The Governor
New Member
Triangulum, Unexplored Space, DCS Envouira Bridge
On the bridge, alarms screamed and emergency lighting flashed.
"Incoming torpedoes! Everyone brace for impact!" a worried sensor technician shouted over an intercom.
As the projectiles impacted, a great shockwave went through the ship. Unprepared Confederate Naval personnel were thrown to the hard metal floors, fighters and transports rocked in their hangar berths, and more sirens screamed across all levels.
"Code red, starboard aft, deck three," an automated voice intoned calmly. As its message played, damage control teams raced to the compromised areas of the ship, knowing the battle was likely lost already.
"Captain, the enemy's breached main shields! Hull stress in starboard bow sections! The ship's armour is keeping us together, but that wont last long! Not if they keep hitting us like this!"
The captain tried to shut out all of the noise, tried to focus. He was a veteran of three wars. He had served during the Confederate Civil War, the Second Great War with the Abyssals, and the Confederacy's three year, all-out conflict with the HCA. In all of that time, he'd never seen anything like this. It seemed like the enemy had come out of nowhere. In a matter of minutes, the lone Confederate Devastator was heavily damaged, and many casualties had already been incurred. They were far from Karsopolis, far from the Confederacy. The Envouira had been sent on a scouting mission into unknown Triangulum space.
"Code red, decks three through seven. Hull stress on all levels," the voice toned again, interrupting the captain's thoughts.
"Will someone shut that thing off?" the old officer asked angrily. "I'm trying to think!"
"No time for that, sir! Look at the sensors!" the first officer said.
The captain glanced at the readout, and couldn't believe what he saw. A group of bomber-like craft, all large and ugly, moving fast towards the fragile section that connected the bridge to the rest of the ship. The bombers crashed into the section, and the bridge disconnected. The crew inside were sucked into space, and most of them died quickly.
Triangulum, Unexplored Space, DCS Envouira, Hangar
More alarms signalled the detachment of the bridge, and Petty Officer Colin Malette moved towards the hangar. Malette had a handsome face, with light brown hair framing grey eyes. Muscle covered his body, partly from years of training, as well as the heavy protective equipment he and his men had to wear. Most of his unit, Damage Control Team 7, was a deck below, trying to stop the fires on those decks from reaching the engine room. Colin's group was supposed to stay in the Envouira's massive hangar, and prevent the fighter fuel cell storage from igniting. Still other teams were dealing with hull fractures, core overheating, hull breaches, and a thousand other problems. Even with the bridge detached though, the personnel aboard the Confederate dreadnought weren't in immediate danger. Sure, shields were gone, and sure, the gunners were firing blind without command and control from the bridge, and sure, the damage control teams were fighting a losing battle against a determined enemy. But Malette tried to stay optimistic.
On another side of the hangar, a young woman in Naval Assault Corps armour stood beside a transport, ready to board if the order was given, and prepared to repel any enemies who boarded the ship. Her name was Celeste Soyer. At least, that was her name on the roster. She had long, dark brown hair, fair skin, and a long white scar across her left cheek. Otherwise, her regal face was flawless, and her eyes were dark blue. No medals glinted on her chest, but the way she stood, way she held her rifle, way she carried herself spoke of the first few battles she'd seen and survived. Celeste was new, but she would do well in the Naval Assault Corps.
"If I tell you to board that ship, you board. I dont care what's coming into this hangar. Do you understand?" her commanding officer asked.
"I'm not leaving you, Jacques. You may be my officer, but you're also a member of Seraphim Company. And you know how the NAC operates. All of us or none of us. Nobody gets left behind. Those have always been our rules. I'm not breaking them for any orders."
"Damn it, Celeste. You know who you are. Everyone in Seraphim Company had the procedure. We're all Super Sapiens, but you're more important than any of us, or even all of us put together."
Before she could reply, there was a loud clang, and a ripping sound near the ceiling. The members of Seraphim Company watched in horror as the enemies boarded. For now, it was mostly constructs and machines, firing laser weapons indiscriminately into the hangar. As the constructs fired, Malette leapt into action. "Initiate shielding around those fuel cells! We cant let them get hot!" he ordered.
