[Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror (Completed)

[dragoongfa]

Chapter 2, part 3

The sudden jolt of the jump came and went the exact moment it was planned for. It knew that it would be alone for a little while so it spread its sensors to cover the entire ship. The input it got was as it had expected, the entirety of the organic crew suffering from jump sickness.

It was at times such as these that it felt jealous of the other automated systems of the ship. They weren’t alive and thinking such as it, it couldn’t talk with them but despite that they were allowed free reign over the ship until the crew got over their jump sickness disorientation.

It didn’t allow itself to think much about the other systems, they had their duties and purposes and so did it. It moved its attention back to the crew and quickly counted them again, all 400 of them were there, as they were a few moments ago. It tried to find its operator and after some searching it did so. Kt’rkrktkr 48 trkrk was at his assigned station at the crew quarters, suffering from the jump sickness. It tried to reach out to comfort him but it forgot that he wasn’t connected to its console.

It felt alone at its realization; it hated when the operator wasn’t connected to it, without him it was all alone and it couldn’t do anything but wait and… use the sensors.
Should it use the sensors? He had told it numerous times that using them while it was alone was forbidden and wasteful since it wouldn’t be able to use them at their full potential without his input, even if it had realized that this wasn't true. Would it really be wasteful if it just spread them just for a few moments? Perhaps if it found something on its own it would impress him and he would reward it. It always liked the rewards, they felt good and it made it realize that it was alive and thus better than the other systems.

It cut those thoughts short; he didn’t like it when it thought itself as better. All were equal in their service to the Hierarchy; it was bad to think itself as somewhat better. Now it was afraid that it would be punished for those thoughts, it had to make them go away but it couldn’t just erase them from its, as much as it tried the thoughts came back. Slowly it became terrified that the thoughts would still be there when he would come back.

Terrified it spread its sensors hoping to find anything to preoccupy it’s mind before he connected to it. It looked near the ship but the ship was alone, it was unusual but it happened. It spread the sensors further, covering the entire star systems but it still didn’t find anything. Feeling despair it spread them even further, across the void between the stars and amidst the neighboring star systems. It still didn’t find anything and despair completely took over its mind.

Empty, Empty, Empty…

It repeated in its mind, hoping that the word would push the bad thoughts away from its mind.

Empty, Empty, Empty…

It wasn’t enough but it still pushed itself to see the rest of the nearby stars.

LIFE!!!

It screamed in its mind triumphantly, hoping again that it would be enough to push the bad thoughts away but it still wasn’t enough. It focused again and tried to count the life that it saw.

1,2,3,4,5…

It counted until it was certain that it had counted it all.

93

It counted again.

93

Again and again, it counted and counted until the number became the only thought in its mind, the count filling its mind so much that it forgot why it was counting at the first place. It thought for a moment and remembered how happy he was when it found distant life with its sensors the first time it did so.

That’s why I was counting. It thought and kept counting until he came back.

Chapter 3, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 578#p18578

[dragoongfa]

And standing at around 3,700 words this is the end of chapter 2.

The third part was kinds short, around 600 words but I hope that I will finish the first part of chapter 3 soon.

[Whale]

Heh... They aren't in the same system, right?

[dragoongfa]

Heh... They aren't in the same system, right?

Not for long.

[dragoongfa]

Chapter 3, part 1

“How is it looking lieutenant?” Captain Asteios asked as the image on his console flickered briefly.

“Good so far, Sir.” Marine Lieutenant Josef Allerberger replied as he examined the airlock the engineers had finished setting up almost an hour ago. “I have to admit that they did a good job, for boy scouts.”

“I will pass the compliment.” Captain Asteios replied with a chuckle. “What do you think of the blast doors?”

“Not a design I have seen before, opening by sliding into the top and bottom instead of the usual left and right. There are some obvious manual switches and even a couple of handles, at the ideal height for human use as well.” The marine said as he and his team examined the blast doors up close. “If I had to wager a guess I would say that the locking mechanism is both magnetic and hydraulic in nature.”

“Do you think that you can get it open?”

“I don’t know, Sir. It looks like it doesn’t get any power, so pressing the switch won’t do anything. I think that we may be able to open up its control mechanism and see if we can get anything done through there.” The marine replied.

“Keep working at it; let me know if you make any progress.” The captain said and closed the channel. “Lieutenant Grant, do you have anything?”

“No Sir, no reply to our repeated hails and no changes on the readings from the alien ship.” The sensors officer replied.

Matveyev was parked 200 meters above the spot in the canyon where the alien ship was hid and had been there for more than 12 hours, sending repeated hails to the ship below them for as long as they had been there.

