EAS_Intrepid
24-08-2008, 08:50
All right, the a very first part of this story already appeared on MSFC quite a while ago.
And here is the real first part of it, with the second "in production" as we speek. This is the longest singe SciFi story I've ever written (I am also writing non-sci fi material).
A PDF-version is in the works, Including rendered scenes from the story starring my Corona class Cruiser as FFG-32 Lafayette.
A second story based on this one is drafted and laid out already, featuring not only the crew of the FFG-32 Lafayette of the European Alliance but also a Russian Hunterkiller and an American Landing Assault Ship including the 744th Tactical Assault Wing.
Here's a short spoiler:
When a Australian-Japanese Mining ship goes missing in a surveyed yet unsettled star system, the crew of the European FFG-32 Lafayette is sent to investigate.
The last comm message from the Piper Maru was about a strange comm noise...
And here it is:
Enjoy :wink:
Voices Of The Dark – Part I
T+0
Gliese 280A, FFG 32 Lafayette
The hallway, or more a corridor made of steel, felt so cold, so far away. The dim blue light made it even more unfriendly, even depressing.
Major Romano Garivano walked it down, slowly, fighting against the air that seemed like gelatin to him. He felt how his movements delayed from his mind. One second he made the step, but only some second later his leg really moved. Voices, silent, yet becoming louder, echoed through his mind.
The soft pressure on his eyeballs made quick eye movements impossible, reinforcing the feeling of a very slow flow of time… and again, he felt like taking a bath in gelatin, too clear to look through and solid enough to decelerate movements.
From one second to another, he awoke from the delirium, feeling something in his mouth, like a snorkel from shallow-water diving. He panicked, hitting with his fists through the gelatin against the glass over him. Just a second later, he realized that the liquid in his lungs also enabled him to breathe. He calmed down, accepting it.
Garivano probed his environment. The semi-fluid liquid around him broke light, so he could not see through it, but schemes gleamed through it. Although these schemes were visible, he could not definitely tell what they where.
A hydraulic sound was heard, the glass over him moved. Hands grabbed him and got him out of the tank. Instead of panicking again, Garivano quickly realized what was going on.
As he was out of the tank and sat down on a rather uncomfortable chair, he bowed down, coughing the oxygen-transporting fluid out of his lungs.
The floor blurred before his eyes, but as soon as a great deal of the liquid was out of his body, he could see his environment more clearly.
“Major.”
Still coughing, Garivano looked up to the person speaking to him.
“It’s all right. It’s all right.” Garivano replied, shaking his head to bring some literal order into his mind. “I think, the endorphin injection had a malfunction.”
”Yes, indeed. We just checked it.” The person gave him a towel. “Sir, the Colonel wants to talk to you in fifteen minutes. You may take a shower if you wish.”
”Yes, yes.” Still Garivano seemed a little off. Now he recognized the person as the crew doc, the man that kept everything running.
The Major stumbled to the shower room.
Fifteen minutes later he stood in the Colonel’s office. Everything was very simple, no luxuries, aside a picture of the Brandenburg Gate and a European flag.
“Sit down.” Colonel Makarov said, pointing at the chair in front of the metal desk. “Your first jump, Major?”
”No, Sir, the third actually. One to Zeta Reticuli 1 and one back and now this one.”
”Hm, you where planet-bound? Or inner-system?”
Garivano was surprised by the small-talk the Czech Colonel did. “Mostly inner-system. Yet I had many hibernation phases during my service.”
“Yeah, that’s either the worst or the best part of it. Depends on how good the endorphin injections work.”
“Yes, Sir. I just had a rough ride. The injection did not work properly. I guess the dose was too low. The more you had, the more the docs need to give you for the next time.”
Makarov nodded. “Okay, enough of that. We are to meet an Australian deep-range mining ship. They looked for minerals in the asteroid belts, and received something strange. They asked for some assistance, but the Australians or Japanese have no ship to dispatch. And since the South-Pac Consortium and the European Alliance play nice recently, we are here.
I tell you this, because you are my first officer. The miners got spooked quite badly. Some echo overstressed their comm relays. Since three month they had no contact to anyone. Last time the Australian deep-space comm relay had contact to them, they were up to getting on each other’s throats. Their last message was something like” Makarov took a pile of papers and looked through the different files. “Something like ‘We can hear them. A wonderful melody from space. Weeping, singing. Get someone here.’”
Garivano frowned. “Sir, are we talking about a first contact?”
”No” Makarov replied quickly. “There was an audio recording with the melody in the back ground. Our guys say that it is Beethoven, but not Mister Chiwa.”
“Well, then…” Garivano replied, also smirking about Makarov’s joke about the most recent television sensation: a group of surgically altered alien-looking humans living in a desert in Nevada. They did not even now they were humans. The cameras pictured everything, 24 hours on 7 weekdays.
No, future wasn’t that exciting as it seemed in some antique Star Trek movies, Garivano thought.
“Alpha shift to CIC, Alpha shift to CIC.”
T+1
“Commence system check-up.” Makarov ordered, settling down in a chair from where he could overview the command deck.
“Aye, Sir.” Garivano replied the order and began the full restart procedure. “Stations, report. Systems checkup.”
“Computer: go! Network: go!”
”Electronics: go!”
”Engines: go!”
”Weapons: go!”
”EWS: go!”
”J-BOS: go!”
”Environment: go!”
”Telemetry: go! Nav: go!”
“Comm: Go!”
“Science: go!”
”OPCON: Go!”
Garivano nodded satisfied. “Colonel, all system checked. We are ready.”
T+19
The Master Chief concentrated harder on the radio frequency ****ysis he had on the screen in front of him. The 2nd Lieutenant looked at him, waiting for a reply.
“Nope, junior. That’s no background noise” Master Chief DeNeve finally said.
”Okay…” the Lieutenant mumbled. “Actual, here Comm. I am receiving a radio frequency, very fade. But it is there.”
Captain Sandra Meyer, the Operations Controller (OPCON), stood up from the chair Makarov had 13 hours before.
“What is it?”
”A melody of some kind. If we had a second receiver I could probably triangulate from where it comes.”
”Okay” Meyer said. “Master Chief, launch a telemetry buoy, I want to know what it is and from where it comes. Lieutenant, get the Colonel here. Set condition four throughout the ship!”
“Yes, Ma’am” Master Chief DeNeve replied and turned to the Weapons Systems officer.
“WSO, put a Mark III probe into Launch Tube Two. Prepare a data feed to the Telemetry station.”
The Comm officer turned away from his station “Colonel’s on the line!”
“Put him through” replied Meyer.
“Report, Captain” the Colonel’s voice sounded through the intercom.
“Sir, we have picked up audio signals. Comm misunderstood it first as background noise.”
The Lieutenant at the Comm station interrupted to give an update. “It is definitely not on a standard communication frequency. The transmission is pretty garbled, I cannot even get a clear sound, merely a whisper.”
The Colonel sighed. “I’ll be right there.”
”Mark III probe in Launch Tube Two. Reuquest firing permission” the WSO reported.
Captain Meyer looked to the Comm Station. “Do you have any bearing on the transmission, Lieutenant?”
”No, Captain. It is basically everywhere. Give me a minute and I can possibly say, on which bearing the signal is the strongest.”
”Do it.”
Colonel Markarov appeared in CIC. Immediately he approached the plotting table, on which the charts of the star system were displayed.
“Anything new?” he asked.
Captain Meyer stood on the opposite side of the plotter.
“We have a probe in launch tube two. Comm is currently trying to find out, from which direction the signal could transmit.”
“Good.” Makarov nodded, taking a close look on the star charts. “Chief of the Deck, call astrometrics and ask, if there are any pulsars or other very active radiation sources in a vicinity of about twenty lightyears. Or anything else that could interfere with sensors or communication farther than that.”
”Yes, Sir” The Chief DeNeve went to the next intercom and asked for astrometrics.
Makarov focused on the star chart again.
“Major Stellan, the outcome of the general sensor sweep fifteen hours ago did not show anything unusual?”
