Terran Chronicles: The First Space War

Prologue

It is the 135th year of the New Calendar. Its has been 135 years since the old United States of America fell ushering in the birth of the new Terran Confederation. 135 years since the new world government brought a lasting peace to the Earth system.

In 2125 of the old Earth calendar the invention of cheap effective fusion power signaled a new golden age of technological advancement and allowed for the human race to for the first time to travel easily between the worlds of the earth sphere. Within the first 10 years of the invention of fusion technology the foundation was laid for the first off world colony, in the Sea of Tranquility on Luna earth’s moon. Further by 2147 Olympus, the first self sufficient city in space was completed at the base of Olympus Mons on Mars. The discovery of new and more effective mining techniques and technology made the exploitation of the mineral rich asteroid belt feasible. The dramatic increase in raw materials brought about by the mining of the asteroid belt allowed for gigantic orbital shipyards to be built. These shipyards created the spacecraft that would help humanity to expand further and further out into the far reaches of the Solar System. Eventually by 0080 N.C. the Terran Confederation’s touch could be felt as far out as Pluto orbit.

The technological golden age following the invention of fusion power did not bring about a new era of peace as everyone might have hoped. Rather it only put more strain on already tense international relations as every nation vied for control of their own fusion research program. Though it was not widely released to public knowledge much of the research done had been shifted to military purposes. Research done solely with the intentions of finding better ways to kill one another, advancements were made in laser technology which culminated in the development of high energy beam weapons. The greatest fruit to come from the fusion power research and its related fields was the invention of the Powered Armor.

Powered Armor revolutionized the battle field. The standard Powered Armor of the time was an eight meter tall, highly mobile, bipedal tank. Fashioned after a humanoid form the Powered Armors were capable of operating well in all environments with just a few simple adjustments. Equally as customizable as they were mobile the Powered Armor was able to fill any combat role. The first nation to develop a powered armor combat force was the country of Japan. With their already highly advanced military augmented by the inclusion of Powered Armor Japan was quickly able to sweep through the other eastern nations and subjugate them to form the Eastern Bloc Federation.

The Japanese were the first but not the only nation to develop powered armor. By 2175 all nations of the world had a standing powered armor force. Again this only aided in increasing the tensions between the nations of the world. As the Japanese were consolidating their hold of the Eastern Bloc Federation a new One World Nation movement was taking hold within the Greater African Republic. By 2195 the O.W.N, as it was styling itself, had taken root in all nations of the eastern hemisphere to include the nations of Oceania and Australia. Not all nations succumbed willing though. Battles decimated many small nations as Powered Armor and mobile infantry forces squared off against each other destroying entire cities in their wake. Eventually though the only resistance left was the old United States.

Surrounded on all sides by the armies of the O.W.N, the American forces stood little chance of withstanding the onslaught. The American armies though fought to the very last man. The attack began along the Pacific coast and swept quickly across the Midwest. The final battle was fought outside of Washington D.C., the Americans had pulled back all of their remaining forces for one final defense of the capital of their ravaged country. The battle was fierce. Despite the best efforts of the American defense forces they were unable to keep the fighting out of the city. Much of the city was destroyed in the fighting. The Capitol Building and the White House as well as many of the old monuments were unsalvageable. After the destruction wrought upon the capitol and the decimation of all remain defense forces, the Americans had no choice but to acquiesce to the One World Nation forces. With the submission of the United States there was no further resistance to the formation of the World Nation.

O.W.N wasted no time in forming themselves into the Terran Confederation. With the new nation came a new way of governing the world, the Confederation was governed by a newly formed Senate which was led by the Pro Consul and senators drawn from all five of the nations that encompassed the Terran Confederation. The Earth Sphere officially became know as the Terran Confederation on December 31st, 2199.

The New Calendar began on January 1st, 2200, or Year 0 of the New Calendar. Scientific Advancement increased under the forced cooperation imposed by the confederation government. It wasn’t long before the human race began expanding out towards the stars beyond their own solar system. That was only the beginning.

Chapter One

The Stage is Set

Lieutenant Erik Tsung sat at a window table on the public deck of the Confederation cruiser Geminon staring blankly out at the blackness of open space. If he turned he could see the great circular armored shield the protected the ship from the radiation and intense glare of the fusion drive flare. Beyond that shield were the engineering decks. There were no windows there only level after level of equipment necessary to the maintenance of the various propulsion systems of the cruiser. The Geminon had three different propulsion systems each with its own specific purpose, and Erik new each of them inside and out. The Fusion Drive used for intersystem travel at sub light speeds. The Combat Drive, a network of various sized thrusters, was used to increase maneuverability during combat and while in the gravity well of a planet where the Fusion Drive might have adverse effects on the environment. Finally there was the Hyper-light Drive, a great ring shaped engine stored within the armored shield that protected the rest of the ship from the fusion drive. Yes Erik knew about all of these engine systems it was his purpose here, Lieutenant Erik Tsung was the Chief Engineer a great honor for a lieutenant considering that a year earlier he was just a work shift supervisor. During a battle nine months ago with a Colonial frigate the engineering hull had been hit by multiple particle canon shots. The Chief Engineer and the Deputy Chief had been killed in the battle when a plasma conduit had ruptured near them. So the duty had passed to him. Of course he should have been replaced as acting chief when they returned to dry-dock at the Luna Shipyards but it seemed that he had somehow ingratiated himself on the Captain after supervising the repairs the had allowed them limp back to Luna.

