Remnants
<A ship was recently discovered in the Terminus system, seemingly intact, but abandoned. A team was sent inside to investigate, and they located the ship’s bridge. Power was restored to bridge section. The following is a transcript of events in the ship’s log, later identified as Korigul, a Kortul Devastator class Vasari battleship>
<Note: exploratory parties reporting hearing strange noises in walls of ship; accounted to nervousness, but now mounting sound and video recording devices on exploratory party members’ helmets>
<Log entry begun approximately 30 standard minutes prior to first contact with Aluxi dynasty ships; terminated three standard minutes following cessation of conflict>
<Translated post recovery; note: appropriate rank equivalents utilized, known background on individuals attached in separate file>
An alien bridge is displayed on screen, a polished dark floor extending in a semi-circle and is covered by swirling symbols. The walls are lined with monitors and consoles, the screens glowing yellow on deep purple. In the center of the room is a dark colored chair, sitting in which is a dark skinned individual in a red uniform, covered in pins and patches. Directly in front of him, there are no consoles, only blank bulkhead. There is a small display on the left arm of the chair extending up at an angle for easy viewing.
“Captain Kastru, move carrier fleet into the shadow of the asteroids and launch all squadrons.” said a commanding voice.
“Affirmative,” came the reply with some comms distortion.
“Commander Ratingus, bring your Enforcer and Skirmisher detachment to bear on the native forces. Frontal assault formation,” the commanding voice continued.
“Yes, Admiral Katrikkan,” said another voice over the comms.
“Captain Celchu, bring the Assailant group to seventy degrees off of their port bow. Engineering, Conn. Bring the Korigul up fifteen degrees and bring the engines to all ahead full. Take her above the battle.” Admiral Katrikkan commanded.
“Aye, Aye sir.”
“As ordered Admiral.”
Admiral Katrikkan opened his mouth to issue another order when suddenly the ship shuddered and alarms blared.
“Damage report! What hit us?” he snapped.
“Sir, sensors reported multiple high velocity metallic slugs impacted on our shields. Computer reports the slugs’ most likely origin from the native fleet, at the indicated ships.” The battle appeared on the bulkhead in front of Admiral Katrikkan with several capital ships outlined in bright yellow.
“Conn, Damage Control. Shields held through the initial strike, but barely. Another hit like that before they recharge, and we’ll likely be crippled, if not destroyed.” A series of numbers scrolled across the display on the arm of the chair.
“Weapons, Conn. Weapons are free. In-ship Systems, Conn. Distribute power away from engines to weapons and shield regenerators. Draw emergency power from anti-matter reserves. Get those shields back up to full ASAP.” Admiral Katrikkan said with urgency.
“Designate highlighted ships as group [untranslatable][assumed letter in Vasari alphabet; designated “1”] and send data to fleet. Targeting Control, Conn. Focus fire and destroy targets [1]. Commander Ratingus, focus fire on targets [1]. Targeting data sent.”
“Received,” answered Ratingus.
“Sutra, divert power to phase missile launchers and reloaders and fire upon targets [1].”
“Understood,” answered the captain of the Sutra as the Vulkoras Desolator began moving into range.
Three Kol class battleships began turning towards the command capitol ship that sat raining fire from above the fight. A Dunov Battlecruiser opened fire upon the Desolator, but the Sutra’s shields stopped the Dunov’s rounds. The phase missiles launched by the Sutra moved through the Aluxi ships, and impacted the shields of the battlecruiser, and explosions were seen beneath the shielding of the ship. A large explosion filled the screen as the missiles that were bypassing the shields struck the command bridge, severing control of the ship and allowing the engines to overheat and catastrophically fail.
“Sir, sensors detect a strong magnetic field increasing in strength around the natives’ ships. They are firing!” the sensors officer exclaimed.
Admiral Katrikkan quickly ordered, “All power to the lower and forward shields! Do not let that volley through!”
The shields readout for the upper and rear sides of the ship reduced to zero, as the lower shields readout increased. Then the lower shields readout dipped considerably, dropping to zero for a moment with an imperceptible pause before the ship shuddered.
“Status!”
“Three high mass slugs fired at extreme velocity. The first two were entirely blocked by our shields, but the third was only partially blocked. Loss of pressure in outer compartments in section [untranslatable][assumed letter/number combination designated “2”], and outer hull buckling, but that’s all,” reported an officer.
“We were lucky. Be more vigilant. Return power to normal distributions, and accelerate to flank speed. Bring the bow down thirty degrees smartly. Let’s take her to the fight,” Admiral Katrikkan said.