Stellan was the ships sensor and science officer.
On a warship of the Corona class there were usually three different stations with three officers and/or non-coms each that processed incoming data. Comm cared about communications and had assignments not unlike earlier SONAR-stations on submarines.
Then there was the OPCON, the Operations Controller. While there was only one person (an officer) on deck, who was designated as OPCON, there were three people (that officer and two noncoms) reviewing and ****yzing information from transponders, tactical short-range sensors and the like. On routine duty the OPCON and his immediate staff also managed the flight operations to and from the ship.
The third of these stations was the Sensor and science station. When most of the OPCON’s equipment was built for the means of combat, the science station’s crew cared about all the rest: planetary, solar system, environmental data and so on. They also relied their gathered pieces of information directly to the astrometrics lab.
Even if this was a warship, it had a complete scientifical yet military staff aboard.
“Negative, Sir. Should I order another general sensor sweep?”
Makarov nodded. “Yes, Major. I want you to pay closer attention to these gas giants. Have we any trace of the mining vessel?”
The Captain Meyers answered “No, Sir. Since they lost their communications suit, it is a good guess that heir lost their transponder, too.”
”Sensors haven’t found any wreckage, but as you know, we can only be sure when we searched every planet.”
Makarov turned to the Comm officer again. “Anything on the signal?”
”No, Sir.”
Colonel Makarov sighed. “I’ve had enough ‘no’ for now. WSO, launch probe. Chief of the deck, get me Major Garivano here.”
The two acknowledged the Colonel’s command. Immediately the WSO and his noncoms launched the probe.
“Data feed up and running” the WSO reported.
“OPCON. Receiving data. I relay the incoming data directly to Comm and Science.”
“Good. Comm, record any audio signal you may get and send it to the science labs. Let the scientists see if they can clear it up or do something with it.”
T+25
Garivano took Makarovs place on the plotting table six hours ago.
Meyer walked down from the OPCON station to the plotting table.
“Sir, six hours are over…”
”… and nothing happened, yes. Navigation, plor course for the gas giant. All ahead flank. OPCON, how long can you keep the data feed from the probe active?”
”For as long as the probe itself is active, which should be about a month.”
“Science, does the radiation of that gas giant interfere with the data feed?”
”Most likely, but we could use another Mark I probe as a relay station. If placed correctly, we can even receive when the gas giant or a moon is between us and the probe.”
“Good. Keep it in mind, we will be there in a week.”
T+193
A full week has passed since the ship entered the Gliese 280A system via FTL.
Makarov was in CIC as they approached the largest of the systems three gas giants. Around it were scattered debries of what probably had been moons that either collided or were destroyed by the interstellar equivalent to a crash between a 150 tons truck and a heavy locomtive: crashes of large asteroids and small planetoids.
Five years ago an Australian-American mining corporation sent two heavy and large mining motherships to probe the system for resources and proceed with mining operations. To do this, several larger mining rigs would have been assembled from ready-made parts and brought into orbit of either a moon or a large asteroid.
One of the ships was redirected to a near star system to assist after the assinged mining rig reported problems with their drilling equipment.
So only one ship was left to probe at Gliese 280A for minerals.
Two star systems so close that both have planets, what a lucky coincidence, thought Makarov as he looked through the new sensor data that they received, as they closed in on the gas giant.
“Major Stellan, which celestial body was the Piper Maru to probe?”
Stellan tipped on the touch screen monitor in frond of him, opening the folder containing all relevant and irrelevant information about the Piper Maru. Another finger tip and the flight plan of the Maru flashed onto the screen.
“Moon Majest 12. The moon itself seems to have an asteroid nearby which has nearly the same orbital speed as the moon itself. One could say, that this asteroid has more a geosynchronus orbit around the moon than around the gas giant.”
”Hm… are there any other objects that could be dangerous to us?”
“Well, there are several fast flying debris, many smaller objects. Flying into that immediate area with the ships is not recommended?”
”What is immediate area, Major?” Garivano stood behind the Nav stations plotting table, working with the Nav officer on a course to the last known position of the Piper Maru.
“About 200 klicks, Sir” Stellan replied briefly.
“I see. Colonel, any orders?” the Major asked.
“Plot a course to a position 250 klicks away from that area. OPCON, prepare two shuttles and put A Company into alert status. When we are there we take a look from that position, before we proceed.”
“Aye, Sir” replied both Captain Meyer and Major Garivano.
The Nav officer stopped plotting. “Sir, at three-quarters we will be there in about five ours.”
“Good. Get us there, Major.”
“Aye” replied Garivano “Come right to one-one-five by two-zero. Set engines to three-quarters.”
“OPCON, prepare a Mark I probe for a relay mission to keep the data feed with the comm probe active. Telemetry, compute a solution for the launch.”
Fifteen minutes later the Telemetry officer turned to Makarov.
“Sir, we have a launch solution. At steady speed and direction we can launch a comm bouy, which also spares us a probe.”
“Good. OPCON, you have heard it. Put a comm bouy into tube seven and begin pre-launch procedures.”
T+197
In one hour they would arrive on the position near the moon Majest 12. Data feed with the probe was active through the bouy, yet the Comm officer was still puzzled about the ongoing mysterious noise and did not find anything new.
Makarov was in his bunk, reading. He was not only puzzled, he was worried. The book merely meant distraction.
A mining ship crew, that would be about fifty people in case of the Piper Maru, heard Beethoven in deep space. They were frightened as hell and they started to make their relatively safe mothership to their very own personal one.
And now his ship also picks up a strange background noise.
All warships were equipped with up-to-date databanks, inlcuding recordings of nearly all interstellar and stellar phenomena. If you believe it or not, but far away from Earth or any other larger settlement space really has a noise, just like the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It was no noise like carried by vibrations of air, water or soil, more a steady electronic humming and beeping from pulsars, red giants, other suns, black holes…
Asides that, Makarov could rely on the Comm officer. He was stationed aboard deep space exploration vessels before being reassigned to the Aurora.
Makarov put the book aside. He stared at the bulkheads for several minutes, listening, if the noise could also be heard without sensor equipment.
No, there was nothing. Only in such realy quite moments he could hear the steady humming of the engines and machinery, the clacking of boots on the corridor just outside his cabin.
It was spartan. I small bunk, the two shelfes and the wardrobe built into the bulkhead, a simple desk and one of the standard (and very comfortable, to Makarov’s opinion) chair.
Makarov sat up and rubbed his eyes. He could not sleep. Many, actually all, missions in deep space were mainly waiting. Waiting until one moved out of range of any planetary gravation to commence FTL Jump, then several weeks in hypernation in which the ships speeds up to a velocity ten times faster than light. Then awaking and bringing the ship into full shape again and then waiting again, until a position is reached or sensor scans and sweeps bring results, waiting for rendez-vouz with an unmanned supply freighter et cetera et cetera.
The whole time without real work was exhausting, but it left too many reserves unused so that one could really sleep. Half of the crew was on sleeping meds, which was no way good, but otherwise they would fall asleep on their stations sooner or later.
A few hours ago they brought the shifts back in order.
“Gamma shift to CIC! Gamma shift to CIC!”
All Space Navy ships ran on an eighteen hour day. It left each crewman with full eight hours of sleep, six hours of duty, one hour of extra duty as caring about the shape of the issued equipment plus three hours of spare time, one before and two after duty. Thus the crew could act most effectively. It got more than enough sleep and not a full workload of eight hours. Six hours a day can be exhausting enough when serving on a starship.
Alpha shift took the first six hours and was commanded by the ship’s CO himself, Beta the second six hours and being under command of the XO and Gamma took the third six hours and was usually commanded by the ship’s third officer in line (on most ships this was the OPCON, even though the science officer might be of a higher rank).
Captain Meyers as well as other officers appeared in the CIC to assume command.
