, they didn't answer because you weren't polite.

After excruciantingly long minutes, she finally heard a voice :
"Miss ? I mean, Adreena ? Are you all right ? The comm system borked on us -pretty much everything did, actually. We're repairing as fast as we can -we still can't transmit to the three other vessels, though..."
"Oh spirits, I'm so glad to hear you... How is the rest of the crew ?"
"Nothing you should worry about, miss -Adreena."
"Okay. How long will it take to fix this darned carcass ?"
"We're on it. A couple of minutes, at most."
"Excellent. If we've not been blapped by this time, just gimme a holler when I'll be of any more use than just making bubbles in the goo."
"Count on it, miss."

A few minutes later...

"Miss, we're done here... Seems the Omen is targeting us."
"Hmmm, well, he probably was as soon as we arrived here, and if her egger didn't shoot at us, he's probably just applying some safety protocol... Let's just not give him any reason to start the fesrtivities. Are the outside comms repaired too ?"
"Yup."
"Open them."

"Hey there, Adreena here, egger of the Thrasher... No hostile intentions here, heh ? Any idea how we got trapped into this mess ?"

"Captain Sepherim, there is a message for you from the pilot of the Thrasher, do you want me to play it?" the voice of the computer could clearly be heard in my room as I was getting propperly dressed. I took my civilian clothes and couldn't help but take a quick glance at my military uniform on display right besides them.

-Yes, Wraith- the computer started to play the message as I put on my boots.



"Do you wish to reply to it?" Well, I guess it was good that she wasn't dead and her ship torn apart. Or something. But that was an unexpected turn of events by now, that made my boarding of Astras' ship much more dangerous. I had evaluated both Astra and Telegram before accepting to leave my ship unmanned, but this Adreena was a wild card. She claimed not to have hostile intentions, but you never knew. Sometimes you just can't trust your fate to the roll of the dice.

-Computer, turn all cannons on Adreena's ship. Take a sphere area around it's current position, around 5 km of radius. If the ship leaves that area, targets this ship, or opens fire on Astra's ship, open fire in return with all your might until nothing is left, including the pilot's pod; leave the crew members escape pods go, though. On the rest of situations, retain target and wait for my direct instructions as I get back. Now open a communications link to that ship.-

"Very well, captain Sepherim. I also want to inform you that the four cannons are now targetting the Thrasher". I was starting to leave the room, but I knew that the ship could record my words even if I was heading to the boarding bay from where I expected to enter Astra's ship.

-Captain Madeveda, this is captain Sepherim Catillah aboard the INS Wraith, an Omen class cruiser. My ship has strict instructions to destroy your ship should you leave a spherical area of 5 km around your current position, or should you target this ship or open fire on on the other ship besides this one. On all other possibilities, you can expect no damage from this Omen. Do understand this is a safety precaution and I wish you no harm.-

I considered leaving the message at that, and the on-board computer was about to send it, when I started talking again. The space suit was right before me, and I started to get into it with the aid of one of my crew members. Sometime, I should learn their names.

-As far as the situation goes, I understand your ship must have taken a heavier blow from the EM pulse this wreck started 13 minutes ago*. We are going to proceed to interrogate the only survivor of this ship to find out what happened. Focus on getting your own ship to full functionality. Do know there's another pilot in the area, his name is Telegram Sam and should be orbiting the sun right now. Don't shoot or attack if he comes near.-

Yes, that was about it. I closed the crystal helmet around me, and opened the doors with a hiss. The chamber was ready, and as soon as the doors behind me closed, I attached myself to the ship's interior walls. The outer doors opened with another soft hiss, and the extensible corridor connecting the INS Wraith to the Brown Baggin' It stood before me. No decompression came, so it should probably be firmly attached on both ends.

I took a deep breath, and started to walk into the other ship, into the unknown. It was strange to once again feel that, even if I was in the midst of space, I could die. Really die. Like in the old times in the Amarrian Imperial Navy, before I was a pod pilot.

*OOC: My estimate, if time has to be modified Sepherim has had a clock, so I'll edit here and put the correct amount.

"Quite a situation indeed, I -"

"Miss, sorry to interrupt, but the Omen is pointing her cannons at us."
"Well, that is uncalled for..."
Why was the Omen treating her ship as a threat ? Adreena wasn't deluded : it probably was due to the Omen egger felling vulnerable rather than because of her own firepower.



"Captain Serephim, we're in the middle of nowhere, with no safe and comfy station to warp to, ****ed up FTL transmissions so that our precious brainscans won't reach any clone -I have no intention, again, to start a stupid fight that would lead to the untimely and terminal deaths of the loser and his crew. And, er, sendsend an uppercut to the ****er who send us into this mess an uppercut on my behalf."



"Yup. Cooperation. That's the operative word, we agree on that."

Sam:

You calibrate your sensors and narrow the scope to 5 degrees. After a short time (Perc 3 + 0, 1, -1, 0, = 3) you start seeing the seed ship and its swarm of drones. Your on board databank has specs on commonly encountered hulls, including the various rogue drones you have encountered in the past. For all that the rogue drones are wild and chaotic, they typically follow a certain set of designs in their construction. What you find to be strange is that these hulls do not match up with the specs you have in your databank. A tally of the signatures and a comparison with the data you recorded when you were on grid shows that there are 12 frigate sized hulls, 4 destroyer hulls, 4 cruisers and the one battleship Hull. They are staying close to the seed ship. After several minutes you see no change to your scans and have not had anything warp in on grid.

Sepherim:

You cross the umbilical. The zero gravity of space coddles you as you push your way to the other ship. Taking hold of the guides on the other side, you bring your feet around and land softly on Astra’s ship. You press the com panel and the airlock opens in front of you. A few steps in and the airlock closes behind you. The bulkhead door opens and you are greeted by several uniformed soldiers with weapons at the ready.

“Sir, Welcome aboard the Brown Baggin’ it. We are to escort you to the brig. Right this way”

( I compel Astra’s “Taciturn” aspect. Obviously hiring a diplomatic crew is not high on her priorities list.)

Astra:

Your medical team reports in. The man has severe impact trauma. The injuries are not life threatening but he has lost consciousness. They have already injected him with medical nanites and his cellular damage will be repaired within an hour. They suggest they could wake him with an injection of adrenal phosphate but warn that he would be in significant pain and possibly delirious. They could give him something for the pain but the combination of that and the other medications would certainly make him “loopy” at best.

Adreena:

Within a few short minutes your crew reports in that all systems are functioning except the FTL transceivers. They appear to be in working order except that there is no connection to the network. This gets you thinking (Know 3 + 1, 1, 0, 0 = 5). You remember a theory you heard from a physicist you met while you were at school. The quantum entanglement of liquid hydrogen permits data to be transmitted instantaneously across any distance. This system is essentially flawless and has been in place for thousands of years. The theory was that a phase shift would be capable of decoupling the entanglement. You would have to study what happened to you and the other ships but, given the otherwise intact system. You suspect that, either you are in an entirely different universe, or that you and the others were phase shifted long enough to decouple the quantum entanglement of your FTL routers.