When they finally made it back to, Luna after three months at sub light, Captain Tyrol had insisted to Fleet Command that Erik be officially assigned as the Geminon’s Chief. That was three months ago and now the Geminon was finally setting out again with Erik aboard wondering if he was really the man for this job or if fate was playing a cruel joke on him. Bound for a six month patrol out past Pluto’s orbit the Geminon fired its maneuvering thrusters easing it out of the massive orbital shipyard and into position to ignite the Fusion drive. That is when the com went off. It was his Deputy Carla Terrel.

“Chief you are needed in engineering sir.”

Ensign Carla Terrel, she had just recently been assigned as his deputy, she was a competent engineer, but was still young and Erik wasn’t quite sure that she knew what she was getting into when she accepted the job as his deputy. Erik didn’t have time to think about it right now though. He keyed the com-link on his wrist to Carla’s frequency. When the link went through he spoke “Alright Carla I’m on my way I’ll be there in five.” With that he closed the link and set off for engineering.

It was a long walk along the central corridor from the public deck at the bow of the ship back to Engineering. It didn’t take him long to meet up with Carla on the catwalk over looking the cavernous engine room. “What do we got Carla?” he asked when he met up with her.

“Captain called down, we will be ready to fire the fusion drive in 5 minutes,” She told him.

“Alright Carla lets run through the pre-firing checklist and get the injectors primed we don’t want to keep the captain waiting.”

Carla and Erik moved over to the two workstations setup on the catwalk. From their stations on the catwalk they could oversee all the work going on inside the cavernous engineering hull as well as control the operation of the huge enhanced fusion reactor and three drive systems. After a quick retinal scan to confirm their identities Carla and Erik begin the checklist that would confirm the readiness of the fusion drive. The run through of the list went quickly, checking the hydrogen and helium tanks that fueled the fusion reactor, looking over the control rods that maintained a constant reaction within the fusion drive chamber, finally checking the injectors that mixed the fusion plasma taken from the reactor with an powdered accelerant capable of withstanding the intense heat of the plasma. “Carla everything looks fine here set the flow regulators to 30% of optimum then recheck the reactor let me know when you are done.”

“Aye sir” Carla responded.” She moved her hands competently over a few controls and Erik could begin to feel the familiar vibrations of the superheated plasma flowing through the conduits only a couple of meters beneath their feet “regulators at 30% of optimum sir”.

“Alright Carla lets check the intermix ratios and reaction chamber integrity one more time then we will be ready to go.”

“Aye sir running diagnostic” a few seconds past as Carla’s fingers deftly moved over the controls then she called back from her station “everything is looking good sir I think we are ready here.”

“Very good Car standby to bring the regulators up to full capacity on my order” Erik went to work at his station engaging all the systems need to control the highly volatile reaction that powered the Fusion Drive. When he was done Erik keyed in the bridge code on his hand com. After a couple of seconds Ensign Daniela Kim picked up the link and transferred him to the captain’s personal com. “Captain we are ready on your order sir but I’m still not too sure about these new injectors sir they have never been tested at full capacity they may not hold.”

“Chief we don’t have a choice here, we have our orders and we will carry them out now standby to give me full power on my order.”

“Aye Sir standing by for acceleration,” Erik responded.

A few minutes passed then the captain came over the intercom “All hands this is the bridge standby for acceleration.” Erik hand com buzzed not a moment later; it was the captain “all right chief full power now.”

“Aye sir”

Slowly Erik pushed the lever that controlled the injector assembly forward opening the injectors to their maximum capacity. Erik could feel the vibrations in his chest as the injectors opened spilling the mix of fusion plasma and accelerant into the drive reaction chamber. He watched the gauges as the pressure in the chamber climbed into the green “pressure approaching optimal, prepare for ignition” he called out to Carla. With that he opened the injectors and slammed the ignition switch, the whole ship jerked violently as the plasma mixture in the chamber ignited. Though no sound was heard in the vacuum of space the vibrations from the vectored thrust nozzles at the rear of the ship were transmitted through the frame and bulkheads of the ship and sounded very much like the roar of a gigantic engine would in atmosphere.

Erik watched the gauges for a few minutes to insure that everything was ok then turned to his aide. “Carla looks like everything is ok here, but please keep an eye on things I have a few things to take care of.” Carla simply nodded her agreement and watched her chief as he turned to leave. He called back over his shoulder as walked slowly out the hatch “Oh and if you have the time after your shift meet me in the mess hall.” Carla smiled softly at that.

“Sure thing boss.”

Chapter Two

A Journey Begins

She felt the jolt of acceleration less than a minute after her hand-com buzzed informing her of the incoming transmission. Daniela checked the com noticed that the transmission was tagged for the captain’s private channel and routed it to his com, then she tightened her harness bracing for the sudden return of gravity that always accompanied the ignition of the fusion drive.

Daniela caught the helmsman making last minute adjustments to their course in preparation for getting underway then her attention was pulled back to her own work as the ships final status reports came in over the com lines. “All stations report status green for fusion drive burn sir, we’re ready.” Daniela reported to the captain. Daniela sent out the message to the two fighters and Powered Armors that were flying the current Combat Air Patrol ordering them to land and returned to her own thoughts mentally preparing herself for the burn.