Garivano was focused on the sensor data coming in from a directed active and passive scan of the gas giant. As of now it was just named as Gliese Two-Eighty Alpha Delta, being the fourth planet of a system conisting of a total of six planets. Two others were gas giants as this one, the others mere flying rocks shaped by endless craters from asteroid impacts.
Meyers stood on the other side of the plotter and saluted. “Sir, reporting to station.”
Garivano just nodded. Meyers was always a by-the-book officer that included military protocol. Makarov was, too, but he could let it down after duty. Meyer couldn’t.
“Thanks, Captain. You have the CIC. Sound Beta shift to be over.”
“Yes, Sir.” She waited until the noncom at the Communications station had relieved his predecessor from the Beta shift. “Intercom, sound Gamma shift.”
Makarov leaned over the maps again. “So, Sandra, let’s have a look. Scanners picked up about five moons, thirteen asteroids from medium to king size, countless smaller objects and infinite really small fragments that probably burst around at high speed and create a dense field that sensors cannot look through yet.”
”Sounds like a perfect place for a mining operation!” Even though sticking to protocol, she always had a cynic or humorous remark. “If I can hazard a guess, Major: they lost their ship in a freak accident. Maybe they could not even set up a rig.”
”But they were in the system for two months before they sent a distress call. The ship brakes somewhere between the systems outer edge and Sol, the mining corporation probably computed a course that will stop the Piper Maru somewhere near Two-Eighty Alpha Alpha, to safe time and money on fuel and maybe an automated supply run to refuel the ship.” He pointed the mentioned coordinates on the map. “They will have three days to check the ship. The nav officer, probably a veteran of the first Colonial War, decides that he does not fully trust the computer, thus he steers the ship with his Co-Nav officer himself to the location where the rig is set off. That takes about ten days. Give ‘em some time to maneuver into a geosynchronous orbit it takes three more days. After that they have to set the ship for construction the rig. Two days, because there is automation and lots of robots doing most of the work. Assembling the rig two weeks and positioning it exactly another three days. That are thirty-five days. They should have started mining three weeks before their distress signal.”
“What about the supply ship?” Meyer asked.
“The supply ship was about to launch off a base in the Kuiper belt as the distress call came in with an emergency signal drone.”
“I see.” Meyer looked on the digital watch on the large tactics screen. “In about forty minutes we are in position. We have everything under control. You want to be notified?”
“If anything real dramatic happens, yes. If not, I am about to sleep my eight hours sack time plus the two hours spare.”
“All right. Major!” she saluted again. Garivano saluted, too, turned around and went to his bunk.
T+198
The ship’s forward thrusters fired and brought the warship to a relative halt.
“Science, commence a direct scan of the moon!” Major Meyers ordered.
The science officer ngave his aye and started his work.
“OPCON, put two shuttles to alert status fifteen. Make sure A Company is armed and ready to board the shuttles, full EVA suits.”
“Ma’am, shouldn’t we call the Colonel to the bridge?” the Chief of the Deck asked.
“No, Chief. He is well asleep. In two hours we will wake him up, when we have all results from the scanners.”
“As you order.”
“Get me a line to astrometrics. I want to know if there are any larger objects heading our way. OPCON, Nav, plot a course for the two shuttles for the assumed position of the Piper Maru and the mining rig. Comm, any signals?”
“Negative, Ma’am.”
“Broadcast a message on all frequencies, Audio and text transmission. Morse if necessary. ‘This is the European warship Berlin. Piper Maru, please respond.’ Repeat it several times.”
“Aye” the Comm officer acknowledged and gave orders to his staff. “Ma’am, I may suggest that a broadband high frequency active sensor scan might get their attention” he added cautiously.
“But we could blind the Piper Maru's sensor suit with it. If the crew is in a bad shape already, this will make them very suspicious towards us.”
“The OPCON has a point, Lieutenant. Commence transmission of audio and text message.”
The comm officer nodded briefly and got to work.
T+200
The science officer raised an eyebrow. Near the moon itself were a lot of debris, partially of human-made nature, but mostly smaller rocks floating around, crashing with the countless small and fast pieces of stellar junk.
“Captain Meyers, I have found the construction rig. And I know why it took so long to locate it.”
Meyers immediately walked up to the science station. “Report!”
“The rig is near Majest 12, but far away from the position it ought to be. You see, here” he pointed out the assumed coordinates of the rig “should it be. But…. it is not, as we know now. Instead, the rig is somewhat ‘under’ the south pole of the moon, near several medium sized rocks. It was on the very edge of the area covered by the directed sensor sweep. As we speak the scanners perform the whole sweep onto the current coordinates of the rig.”
“Any idea how it got there?”
“A rig itself has maneuvring thrusters only” one of the non-coms spoke up.
“And for an object of that size and mass it would take a lot of time and fuel to get there.”
“Yes. To do that they would have needed the supplies from the supply freighter.”
Thoughts raced through Meyer’s mind. “What if they decided to put up the rig on that place, because the target asteroid did not prove to be as valuable as they thought.”
“That is a possibility. But one thing is bothering me, Ma’am” the science officer continued “where is the Piper Maru? Even they would have been in need for the supply run to move out of the immediate area.”
“Okay.” Meyers turned away from the officers and noncoms to the COD. “Get Colonel Makarov and Major Garivano here. OPCON, order to board the shuttle and put them onto alert status five! Set condition three throughout the ship!”
Just a few minutes later Makarov and Garivona appeared in CIC:
“SitRep!” ordered Makarov, as he advanced to the large tactical viewscreen.
“We have found the mining rig, but there is no trace of the Piper Maru. I ordered A Company and two assault shuttles to Alert Status five.”
“Good. Where is the mining rig now?”
“It is 150 klicks south of Majest 12, near two larger asteroid fragments.”
The shuttle bay’s pressure dropped and the massive blast doors opened it to open space. The two shuttles immediately lifted off and departed.
It would only take them thirty minutes to arrive at the rig.
Makarov wandered around the bridge, Meyer took over the OpCon station and Garivano was not sure what to do.
“Sir, there are several debris that are definitely from a human-constructed source. I advise to launch a drone to take a closer look.”
Makarov nodded and gave OpCon orders to launch that drone.
“Assemble some pieces and bring them in for an extended investigation. COD, tell the science staff that there are some parts coming in. Order high security precautions! The debris might very well contaminated and radioactive.”
T+201
The shuttle Vincennes arrived at the rig first. Slowly it approached the large superstructure and maneuvered along partially broken and torn girders to an airlock.
The airlock itself was destroyed, apparently from a blast coming from the inside of it.
“Sir, incoming call from the Vincennes” the Comm officer called.
“Put it on speakers.”
Background noise was heard, then the shuttle’s pilot spoke.
“We have found an airlock. The problem is that it is blasted from the inside. I can look right through the airlock into a small corridor. Looks like there was an explosive device set up…”
Garivano moved to Makarov to talk to him privately.
“Sir, if that was an explosive device we shouldn’t send someone in. Explosives are common use among miners. The whole rig could be plastered with charges!”
“A probe is too large to fit into the small compartments of a rig. We send A Company in. Vincennes, begin EVA boarding procedure, but proceed with extreme caution!”
T+201
“OpCon, please repeat.”
“Vincennes, you are to commence boarding the rig. Colonel’s orders.”
“Roger that, OpCon. Vincennes, out.”
The Marines of A Company were strapped in their seats as was the three-man shuttle crew. The straps were loosened and after pushing themselves away from their seats the infantrymen were floating around in the shuttle. Activating the magnetic boots, they regained grip with the ground fast.
“All right, people. Ready your gear. Cabin is depressurized is twenty seconds.”
The pilots flying the military shuttles were Marines as their infantry comrades. Assault shuttles were a part of the general Marine Corps assault detachments on medium to large warships. Additionally to that every ship also housed several Navy shuttles for the general purpose of ferrying cargo or personnel.
Smaller ships had a Marine element, but no assault shuttles.
The Marines closed the visors of their EVA helmets. They reported their status to the company commander, who then gave the pilot the final go-ahead to depressurize the cabin.