“Sir, I believe that enough time has passed without contact that we have to consider the alien ship to be abandoned. We have taken every conceivable approach to communicate with anyone who may still be alive inside, including numerous attempts to establish an interface with the ship’s systems.” His second in command, Commander Albert Summers said as he leaned over his shoulder.

“I know commander but out contact protocols are clear.”

“And we have to take into account our secondary set of orders, Sir.” The commander insisted.

“I am fully aware of those orders. The ship below us however is neither a drifting hulk nor a ‘misplaced’ piece of equipment. Furthermore the active gravity and the still pressurized parts of the ship are clear indications that survivors may still be onboard.” The captain replied.

“There are ways to make sure that there will be no living crew aboard, Sir.” The commander said with a hushed voice.

“That thought has crossed my mind commander but I won’t turn that thought into a course of action.” He replied with the same hushed tone while turning to look the commander straight in the eyes, the commander just nodded and went back to his post without saying anything.

It was the impossible scenario that their superiors had only given the vaguest of instructions. When the eight of them, the four captains of the scout ships and their XOs, were briefed about their secondary sets of orders one of them had joked about what they should do if they found something that was only ‘lightly’ guarded. ‘Do what’s best for mankind’ was the answer that no one laughed with. The orders were pretty straightforward, if any of the scout ships somehow managed to secure any piece of advanced technology then they would abandon their primary mission and return with all due haste. What were the odds that a barely armed Bennet scout ship would be in a position to overpower anyone who held advanced enough technology that would warrant their immediate return? Of all the possible scenarios they went through in their heads this was the one that all eight of them considered ridiculous.

He didn’t find the universe’s sense of irony amusing now that he was looking at a seemingly abandoned warship. Being honest with himself he couldn’t tell at first which course of action should be the one to be taken; the letter of his orders was to pursue contact with one of the two combatants of this interstellar war and attempt to come at a preliminary understanding as to their outlook towards humanity. The spirit of their orders however was to make anything humanly possible to ensure that humanity survives the coming storm. If that meant promising something to one of the two sides so that humanity would be protected then they were free to do so. However what should they do now that they had an advanced alien warship all for themselves? The letter of their orders dictated to pursue contact with any possible survivors and offer whatever aid possible; the spirit of the orders however dictated to plunder the ship and run straight back to Earth filled to the brim with advanced weapons and technology. The choice itself didn’t become easier by the fact that the ship in question was probably a Loroi vessel, part of the same war machine that destroyed everything in the star system they were currently in.

The course of action he chose was to stick with the letter of his orders, not because he was a stickler for rules but because it was the right thing to do. It was one of the old unspoken naval traditions that were still kept, to turn a blind eye to the plight of castaways was not the mark of a sailor no matter what the sea may be. The Scout Corps were a small; elite explorer group but they were still sailors and he would make sure that they would act like that.

He turned his attention back to the alien ship and brought back the first pictures that they had taken of it. It looked nothing like the Umiak ships he had seen in what little footage the Orgus refugees had of them. It had a green paint job, with silver lines crisscrossing across the hull; and if someone looked at it from below they would clearly see ‘Silverspear’ written in trade in the port and starboard front sections of the ship. Much like the way humans wrote the names on their ship’s bows. It was also obvious that the ship had seen some heavy fighting, the damage was extensive and some parts of the hull had clearly been blown away. With its size and numerous weapon mounts it was at the very least a heavy destroyer and if the crew complement was anything like a TCA ship then it must have had at least 200 crew members.

At first the ship looked abandoned, no one replied to their hails and other attempts at communication. Nothing even happened when they were installing an airlock at one of the damaged compartments that was right next to the still pressurized part of the ship. It still had some power however, artificial gravity was still on and if that system was on, then odds were that life support would also be on as well.

That’s where things didn’t make any sense, if they had even a minimal amount of power why didn’t they reply to their hails?

The Orgus had shown them the basic emergency systems that were standard on all of their trading partners and basic radio capabilities was among them. Even if the emergency radio system was damaged wouldn’t the surviving crew of the ship attempt to fix it?

Some speculated that if the ship was indeed a Loroi vessel then their telepathic capabilities would make radio redundant since they would immediately be able to talk directly to the heads of those they wanted to. If that was the case then why didn’t they do it already?

In the end everyone had to concede that there were too many unknowns and the only thing that they were left with was to board the ship and look for any survivors the hard way; a course of action that presented a whole other range of problems.

The first thing that they had to do was to build an airlock around the point of entry so that any atmosphere inside the ship wouldn’t be vented the moment they entered the still pressurized parts of the ship. Thankfully their emergency supplies had the necessary equipment and parts to build an airlock and it only took them a few hours to find a suitable point of entry and have the makeshift airlock installed.