Then it happened, at first just a barely audible vibration through out the massive ships bulkheads. It quickly grew louder till it felt like her entire chest was vibrating. Finally she felt it the weight growing on her chest as the Geminon’s fusion engine came to life pushing her back into her chair as the ship accelerated up to cruising speeds. The Fusion Burn lasted for what seemed like an eternity to Daniela as the pressure weighing her down continued to increase. Finally she overheard what she had been praying for.

“Primary acceleration burn completed Captain.” That was Lieutenant Junior Grade Mariah West Chief Operations Officer informing the Captain of what Daniela had been waiting to here. “Fusion Drive cycling down to cruising stage now engaging inertial dampening system,” a few moments passed as Mariah checked her status displays “all systems check out Geminon is in cruise mode Captain.”

Daniela let out a sigh of relief after hearing the final announcement from Mariah. She unbuckled her acceleration harness and turned back to her station. Quickly she held a hand up to the com-link earpiece she wore on duty holding it tightly trying to catch the entire message coming through not wanting to make a mistake on her first tour of duty. “Captain a message coming through from the hangar deck, Red Birds 1 and 2 report ready to launch they are standing by to fly CAP.” Captain Tyrol turned and smiled to her then nodded the go ahead. Daniela acknowledged the captains nod then turned back to her station. “Red Bird 1 and 2 you are cleared for combat air patrol launch when ready.”

“Roger that. Red Bird 1 and 2 launching” came the response. Daniela looked out the forward view port just in time to see the two fighters launch from the magnetic catapults that extended from the hanger in the forward hull of the Geminon. She turned back to her station adjusting her ear peice to return to her duties.

“Alright Mike lets do this right bank to heading 110 and proceed out 5 kilometers to begin search pattern” Commander Marcus Delani said to his wingman over the patrol circuit. The two fighters turned to their new heading engaging their small fusion powered engines and rocketing off to their assigned search grid.

“So commander what do you think about this new mission? Seems pretty routine to have dragged us out of dry-dock early without a shakedown of the new systems.” Lieutenant Michael Crosby asked his commander over the patrols private communications circuit.

“Well Mike it’s not our place to decide wither the orders we are given are wise ones or not. It’s our job to carry them out to….” Marcus went quite as he noticed something on his LIDAR display. Checking and rechecking his readings he keyed in his command frequency. “Control this is Red Bird 1. Come in Control. We are picking up an unknown contact in spatial grid 114, requesting permission to investigate.”

Daniela’s voice came over the com line sounding a little concerned “Red Bird 1 this is control. Permission granted to investigate. Be careful Marcus.”

“We’ll be alright Danny I’m sure it’s nothing.” Marcus switched back over to the patrol frequency. “Alright Mike we are heading to the asteroid belt grid 114 to take a look around go to full burn I want to get home before dinner.”

The two fighters did a hard 90 degree turn the strategically placed RCS thrusters slowing their forward velocity to practically nothing in less than a second, the RCS thrusters had been placed in such a fasion that along with the advanced computer controlled systems allowed the fighters to be flown as if they were in atmosphere. Though not the most efficient manner to fly in space it was more psychlogically sound for the pilots. Then the bright flashes of the two recon craft’s fusion drives engaging rocketed them off on a new heading towards the perpetually shifting maze of the asteroid belt.

“Captain, Red Bird reports that they have gone to max velocity to investigate an unknown contact in the asteroid belt, their estimated time to intercept is a little over an hour at present speed.” Daniela told her captain barely able to control the nervous quiver in her voice. “What are your orders captain?”

Captain Tyrol turned in his command chair positioned off to the starboard side of the command bridge, pushing up his service cap he looked around the bridge surveying his crew with his soft gaze. “Place Wolf squadron on standby but maintain course, lets wait to see what Red Bird flight finds out there.”

“Aye Captain,” Daniela replied. She took a quick look around the bridge it was small but practical. Laid out in a standard naval fashion with two stations, these were held by Commander Maximillion Walker the ships Executive Officer and Lieutenant Commander Dareena Fredricks the bridges Deck Officer, set forward in front of the main view port. On the port side of the bridge was Daniela’s station. Her station was positioned between the tactical situation boards that were manned on her left by Ensign Talia Drake, who handled the starboard side tactical arrays, and on right by Ensign Richard Donavon, who manned the port side tactical arrays. On the starboard side of the bridge was Captain Tyrol’s command chair raised up on a small platform above the rest of the bridge so that he could observe all of the various stations on the bridge at a glance. As well on the starboard section of the command bridge was Lieutenant Junior Grade Dekkard Samuels’ Weapons Control Platform. All of this equipment and personnel made the command deck a cramped yet profoundly effective space, more so than the integrated command and navigation decks on the larger destroyers and battleships. When Daniela turned back to her station she keyed up the ship wide P.A. frequency “Attention Wolf Squadron report to Situation Room, I repeat Wolf Squadron please report to the Situation Room for standby briefing.”

After an hour at top speed Marcus and his wing-mate Michael Crosby had entered the asteroid belt past Mars orbit. “Okay Mike stay alert, I don’t know what it was but I saw something big out here on the LIDAR.” He pulled back on the throttle firing his braking thrusters to slow to a more manageable speed within the tightly packed asteroids.