A subtle fizzle was heard as the air streamed into the shuttle’s oxygen tanks. The large frontal door opened, the Marines began to move to the airlock with small jetpacks worn like backpacks on their EVAs.
Major Robert Derry was a life-long Marine. Since his 17th birthday he was on tour with the Corps and he did see many worlds and places. He has fought in every war the European Alliance was involved in for the last 25 years.
“Derry to OpCon. We are at the airlock and prepare to make our way into the rig. Requesting comm check!”
“Roger that, Major. I will hand you over to Comm.”
“Major, this is comm. Checking now.” Several seconds passed, as the non-commissioned officer sent signals back and forth to and from the EVA’s comm. suit.
“Systems are running normally. Comm is clear. OpCon will take over again.”
“Major, this is OpCon. We read you clearly. Colonel orders that you go in now!”
“Roger that. Major out.
Garivano listened to the chilling calm sound traffic between the Marines and the Comm and OpCon.
Makarov interrupted Garivano’s thoughts as he ordered a video feed of Major Derry’s helmet camera to be put on screen.
“OpCon to Derry. We have your video feed on screen. Report.”
“Understood. The airlock is plastered with fragments of an type two explosive charge. We haven’t found any larger pieces. About fifty meters behind the airlock’s inner blast door is another bulkhead. It seems to be intact. We will proceed.”
“Understood. Be advised, behind that bulkhead might very well still be air or a pressurized compartment.”
The Marines advanced to the bulkhead. A private closed in on it and even spotted a small instrument showing the pressure and air temperature behind the bulkhead.
“OpCon, we have found a mechanical device which indicates, that the air temperature behind that bulkhead is forty degrees below zero.”
“Roger. Open the bulkhead.”
The private as well as a Lieutenant tried to open the bulkhead by human force, but did not succeed. Derry ordered the use of a special shotgun to breach the bulkheads locking mechanism.
As the bulkhead opened, a subtle stream of cold air left the room and a corpse was floating out of it.
“Ahhh, OpCon, we have found a corpse.”
Derry grabbed it. He quickly pushed it away as he saw into the lifeless eyes of the dead women. Right above her chin was a large wound, typical from a sidearm commonly used on mining ships against boarding pirate force.
“Major? Major Derry! Report!” he heard Colonel Makarov over his headphones.
He must have overheard the previous calls…
“Sir, the woman has been shot in the head.”
“Repeat that, Major.” The OpCon was talking to the Major again.
“The woman has been shot in the head. Judging from the look of it was it a caliber 11mm standard sidearm with hollow-point rounds.”
Garivano wandered to the OpCon station to take a look of all the readings from the Marines.
“Put her in a body bag and bring her to the shuttle. Let the doc take a look at it” he ordered quietly.
T+214
The officers and several noncoms of the ship were sitting in the officer’s mess. Makarov had called for an all-out briefing of the ship’s senior staff.
“Major Derry, what have you found aboard the rig?” he asked the Major, looking straight into his eyes.
“We have found seven corpses. Three of them have wounds from gun shots. Telling us what killed the other four is the doc’s task. Other than these corpses: most of the rig had a temperature below minus thirteen degrees, pressure was only partially stable. In fact, nearly all sections were near to a depressurized status. Especially near the command and control center traces of a gunfight could be seen, as floating spent shell casings, bumps in the bulkheads and the like. The rig’s computer core has been erased, only main control and communications functions were still available, as well as the most recent in- or outgoing communication. Speaking of which, only our all-frequency-call was recorded.”
“That would mean the data storage has been erased before we entered the system or made that call” said Garivano
“Yes, Major” Derry nodded twice. “The control system of the RCS thrusters was still active. Environmental control, too, but someone deactivated most life support systems. The core itself was no way damaged by any explosive devices.”
“Have you found any further charges?” Makarov asked as he wrote down notes on a sheet of paper.
“No, Sir. None. And I mean: none. Not even in the locked compartment where the explosive charges for mining purposes ought to be stored were any fuses or charges. The Vincennes searched the large superstructure and maintenance girders of the rig, but even on the outside were no explosives.”
“Thank you, Major Derry.” Makarov put the pen down. “Doc, what is the outcome of the examination of the corpses?”
The doc cleared his throat and opened a folder, containing different files.
Doctor Simon Valdez was of Spanish decent. He was one of the oldest doctors still serving on a warship.
“As Major Derry already pointed out, three of the people were shot, two men, one woman. Two of them must have been executed, as I found entry wounds on their necks. The women the Major found was shot from the front.
However, the other four, two women, two men, had bruises all over their bodies. I do not think I need to go too much into detail: but it can be safely said that all the scars and bruises and even broken spines and bones come from hand-to-hand-fighting: Seeing such heavy injuries, one could not even call it a brawl. This has been a very painful death.”
“Lieutenant Mikos, anything new on that background comm noise?”
The young comm officer looked to Makarov. He was posted on the ship just a month ago.
“Ahm. Unfortunately not, Sir. I recorded it, listened to it when playing the noise ten times faster and so on. A full digital ****ysis of the noise’s spectrum did not bring anything, but I am on it!”
Makarov grumbled but nodded to the Comm officer.
“All right. That will be all for now. XO, rig the ship for Condition three. You may inform the crew about the latest developments. I will give further orders in a few hours. If there is anything new, I’ll be in my quarters. You are dismissed!”
Captain Meyer joined Major Garivanos walk to the CIC.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I don’t know what to make of the situation. We have a missing Mining mothership, a half-destroyed mining rig and seven dead miners… not to forget there is that strange background noise Comm receives.”
“Do you think it’s alien?”
Garivano laughed out. “No, not really. Well, maybe it is. I think it is caused by some interstellar phenomena of a very scientific nature.”
“Okay. I am with you on that guess.”
As both entered the armed Marine guards saluted.
“Ten-HUT!” Makarov yelled. The CIC crew snapped to attention.
“All right, people. We have found seven dead miners on that rig. They were killed by a human. I spare you the details. We have no trace of some of the explosive charges used for mining purposes that were meant to be in the arms locker aboard the rig. Several were found by the Marines in the rig and could be defused. However, the rest is still missing. OpCon, I want you to have an eye on the asteroid field around us and the rig and look for floating or placed explosives. Use drones, I don’t want crewmembers to be harmed.
Unfortunately, we are also missing something else. As you have noticed, we have no clue where the Piper Maru is now.
The Colonel will give further orders within the next hours. Until that this ship will remain ready for combat or retrieval operations. Chief of the Deck, set Condition Three throughout the ship. I also want a full systems check. Comm, you need more comm buoys to triangulate where the strange signals come from, ask for it. OpCon, C Company is to take over the rig from A Company. A Company will return to the ship to have some sack time. B Company will remain shipboard. That is all for now. You have your orders!”
T+128
Without being noticed by anyone but the Marine Guards Makarov entered the CIC.
“SitRep!” he yelled and the crew snapped.
Garivano stopped ****yzing the system charts and stood straight.
“Ship is set to Condition three. We are ready to step up the alert status anytime. No further developments, Sir.”
“Good. Comm, send an automated comm drone to base, we need a supply freighter with fuel, water and food to start a full survey of this system. I intend to find the Piper Maru. I also want a document consisting of all the data we have assembled on the rig and the Piper Maru attached. Mark it as Top Secret and direct it to General Voigt.”
“Yes, Sir” the comm officer replied, getting to work.
“You heard me. I want to search the star system for the Piper Maru. First we will conduct a search of the gas giants, then we continue checking every planet. OpCon, XO, I want a survey plan in five hours. Meyers, Garivano, you are both dismissed for that. If you need help feel free to request it. Alpha shift to the CIC. The rest is to get some bunk time.”
Historical Note:
FFG 32 Lafayette
Named after Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette. A French and American war hero. He fought in the American Revolutionary War and helped the American settlers to free themselves from British rule. He was a very capable battlefield commander.
In 1992 the French Navy launched one of the first stealthy frigates and named it after Lafayette, the FF710 La Fayette.