“Attention all ships, do not fire upon target [untranslatable][assumed letter/number; designated “3”]. I want that ship alive. Instead focus fire upon each ship from closest to farthest relative to the Sutra’s position. Ravustra, move to support Sutra’s flank,” he continued as the battle progressed on the bulkhead display. The Aluxi fleet was now beginning to stumble as more of its ships were destroyed or crippled. Only a single Kol Battleship remained unscathed, as no Vasari ships had yet fired upon it. The Vasari were not without some casualties, as the Skirmisher detachment was now five less in number, and the Enforcer detachment was short one ship. The Assailant group had not suffered a single casualty, and the three Vasari capital ships that were in the task force had not even lost shields yet, except for when the three Kol battleships had fired their rail guns at the Korigul.
The Aluxi ships began to retreat, making for the edge of the planet’s gravity well. Bomber wings appeared in front of them, boxing the ships in, but they kept moving. Fighter wings began to strafe the fleet, closely followed by the bomber wings. Soon chaos reigned as ships began to falter and die, their inertia carrying their dead hulks forward at the same speed until either an aft explosion accelerated them into the ship ahead, or a bow explosion slowed their progress and faster ships behind the now uncontrolled husks of ships crashed into them.
Admiral Katrikkan ordered, “Engineering, Conn. Raise the bow thirty degrees, continue flank speed. Subverter ships, Korigul actual. Accelerate and disable weapons and engines of target [3].” On screen, a group of small blips broke from the Korigul and raced ahead, halting a Kol Battleship. The rest of the Aluxi fleet continued onward, to the edge of the gravity well, missing two Kol Battleships, four Kodiak heavy cruisers, fifteen carriers, and sixteen cobalt light frigates. In total three fourths of the original fleet had been destroyed, crippled, or otherwise rendered useless. Only five light frigates, one Kol battleship, one Dunov Battlecruiser, two Kodiak heavy cruisers, and one carrier survived to jump away.
Admiral Katrikkan sat back in his chair, pleased with the success of his operation, but apparently unsettled to learn that the natives were more advanced than any other race the Vasari had encountered, beside themselves. Even though they still were millennia behind the Vasari, it was a new prospect for him to lose ships in an operation that was supposed to an easy domination of a planet. “It appears that this race is more advanced than we thought. They are probably multi-planet, if not multi-system. Prepare defenses for a counter attack,” Admiral Katrikkan commanded, “set up repair platforms and phase jump inhibitors. I want fifteen missile batteries in an overlapping pattern on this side of the planet. They are likely to come from the same direction when they attack as when they fled.”
<Log entry terminated>
<Transmission terminated. Will continue as each entry is fully translated>
Good story, I've enjoyed it so far. The only thing I have to be critical about is that you've written the Vasari to be too human in character for my liking.
Habble habble.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh6dfwURbB0&NR=1
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iS4HhWmzxto&NR=1
good story so far. Just wondering but wasnt it over a year into the conflict before the Kol Battleship was introduced into the TA/TEC fleets?
probably. forgot about that when I wrote the first post, tho. so now I'm stuck. barely caught my little Marza mistake, turned it into a Martin.
and I had to make them somewhat human, as it is nearly impossible to imagine what an alien race's culture, aphorisms, and general way of speaking woud be. it is just human nature to imagine other things (living, that is) as being like them. I try to make them sound as wlien as possible by including non-english words, but there isn't much I can do.
although, to be honest, I based the bridge scenes on U.S. submarine doctrine. it actually relates rather well.
i thought the in-game voice acting makes the vasari sound like klingons, so thats how i've always thought of them. it seems pretty fitting for their culture too, except for the technologically superior part. they're conquering warriors with a superiority complex, they enslave their conquered foes and make them submit to their rule.
i guess there are a couple ways you can take that now that i think of it:
-either their warrior ways bred a military culture akin to vikings or pirates, with an unruly crew dominated by a strong captain/commander/admiral (how i had always thought of them)
-or how you have them, thousands of years of conquering and warfare has streamlined them into an efficient structured military force.
I go with the second way - if the pirates are a bunch of rebellious teenagers out for some fun. I'd probably join them lol.
fear tends to either weld a group together, or tear it apart. and they've been running long enough that they have to be the former.
You have to be completely insane to understand how a alien thinks. Believe me, I know.
quite
Normandy
Stationed at Naeve
Aboard the Normandy, Admiral of the Navy Kol sat in the command chair of the bridge, old and weary from the war with the Vasari and the newly arrived Advent. A subordinate approached Kol.
The subordinate reported, “Sir, we have received a distress call from TNC Swift Foot. They have encountered and were boarded by unknown hostiles, not Vasari or Advent and requested assistance. They have also dropped out of contact, and have not responded to further attempts to reach them.”
“And the Valiant?” Kol asked, referring to the Kodiak heavy cruiser that was assigned to protect the research vessel.
“Reported they were moving to dock and assist, but stopped making regular reports. They are also no longer responding to transmissions.”
“Inform the rest of the twenty-third battle group that they are to move to assist and cover the Swift Foot and the Valiant. Hopefully, this is a localized incident.”