As they raced to prevent another disaster, the men and women of Seraphim Company prepared to repel the boarders. Crouching behind barricades, they took precise aim and fired at the unknown enemy. Others used their highly enhanced agility and strength to combat the machines hand to hand. Still more maintained suppressing fire close to the area where the droids had docked. Many fell as the battle went on.
As the battle raged on and more explosions rocked the ship, a new voice suddenly came over the intercom. "Attention everyone! This is the Chief Engineer speaking. I cant control the core for much longer. We've taken a lot of damage, and it's beginning to overheat. As of now, all personnel except my engineering staff are ordered to abandon ship. We'll try to buy you time. Again, everyone is ordered to abandon ship!"
"You heard him, Celeste! Board the transport and get out of here!" Jacques ordered.
"You have to leave with us! You're the commanding officer of the Naval Assault troops on this ship. If we leave without you, there will be leadership problems."
"Ensign Landry will be piloting you out. You know he's the helmsman for Seraphim Company. He's in charge after this."
"What about you?" Celeste asked again.
"Didn't you hear the order, lady?" a new voice asked. Celeste turned to see a damage control officer. "The Chief Engineer said the ship is falling apart! We have to get out of here! And if your commander is choosing to stay here and buy you time, that's his decision. Let's go!"
With that, the man and several other damage control team members entered the transport. Some of the remaining members of Seraphim Company followed them inside. Celeste still stood outside as the enemy machines slowly marched closer, constantly moving in on the small ring of remaining defenders. "You're going on the ship, Midshipman Soyer!" Jacques said as he shoved Celeste into the transport. "That's my last order for you." Moments later, the door of the transport slammed shut. Inside, she banged on the door, unwilling to leave her commanding officer.
"Landry! Take off! This ship is going to blow any minute!" Jacques said into his helmet comm. As the many transports took off, the battle continued. Just when it seemed everything was over, the machines began to depart. As he stood in the empty hangar among the broken machines and dead Confederate personnel, Jacques thought for a moment that they had won. And then he saw the vortex of white hot flame bursting through a corridor, racing into the hangar, and enveloping him.
Moments later, the shockwave from the core meltdown reached the transports outside. Most were caught in the blast and destroyed. One, at the very edge, survived the contact, but was heavily damaged. "What are those alarms?" Malette asked aboard the transport. "I'm a damage control officer. Whatever it is, I can fix it."
"Stay in your seat!" Ensign Landry snapped. "We've lost our long range comms, our navigation system, sublight engines, and our hyperdrive is damaged. There's nothing we can do about any of that until we land, if we land. And to make matters worse, we're about to enter hyperspace. That blast hit us before I could finish setting the computer for Hamilton Spacedock in Drathian territory. I only managed to set it for Andromeda. It'll bring us somewhere random in that galaxy. There's no way to know where we'll end up, but no need to worry about that now. It'll be a damned miracle if we survive the trip."
"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine?" Malette said sarcastically. Then he remained quiet, knowing his fate was in the hands of the pilot.
When the signal came that they were exiting hyperspace, everyone waited tensely as the transport slowly drifted towards an unfamiliar planet far below. "We're setting down there?" one of the passengers asked.
"It's either this planet or the local star," Landry replied coldly. "And I think we'd all rather take our chances with the unknown. Brace yourselves. Some of my controls aren't working, so this will probably be a crash landing."
The damaged transport began to descend into the atmosphere. It was slow at first, but gained speed as gravity pulled it closer. It had damaged engines, and could do little to slow its descent. Ensign Michael Landry only tried to keep it together and hope for the best. That was all he could really do at this point. As the landscape streaked past below, he saw all sorts of ecosystems. Finally, he saw an open field, without any trees. There weren't any bodies of water on sensors, so the field seemed as good a place as any for a crash landing. As he battled the controls, the ship began to slow as it got closer to the ground. When they finally stopped responding, the ship slammed into the ground, plowing out a large tract of earth. When it finally stopped, alarms blared and the transport was bathed in emergency lights, but Landry was certain that almost everyone had survived the crash.