This is not meant as an offense against the British citizens around MSFC :wink:
And here is the real first part of it, with the second "in production" as we speek. This is the longest singe SciFi story I've ever written (I am also writing non-sci fi material).
A PDF-version is in the works, Including rendered scenes from the story starring my Corona class Cruiser as FFG-32 Lafayette.
A second story based on this one is drafted and laid out already, featuring not only the crew of the FFG-32 Lafayette of the European Alliance but also a Russian Hunterkiller and an American Landing Assault Ship including the 744th Tactical Assault Wing.
Here's a short spoiler:
When a Australian-Japanese Mining ship goes missing in a surveyed yet unsettled star system, the crew of the European FFG-32 Lafayette is sent to investigate.
The last comm message from the Piper Maru was about a strange comm noise...
And here it is:
Enjoy :wink:
Voices Of The Dark – Part I
T+0
Gliese 280A, FFG 32 Lafayette
The hallway, or more a corridor made of steel, felt so cold, so far away. The dim blue light made it even more unfriendly, even depressing.
Major Romano Garivano walked it down, slowly, fighting against the air that seemed like gelatin to him. He felt how his movements delayed from his mind. One second he made the step, but only some second later his leg really moved. Voices, silent, yet becoming louder, echoed through his mind.
The soft pressure on his eyeballs made quick eye movements impossible, reinforcing the feeling of a very slow flow of time… and again, he felt like taking a bath in gelatin, too clear to look through and solid enough to decelerate movements.
From one second to another, he awoke from the delirium, feeling something in his mouth, like a snorkel from shallow-water diving. He panicked, hitting with his fists through the gelatin against the glass over him. Just a second later, he realized that the liquid in his lungs also enabled him to breathe. He calmed down, accepting it.
Garivano probed his environment. The semi-fluid liquid around him broke light, so he could not see through it, but schemes gleamed through it. Although these schemes were visible, he could not definitely tell what they where.
A hydraulic sound was heard, the glass over him moved. Hands grabbed him and got him out of the tank. Instead of panicking again, Garivano quickly realized what was going on.
As he was out of the tank and sat down on a rather uncomfortable chair, he bowed down, coughing the oxygen-transporting fluid out of his lungs.
The floor blurred before his eyes, but as soon as a great deal of the liquid was out of his body, he could see his environment more clearly.
“Major.”
Still coughing, Garivano looked up to the person speaking to him.
“It’s all right. It’s all right.” Garivano replied, shaking his head to bring some literal order into his mind. “I think, the endorphin injection had a malfunction.”
”Yes, indeed. We just checked it.” The person gave him a towel. “Sir, the Colonel wants to talk to you in fifteen minutes. You may take a shower if you wish.”
”Yes, yes.” Still Garivano seemed a little off. Now he recognized the person as the crew doc, the man that kept everything running.
The Major stumbled to the shower room.
Fifteen minutes later he stood in the Colonel’s office. Everything was very simple, no luxuries, aside a picture of the Brandenburg Gate and a European flag.
“Sit down.” Colonel Makarov said, pointing at the chair in front of the metal desk. “Your first jump, Major?”
”No, Sir, the third actually. One to Zeta Reticuli 1 and one back and now this one.”
”Hm, you where planet-bound? Or inner-system?”
Garivano was surprised by the small-talk the Czech Colonel did. “Mostly inner-system. Yet I had many hibernation phases during my service.”
“Yeah, that’s either the worst or the best part of it. Depends on how good the endorphin injections work.”
“Yes, Sir. I just had a rough ride. The injection did not work properly. I guess the dose was too low. The more you had, the more the docs need to give you for the next time.”
Makarov nodded. “Okay, enough of that. We are to meet an Australian deep-range mining ship. They looked for minerals in the asteroid belts, and received something strange. They asked for some assistance, but the Australians or Japanese have no ship to dispatch. And since the South-Pac Consortium and the European Alliance play nice recently, we are here.
I tell you this, because you are my first officer. The miners got spooked quite badly. Some echo overstressed their comm relays. Since three month they had no contact to anyone. Last time the Australian deep-space comm relay had contact to them, they were up to getting on each other’s throats. Their last message was something like” Makarov took a pile of papers and looked through the different files. “Something like ‘We can hear them. A wonderful melody from space. Weeping, singing. Get someone here.’”
Garivano frowned. “Sir, are we talking about a first contact?”
”No” Makarov replied quickly. “There was an audio recording with the melody in the back ground. Our guys say that it is Beethoven, but not Mister Chiwa.”
“Well, then…” Garivano replied, also smirking about Makarov’s joke about the most recent television sensation: a group of surgically altered alien-looking humans living in a desert in Nevada. They did not even now they were humans. The cameras pictured everything, 24 hours on 7 weekdays.
No, future wasn’t that exciting as it seemed in some antique Star Trek movies, Garivano thought.
“Alpha shift to CIC, Alpha shift to CIC.”
T+1
“Commence system check-up.” Makarov ordered, settling down in a chair from where he could overview the command deck.
“Aye, Sir.” Garivano replied the order and began the full restart procedure. “Stations, report. Systems checkup.”
“Computer: go! Network: go!”
”Electronics: go!”
”Engines: go!”
”Weapons: go!”
”EWS: go!”
”J-BOS: go!”
”Environment: go!”
”Telemetry: go! Nav: go!”
“Comm: Go!”
“Science: go!”
”OPCON: Go!”
Garivano nodded satisfied. “Colonel, all system checked. We are ready.”
T+19
The Master Chief concentrated harder on the radio frequency ****ysis he had on the screen in front of him. The 2nd Lieutenant looked at him, waiting for a reply.
“Nope, junior. That’s no background noise” Master Chief DeNeve finally said.
”Okay…” the Lieutenant mumbled. “Actual, here Comm. I am receiving a radio frequency, very fade. But it is there.”
Captain Sandra Meyer, the Operations Controller (OPCON), stood up from the chair Makarov had 13 hours before.
“What is it?”
”A melody of some kind. If we had a second receiver I could probably triangulate from where it comes.”
”Okay” Meyer said. “Master Chief, launch a telemetry buoy, I want to know what it is and from where it comes. Lieutenant, get the Colonel here. Set condition four throughout the ship!”
“Yes, Ma’am” Master Chief DeNeve replied and turned to the Weapons Systems officer.
“WSO, put a Mark III probe into Launch Tube Two. Prepare a data feed to the Telemetry station.”
The Comm officer turned away from his station “Colonel’s on the line!”
“Put him through” replied Meyer.
“Report, Captain” the Colonel’s voice sounded through the intercom.
“Sir, we have picked up audio signals. Comm misunderstood it first as background noise.”
The Lieutenant at the Comm station interrupted to give an update. “It is definitely not on a standard communication frequency. The transmission is pretty garbled, I cannot even get a clear sound, merely a whisper.”
The Colonel sighed. “I’ll be right there.”
”Mark III probe in Launch Tube Two. Reuquest firing permission” the WSO reported.
Captain Meyer looked to the Comm Station. “Do you have any bearing on the transmission, Lieutenant?”
”No, Captain. It is basically everywhere. Give me a minute and I can possibly say, on which bearing the signal is the strongest.”
”Do it.”
Colonel Markarov appeared in CIC. Immediately he approached the plotting table, on which the charts of the star system were displayed.
“Anything new?” he asked.
Captain Meyer stood on the opposite side of the plotter.
“We have a probe in launch tube two. Comm is currently trying to find out, from which direction the signal could transmit.”
“Good.” Makarov nodded, taking a close look on the star charts. “Chief of the Deck, call astrometrics and ask, if there are any pulsars or other very active radiation sources in a vicinity of about twenty lightyears. Or anything else that could interfere with sensors or communication farther than that.”
”Yes, Sir” The Chief DeNeve went to the next intercom and asked for astrometrics.
Makarov focused on the star chart again.
“Major Stellan, the outcome of the general sensor sweep fifteen hours ago did not show anything unusual?”