“Aye, sir,” the messenger replied, turning to walk away.
Kol turned back to the squared transparisteel screen in front of his chair. The rest of the bridge crew were seated along the straight walls to each side of him, and two crewmembers were sitting on the other side of the screen, making them the farthest forward in the room.
Kol leaned forward in his chair and rested his head in his hands. The war was stretching long, and the crews of the warships were long weary, grown old. The newly arrived Advent had not helped the situation. The Trader Emergency Coalition could not defend all the planets on the front, and so had organized its ships in an old stratagem. They had a scout vessel or a remote sensor at each of the planets in the outer rim, and had a large force stationed between the planets on the front, only a few hours away by phase drive.
The Vasari had faster drives still, and their ships had a habit of appearing from seemingly impossible directions when the TEC attacked their colonies. They had found two types of structure whose construction eluded them. One was a three-pronged instrument that seemed to slow the phase drive’s warm-up period. The other was a ring shaped device whose function was still a mystery. They believed the former structure was not of Vasari design and had only been adopted by the race, but the TEC could not replicate them.
Kol leaned back again and said, “Bring us around. We are going to the Terminus system.”
The captain of the ship replied, “Aye, sir.”
The captain of a war ship would stand in front of a holographic display that showed a tactical and navigational map of the gravity well, showing the current position of all ships, major asteroids, structures, and showed a graphic representation of phase lanes at the edge of a thick-edged circle, denoting the minimum distance from the planet at which was possible to phase jump away.
The ship moved slowly at first, but picked up speed as they moved toward the gravity well’s edge. Normandy began decelerating a small distance from their jump point, as neither the engines nor the ship’s superstructure could take the stress of sudden deceleration. They came to a stop and a quiet hum began to be heard throughout the ship as the phase drives began their startup sequence.
The ship jolted as it entered phase space, and light blue swirling light enveloped it. Kol ordered, “I want all of the details that we can gather so far packaged into a briefing and sent to the tacboard.”
“Aye, sir,” came the reply from a speaker in the arm of Kol’s chair. Half of an hour later, a folder icon appeared in the lower left of the tacboard, part of the display on the transparisteel in front of Kol and behind the captain. There wasn’t much factual information in the folder, as the only information they had was from the fragmented transmission.
Kol examined the contents of the file, and ordered a combat force be assembled, in preparation for the imminent drop from phase space and subsequent boarding of the three vessels.
* * *
Sergeant Nichols awoke to an insistent beeping coming from the console near the head of his bunk. He smacked the mute button and climbed out of the bunk. Still in his skivvies, he opened the message, which read,
All boarding combat units are to prepare for combat immediately. This is not a drill. Prepare to board a vessel occupied by unknown hostiles.
Admiral Kol
Nichols sighed, and shook awake the three others in the room. They dressed and double-timed their way to the armory of the ship. The corridors were filled with soldiers heading the same direction, but in an organized fashion, allowing them to jog their way forward.
When the squad arrived at the armory, they entered the restricted area to pick up their gear, donning light titanium armor, with a Kevlar descendent underlay. Beneath the underlay was a second steel plating set, intended to spread the impact of rounds hitting the fabric underlay. They wore gray full-face helmets; the transparisteel faceplate showed a HUD with a wealth of information, from each squad member’s vitals in the lower right corner, to an advanced targeting and aiming system that displayed targeted enemies, as well as where his bullets would hit almost exactly. They had nearly matched the Vasari in body armor, and had comparable SMGs.
Nichols asked, “Everyone ready?”
He received a resounding “Yes, sir!” as the three answered at once.
“Then move out!”
They jogged to the briefing room, where a man in an official uniform met them.
He spoke, “Approximately a week ago, the Swift Foot docked with the Korigul, a Vasari Devastator class capitol ship. A research team began exploring the vessel, and suddenly dropped out of contact. However, we did receive a distress call a few moments before communication with the research team was cut off. The Valiant, the tending Kodiak, docked with the Swift Foot to assist the team. The Valiant also dropped out of contact. This is all the relevant information we have.
“Squads will be sent into each of the ships, to rescue the crews and to neutralize any hostiles aboard. You will be sent into the Korigul to locate and retrieve the research team and any intel they may have. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then good luck.”
The squad moved through the door into the boarding craft in a port firing tube. They took seats in the boarding craft and strapped themselves into their seats. Nichols closed the door, locking them in, and quickly sat down himself. He had just strapped himself in when the craft shuddered with the force of being launched.
It was not long before the craft came to a jarring stop, and Nichols hit the straps’ release button, saying, “Bohateur, you’re on point.”
The squad formed a diamond formation, and moved to the forward door. It cycled open, and they rushed forward and kneeled, two facing left and two facing right.
“Clear left.”