The search went on for more than an hour, the two nimble fighters arcing and pulling tight banks around the far larger asteroids. “Commander I don’t think there is anything out here, maybe it was….” Mike cut himself off as the two came around a larger asteroid into a fairly uncluttered area of the belt. As they cleared the huge space rock “What the hell is that?” Mike asked as they found themselves face to face with one of the largest spacecraft that either had ever seen. The two fighters slowed to a stop 300 meters off what they assumed was the bow of the ship. It was long and angular nearly a kilometer and a half long its faceted hull gave the ship a vicious predatory appearance, very different from the smooth contoured lines of the Geminon.

“What do think we should do Commander? It looks pretty much dead in space.” As if in answer to Mike’s question the gigantic ship suddenly came to life. Lights all long the length of the ship began to illuminate. Red, blue, and yellow running lights casting shadow and light along the length of the predatory spacecraft lending it a almost organic look that perplexingly was only augmented by the sharp angles and facets. The two fighter jocks watched as the ship came alive before their eyes. They sat and watched recording what they saw on their gun cameras as this mysterious vessel became fully active. The two sat watching the ship for several minutes until their orbit brought the ship into the full light of the distant sun.

The Sunlight pasted over the faceted hull of this mysterious ships. It moved down over the forward booms at the prow, the two separated booms looking like the snarling muzzle of some great space hound. Then up over two symmetrical domes set back above the booms making it seem as if the ship were staring out into the asteroid filled space in front of it. Finally the sun’s rays passed along the quarter mile length of the ships aft section to the three huge fusion jets. All and all the ship gave the appearance of a battle ready war dog, and it was staring right down on the two lone fighters.

“Commander?” Mike questioned a second time.

“What…” Marcus shook himself out of his shock at this unknown warship and tried to ascertain what to do. “Alright Mike make your way back out of the belt and contact Geminon. I’m transmitting you my gun camera footage, send it with yours when you make contact. Request that they launch all available fighters to screen this thing incase it proves hostile.”

“But Commander what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to try and make Contact.”

“But sir…”

“Get moving Lieutenant” Marcus cut him off.

“Aye Sir.”

Marcus fired his thrusters and flipped end over end pointing his fighter back towards the edge of the asteroid belt. “Good luck sir” he said before firing his main engine rocketing himself away at top speed.

“You too kid.” Marcus said to himself as his wingman passed out of radio range.

It took Mike less time to leave the asteroid belt than it had to find the unknown craft originally, he had simply pointed his fighter on the shortest route out and punched it into a full throttle burn. He had wanted to stay, his training and loyalty to his commander was screaming at him to turn around, “Never under any circumstances leave your wing man behind.” He heard the voice of his old Drill Instructor repeating in his head, but he had his orders. He had to get back into range of the Geminon and bring help.

It had taken almost twenty minutes and pushed his piloting skills to the limit, weaving in and out of the constantly shifting asteroids, but he had nearly cleared the belt when out of the corner of his eye mike caught a briefing flash of light on his portside rear view mirror. He did not have time to worry though because he was just about in radio range. He goosed his thrusters that much harder straining against the g-forces pressing him against his acceleration harness trying to maintain control of his fighter as he steered through the last remains of the shattered planetoids.

As he cleared the final remnants of the belt he keyed up the frequency for the Geminon, “Command this is Red Bird 2 please respond.” He repeated the message several times without response. “Where are they? They should be in range by now.”

Mike scanned his RADAR and LIDAR screens trying his best to pick up any sign of the Geminon, but he found nothing. It was simply as if the ship had simply vanished from local space. To be sure he brought up is navigation display on the small heads up display monitor and asked the computer to display the probable course of the Geminon in regards to his present location. The computer took only a few seconds to plot the requested information. it showed that after clearing the asteroid belt he should have been well within radio range of the cruiser, but still there was nothing, no radio contact, and no signature on any of his scanners just thousands of miles of empty space.

Chapter 3

The Players Gather

"Captain we are picking a high gain transmission coming from deep in the asteroid belt sir. Triangulating it now. It seems to be targeted directly at us sir, but who could know that we are out here." Daniela turned back towards her captains trying to gauge his responce to the unexpected news. Not to surprising though the Captain hid his emotions very well sitting in his command chair the brim of his service cap pulled down low shielding his eyes from view. He mearly grunted turning slightly in his chair to glance at her screen.

Finally after a few seconds of watching the screen he turned to the forward veiwport asking over his shoulder to Daniela. "Get me an exact location on the origin of that transmission and relay over to Red Bird Flight, also see if you can decrypt what ever it is that they are beaming at us that might give us some clues as to what exactly is going on here."

With her orders Daniela turned backed to her duties working dilegently to try and get better fix on the origin of the unknown transmission. While she did this she sent what had been recorded done to the cyptography-signals analysis teams in the Geminons Combat Informations Center. The CIC's more powerful computers would probably have better luck cracking the transmission than Daneila would. Tapping furiously at the keyboard she tried again and again to get a better lock on the location of the transmission but to no avail. She just couldn't get through all the signal interferience of the asteroid belt. Still tapping at the keyboard trying one last time to get a better lock on the transmission she called back over her shoulder to the captain "SirI have been able to narrow down the location of the signal slightly but the asteroid belt is generating to much interfence for a positive lock. I am attempting to relay the information to Red Bird flight but have been unable to raise them as of yet, they may have already entered the asteroid belt sir. If so then we wont be able to get them on the come until they exit the belt we get close enough and boost the signal."