Stellan was the ships sensor and science officer.
On a warship of the Corona class there were usually three different stations with three officers and/or non-coms each that processed incoming data. Comm cared about communications and had assignments not unlike earlier SONAR-stations on submarines.
Then there was the OPCON, the Operations Controller. While there was only one person (an officer) on deck, who was designated as OPCON, there were three people (that officer and two noncoms) reviewing and ****yzing information from transponders, tactical short-range sensors and the like. On routine duty the OPCON and his immediate staff also managed the flight operations to and from the ship.
The third of these stations was the Sensor and science station. When most of the OPCON’s equipment was built for the means of combat, the science station’s crew cared about all the rest: planetary, solar system, environmental data and so on. They also relied their gathered pieces of information directly to the astrometrics lab.
Even if this was a warship, it had a complete scientifical yet military staff aboard.
“Negative, Sir. Should I order another general sensor sweep?”
Makarov nodded. “Yes, Major. I want you to pay closer attention to these gas giants. Have we any trace of the mining vessel?”
The Captain Meyers answered “No, Sir. Since they lost their communications suit, it is a good guess that heir lost their transponder, too.”
”Sensors haven’t found any wreckage, but as you know, we can only be sure when we searched every planet.”
Makarov turned to the Comm officer again. “Anything on the signal?”
”No, Sir.”
Colonel Makarov sighed. “I’ve had enough ‘no’ for now. WSO, launch probe. Chief of the deck, get me Major Garivano here.”
The two acknowledged the Colonel’s command. Immediately the WSO and his noncoms launched the probe.
“Data feed up and running” the WSO reported.
“OPCON. Receiving data. I relay the incoming data directly to Comm and Science.”
“Good. Comm, record any audio signal you may get and send it to the science labs. Let the scientists see if they can clear it up or do something with it.”
T+25
Garivano took Makarovs place on the plotting table six hours ago.
Meyer walked down from the OPCON station to the plotting table.
“Sir, six hours are over…”
”… and nothing happened, yes. Navigation, plor course for the gas giant. All ahead flank. OPCON, how long can you keep the data feed from the probe active?”
”For as long as the probe itself is active, which should be about a month.”
“Science, does the radiation of that gas giant interfere with the data feed?”
”Most likely, but we could use another Mark I probe as a relay station. If placed correctly, we can even receive when the gas giant or a moon is between us and the probe.”
“Good. Keep it in mind, we will be there in a week.”
T+193
A full week has passed since the ship entered the Gliese 280A system via FTL.
Makarov was in CIC as they approached the largest of the systems three gas giants. Around it were scattered debries of what probably had been moons that either collided or were destroyed by the interstellar equivalent to a crash between a 150 tons truck and a heavy locomtive: crashes of large asteroids and small planetoids.
Five years ago an Australian-American mining corporation sent two heavy and large mining motherships to probe the system for resources and proceed with mining operations. To do this, several larger mining rigs would have been assembled from ready-made parts and brought into orbit of either a moon or a large asteroid.
One of the ships was redirected to a near star system to assist after the assinged mining rig reported problems with their drilling equipment.
So only one ship was left to probe at Gliese 280A for minerals.
Two star systems so close that both have planets, what a lucky coincidence, thought Makarov as he looked through the new sensor data that they received, as they closed in on the gas giant.
“Major Stellan, which celestial body was the Piper Maru to probe?”
Stellan tipped on the touch screen monitor in frond of him, opening the folder containing all relevant and irrelevant information about the Piper Maru. Another finger tip and the flight plan of the Maru flashed onto the screen.
“Moon Majest 12. The moon itself seems to have an asteroid nearby which has nearly the same orbital speed as the moon itself. One could say, that this asteroid has more a geosynchronus orbit around the moon than around the gas giant.”
”Hm… are there any other objects that could be dangerous to us?”
“Well, there are several fast flying debris, many smaller objects. Flying into that immediate area with the ships is not recommended?”
”What is immediate area, Major?” Garivano stood behind the Nav stations plotting table, working with the Nav officer on a course to the last known position of the Piper Maru.
“About 200 klicks, Sir” Stellan replied briefly.
“I see. Colonel, any orders?” the Major asked.
“Plot a course to a position 250 klicks away from that area. OPCON, prepare two shuttles and put A Company into alert status. When we are there we take a look from that position, before we proceed.”
“Aye, Sir” replied both Captain Meyer and Major Garivano.
The Nav officer stopped plotting. “Sir, at three-quarters we will be there in about five ours.”
“Good. Get us there, Major.”
“Aye” replied Garivano “Come right to one-one-five by two-zero. Set engines to three-quarters.”
“OPCON, prepare a Mark I probe for a relay mission to keep the data feed with the comm probe active. Telemetry, compute a solution for the launch.”
Fifteen minutes later the Telemetry officer turned to Makarov.
“Sir, we have a launch solution. At steady speed and direction we can launch a comm bouy, which also spares us a probe.”
“Good. OPCON, you have heard it. Put a comm bouy into tube seven and begin pre-launch procedures.”
T+197
In one hour they would arrive on the position near the moon Majest 12. Data feed with the probe was active through the bouy, yet the Comm officer was still puzzled about the ongoing mysterious noise and did not find anything new.
Makarov was in his bunk, reading. He was not only puzzled, he was worried. The book merely meant distraction.
A mining ship crew, that would be about fifty people in case of the Piper Maru, heard Beethoven in deep space. They were frightened as hell and they started to make their relatively safe mothership to their very own personal one.
And now his ship also picks up a strange background noise.
All warships were equipped with up-to-date databanks, inlcuding recordings of nearly all interstellar and stellar phenomena. If you believe it or not, but far away from Earth or any other larger settlement space really has a noise, just like the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It was no noise like carried by vibrations of air, water or soil, more a steady electronic humming and beeping from pulsars, red giants, other suns, black holes…
Asides that, Makarov could rely on the Comm officer. He was stationed aboard deep space exploration vessels before being reassigned to the Aurora.
Makarov put the book aside. He stared at the bulkheads for several minutes, listening, if the noise could also be heard without sensor equipment.
No, there was nothing. Only in such realy quite moments he could hear the steady humming of the engines and machinery, the clacking of boots on the corridor just outside his cabin.
It was spartan. I small bunk, the two shelfes and the wardrobe built into the bulkhead, a simple desk and one of the standard (and very comfortable, to Makarov’s opinion) chair.
Makarov sat up and rubbed his eyes. He could not sleep. Many, actually all, missions in deep space were mainly waiting. Waiting until one moved out of range of any planetary gravation to commence FTL Jump, then several weeks in hypernation in which the ships speeds up to a velocity ten times faster than light. Then awaking and bringing the ship into full shape again and then waiting again, until a position is reached or sensor scans and sweeps bring results, waiting for rendez-vouz with an unmanned supply freighter et cetera et cetera.
The whole time without real work was exhausting, but it left too many reserves unused so that one could really sleep. Half of the crew was on sleeping meds, which was no way good, but otherwise they would fall asleep on their stations sooner or later.
A few hours ago they brought the shifts back in order.
“Gamma shift to CIC! Gamma shift to CIC!”
All Space Navy ships ran on an eighteen hour day. It left each crewman with full eight hours of sleep, six hours of duty, one hour of extra duty as caring about the shape of the issued equipment plus three hours of spare time, one before and two after duty. Thus the crew could act most effectively. It got more than enough sleep and not a full workload of eight hours. Six hours a day can be exhausting enough when serving on a starship.
Alpha shift took the first six hours and was commanded by the ship’s CO himself, Beta the second six hours and being under command of the XO and Gamma took the third six hours and was usually commanded by the ship’s third officer in line (on most ships this was the OPCON, even though the science officer might be of a higher rank).
Captain Meyers as well as other officers appeared in the CIC to assume command.
Garivano was focused on the sensor data coming in from a directed active and passive scan of the gas giant. As of now it was just named as Gliese Two-Eighty Alpha Delta, being the fourth planet of a system conisting of a total of six planets. Two others were gas giants as this one, the others mere flying rocks shaped by endless craters from asteroid impacts.
