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Well of Souls Forums • [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror (Completed) - Page 2
Page 2 of 34

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:06 pm
by dragoongfa
Phew, that's the end of Chapter 1.

Also forgot to say that comments are always appreciated.

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 10:55 pm
by zircher
Fun stuff! Minor nitpick, he probably tied it to his waist and not his waste. The latter would be rather nasty. :-)

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 11:02 pm
by dragoongfa
zircher wrote:Fun stuff! Minor nitpick, he probably tied it to his waist and not his waste. The latter would be rather nasty. :-)
Thanks, for some reason I always mistake the two spellings :oops:

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 12:47 am
by Whale
Interesting stuff.

Though I have to say "Fransua" sound silly. I'd recommend sticking with "Francois".

And asteroids with EM emissions? If they're mostly iron, I can see EM interference happening but "EM emission" sounds like it's giving off major radiation. :P Also spotted "think" instead of "thick" when talking about the asteroid field.

I could also say something about a thick asteroid field, but meh, it's not that hard scifi. :P

Anyway, fun read, hope you continue.

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:02 am
by dragoongfa
Whale wrote:Interesting stuff.

Though I have to say "Fransua" sound silly. I'd recommend sticking with "Francois".
I hate French (the language although the people are annoying too) for a reason.
And asteroids with EM emissions? If they're mostly iron, I can see EM interference happening but "EM emission" sounds like it's giving off major radiation. :P
Mostly iron with a mix of some exotic materials mixed in that give off some radiation that screws up with certain systems, nothing life threatening (unless someone hugs an Uranium deposit with just a space suit) but it does annoy anyone who may end up looking for something in there. Will try to better explain it later.
Also spotted "think" instead of "thick" when talking about the asteroid field.
I am starting to also hate English and I am good at it.
I could also say something about a thick asteroid field, but meh, it's not that hard scifi. :P
True, not hard scifi, but the explanation is plausible and it will be mentioned later (probably in the next chapter) that such a densely packed asteroid field (it's a field, not a belt like the one between Mars and Jupiter) should have produced a planet already and in fact it gets close enough to do so when the orbits of the two gas giants that it's caught between are keeping the gas giants away from each. However every few thousand years the two gas giants get close, concurrent orbits and the planet that was beginning to form breaks apart again. The story takes place in a period where the gravitational forces are from the two gas giants are breaking the field apart.
Anyway, fun read, hope you continue.
Thanks, will do.

EDIT:

Also 'autocorrect' should be renamed 'autocowreck'.

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:07 pm
by Mr.Tucker
Would there not be a navigational buoy in this solar system? They're automated, and can contain information. Or would the Loroi destroy them as well?

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 9:05 pm
by dragoongfa
Mr.Tucker wrote:Would there not be a navigational buoy in this solar system? They're automated, and can contain information. Or would the Loroi destroy them as well?
The Loroi completely destroyed the key infrastructure of the Tithric, in order to negate its use by the Umiak. If they thought that something could contain valuable information they would take it away with them, nav buoys would certainly fall in the infrastructure category and they would certainly hold information that the Loroi would want.

If the Loroi didn't destroy something or taken it away for intelligence purposes, someone else already went over everything with a fine toothcomb looking for anything that could be jury rigged in order to keep ships that don't receive spare parts running just a bit longer.
SpoilerShow
Some Loroi strategists left some things intact in the system in order for the Umiak to be tricked into investing resources in building a forward outpost and staging ground, thus allocating ships there from elsewhere. Considering the size of the former Tithric space the Loroi would still be able to detect fleets with Farsense from far enough away that they would be able to easily interdict an attack fleet long before it would get close to Loroi space.

When that outpost would grow big enough the Loroi would surround it and destroy it with overwhelming force.