“Clear right.”
Nichols sent Bohateur the route using a series of quick commands to his HUD, and then said, “Alright, let’s go.”
Bohateur moved to the left, and Nichols took up the flank. The other two were side by side between Bohateur and Nichols. There was a soft groan from the ship, making the hair on the back of Nichols’s neck stand up. The lights were out, as the ship had seemingly lost power, except for a few flickering points that were too weak to give off any light. The squad had all already switched their visors to low-light mode, so this was no issue, but it did not help the nagging thought that something was around each corner or behind them.
“There something creepy about this ship, Doyle,” Bohateur said with an edge of fear creeping into his voice.
“I know,” the soldier to Nichols’ right answered.
“Cut the chatter!” Nichols said, and the two fell silent.
They moved down to the corner of the hall, but when they turned it, they stopped in their tracks. In front of them was a barricade that had been torn open with inhuman strength. Along the floor and wall, blood was smeared as if several people have been killed violently at this spot, but there were no bodies nearby.
“Goddamn,” Nichols said, stunned to see the scene.
The story just keeps getting better and better!
Keep it coming man
Damn, never thought you had it in you. Nice work!
thanks. about halfway through the next one.
SWEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!
Awesome. Keep the story going
Nice story though I believe if anyone has misrepresented the Vasari it's you. The Vasari depicted in this story seem like nothing more than a bunch of bland military types. You could replace all their characters with humans and not notice the difference. The author your criticising however has thoroughly developed a culture for his characters. I'm sorry for being so blunt but I dislike it when people criticise each other's mistakes when they themselves stumble the same.
All in all, your story is very good and I honestly want to read more of it. Just try to make your Vasari characters as non-human as possible. That may mean deciding what you want a character to express and going in the opposite direction their human counterpart would.
This is a great story, its focus on a single admiral's fate is a great foil to the main sins stories focus on entire empires. I think that the vasari are sufficiently "alien" enough, and it would be difficult to picture them any other way. Think about it, a race that once had a huge empire is now on the run from a powerful and enigmatic enemy, they would cling to the one aspect of their culture that still exists, military tradition. So they are, and rightly should appear to be "bland military types". Excellent story, please keep it going
Totally agree
The Quarian from Mass Effect had a similar situation, fleeing from their empires space to live as exiles for hundreds of years. They were even lead by a council of joint chiefs and captains, living essentially under marshall law. However instead of simply being a navy on the run, they embodied a nomadic culture. They constantly reused the same equipment they had for generations, each crewmen having their entire family on board. The Quarians ships were also described as being used and modified so deeply that they resembled their base model very littlely. The Vasari being on the run for much longer than the Quarian would have much of this visible in their society.
Not only does a nomadic culture for the Vasari help explain their relative weakness in the beginning of the game, but also further seperates them from the "space barbarians" sterotype. As they progress in the war and conquer more planets, they begin turning back towards the Imperial Vasari of the past. Replacing storage space on their ships with weapons, and turning back on energy expensive weapon's system. The entire race would be rediscovering their warrior roots, and in doing so giving rebirth to the Old Empire. Perhaps the Vasari didn't need new technology to help defeat the Shadow following them, only worthy foes like the TEC and Advent to breath life back into their Imperial hearts. When they finally do confront their ancient enemy, it will not find broken refugee flotilla but a well organized battle fleet, an empire reborn.
^^^Perhaps with the TEC or Advent as allies?
I somehow doudt that all three groups would join together. Maybe the TEC and the Vassari, but I doudt the Advent would join their alliance. From what I can tell from many different sources, it seems that the Glorious Advent have been slowly building themselves into a blood rage for centuries. If anybody can hold a grudge that long, I doudt they would put aside their differences in such a short time to join the TEC. My point is, the TEC and Vassari may be bitter enemies, but that is all they consider each other, enemies. While the Advent, they want to go on a genocide and kill every last TEC person as their revenge. For them, the only way to achieve justice for what the Trader Coalition had done is to have oceans of the blood of their enemies at their feet. But thats just my opinion. Think whatever you want. This is just my opinion.
Also, the Advent defeat all. They are the glorious overlords of the universe. The defeat all, and always win in the end. Nothing can stand up to my fleet of over a thousand ships with my capital ship'Oblivion' at its helm. It has survived every battle, no matter what the odds are. Nothing can defeat my glorious carrier. Nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GLORY TO THE UNITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
who knows. that may end up happening in the game.
By the way: Vasari defeat all in the end!!!!!!!!!! never once has my Vasari Empire lost a battle. tactically withdrew from some planets, yes, but always retook them. The Vasari Empire is an unstoppable force! and the TEC and Advent are no immovable objects! No paradox neccessary!
Edoc'sil has only been destroyed once, but only while Leader was upon his throne called the computer chair. because Leader forgot to hit the pause button.
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