"Negative," the captain responded, "continue on to the rendezvous point, if they have already entered the belt then they have a better chance of finding where ever that signal is coming from than we do, even so our orders are to continue on to the rendezvous and meet up with the Achelies for the Pluto patrol. Red Bird Flight will run their patrol and meet up with us at the rendezvous point."

"Aye Aye Captain."

Just as Daniela voiced her afermative to her captain suddenly all the consoles and lights on the bridge went dark, plunging the bridge into an infinite darkness. Seconds later the emergency auxillary power units kicked in bringing back the monitors and lighting the bridge in the blood red color of the emergency lights. Captain Tyrol whirled around turning on his bridge officers "All stations report status." Commander Walker turned around picking up the thumbs up signals or head nods of the other officers on duty and reported for them.

"All stations report operational status captain." Walker checked his monitors and placed one hand to his headset listening in as as reports from the rest of the ship poured into the bridge. "Captain it appears that the entire ship lost power at the same time. We have lost the fusion drive sir we are drifting on inertia now. Engineering reports that there is nothing wrong with the reactor sir, It seems that power just isnt reaching the rest of the ship. They are saying that we still have maneuvering thrusters but that is about it." His report given Commander Walker turned back to his station keeping a watchful eye on the data the streamed in in from the rest of the ship. Even with all the insight it was giving him he was still at a loss for what could have caused suc a complete systems failure across the entirity of the ship.

"That is all well and good commander but that still does not answer the one crucial question. What the hell happened to my ship? I mean something like this just doesn't happen." Captain Tyrol paced the length of his bridge and back again trying to get a handle on what was happening to his beloved ship. "Daniela get on the com to Major Summerson in the CIC and see if they have any information on what might have happened. The rest of you try get as many systems back up to operational status and get us under way again, I do not want to be any later to the rendezvous than is absolutel y necassary." The captain, his orders given, turned heading for the hatch at the rear of the bridge, letting the officers get on with thier jobs of trying to get the Geminon back on line. Captain Tyrol spun the wheel lock of the bridge hatch calling back over his shoulder as he stepped through "Commander i will be in my ready room, buzz me if there are any developments, otherwise the bridge is yours."

Daniela was on the com line to the CIC before the captain was even out the door. "Kim would you please get Major Summerson on the line immedately its an emergency. The captain whats to know what she has learned about the unknow transmission that i sent down there." The young enlisted techgave a quick affirmative that she would get the Major on the line as soon as possible then clicked the line over to hold as she ran to her task. It was only a matter a seconds when the line clicked signalling that it was open again.

"This is Major Summerson."

The scene in the Combat Information Center was utter chaos. Officers and enlisted techs ran all over the place from station to station trying to get a handle on what had suddenly happened to the ship. The CIC was a cavernous room housed in the exact center of the ship the rest of the ship actted as padding and armor for this room which in many ways actted as the brain and nervous center of the ship. Three of the four wall were covered floor to ceilling with an impressive of display screens and monitor banks. The forth wall had stairs leading up to a raised glass enclosed balcony with its own set of duty stations and a command station for the CIC commanding officer Colonel Bronson who was at this moment leaning over the forward railing of the CIC's Command balcony looking down through the glass watching the bedlam of the that had taken hold of CIC. The officers and enlisted personel running around the darkened vastness of the chambers looked like disembodied wraiths in the crimson light of the emergency lamps. Bronson's second Major Summerson stepped up next to him by the railing of the balcony. She was a fairly attractive women with close cropped platinum blonde hair and a slight frame. Bronson spaired his second a side long glance as she moved in next to him. "Any idea what happened major?"

"Nothing conclusive sir, though i do have a couple of ideas. I think...." Major Summerson trailed off as a technician burst through the door into the balcony. Both of the officers turned to see what the interruption was all about. "Yes Sergeant?" Summerson asked after giving him a few seconds to catch his breath.

"Ma'am the com is back online and the bridge is on the line for you they are saying its an emergency and are requesting you to get on the com to them as soon as possible."

"Thank you sergeant ill be right there." turning to Colonel Bronson she nodded and made her way out the door and down he stairs into the chaos of the CIC. Dodging running technicains she worked her way to a relatively quite corner with a communications console being manned with an obivously distraught corpral. "You got the bridge on the line for me Corpral."

"Yes Ma'am, right her Ma'am." He quickly stood up relinquishing the chair to Summerson. He turned running off to other duties as she picked up the com line.

"This is Major Summerson." she said as she picked up the com. The Major was not surprised to hear the crisp calm voice of Daniela coming from the other end of the line. "What do you need Ensign if you aren't aware we have a bit of a crisis down here."

"Major, The XO has a few questions for you about that unknow transmission that i sent down to you earlier ."

"Well lets make this quick, I got techs running around all over the place down here trying to get us back online."

"Here he is right now Major."

"Donna its Max, You got any idea whats going on here the entire ship went dead at once, we are down to manuvering thrusters and two emergency APU's bairely enough power to keep the emergency lights on. Everything went down at once right after Daniela sent that transmission down to you for decryption. Did you get anything oout of it before the computers went down."

"Hold on Max let me check with the techs that were working on it, they might be able to tell me more. All i know right now is that the things seems to be some kind of remote operated program. So we were in the process of moving it onto a secured hard drive that was isolated from the rest of the network." Major Summerson waved over a technician that was hunched over a nearby console pounding away at the keyboard trying his best to wring somekind of information out of the unresponsive computer. Looking up he saw Donna waving to him to get his attention. Slowly he got up out of his chair quickly crossing the few feet over to the com station where Donna sat her finger hover over the stand-by button for the com-line. "David was your team able to get anything definitive out of that transmission before the systems went down.."

"No Ma'am, we were in the process of transfering it onto the secure drive when everything happened."

"Where you able to finish the transfer?"

"No Ma'am we lost more than half of it when the system rebooted."

"Fracking great." She quickly hit the stand-by button reconnecting her to Max on the bridge. "Max it looks like we have lost most of that transmission, when my guys were unpacking it and moving it on to the secured drive the systems went down cutting of the transferr and erasing most of it."

"How much were you able to save Donna?"

"About 30%."

"Alright i want that to be your top priority, we need to know whatthe hell this thing is. I got engineering teams working on getting everything back online i'll send one down to you to get back up and running as soon as possible. But i need to know if this thing had anything at all with bring us down, and i need to know as soon as possible."

"Yes sir i already have a team on it but i will light a fire under them to get some answer."

"Very good keep me appraised."

Major Donnatela Summerson sat in the chair of the comstation laying her head back as the com line clicked off. She sat there for awhile trying her best to process what had happened in just the last hour. What had started as merely a rutine patrol mission had turned into a catastrophe. Times like this though were when training took over. She stood up picking up the com set and keying in the code for the CIC"s P.A. system and in a few seconds brought the room to attention.

"Alright people i know this is an unexpected situtation, non of us expected to be brought to heel like this but i dont want any to lose their heads. The rest of the crew expects us to keep our heads and lead them out of danger in times like this and that is exactly what we are going to do. The XO is send an engineering team down here to help get us back online but i dont want them to have anything to do but flip the circuit breaks back on when they get here. Do you understand?"

"YES MA'AM" the room responded in unison.

"Alright then the crypto teams will continue to work on what we were ablt to save of the unidentified transmission, as for the rest of you i want you to do what you can to get the command and control systems back online. We have birds out there and i want to be able to bring them home when the time comes. Ok that is all lets get to it people."

With that what had moments before been a chaotic storm moments before became the choreographed dance of a well trained team working as one unit. Her orders given Major Summerson turned on her heel and moved off to the stairs of the command balcony projecting the calming aura of an officer in complete control of her domain. Donna open the door at the top of the stairs making a bee-line to railing where Colonel Bronnson still stood looking every bit the king looking down on his subjects. "Nice speech." was all he had to say as she walked up beside him. Donna had her mouth open getting ready to say something as the small com line on the balcony rail beeped signalling an incoming call from the downstairs. Donna closed her mouth sighing as she picked up the com and pushed the blinking red button to connect the call.

"This is Summerson what is it."

"Major its Sergeant Reynolds in crypto. We've decoded whats left of the transmission. I think you should take a look at this thing. You're not going to like it."

"Alright I'm on my way." She replaced the com turning to Colonel Bronnson, "They cracked the transmission, sounds pretty serious sir. You wanna take a look?"

The Colonel finally turned away from the window, the tired expression on his face betraying the toll the 25 years of front-line fleet service. He sighed softly as he walked across the balcony to his small desk at the back of the room leaning over it to pull a cigar tube from one of the drawers. "No Donna you take care of it, your better with all that crypto lingo than i am any way but fill me in before you send it all up to the bridge. We may be called up for a briefing and i dont want to sound like a complete jack ass in front of the old man after all."

Offering a small smile and nodded making her way back downstairs and over to the crytography stations against the far wall. Sergeant Reynolds his team lean over him was staring transfixed by what they were watching on the monitor. "All right what do you have for me sergeant."

"Its a virus major. But its like no virus i have ever seen before. I would wager a geuss that this is an AI. An Artificially Inteligent Virus."

"But AI research was outlawed in Confed. So where did this thing come from? Better question whats its purpose?"

"No clue on either we dont have enough of the program to determine either. But i would be more worried about were the rest of it is. IF this is an AI program than something like what happened when went dark would not have deleted the program. My guess would be that when the emergency power came back on line it moved into another system leaving this small bit behind to make us think that rest was lost while it repairs its self to complete whatever task its designed to do."

"Isn't there something we can do to track it down and remove it before it causes anymore damage. I mean its not a big leap to make that this virus is why we are for all intents and purposes floating dead in space here."

"Not much we can do ma'am until we get the network monitoring programs back online. There are thousands of individual systems and computers on this ship all networked together. It could literrally be hiding anywhere."

While Donna was learning of the cause of what had befallen the Geminon, Erik had his own crisis to deal with in Engineering. He was prowling the catwalks of the engineering sectionslike a jaguar stalking his prey. Periodicly he would check various gauges and readouts. "Carla give me some good news hun." Erik called across to the catwalk near the main fusion reactor. Erik was baffeled he had never seen in anything like what had happened here. For some reason the reactor had spooled down to idle on it own shutting down all the shunts that fed power to the rest of the ship. Even though one of the emergency apu's had kicked in almost immediately, but that only provided barely enough power to keep them alive, and rudimentary systems. He looked across the expanse between the catwalks that criss-crossed over the massive fusion reactor. "Tell me you managed to get one of those power shunts open, or atleast got the second APU fired up.

"Its a no go boss, its the damndest thing. I have never seen anything like this sir. There is nothing wrong with the shunts...or any of the systems for that matter they just will not respond to outside input. I did manage to get some of the power flow monitoring software back online adn it looks like all the power that should be going to the rest of the ship is either being bled off into space or fed into the beam capacitors and the storage banks for the hyperlight drive."