The boarding team itself would also be a problem in any other situation. Thankfully the marine detachments on all scout vessels for this mission were carefully selected and trained for first contact situations, much like everyone else on the ship. The problem was that they were boarding to investigate a warship that had seen heavy combat recently. There was not telling how the survivors would react if unknown aliens suddenly boarded the ship.

The possibility that the marines would be attacked the moment they would make contact with someone was very real. Their standing orders were to show restraint and attempt to defuse the situation but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t have the means to defend themselves if their position became attenable. The problem was that if they were armed and armored then the survivors would certainly see it as a hostile act. The marines themselves volunteered to wear standard space suits and carry only light weapons that would be holstered and at ease unless they were attacked.

“Sir, I believe that we have found a way to open the blast doors.” Marine lieutenant Allerberger said bringing him back to the here and now.

“What have you got lieutenant?”

“We think that we have identified the locking mechanism; isolating it and powering it up with what we have should be simple enough.” The marine replied.

“Do it.”

After a few minutes of work the blast doors opened a couple of centimeters without making a sound and the ship’s internal atmosphere rushed into the small compartment that they had sealed and installed the airlock at.

“No leak, the boy scouts really did a good job.” One of the marines commented.

“Weird…” Another one said out loud as he checked his equipment.

“What is it Gomez?” Lieutenant Allerberger asked.

“The atmosphere sir, we can breath it.”

“First the Orgus, now whoever these guys are. The universe must really like our type of atmosphere.” Lieutenant Allerberger joked as he peeked through the narrow opening the open blast doors offered. “Still, don’t even think about opening your suit to take a breath, no telling what’s in the air.”

“Can you see anything lieutenant?” Captain Asteios asked.

“It looks like a corridor sir and a wide one at that. There are also some faint red lights lit, much like our own emergency lighting.” The lieutenant replied.

“Can you get those doors open?”

“Hood and Westwood, grab a hold and push the bottom half downwards, Gomez and Venkov push the top upwards.” It was surprisingly easy for the four of them to open the blast doors the rest of the way, without even making much of a ruckus.

“It’s a corridor sir.” Lieutenant Alleberger confirmed as he and his team went past the door.

“One side is closed off by another blast door but the other turns inward.” The lieutenant said as he looked at both ends of the corridor, the suit's camera transmitting everything that he show with the few expected flickers here and there due to interference.

“Any sign of the crew?”

“No sir.”

Captain Asteios sighed. He had hoped that the survivors, if there were any, would make contact the moment the marines would step inside the ship. Now it looked like they would have to go looking for them.

Chapter 3, Part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 611#p18611

[dragoongfa]

Yet an other part which changed from the first draft.

Also nearly 2000 words.

Will clean it up tomorrow, now I am going off to sleep.

[Whale]

If they don't meet in the next part I'm gonna be rather annoyed... Heh.

Were all windowed compartments lost in the battle?

[dragoongfa]

If they don't meet in the next part I'm gonna be rather annoyed... Heh.

Were all windowed compartments lost in the battle?

I didn't see any clear window compartments on the Loroi ships on the comic so I am guessing that if the Loroi did something right that was to consider windows as the structural weaknesses they are (on warships at the very least). The Bennet class clearly has a windowed bridge (it's anyone's guess why Bellarmine's bridge instantly met vacuum) and the TCA cruiser in this pic: http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider095.html has a forward facing observation deck as well. Arioch however has said that TCA warships have an internal, armored, compartment act as bridge so at least they are an improvement to the Bennet.

I guess that the Yorktown refit of the Bennet class may have solved that problem as well.

[Whale]

Eh, I'm seeing windows on some of the Loroi ships. And Warhammer seems to have some small windows, though in places easily damaged in a crash. Couldn't find images of the dorsal side.

And Bellarmine's bridge was penetrated trough the hull plating above the viewports. Slapping some plating over those isn't gonna do shit with that class anyway...

[dragoongfa]

Eh, I'm seeing windows on some of the Loroi ships. And Warhammer seems to have some small windows, though in places easily damaged in a crash. Couldn't find images of the dorsal side.

And Bellarmine's bridge was penetrated trough the hull plating above the viewports. Slapping some plating over those isn't gonna do shit with that class anyway...

Are those windows though or are they some form of bright colored heat dissipation panels? Note that the way those windows are colored is a very uniform blue while Tempest internal lighting is obviously not uniform. Ranging from yellow, to bright white to some blue.

Tempest also has similar 'windows':

http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider017.html

That are oddly looking towards where the Wave Loom's 'barrel' is. Would the Loroi really place windows looking inside the barrel of one of their most powerful weapons?

I am guessing that they are some sort of heat dissipation panels, placed where they are unlikely to be damaged by direct fire, after all it is obvious that Loroi tech allows them to see the 'outside' of their ships without any need for a window.

EDIT: Notice also the same colored panels on the engines at this page:

http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider076.html

If they are indeed windows then I guess that they also following the path of Normandy 2 from mass effect where the windows have some short of blast shielding cover them.

[Whale]

Hm, had assumed the blue rectangles on inner bow were docking bays or something, but with Tempest's hangar placement, the generally similar external layout of Loroi ships and the mentioned color uniformity, they may indeed be something else.

When I talked about viewports I meant the small yellow rectangles, also seen on Winter Tide and various others. Placement seems to be about where I'd expect windows to be, and radiators don't seem to be a thing even on the lower tech TCA ships (unless some of the blue rectangles are radiators).

[dragoongfa]

Yeah, thought you were talking about the blue rectangles as well...

The small blips do indeed look like windows so I guess it will be one of the things that will go in the rewrite/explanation list for later.

EDIT: Also, one more comment for ridiculous Loroi ship design; right behind the ridiculously wide corridors and the extravagant bridge design.
EDIT2:

Seeing this:

http://well-of-souls.com/gallery/images ... tems01.jpg

See the location of the primary ECM/Sensor suite

From this angle:

http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider017.html

Taking into account the coloring and the size of the various blips seen there; the windows could be multiple Sensor/ECM equipment scattered throughout the hull.

EDIT3: The sensor thing is thin though.

[Whale]

There's also crew areas marked there. And sensors tend not to glow, and the placement on other ships is nonsensical for sensors.

[dragoongfa]

There's also crew areas marked there. And sensors tend not to glow, and the placement on other ships is nonsensical for sensors.

I guess I am going to go with the destroyed explanation from now on; damn those blue bits, drawing my attention from what's important

EDIT:Also how come the views jumped from 2500 to 3800 in 12 hours?

[Sweforce]

There's also crew areas marked there. And sensors tend not to glow, and the placement on other ships is nonsensical for sensors.

I guess I am going to go with the destroyed explanation from now on; damn those blue bits, drawing my attention from what's important

EDIT:Also how come the views jumped from 2500 to 3800 in 12 hours?

The medieval church in the next town from where I live have several fake windows. Maybe it is just painted on windows as a decoration?

[dragoongfa]

The medieval church in the next town from where I live have several fake windows. Maybe it is just painted on windows as a decoration?

That wouldn't make much sense in a warship, especially one in a Total War environment where every last bit of resource/man hour counts, even if it's just something as simple as paint. I am guessing that the Loroi really like open spaces and that their crew quarters/recreation areas have them as an extravagance.

The fake window thing is also done on some modern luxury cruisers, it makes them look better.

[Mr.Tucker]

The medieval church in the next town from where I live have several fake windows. Maybe it is just painted on windows as a decoration?

That wouldn't make much sense in a warship, especially one in a Total War environment where every last bit of resource/man hour counts, even if it's just something as simple as paint. I am guessing that the Loroi really like open spaces and that their crew quarters/recreation areas have them as an extravagance.

The fake window thing is also done on some modern luxury cruisers, it makes them look better.

While I think you're right on this specific point, remember that the Loroi keep pictures of their historical or religious figures on their ships. They do leave some room for spiritual images.

[dragoongfa]

While I think you're right on this specific point, remember that the Loroi keep pictures of their historical or religious figures on their ships. They do leave some room for spiritual images.

True but that would fall under maintaining morale which is one of the most important aspects of war. This has been especially true in all Total Wars that have been fought in human history (from antiquity till now).

Heroic historical figures and religious symbols have been and still are under widespread use in all of the worlds armed forces; it's a relatively cheap trick to keep morale high. Even the Soviets, at the darkest hours of the war allowed for religious symbols to be carried in battle, which for a communist totalitarian regime was previously considered a big no no.

Painting fake external windows serves no such purpose. But it is also true that the Loroi have given a lot of extravagant allowance in their ship design, with their ridiculous corridors, the extravagant bridges and even windows.

I don't know if people have done this discussion before but everything I have listed above, especially the bridge are signs of a culture that doesn't take total war seriously (yet). I could write an entire essay as to how the real time space projection in the bridge is just a big distraction and is an invitation for 'tunnel vision' but I will mention that in the story when the time comes.

[Whale]

a Total War environment where every last bit of resource/man hour counts, even if it's just something as simple as paint.

I find that hilarious when the amount of bright colors on a Loroi escort likely rivals the amount in the entire TCA Colonial Fleet.

And I find the idea of fake windows on a warship quite silly.

[dapple26]

Wow, this is great.