by Tim Morrison
Chapter 1.1
Defend The Planet - Oxymax Nebula -32 BA
"The entire ship is vibrating, Commander. Hull crews report the armour is cracking from the stress of the dust and debris impacts. Neospace drives are also showing strains."
"How deep are we?" Ryo asked, holding onto the main console and watching the monitors for any signs of a gap from the dense cloud that surrounded the ship on all sides. They had been diving through the dense cloud for more than an hour now.
"Four lengths now, According to the old charts we should be entering the void bubble caused by the primary shortly. I don't know how much longer the shield generators can take this stress though. She was built for battle, not flying through a sustained gas cloud at faster than lightspeed."
The deep vibration through the deck plates stopped, and silence filled the bridge.
"Gas density has fallen to deep vacuum, Sir. We are in a void approximately two Solar Lengths across. One primary star detected, planetary system confirmed."
"Get crews working on the hull and drive systems. Get us back to full state. Commander – we are in the Clear." Kalen reported.
Ryo nodded. "Take us in, approach to within Actual range of the Desinlo world, then open a channel."
"Detecting small ships moving in and out of the system, they have the profile of freighters and corsairs. Nothing military so far on tactical sensors." Ryo and Kalen looked at each other. Desinlo was definitely not dead if there were ships in the system.
"Ships are scattering away from us, Commander. They may have seen us. Chatter is increasing on all scanned channels. If the Desinlo were not aware before, they are now."
"Captain, what do you make of this?" Came the request from tactical. Kalen walked over and looked at the readings.
"Conn, deep scan indicates relativistic projectiles, on course for the planet. I scan ten, no eighteen of them. One hundred tonnes mass each. Cobalt grade!" Came the snap report from Science.
"How long until impact?" Ryo asked.
"At current speed, five hundred seconds, Commander."
"How long until we can intercept?" Ryo said as he looked at Kalen.
No reply, Kalen snapped, "You heard the Commander, how long until intercept?"
"Two hundred seconds, Sir." Came the reply from tactical.
"Do we do this, Kalen?" Ryo asked his XO.
"We're already here, Sir. If you're here to make friends, protecting the planet is a great way to start." Kalen replied, then walked over to navigation.
"Max thrust, all drives. Get us into a direct intercept position. Gun control, prepare for interdiction zone, heavy radiation." Kalen ordered as the two navigation officers made adjustments. The flight officer then increased throttle control as the entire ship began to vibrate while it's engines flared to maximum output, pushing the massive ship at well over 10g thrust, with gravity control keeping the interior at normal levels.
Ryo did not interrupt, Kalen knew the ship and crew a lot better than he did, and in a lot of ways, he was still excess baggage.
"Kalen, what if we got in front of the projectiles, then slid towards the planet, side on. Would that increase the length of time to intercept?" He said as he watched the tactical readouts.
"We run a risk of not being able to shift into Neospace because we may lose too much forward velocity, but it will improve our odds, Sir." Kalen replied as he stabbed at a control and then glared at the officer who had not noticed it.
"If we can save that planet from this bombardment, I think it's worth the risk." Ryo said, checking readouts from tactical and science.
"You heard the man." Kalen said, "Slide this ship into medium orbit. We're going in sideways, and at a 40 degree axial tilt. All guns should be able to target the projectiles." He ordered as he watched the officers making adjustments.
"Relativistic cannon, range needs to be 200,000 kims. Set up a full scatter field. Lances, 100,000 kims, minimum interference pattern, full heat energy. Bleed the heat out there, we need it hot for anything that gets though the cannon." Ryo ordered, watching the incoming projectile spread.
"If we don't do this right, we're going to make a very big impression, Commander." Kalen said. "About half a continent's worth when we hit."
Ryo looked at him, then smiled. "Then let's do it right, people. Protect that planet."
Twin lines of fire leapt from the hull of the TGX as it's main guns opened up, generating two distinct lines of destruction. At extreme range, relativistic projectiles of cobalt, accelerated out of magnetic cannon, exploded against each other to make a caustic cloud of dust that began to erode the incoming projectiles at an increasing pace. Closer in, the laser lances, blowing with wide apertures, generated almost nova heat that melted what was left, the incoming projectiles began to sublimate into cobalt ions, disintegrating under the assault.
"We've got three left, Commander. They'll be past us in fifty seconds, planetary impact fifteen seconds after that."
"Kalen, can we take the radiation blast from a warhead?" Ryo asked.
"It's better than letting one of those hit the atmosphere. Fire a missile." Kalen ordered.
A missile launched from the side of the TGX, flying towards the three molten slagheaps that were the cobalt projectiles, even badly melted as they were, they had sufficient mass to do real damage.
"Radiation alert, brace for shockwave." Ryo ordered, and the alarms went off as the ship skeleton flexed to absorb the shock as the warhead exploded only fifty kims from the hull.
"All targets destroyed, nothing remains on any sensors, Captain, Commander. We are in the Clear." Tactical reported.
"Let's see how badly we got hurt." Ryo said as he walked over to Damage Control where he was joined by the Captain a few seconds later.
"Nothing we can't repair once we return to our Clanworld, Sirs. Armour is buckled across the port landing bay, five quad guns are out of commission. Radiation fires on the ventral plating. Damage Control parties are already being deployed." Damage Control reported as the different sections of the massive ship reported in.
"Sir, this is very odd." Science said. "I am detecting an energy field, from the planet. Focused around the main city. There is only one city there, most of the population is centred around it. The energy field is fading, but I am detecting evidence that it exceeded more then a hundred teragauss. That would have deflected the projectiles into the debris zone around the central city. Sir, it looks like they've been hit for a long time. There is a lot of molecular cobalt in the atmosphere, and a lot of radiation everywhere except the central city. That area is shielded and the radiation is much lower there."