Erik dropped into a dead run across the catwalk over the monitoring station manned by Carla his deputy. "Show me!" was all he had to say as he came up next her. He did a quick scan of the screen that was clearly illustraing the flow of power going everywhere but where it needed to go. "Damn damn and triple damn we are lit up like a damnable christmas tree like this. Ill place odds that they can see us clearly on the screens at Jupiter station right now. My question is what could do this and why store so much power without shunting it to other systems. Its almost like the ship is preparing for something." No sooner had he said it than the alarms started going off warning that the release mechanism for the protective armor shield had been triggered. Erik engineering teams where running all over the place trying there best to keep ahead of whatever was going on. He screamed from the catwalk "Come on people i need results here we need to get control back."

"To late sir, take a look here." He turned back to Carla looking at the monitor that had switched to an exterior camera showing the great ring shaped engine of the hyperlight drive moving into position beyond the shielded armor plate. Suddenly everything clicked all the little peices locking into place to finally form a clear picture.

"Oh no," was all erik had to say. It took him almost a minute to regather himself from the shock of realization. "Carla quick switch back to the power flow." Eriks fears were confirmed. The monitor showed all the stored up power flowing unregulated into the Hyperlight Drive bring right up to an overload as the great engine started to create the massive energy field that would tear a hole in the fabric of space and in an instant move the ship from its current location to somewhere else lightyears away.

"Oh god if the we dont explode from the acelerater coils overloading. With this much power flowing in to that engine we could wind up anywhere within a million lightyears. How long till the coils reach terminal velocity Carla?"

"30 seconds max."

"Not enough time." Erik reached keyed in the ship wide P.A. on his hand com. "All hands stand by for Immediate hyperlight jump. Brace for hyperlight entry now."

Outside the Geminon the lights of the accelerator coils blazed as bright as small suns from the unprecedented influx of raw power it was only a matter of seconds but from bow to sterns the lights winked out as armored blasted shutters came down over all the exterior portholes. As the last shudder came down a globe of shimmering light expanded outward from the Hyperlight drive quickly engulfing the entirty of the Geminon. As the globe of light reached its maximum diameter it almost appeared to solidify and stretch at the bow and stern forming what looked like a great spearhead around the old battlecruiser. Small points of rainbow light started to streak away from the spearpoint of light over the bow of the Geminon as it began to peirce through the viel of space and time and into the unknown that existed in between the two.

As quick as it had started though it was over. The point that had been hovering over the stern of the ship rocketed forward picking up the ship and shoving it through the hole it had ripped into the universe and out the otherside in space unknown, the hole closing behind it in a flash of brillant. It had only takien a matter of seconds but the Geminon was gone, vanshid without a trace.

Chapter 4

Unknown Entry

An excerpt from the memoirs of Captian Vyrgil Tyrol Commanding Officer CSS Geminon:

"What i remember of those early days is still a blurr. No one really slept. We were lost in empty space, the Hyperlight Drive was a write off the accelerator coils had melted solid from the overload of raw energy that had been funneled into them during the jump the unkown AI had initiated. The fusion reactor had scrammed out also immediately after coming out of the jump. Luckly it seemed that with its purpose fullfiled the AI had shut its self down and returned control of the ship to us. So Erik and his engineering teams were able to fire up the other two APUs, atleast we weren't floating dead in space. Non of that changed the fact that we had no idea where in space we were. I ordered an immediate recon of the surrounding space afraid that we might have jumped into enemy space or some kind of other threat but the was nothing with in the range of the fighter, and when i say nothing i mean nothing, no stars, no planets, no stations or ships, not even a rogue asteroid or comet. With no obvious oppurtunites for a resupply the realities of the situation began to set in. We had six months worth of food since we had been stocked for a long duration patrol of the outer planets. Water wasnt a worry with the recycling systems working at optimum. We clould stretch our stores to around nine months with rationing but it was going to be tight. I am not afraid to admit here that during those first few days i was scared out of my mind. In my twenty years of service i had never heard of a ship lost in deep space ever showing up again. I was determined not to have my ship become another one of those statistics. I had figured that now was the time that the crew need to see that the old man stood with them."

The gigantic flight deck of the Geminon had been cleared. Rows of different Powered Armor and fighter craft were pushed up against the bulkheads to make room for the hundreds of personel that comprised the crew of the venerable ship. A small dais with a lectern had been setup infront of the blast doors that divided the flight deck from the vacuum of open space behind the lectern was a row chairs. Seated there were Captian Tyrol his XO, Erik the chief engineer, and the Geminon's wing commander Lieutenant Colonel Sameul Wallace. The rest of the flight deck was taken up by row upon row of folding chairs for the crew. As the crew filed in taken thier seats by department Commander Max Walker took the lectern. "Please take your seats so we can get started." After a few minutes all but the duty officers had taken their seats in the flight deck to hear the announcement from the captain. The duty officers would remain at thier stations manning the ship as a skeleton crew in case something should happen. After everyone had taken their seats Max brought the assembly to attention and turned the lectern over to Captian Tyrol.

"At Ease everybody please take your seats. There are several things that need to be said and i will be taking them all in order. First things first i am sure that you are all aware by now that the Geminon's computer network was invaded by an unknown AI virus program. This as a result of this intrusion this ship was almost completely shutdown and i congratulate you all for a job well done under extrodinary circumstances. But i am afraid that I will have to ask more of you in the coming days than i have ever asked of you in the past. As of the AI incursion into or network it was able to gain control of the hyperlight drive and jump us into an uncharted rejoin of space. Thankfully we seem to have found ourselves in an unhibited area of space. In fact it is empty. Completely empty. We have already performed the standard recon and niether the fighters nor long range radar and lidar scans have turned up anything. At this moment astrogation is attempting to pin down where we emerged from the Hyperlight jump but this could take some time.

At this juntion i would be remise if i told you things look promising. They do not. The Hyperlight Drive is a write off until we can find somewhere to serve as a stand in drydock. The Primary fusion reactor scrammed immediately after we emerged from the jump. But thanks to an incredible effort by Chief Tsung's engineering teams they were able to fire up the other two emergency APUS. We are still only operating at 75% efficency. BUt its better than were we were. I know this is not the uplifting speech that you were all expecting. I am not the type of commander to feed you misleading information to make my crew feel better though. The situation is grim yes. But i have faith in each and everyone of you. You all know that no ship ever lost indeep space has ever been seen again. But i will not let that desaude me from trying. I expect each and everyone of you to give your all to bring this ship home. You do this for me and I promice you I will do everything in more power to see that you all make it there." With all that said Max stood up as the Captain turned from the podium stepping down to retake his seat.

"ATTENTION." Max called and the enitre assembly snapped up as the captain left the podium. "At this time Chief Tsung wished to address the crew. Chief the floor is yours"

Erik stood up moving quickly to podium. Visibly nervous adressing the whole crew. He took the podium gripping the sides of the lectern to steady his nerves. "Alright ill be quick as the Captain said we are operating on only the three emergency APUS at the moment while this does give us enough power to continue normal operations power will still be tight until we can get the reactor back up and running, to conserve power i have ordered that my engineering crews shut down all non essintial systems and until the reactor comes back up the lights in all work sections will be running at half power and all non essintial areas will be offline or operating under emergency lighting only. That is all." Erik stepped down from the podium sigh audibley glad that was over wanting nothing else but to be back in his engine room.

Max took the podium one last time. "Okay people your devision chiefs will realy your departments individual orders to you, Dismissed." As the assembled crew members filed out ,to either head back to their duty stations or back to thier quarters to get some shut eye before they go back on duty, Max turned back walking of the podium over to where the Captain still sat. "Do you really think that was such a good idea sir, I mean i know everyone would figure out the situation eventually but doining it like this things could go badly."

"Max i have the utmost faith in my crew that they will conduct themselves in the highest standards of the confederation and rise to the challenges that are before us." The Captain stood pulling on the front of his uniform to straighten and smooth out any wrinkles that may have formed while he was sitting. He turned back to his XO "Max we really should be heading back to the bridge, we have a lot of work ahead of us and there is no time like the present to get started.

Max nodded snapping to attention and giving his captain a perfect salute before turning and making his way off the flight deck. The Captain turned to his Chief Engineer looking him straight in the eye. "Erik i know you think your not ready for this but i have faith in you, i know you are the right man for this job. Im probably going to be asking more of you than anyone in the coming days but the ship needs you more than ever right now." The Captain stepped closer placing one hand on Erik's shoulder "I know you son i have had my eye on you since you came on board two years ago as a young ensign, I saw potential in you thats why i asked for you to stay on and replace Chief Welscot after he was killed in that unfortunate battle. Erik there is great potential in you, you just need to recognize it." He gave a reassuring squeeze to Erik's shoulder to imphasize the point. "Son I know your teams are spread really thin right now but we need that reactor online ASAP. I dont care what you have to do pull who ever you need, but we need that reactor so that we can fire the Fusion Drive up. The best that we can do with the APUS is 10% lightspeed and we wont get very far like that."

Erik was nervous he had no idea why the reactor had shut down like it did according to the diagnostic he had done the only thing wrong was that one of the plasma transfer conduits had clogged and shut down under the strain of the evennts lead upto the jump and the jump itself. With out the plasma conduit funtioning properly the reactor was forced to scramm inorder to save itself from a catastrophic meltdown. "Yes sir, I understand, if eerything goes according to plan sir then we should have the reactor back online be the end of the day. But im not promising anything. We still need to make sure the injectors weren't damaged when the reactor shut down, there are still to many unknows. We'll know more once we can get in there and start checking thinks out."

"Well i should probably let you get started, Keep me posted on your progress."

"Aye aye sir."

With that said the captain turned and left his engineer to get back to work. Captain Vyrgil Tyrol Commanding Officer of CSS Geminon. Tyrol was a thirty year vetren of the Terran Confederation Space Forces. In all his years of service nothing had prepared him for the perilous situation that he and his crew now found themselves in. He had lost commrades before, anyone that had been in the service as long as him had. Tyrol couldnt help thinking though that if they didnt make home he in one way or another would be responcible for the deaths of the hundreds 400 plus men and women on his crew. He was responsible for these men and women though, they were his crew and he was their captain, they needed him to be strong so that they could be strong and perciviere. The ghosts of the crewmen lost during the pitched battled that had nearly killed them all. The Geminon had been on routine paroll of he outer planets when they picked up something on long range scans past the orbit of pluto. Their orders required them to investigate any unknowns within confederation borders.

More to Come Soon.