The Loroi were perplexed when the Umiak not only didn't fall for it but that they also looted and destroyed whatever was left intact. The reasons as to why they did that would not be understood until the Loroi went on the offensive in the Semoset campaign

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:16 pm
by dragoongfa
Chapter 2, part 1

If death was to come for them, it would be quick and painless. Every last of the 93 survivors aboard the Imperial destroyer Silverspear knew this. Their ship was crippled, with its main reactor knocked out of commission, life support and some gravity barely maintained by connecting the small reactors of the two shuttles into those systems. With careful control of the energy output they could last for a month or so before running out of fuel but in a pinch they could perhaps power some more systems for a limited amount of time. Even then however it wouldn’t do them any good, it wouldn’t be enough to power even a single weapon; for all intents and purposes Silverspear was dead. The damage was too extensive; only a dedicated repair ship could bring it back into flying condition and it was doubtful that a rescue flotilla would have one with it, if such a rescue flotilla ever came for them.

The ship was one of the new Warhammer class of destroyers and despite the young age of the design very few new technologies were incorporated into it. Despite that fact it would be an ideal target for the Umiak to capture if they found them. The Shells would certainly blow them up if they thought that they still had power but a ship without power was an ideal target to capture. They knew that the Umiak would board them to take the ship and they had taken the necessary precautions. If they came for them in force they would detonate the remaining anti matter missiles, leaving the Shells nothing but dust. That defiance even in the face of death also gave them some comfort.

For the youngest warriors among them, the ones who had barely finished their training and dreamed of glory since the moment their initiation was complete and were allowed to wear their warrior armors for the first time. For them, this would be the only chance to come to blows with the enemy. They knew that they would get to fight the Shells in the small amount of time that they would have before the missiles detonated; it would be a fleeting moment of glory but it would be theirs.

For the veterans, it would be one last chance to vent their rage for everything that the Umiak had done in the past, they were the ones who were still young when the war started and the memories of it shaped their very souls. They are the ones who remembered the desperate struggle and the fall of Seren, the Tithric campaign and the liberation of Seren at the beginning of Semoset. The memories of what they found at Seren and elsewhere giving further fuel to the hate they felt for the enemy.

The older ones, the ones like herself; were different but they still felt comfort in the thought of one last battle, each for their own deep and far less clear reasons. Many wanted to take one last Shell with them as penance for all the battles that they had lost early in the war. Others were like the younger veterans, seething with rage not only for the Umiak but with themselves as well for believing themselves invincible when they weren’t. Then there were the few that just wanted to wash away the regrets that plagued them since the beginning of the war.
For them those regrets were made worse in their current situation; where they waited either for salvation from the hands of an Imperial rescue fleet or death if the Umiak stumbled upon their hidden ship. It was this maddening duality of life and death that made the regrets worse.

Shadowcloud opened her eyes and sighed as she tried to empty her mind once again. She looked down at her armor, it’s dark Mizol colors looking pitch black in the perpetual dim light that the emergency lighting offered. Without thinking she activated her armor’s insignia lights, the bright ruby red light blinding her momentarily. She smiled when the pleasant memories that accompanied that armor came back to her and frowned when the accompanying regrets came immediately after them.

It was when these regrets flooded her that she was thankful for her Lotai training; the ability to mask her thoughts and feelings from the others. It wouldn’t be good for them to feel her regrets; she was the oldest warrior on the ship after all. In fact she was the oldest warrior in the squadron that was sent to investigate the former Tithric-Umiak border.
Thinking of her age brought back even more bad memories, she remembered how decades ago the Mizol delegation she was part of was laughed out of the Imperial throne room when they petitioned the previous emperor to allow and fund Mizol operations in order to investigate the Umiak Hierarchy.