Meyers stood on the other side of the plotter and saluted. “Sir, reporting to station.”
Garivano just nodded. Meyers was always a by-the-book officer that included military protocol. Makarov was, too, but he could let it down after duty. Meyer couldn’t.
“Thanks, Captain. You have the CIC. Sound Beta shift to be over.”
“Yes, Sir.” She waited until the noncom at the Communications station had relieved his predecessor from the Beta shift. “Intercom, sound Gamma shift.”
Makarov leaned over the maps again. “So, Sandra, let’s have a look. Scanners picked up about five moons, thirteen asteroids from medium to king size, countless smaller objects and infinite really small fragments that probably burst around at high speed and create a dense field that sensors cannot look through yet.”
”Sounds like a perfect place for a mining operation!” Even though sticking to protocol, she always had a cynic or humorous remark. “If I can hazard a guess, Major: they lost their ship in a freak accident. Maybe they could not even set up a rig.”
”But they were in the system for two months before they sent a distress call. The ship brakes somewhere between the systems outer edge and Sol, the mining corporation probably computed a course that will stop the Piper Maru somewhere near Two-Eighty Alpha Alpha, to safe time and money on fuel and maybe an automated supply run to refuel the ship.” He pointed the mentioned coordinates on the map. “They will have three days to check the ship. The nav officer, probably a veteran of the first Colonial War, decides that he does not fully trust the computer, thus he steers the ship with his Co-Nav officer himself to the location where the rig is set off. That takes about ten days. Give ‘em some time to maneuver into a geosynchronous orbit it takes three more days. After that they have to set the ship for construction the rig. Two days, because there is automation and lots of robots doing most of the work. Assembling the rig two weeks and positioning it exactly another three days. That are thirty-five days. They should have started mining three weeks before their distress signal.”
“What about the supply ship?” Meyer asked.
“The supply ship was about to launch off a base in the Kuiper belt as the distress call came in with an emergency signal drone.”
“I see.” Meyer looked on the digital watch on the large tactics screen. “In about forty minutes we are in position. We have everything under control. You want to be notified?”
“If anything real dramatic happens, yes. If not, I am about to sleep my eight hours sack time plus the two hours spare.”
“All right. Major!” she saluted again. Garivano saluted, too, turned around and went to his bunk.
T+198
The ship’s forward thrusters fired and brought the warship to a relative halt.
“Science, commence a direct scan of the moon!” Major Meyers ordered.
The science officer ngave his aye and started his work.
“OPCON, put two shuttles to alert status fifteen. Make sure A Company is armed and ready to board the shuttles, full EVA suits.”
“Ma’am, shouldn’t we call the Colonel to the bridge?” the Chief of the Deck asked.
“No, Chief. He is well asleep. In two hours we will wake him up, when we have all results from the scanners.”
“As you order.”
“Get me a line to astrometrics. I want to know if there are any larger objects heading our way. OPCON, Nav, plot a course for the two shuttles for the assumed position of the Piper Maru and the mining rig. Comm, any signals?”
“Negative, Ma’am.”
“Broadcast a message on all frequencies, Audio and text transmission. Morse if necessary. ‘This is the European warship Berlin. Piper Maru, please respond.’ Repeat it several times.”
“Aye” the Comm officer acknowledged and gave orders to his staff. “Ma’am, I may suggest that a broadband high frequency active sensor scan might get their attention” he added cautiously.
“But we could blind the Piper Maru's sensor suit with it. If the crew is in a bad shape already, this will make them very suspicious towards us.”
“The OPCON has a point, Lieutenant. Commence transmission of audio and text message.”
The comm officer nodded briefly and got to work.
T+200
The science officer raised an eyebrow. Near the moon itself were a lot of debris, partially of human-made nature, but mostly smaller rocks floating around, crashing with the countless small and fast pieces of stellar junk.
“Captain Meyers, I have found the construction rig. And I know why it took so long to locate it.”
Meyers immediately walked up to the science station. “Report!”
“The rig is near Majest 12, but far away from the position it ought to be. You see, here” he pointed out the assumed coordinates of the rig “should it be. But…. it is not, as we know now. Instead, the rig is somewhat ‘under’ the south pole of the moon, near several medium sized rocks. It was on the very edge of the area covered by the directed sensor sweep. As we speak the scanners perform the whole sweep onto the current coordinates of the rig.”
“Any idea how it got there?”
“A rig itself has maneuvring thrusters only” one of the non-coms spoke up.
“And for an object of that size and mass it would take a lot of time and fuel to get there.”
“Yes. To do that they would have needed the supplies from the supply freighter.”
Thoughts raced through Meyer’s mind. “What if they decided to put up the rig on that place, because the target asteroid did not prove to be as valuable as they thought.”
“That is a possibility. But one thing is bothering me, Ma’am” the science officer continued “where is the Piper Maru? Even they would have been in need for the supply run to move out of the immediate area.”
“Okay.” Meyers turned away from the officers and noncoms to the COD. “Get Colonel Makarov and Major Garivano here. OPCON, order to board the shuttle and put them onto alert status five! Set condition three throughout the ship!”
Just a few minutes later Makarov and Garivona appeared in CIC:
“SitRep!” ordered Makarov, as he advanced to the large tactical viewscreen.
“We have found the mining rig, but there is no trace of the Piper Maru. I ordered A Company and two assault shuttles to Alert Status five.”
“Good. Where is the mining rig now?”
“It is 150 klicks south of Majest 12, near two larger asteroid fragments.”
The shuttle bay’s pressure dropped and the massive blast doors opened it to open space. The two shuttles immediately lifted off and departed.
It would only take them thirty minutes to arrive at the rig.
Makarov wandered around the bridge, Meyer took over the OpCon station and Garivano was not sure what to do.
“Sir, there are several debris that are definitely from a human-constructed source. I advise to launch a drone to take a closer look.”
Makarov nodded and gave OpCon orders to launch that drone.
“Assemble some pieces and bring them in for an extended investigation. COD, tell the science staff that there are some parts coming in. Order high security precautions! The debris might very well contaminated and radioactive.”
T+201
The shuttle Vincennes arrived at the rig first. Slowly it approached the large superstructure and maneuvered along partially broken and torn girders to an airlock.
The airlock itself was destroyed, apparently from a blast coming from the inside of it.
“Sir, incoming call from the Vincennes” the Comm officer called.
“Put it on speakers.”
Background noise was heard, then the shuttle’s pilot spoke.
“We have found an airlock. The problem is that it is blasted from the inside. I can look right through the airlock into a small corridor. Looks like there was an explosive device set up…”
Garivano moved to Makarov to talk to him privately.
“Sir, if that was an explosive device we shouldn’t send someone in. Explosives are common use among miners. The whole rig could be plastered with charges!”
“A probe is too large to fit into the small compartments of a rig. We send A Company in. Vincennes, begin EVA boarding procedure, but proceed with extreme caution!”
T+201
“OpCon, please repeat.”
“Vincennes, you are to commence boarding the rig. Colonel’s orders.”
“Roger that, OpCon. Vincennes, out.”
The Marines of A Company were strapped in their seats as was the three-man shuttle crew. The straps were loosened and after pushing themselves away from their seats the infantrymen were floating around in the shuttle. Activating the magnetic boots, they regained grip with the ground fast.
“All right, people. Ready your gear. Cabin is depressurized is twenty seconds.”
The pilots flying the military shuttles were Marines as their infantry comrades. Assault shuttles were a part of the general Marine Corps assault detachments on medium to large warships. Additionally to that every ship also housed several Navy shuttles for the general purpose of ferrying cargo or personnel.
Smaller ships had a Marine element, but no assault shuttles.
The Marines closed the visors of their EVA helmets. They reported their status to the company commander, who then gave the pilot the final go-ahead to depressurize the cabin.