On the bridge, alarms screamed and emergency lighting flashed.
"Incoming torpedoes! Everyone brace for impact!" a worried sensor technician shouted over an intercom.
As the projectiles impacted, a great shockwave went through the ship. Unprepared Confederate Naval personnel were thrown to the hard metal floors, fighters and transports rocked in their hangar berths, and more sirens screamed across all levels.
"Code red, starboard aft, deck three," an automated voice intoned calmly. As its message played, damage control teams raced to the compromised areas of the ship, knowing the battle was likely lost already.
"Captain, the enemy's breached main shields! Hull stress in starboard bow sections! The ship's armour is keeping us together, but that wont last long! Not if they keep hitting us like this!"
The captain tried to shut out all of the noise, tried to focus. He was a veteran of three wars. He had served during the Confederate Civil War, the Second Great War with the Abyssals, and the Confederacy's three year, all-out conflict with the HCA. In all of that time, he'd never seen anything like this. It seemed like the enemy had come out of nowhere. In a matter of minutes, the lone Confederate Devastator was heavily damaged, and many casualties had already been incurred. They were far from Karsopolis, far from the Confederacy. The Envouira had been sent on a scouting mission into unknown Triangulum space.
"Code red, decks three through seven. Hull stress on all levels," the voice toned again, interrupting the captain's thoughts.
"Will someone shut that thing off?" the old officer asked angrily. "I'm trying to think!"
"No time for that, sir! Look at the sensors!" the first officer said.
The captain glanced at the readout, and couldn't believe what he saw. A group of bomber-like craft, all large and ugly, moving fast towards the fragile section that connected the bridge to the rest of the ship. The bombers crashed into the section, and the bridge disconnected. The crew inside were sucked into space, and most of them died quickly.
Triangulum, Unexplored Space, DCS Envouira, Hangar
More alarms signalled the detachment of the bridge, and Petty Officer Colin Malette moved towards the hangar. Malette had a handsome face, with light brown hair framing grey eyes. Muscle covered his body, partly from years of training, as well as the heavy protective equipment he and his men had to wear. Most of his unit, Damage Control Team 7, was a deck below, trying to stop the fires on those decks from reaching the engine room. Colin's group was supposed to stay in the Envouira's massive hangar, and prevent the fighter fuel cell storage from igniting. Still other teams were dealing with hull fractures, core overheating, hull breaches, and a thousand other problems. Even with the bridge detached though, the personnel aboard the Confederate dreadnought weren't in immediate danger. Sure, shields were gone, and sure, the gunners were firing blind without command and control from the bridge, and sure, the damage control teams were fighting a losing battle against a determined enemy. But Malette tried to stay optimistic.
On another side of the hangar, a young woman in Naval Assault Corps armour stood beside a transport, ready to board if the order was given, and prepared to repel any enemies who boarded the ship. Her name was Celeste Soyer. At least, that was her name on the roster. She had long, dark brown hair, fair skin, and a long white scar across her left cheek. Otherwise, her regal face was flawless, and her eyes were dark blue. No medals glinted on her chest, but the way she stood, way she held her rifle, way she carried herself spoke of the first few battles she'd seen and survived. Celeste was new, but she would do well in the Naval Assault Corps.
"If I tell you to board that ship, you board. I dont care what's coming into this hangar. Do you understand?" her commanding officer asked.
"I'm not leaving you, Jacques. You may be my officer, but you're also a member of Seraphim Company. And you know how the NAC operates. All of us or none of us. Nobody gets left behind. Those have always been our rules. I'm not breaking them for any orders."
"Damn it, Celeste. You know who you are. Everyone in Seraphim Company had the procedure. We're all Super Sapiens, but you're more important than any of us, or even all of us put together."
Before she could reply, there was a loud clang, and a ripping sound near the ceiling. The members of Seraphim Company watched in horror as the enemies boarded. For now, it was mostly constructs and machines, firing laser weapons indiscriminately into the hangar. As the constructs fired, Malette leapt into action. "Initiate shielding around those fuel cells! We cant let them get hot!" he ordered.
As they raced to prevent another disaster, the men and women of Seraphim Company prepared to repel the boarders. Crouching behind barricades, they took precise aim and fired at the unknown enemy. Others used their highly enhanced agility and strength to combat the machines hand to hand. Still more maintained suppressing fire close to the area where the droids had docked. Many fell as the battle went on.
As the battle raged on and more explosions rocked the ship, a new voice suddenly came over the intercom. "Attention everyone! This is the Chief Engineer speaking. I cant control the core for much longer. We've taken a lot of damage, and it's beginning to overheat. As of now, all personnel except my engineering staff are ordered to abandon ship. We'll try to buy you time. Again, everyone is ordered to abandon ship!"
"You heard him, Celeste! Board the transport and get out of here!" Jacques ordered.
"You have to leave with us! You're the commanding officer of the Naval Assault troops on this ship. If we leave without you, there will be leadership problems."
"Ensign Landry will be piloting you out. You know he's the helmsman for Seraphim Company. He's in charge after this."
"What about you?" Celeste asked again.
"Didn't you hear the order, lady?" a new voice asked. Celeste turned to see a damage control officer. "The Chief Engineer said the ship is falling apart! We have to get out of here! And if your commander is choosing to stay here and buy you time, that's his decision. Let's go!"
With that, the man and several other damage control team members entered the transport. Some of the remaining members of Seraphim Company followed them inside. Celeste still stood outside as the enemy machines slowly marched closer, constantly moving in on the small ring of remaining defenders. "You're going on the ship, Midshipman Soyer!" Jacques said as he shoved Celeste into the transport. "That's my last order for you." Moments later, the door of the transport slammed shut. Inside, she banged on the door, unwilling to leave her commanding officer.
"Landry! Take off! This ship is going to blow any minute!" Jacques said into his helmet comm. As the many transports took off, the battle continued. Just when it seemed everything was over, the machines began to depart. As he stood in the empty hangar among the broken machines and dead Confederate personnel, Jacques thought for a moment that they had won. And then he saw the vortex of white hot flame bursting through a corridor, racing into the hangar, and enveloping him.
Moments later, the shockwave from the core meltdown reached the transports outside. Most were caught in the blast and destroyed. One, at the very edge, survived the contact, but was heavily damaged. "What are those alarms?" Malette asked aboard the transport. "I'm a damage control officer. Whatever it is, I can fix it."
"Stay in your seat!" Ensign Landry snapped. "We've lost our long range comms, our navigation system, sublight engines, and our hyperdrive is damaged. There's nothing we can do about any of that until we land, if we land. And to make matters worse, we're about to enter hyperspace. That blast hit us before I could finish setting the computer for Hamilton Spacedock in Drathian territory. I only managed to set it for Andromeda. It'll bring us somewhere random in that galaxy. There's no way to know where we'll end up, but no need to worry about that now. It'll be a damned miracle if we survive the trip."
"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine?" Malette said sarcastically. Then he remained quiet, knowing his fate was in the hands of the pilot.
When the signal came that they were exiting hyperspace, everyone waited tensely as the transport slowly drifted towards an unfamiliar planet far below. "We're setting down there?" one of the passengers asked.
"It's either this planet or the local star," Landry replied coldly. "And I think we'd all rather take our chances with the unknown. Brace yourselves. Some of my controls aren't working, so this will probably be a crash landing."
The damaged transport began to descend into the atmosphere. It was slow at first, but gained speed as gravity pulled it closer. It had damaged engines, and could do little to slow its descent. Ensign Michael Landry only tried to keep it together and hope for the best. That was all he could really do at this point. As the landscape streaked past below, he saw all sorts of ecosystems. Finally, he saw an open field, without any trees. There weren't any bodies of water on sensors, so the field seemed as good a place as any for a crash landing. As he battled the controls, the ship began to slow as it got closer to the ground. When they finally stopped responding, the ship slammed into the ground, plowing out a large tract of earth. When it finally stopped, alarms blared and the transport was bathed in emergency lights, but Landry was certain that almost everyone had survived the crash.