They thought that it was a logical and pragmatic request. The empire knew very little about the Umiak Hierarchy and their capabilities; the Mizol believed that this lack of knowledge should be addressed and that the empire should launch covert operations in order to unearth everything that the Shells were hiding behind their iron curtain.
Greywind herself was the one who led the delegation and petitioned the emperor but the emperor and the other castes didn’t listen. They couldn’t or perhaps didn’t want to believe that the Shells could be a threat to the Empire. Their pride didn’t allow them to even contemplate a possible inadequacy of their martial prowess against anything that the Hierarchy could throw against them. The memories of how the entire chamber laughed at their arguments flooded her mind; she saw again Greywind’s face distort from anger her nearly perfect Lotai being the only thing that stopped her from challenging the entirety of the laughing chamber into a duel. Greywind and the others stayed their hands and with what dignity they had left excused themselves.
Shadowcloud always regretted not saying or doing something there and then, something, anything would be better than the unanswered ridicule. Those regrets were made worse with the advent of the war. Perhaps if she…

She sighed and closed her armor’s insignia lights. There was nothing that could be done then. The other warrior castes saw the petition as an insult to themselves even before Greywind had finished the first draft of her speech to the Emperor. Somehow they had twisted the worries of the Mizol into a Mizol dig into their martial capabilities. It was maddening to think that their ego came before even the most logical arguments.

If they had pushed it further, if they had challenged the others into duels as their honor demanded then the Mizol would find themselves completely isolated and alone. The other castes had always seen their ways with disdain and distrust; any misstep it that delicate situation would have resulted into bloodshed and perhaps even a civil war.

A decade later, when the worst fears of the Mizol became a reality, millions paid the price of that laughter with their lives. The Shells were a far more dangerous foe than any Loroi thought and their first attacks were overwhelming. When the Imperial flagship was destroyed every Loroi saw it for what it was, an unparalleled catastrophe where the Emperor and the entirety of her cabinet was killed leaving the Empire leaderless in the time of its greatest peril.

The Mizol of that delegation however saw it for what it was; a vindication. They dared not say it, they dared not even think about it, but deep inside them, hidden behind every mental barrier they could muster, they saw it as the just punishment for the ones who put their pride before reason. Their only regrets being that the Empire had bled a lot because of their folly.

Chapter 2, part 2 : http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 448#p18448

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:24 pm
by dragoongfa
Author's Random Ramblings

Well, after a relatively bad week and scrapping the initial draft of the second chapter I finally released the next part of the story.

If time permits I should be able to write and post the next part by Saturday and the third part by Sunday.

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:24 am
by Whale
Yay.

I wonder what a Bennet makes of 116% increase in life support strain...

But why the loroi had any artificial gravity on?

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 5:55 am
by dragoongfa
Whale wrote:Yay.

I wonder what a Bennet makes of 116% increase in life support strain...

But why the loroi had any artificial gravity on?
Both the life support and the gravity systems are working at half capacity (than what would be needed to properly support 93 Loroi) to conserve as much energy as possible, the air is beginning to get foul and the gravity is supplemented by the asteroids own. A warrior wouldn't even think of complaining about the air and the seemingly wobbly gravity.

As to why, they are landed on an Iron asteroid, it has some gravity but not enough to keep the ship stable in place if someone carpet bombed all surrounding asteroids out of spite. By manipulating the output of the gravity systems they have put an anchor in place.

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:25 pm
by dragoongfa
Chapter 2, part 2

The air smelled foul and the corridors themselves were barely lit by the faint emergency lights, spreading her mind she realized that she was alone in that part of the ship; the others huddled around in a couple of places. Normally there would be a dozen or so warriors this far away from the others in order to calm their minds just like she always did. She felt relief to be completely alone; it was comforting for one such as her in the situation she had found herself in. It wasn’t that she didn’t desire company, she craved it now more than ever but the sole company that she could have were warriors and not farseers like herself. It was true that in the midst of this war she found herself among warriors far more often than those of her own caste; she knew from early on that their ways of thinking were different and she got used to theirs quickly. It was the nature of her gifts that made them weary and uncomfortable around her, farseers could easily overwhelm them if they were not careful. That meant that they had to constantly be on their guard in order not to cause any harm to them. Out of the warrior castes only the Teidar and the Mizol could understand that simple fact and she was thankful that she had at least Shadowcloud and the other four Teidar to confide to. They were still warriors but they could at least understand how each other felt.

As Farseer Calmwater walked forward she contemplated if that was the only reason she walked among the empty corridors alone. It was true that farseers and normal Loroi didn’t like to be in each other’s company for long but in the situation they had found themselves in, the others had banded together; seemingly forgetting castes, ranks and past prejudices, they even joked about such things amongst themselves. Perhaps the reason of her self-imposed solitude was the fact that she wasn’t a warrior; the others, despite their caste and age differences had that in common, she didn’t. Perhaps it was the situation itself that made her want to avoid staying close to the others; she was afraid of what they thought about her after everything that happened and she didn’t know if they would be right or wrong in whatever conclusion they would come to.

Farseers weren’t warriors, they never were and never would be. Since antiquity their telepathic gifts were just too strong even for other Loroi to keep at bay; the farseers had quickly learned how to limit themselves in order not to harm others but the warriors always kept their guard around them. Only with the advent of technology were the farseers drawn out of their solitude and given a purpose; first to breech interstellar distance and communicate with each other and then to see life among the stars and warn their fellows about it. Two duties that the farseers have maintained for millennia; she couldn’t help but think that she failed at both of them.

Was it really her's and the other's fault? Or was it something that the Umiak had somehow done as Shadowcloud suspected. The Mizol Torimor had confided to her, after everything that happened; that their mission was to find out if the Umiak had managed to find a way to hide themselves from farseers. Shadowcloud told her that one of the picket squadrons that were placed amidst former Tithric space had disappeared without a single communiqué by their farseer; losing a ship on a freak accident without a warning was possible but an entire squadron suddenly disappearing from farsense was something that could not be ignored. Another squadron was hastily assembled and given eight experienced farseers in order to investigate the former Umiak-Tithric border. At first it sounded like an ordinary intelligence mission that happened regularly in the war, the farseers would sense the life signs within Umiak territory and would report whatever looked like trade or military activity to the higher ups to do what they wished with the information.

They should have realized early on that an intelligence officer of Shadowcloud’s caliber would never be sent on a routine mission. They didn’t realize it but that didn’t mean that they were lax in their duties, all eight of them took turns in the amplifiers and they saw nothing as they approached the former Umiak-Tithric border. They didn’t sense anything when an entire Umiak fleet suddenly stood in their path as if they were waiting for them, the farseers were immediately ordered to alert the empire to the fact but they couldn’t, something just got in the way every time the others tried to contact anyone.

The Umiak rushed at them and after the first exchange of fire the squadron was nearly torn to shreds and the others were killed, seven of the most experienced farseers in the sector died in an instant when the amplifier compartment was destroyed by a direct hit. She was just lucky she wasn’t there when that happened.

She remembered hearing Shadowcloud scream in sanzai if a farseer was still alive, her message easily discernible throughout Black Sword, the command cruiser that they were on at the time. She remembered how relieved Shadowcloud’s reply was when she replied that she was still alive. The Mizol ordered her to go to a specific outer airlock, sending her Teidar escorts to find her and help her along the way. When they got there they found Shadowcloud overseeing the hasty loading of various machine parts on a shuttle that had just got there.

The Mizol hastily explained what was about to happen. The remainder of the squadron would hold the Umiak back for as long as they could, while they would run away on board a destroyer and jump out of the system, hoping that whatever the Umiak were doing to stop their farseeing communications would remain in the system. Shadowcloud’s three Teidar bodyguards were apprehensive at first but Shadowcloud coldly told them that the Empire must learn of this and everything would be in vain if they failed to do that. She cut in, telling Shadowcloud that without the necessary equipment it would be impossible to contact anyone and only command class vessels had it. Shadowcloud just waved at the equipment that was frantically being loaded and it was then that she realized that they were amplifier spare parts.

She barely managed to look back at Black Sword as they left it behind. It was obvious to even her amateur eyes that the ship was not going to offer much resistance. Numerous plasma focus hits had tore through her, one of them undoubtedly was the one who killed the other farseers; the last thing she saw as they turned away from it was the completely destroyed shuttle bay and the missing port engine.

The ship they were heading to was a destroyer, perhaps the only ship left intact in the squadron. The Silverspear begun it’s mad dash back to the jump point they came from the moment the shuttle touched down in its shuttle bay. She immediately went to work, coordinating the assembly of a farseeing amplifier with the spare parts that they had taken. She didn’t have to use her gifts to know that the others were looking at what was unfolding behind them. She wanted to focus at the work at hand but she couldn’t help but feel the other ships die one after the other before they jumped away.

It took them some time but they managed to jury rig an amplifier together but she still couldn’t contact anyone and there wasn’t an Umiak ship in the system. They raced at full speed to the next jump point, seeing a lone Umiak medium jump into the system after them. They all thought that they could easily outrun it; a Loroi destroyer was easily faster than any Umiak medium. They jumped again and she could still not contact anyone. What was even worse was the fact that the Umiak ship arrived in the system far earlier than it should be. Somehow the Umiak ship was faster than them, with an acceleration that was one and a half times that of Silverspear . Shadowcloud speculated that the medium had overcharged its engines somehow and it took them so long to send it against them because the Umiak transferred as much fuel as they could to it before sending it after them.

It was obvious that they would soon be overtaken and it was safe to assume that whatever the Umiak were doing would stop if their lone pursuer was gone. Soroin Torret Darkwing, Silverspear’s commanding officer, laid a trap for the enemy ship amidst a dense asteroid field. The fight was brief and brutal; using the element of surprise Silverspear came out of it victorious but not unscathed. The damage was significant and more than half of the crew was dead. What was worse the reactor was unstable and they barely managed to shut it down after they hastily hid Silverspear on an asteroid. They couldn’t fix it and without a reactor there was simply not enough power to even call out for help, how much to warn the Empire about the new Umiak capability.

Shadowcloud had told her that it was unreasonable to blame herself over everything that happened; yet as she unfolded the events over and over again in her mind she couldn’t help but somehow find herself at fault. Perhaps it was the way of thinking of the Farseers that made her blame herself; out of every caste they were the only ones with such a profound impact to society. To suddenly find themselves blind and mute was previously unthinkable but now it was a reality to her.

Her mind was still in turmoil when she realized that she was standing idle at the same spot for some time. She began walking back to the others, her mind was still troubled but there was nothing that she could do about it other than hide it as best as she could. As she was returning she heard light footsteps from a nearby corridor and nearly cried out in surprise before remembering that Shadowcloud and the Teidar had a strong enough Lotai to almost hide themselves completely for a limited amount of time. Perhaps one of them was meditating and she wondered if she should go greet whoever it was. She hoped that it was Shadowcloud, some discussion with someone who understood her would do her some good.

Chapter 2, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 528#p18528

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:29 pm
by dragoongfa
Let it be know that from henceforth I won't be making any predictions as to when the next part will be ready.

I scrapped this part twice in the weekend. What I posted above is approx 50% the 'finalized' hand written draft I finished yesterday and 50% last minute changes (that took 2 hours to finalize).

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:44 am
by Whale
Heh. Never state stuff with 100% certainty if you can help it.

Now, Teidar, somehow undetected humans or something else?

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2015 1:55 pm
by Sweforce
Keep them coming. This is good stuff. Eventually when more of Ariochs story comes out, creating more fan stuff will be easier. Right now we just now know to little about the official story and thus much can be invalidated on shoft notice. What do we know, somewhere in chapter 2 Alex could point to a third part pitting the Loroi and Umiak against each other and realising that they suddenly make peace and the war is over. We cannot know. Hopefully we will learn more of the setting soon enough.

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:47 pm
by 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

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:51 pm
by 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.

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:59 am
by Whale
Heh... They aren't in the same system, right?

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2015 12:26 pm
by dragoongfa
Whale wrote:Heh... They aren't in the same system, right?
Not for long.

Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 10:59 pm
by 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