A subtle fizzle was heard as the air streamed into the shuttle’s oxygen tanks. The large frontal door opened, the Marines began to move to the airlock with small jetpacks worn like backpacks on their EVAs.
Major Robert Derry was a life-long Marine. Since his 17th birthday he was on tour with the Corps and he did see many worlds and places. He has fought in every war the European Alliance was involved in for the last 25 years.
“Derry to OpCon. We are at the airlock and prepare to make our way into the rig. Requesting comm check!”
“Roger that, Major. I will hand you over to Comm.”
“Major, this is comm. Checking now.” Several seconds passed, as the non-commissioned officer sent signals back and forth to and from the EVA’s comm. suit.
“Systems are running normally. Comm is clear. OpCon will take over again.”
“Major, this is OpCon. We read you clearly. Colonel orders that you go in now!”
“Roger that. Major out.
Garivano listened to the chilling calm sound traffic between the Marines and the Comm and OpCon.
Makarov interrupted Garivano’s thoughts as he ordered a video feed of Major Derry’s helmet camera to be put on screen.
“OpCon to Derry. We have your video feed on screen. Report.”
“Understood. The airlock is plastered with fragments of an type two explosive charge. We haven’t found any larger pieces. About fifty meters behind the airlock’s inner blast door is another bulkhead. It seems to be intact. We will proceed.”
“Understood. Be advised, behind that bulkhead might very well still be air or a pressurized compartment.”
The Marines advanced to the bulkhead. A private closed in on it and even spotted a small instrument showing the pressure and air temperature behind the bulkhead.
“OpCon, we have found a mechanical device which indicates, that the air temperature behind that bulkhead is forty degrees below zero.”
“Roger. Open the bulkhead.”
The private as well as a Lieutenant tried to open the bulkhead by human force, but did not succeed. Derry ordered the use of a special shotgun to breach the bulkheads locking mechanism.
As the bulkhead opened, a subtle stream of cold air left the room and a corpse was floating out of it.
“Ahhh, OpCon, we have found a corpse.”
Derry grabbed it. He quickly pushed it away as he saw into the lifeless eyes of the dead women. Right above her chin was a large wound, typical from a sidearm commonly used on mining ships against boarding pirate force.
“Major? Major Derry! Report!” he heard Colonel Makarov over his headphones.
He must have overheard the previous calls…
“Sir, the woman has been shot in the head.”
“Repeat that, Major.” The OpCon was talking to the Major again.
“The woman has been shot in the head. Judging from the look of it was it a caliber 11mm standard sidearm with hollow-point rounds.”
Garivano wandered to the OpCon station to take a look of all the readings from the Marines.
“Put her in a body bag and bring her to the shuttle. Let the doc take a look at it” he ordered quietly.
T+214
The officers and several noncoms of the ship were sitting in the officer’s mess. Makarov had called for an all-out briefing of the ship’s senior staff.
“Major Derry, what have you found aboard the rig?” he asked the Major, looking straight into his eyes.
“We have found seven corpses. Three of them have wounds from gun shots. Telling us what killed the other four is the doc’s task. Other than these corpses: most of the rig had a temperature below minus thirteen degrees, pressure was only partially stable. In fact, nearly all sections were near to a depressurized status. Especially near the command and control center traces of a gunfight could be seen, as floating spent shell casings, bumps in the bulkheads and the like. The rig’s computer core has been erased, only main control and communications functions were still available, as well as the most recent in- or outgoing communication. Speaking of which, only our all-frequency-call was recorded.”
“That would mean the data storage has been erased before we entered the system or made that call” said Garivano
“Yes, Major” Derry nodded twice. “The control system of the RCS thrusters was still active. Environmental control, too, but someone deactivated most life support systems. The core itself was no way damaged by any explosive devices.”
“Have you found any further charges?” Makarov asked as he wrote down notes on a sheet of paper.
“No, Sir. None. And I mean: none. Not even in the locked compartment where the explosive charges for mining purposes ought to be stored were any fuses or charges. The Vincennes searched the large superstructure and maintenance girders of the rig, but even on the outside were no explosives.”
“Thank you, Major Derry.” Makarov put the pen down. “Doc, what is the outcome of the examination of the corpses?”
The doc cleared his throat and opened a folder, containing different files.
Doctor Simon Valdez was of Spanish decent. He was one of the oldest doctors still serving on a warship.
“As Major Derry already pointed out, three of the people were shot, two men, one woman. Two of them must have been executed, as I found entry wounds on their necks. The women the Major found was shot from the front.
However, the other four, two women, two men, had bruises all over their bodies. I do not think I need to go too much into detail: but it can be safely said that all the scars and bruises and even broken spines and bones come from hand-to-hand-fighting: Seeing such heavy injuries, one could not even call it a brawl. This has been a very painful death.”
“Lieutenant Mikos, anything new on that background comm noise?”
The young comm officer looked to Makarov. He was posted on the ship just a month ago.
“Ahm. Unfortunately not, Sir. I recorded it, listened to it when playing the noise ten times faster and so on. A full digital ****ysis of the noise’s spectrum did not bring anything, but I am on it!”
Makarov grumbled but nodded to the Comm officer.
“All right. That will be all for now. XO, rig the ship for Condition three. You may inform the crew about the latest developments. I will give further orders in a few hours. If there is anything new, I’ll be in my quarters. You are dismissed!”
Captain Meyer joined Major Garivanos walk to the CIC.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I don’t know what to make of the situation. We have a missing Mining mothership, a half-destroyed mining rig and seven dead miners… not to forget there is that strange background noise Comm receives.”
“Do you think it’s alien?”
Garivano laughed out. “No, not really. Well, maybe it is. I think it is caused by some interstellar phenomena of a very scientific nature.”
“Okay. I am with you on that guess.”
As both entered the armed Marine guards saluted.
“Ten-HUT!” Makarov yelled. The CIC crew snapped to attention.
“All right, people. We have found seven dead miners on that rig. They were killed by a human. I spare you the details. We have no trace of some of the explosive charges used for mining purposes that were meant to be in the arms locker aboard the rig. Several were found by the Marines in the rig and could be defused. However, the rest is still missing. OpCon, I want you to have an eye on the asteroid field around us and the rig and look for floating or placed explosives. Use drones, I don’t want crewmembers to be harmed.
Unfortunately, we are also missing something else. As you have noticed, we have no clue where the Piper Maru is now.
The Colonel will give further orders within the next hours. Until that this ship will remain ready for combat or retrieval operations. Chief of the Deck, set Condition Three throughout the ship. I also want a full systems check. Comm, you need more comm buoys to triangulate where the strange signals come from, ask for it. OpCon, C Company is to take over the rig from A Company. A Company will return to the ship to have some sack time. B Company will remain shipboard. That is all for now. You have your orders!”
T+128
Without being noticed by anyone but the Marine Guards Makarov entered the CIC.
“SitRep!” he yelled and the crew snapped.
Garivano stopped ****yzing the system charts and stood straight.
“Ship is set to Condition three. We are ready to step up the alert status anytime. No further developments, Sir.”
“Good. Comm, send an automated comm drone to base, we need a supply freighter with fuel, water and food to start a full survey of this system. I intend to find the Piper Maru. I also want a document consisting of all the data we have assembled on the rig and the Piper Maru attached. Mark it as Top Secret and direct it to General Voigt.”
“Yes, Sir” the comm officer replied, getting to work.
“You heard me. I want to search the star system for the Piper Maru. First we will conduct a search of the gas giants, then we continue checking every planet. OpCon, XO, I want a survey plan in five hours. Meyers, Garivano, you are both dismissed for that. If you need help feel free to request it. Alpha shift to the CIC. The rest is to get some bunk time.”
Historical Note:
FFG 32 Lafayette
Named after Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette. A French and American war hero. He fought in the American Revolutionary War and helped the American settlers to free themselves from British rule. He was a very capable battlefield commander.
In 1992 the French Navy launched one of the first stealthy frigates and named it after Lafayette, the FF710 La Fayette.
This is not meant as an offense against the British citizens around MSFC :wink: