In The Echoes of Eternity
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:10 pm
Over ten millenia ago our ancestors reached out across the heavens, and became rulers of all that they surveyed; that was until the great war occurred. An upstart nation, the Terranites wished to challenge Metallinautsi supremacy, the war was devastating. For nearly twenty years the war waged across both empires, planets were slagged, civilians brutally murdered and in the end it was our technological might that brought the war abruptly to an end. For years we were proficient in temporal technology, but with the advent of the Equinox, nothing would ever be the same. A truce was offered, and it was refused. So in the blink of an eye, a heavily populated core system was erased from time and space, nine billion lives gone in a nanosecond never to be retrieved. Peace soon followed, yet it was an uneasy truce, fleets continued to grow on either side of the demilitarized zone, rumors of a twin ship to the Equinox, the Solstice, began flying through out both empires. The Terranites hired a large mercenary force of a neutral disposition to attack the alleged location...
Sector 12, Black projects dry docks
Colonel James Radcliff was over seeing the construction of what was incorrectly labeled as the Equinox's twin, the Solstice. She was to be all that the Equinox is and more. A floating super fortress, she was eight times the size of the Equinox. She had full manufacturing capabilities, even able to construct the new Phalanx class Superdreadnoughts. Despite her manufacturing capability, she possessed eighty times the conventional fire power that the Equinox had, and nearly three thousand percent the temporal fire power including nine tesseraction arrays, in short, she was the most powerful military vessel the multiverse had yet seen; and she was three months from deployment.
Currently the Colonel found himself pouring over somewhere between nine thousand holographic portfolios. He had hand picked the first one hundred and fifty thousand crewmen, from command staff, to grease monkey, now was the time to pick the elite "black hand" fighter crew, consisting of eight thousand of the most skilled and toughest fighters on this plane of existence.
With a deep breath he stood up, pushing his hover chair away from his desk and walked over to the enormous glass window and gazed upon the hulk of a spacecraft that was before him. Nearly two hundred and fifty kilometers in length, and almost one hundred and seventy five kilometers in width she was not only an impressive feet of military hardware, but a testament to Metallinautsi engineering. The colonel let a small grin cross his aged face as he thought about the shift in political power this meant not only for the empire, but for himself. Once the Terranites had been dispatched, he would make a bid for power against the emperor; and the Solstice was his ace in the hole.
A whimsical chime broke the cold and quiet silence of his office, and the colonel snapped out of his machinations. The chime sounded again. Radcliff briskly walked over to his desk and tapped his index finger on a purple flashing button, "Colonel Radcliff" he said.
"Colonel, we have lost contact with the Vindictive" a feminine A.I. said appearing before him.
"What do you mean we lost the Vindictive?" the colonel said in a sharp snide tone.
"Sir, as of right now, we have lost contact with her, even her temporal hyperspace transponder is non-responsive" the digital being said.
"How does one lose a state of the art Superdreadnought that aside from what is in those dry-docks, and the Equinox, is the supreme military craft in the known multiverse?" he retorted, anger rising in his voice.
"I have no answers sir, my data banks are currently running all scenarios" the A.I. responded.
"And I would require those answers now" Radcliff barked.
"I have ruled out mechanical failure, hull rupture and core containment breach based on the last readings reported by the on-board A.I." she said quickly.
"Where does that leave us?" the colonel said putting his left hand over his face, as he sat in his hover chair.
"Outside attack" she said point blank.
The colonel looked up at her sharply, "How sure are you".
After a millisecond lag she responded, "Eighty percent sir, I have re-run my calculation two hundred times".
After a moment, the colonel stood up, "Computer activate phased-cloak, raise shields and recall all vessels on full readi---" his sentences was interrupted by a violent shock to the station that knocked him to the ground. As he stood up, he glanced out his large window and saw a sizable Terranite fleet engaging the station, and there were no auxiliary craft flying his flag were to be seen.
Sector 12, Black projects dry docks
Colonel James Radcliff was over seeing the construction of what was incorrectly labeled as the Equinox's twin, the Solstice. She was to be all that the Equinox is and more. A floating super fortress, she was eight times the size of the Equinox. She had full manufacturing capabilities, even able to construct the new Phalanx class Superdreadnoughts. Despite her manufacturing capability, she possessed eighty times the conventional fire power that the Equinox had, and nearly three thousand percent the temporal fire power including nine tesseraction arrays, in short, she was the most powerful military vessel the multiverse had yet seen; and she was three months from deployment.
Currently the Colonel found himself pouring over somewhere between nine thousand holographic portfolios. He had hand picked the first one hundred and fifty thousand crewmen, from command staff, to grease monkey, now was the time to pick the elite "black hand" fighter crew, consisting of eight thousand of the most skilled and toughest fighters on this plane of existence.
With a deep breath he stood up, pushing his hover chair away from his desk and walked over to the enormous glass window and gazed upon the hulk of a spacecraft that was before him. Nearly two hundred and fifty kilometers in length, and almost one hundred and seventy five kilometers in width she was not only an impressive feet of military hardware, but a testament to Metallinautsi engineering. The colonel let a small grin cross his aged face as he thought about the shift in political power this meant not only for the empire, but for himself. Once the Terranites had been dispatched, he would make a bid for power against the emperor; and the Solstice was his ace in the hole.
A whimsical chime broke the cold and quiet silence of his office, and the colonel snapped out of his machinations. The chime sounded again. Radcliff briskly walked over to his desk and tapped his index finger on a purple flashing button, "Colonel Radcliff" he said.
"Colonel, we have lost contact with the Vindictive" a feminine A.I. said appearing before him.
"What do you mean we lost the Vindictive?" the colonel said in a sharp snide tone.
"Sir, as of right now, we have lost contact with her, even her temporal hyperspace transponder is non-responsive" the digital being said.
"How does one lose a state of the art Superdreadnought that aside from what is in those dry-docks, and the Equinox, is the supreme military craft in the known multiverse?" he retorted, anger rising in his voice.
"I have no answers sir, my data banks are currently running all scenarios" the A.I. responded.
"And I would require those answers now" Radcliff barked.
"I have ruled out mechanical failure, hull rupture and core containment breach based on the last readings reported by the on-board A.I." she said quickly.
"Where does that leave us?" the colonel said putting his left hand over his face, as he sat in his hover chair.
"Outside attack" she said point blank.
The colonel looked up at her sharply, "How sure are you".
After a millisecond lag she responded, "Eighty percent sir, I have re-run my calculation two hundred times".
After a moment, the colonel stood up, "Computer activate phased-cloak, raise shields and recall all vessels on full readi---" his sentences was interrupted by a violent shock to the station that knocked him to the ground. As he stood up, he glanced out his large window and saw a sizable Terranite fleet engaging the station, and there were no auxiliary craft flying his flag were to be seen.