Twenty-seven years earlier, Starship Enterprise:

Countryman checked the corner, and it was all clear. It was not often he participated in the war games, but there wasn’t much to do in the storm. He figured this would be better than playing an old game he has beaten so many times that he has lost count on an aging console. Well, by aging he means so old that he likely has the only working version left. However, he had kept it because it was often nice to play old games on the platform they were intended to be played on. Keeping his ancient E-Box 3600 working involved a lot of maintenance though, but it still worked. Not only did it still work, but it worked better than it was supposed to. Naturally, that was thanks to half the original components being replaced with more advanced versions.

Seeing the corner clear, he advanced to another piece of cover and checked the area. At the moment. He was wearing some light infantry armor and was carrying a wrist cannon. Along with a beam rifle and a short sword. He chose the short sword as it gave a little extra reach over a combat knife, and was still good at close quarters. In the distance, he spotted a member of the opposite team reconning the flank. Pulling the rifle, he aimed locked on and fired all in the course of a second. A blue energy stream ripped across the space, and stuck the man in the neck. The computer registered the hit and informed him that he had scored a kill. In the distance, he could see the man slump to the ground before his armor locked up and changed colors. He was not actually dead as the beam was at minimal power, but for the purposes of the game, he was.

Sensing something, he whirled and saw someone approaching his position. He was closer to the enemy base than his own, so it was no surprise when an enemy scout emerged from around the building. Countryman attempted to fire his wrist cannon, but instead of firing the cannon gave him an error message and a brief flash at the emitter.

He barely even hesitated before switching to plan b. He charged, the other guy noticed him and attempted to fire his own weapon. Instead, he merely got a flash of light, and then looked dumbly at his rifle. That gave Countryman the opening he needed and he attacked with the short blade that he carried as a backup weapon. This time the computer did not properly register the hits, but the other guy’s armor did respond properly and he locked up. Countryman glanced at a nearby intercom console and decided to contact the bridge. Something was going on.

Three years ago, Starship Forge starboard hangar bay:

Countryman shifted in his seat in the observation room. Across the deck, a four-legged walker with a large spire on its back was moving across the bay. Beside him, a young woman was rather gleeful about her work. He didn’t blame her considering the project had taken the better part of nearly two and a half decades to complete. The young woman was a scientist under Ruri, and she had been working on it for that long to make this breakthrough.

“The Disrupter Walker as people have taken to calling it is not very fast as you can see. Another drawback is that it can not move and generate a field at the same time. It must unpack to generate a field, but once that field is active it will have the same effect as that accident twenty-four years ago. Communications, most sensors, and energy weapons will be disrupted. Unfortunately, the field does not have the range to truly be viable for space combat. However, we could set up internal generators on our ships. Since the field only interrupts the formation of an energy beam and not the beam itself it won’t have much impact on space battles. Boarding actions, on the other hand, it should give us the advantage.”

Countryman nodded, and asked, “What kind of range does a walker’s field generator have? Also were you able to shield our weapons from the effect?”

She smiled happily, and replied, “About ten square kilometers on its own, but that range can be extended by linking up with other walkers. The more walkers we have the more efficient it seems to be. With just five walkers, were able to cover an area of one hundred twenty-five square kilometers. As for shielding our weapons, the fix proved fairly simple. It will take about five minutes to modify any standard particle or phased particle weapon to function in the field.”

Countryman made note of that and then turned to watch the walker unpack. Already he was thinking of how to use these. Of course, he felt it would be nice if they could find some way to improve the range. A task he naturally gave to the young woman next to him. Considering she was already an expert on the system. A task that was rewarded when she found a way to modify it for use in space combat. Unfortunately, the modification also resulted in it losing its weapon disabling effect, but the range was vastly improved.

Present-day, December 29th 080 SDE

Countryman entered the council room and was glad to see the entire Elder Council gathered for once. He smiled, as he took his seat, and with some satisfaction he announced. “I have plenty of good news to report today. First, the fleet has reported that they were successful in destroying the Cylovan fleet that intruded on this part of the nebula. All three of their dreadnoughts were sunk, and no capital ships escaped. We have decisively won a major engagement, and that should improve morale around here. In other news, the SFS Shadowstrike reports that the first phase of her mission was a success. Operation Reach is now a go.”

Most of the council nodded, they all knew what Operation Reach was about. It was named as a reference to an old video game, but it laid out their plan really well. Even if they were technically using the battleplan of the antagonists in the game. A couple of others were briefly confused, but they quickly remembered what the plan was. The reason Countryman had so few ships with which to engage the Cylovan fleet was not just because they were stretched thin, but because they had assigned the bulk of their available fleet to Operation Reach. If successful this gambit had a number of benefits, some very important strategic benefits in fact. What he was most looking forward to were the processed metals they were hoping to capture with this attack.

Meanwhile on the planet in question.

The commander adjusted his sword as he surveyed the terrain in front of him. Yes, sword. Over the last few years, they had been gaining popularity with the military elites. The ancients had been on to something with the sword. Sure it had fallen out of favor for centuries, but in recent years some of its advantages were playing to its revival. Modern swords differed from their ancient counterparts. Modern blades like his made of integrated circuits and the blade were very different. The entire blade was filled with circuitry and small components that generated a plasma stream around the edge of the blade. A second series in the blade then phases the superheated plasma. The entire process occurs in microseconds and creates a blade that can cut through most examples of modern armor. The sword itself was very useful in close quarters and gave a little more reach than a combat knife.

Here though he doubted he would use it much. His sword adjusted he double-checked his hud. Power was good, the armor was at full strength and his camouflage had no issues according to the display. The camouflage was something that only came with light armor models like his. His stealth armor was actually weakened by the inclusion of the required module and surface layers. His armor could still take a hit. The armor also paired well with the sword. His camouflage when active would actively hide him. It was optimized to protect from several scanning methods, visual, thermal, and spatial were all included.

The last item he checked was his rifle. He like the rest of his squad were outfitted for recon. This meant Stealth Armor, a sword and a wrist cannon for back-up weapons and a standard-issue beam rifle as their main weapon. Personally he was carrying the LRB-1258. It was a lightweight Phased Particle rifle. Highly accurate, with a deadly punch that could easily penetrate light vehicle armor. Like all beam rifle designs, it was optimized from long-range shooting and accuracy. However, it included a special sustained firing mode that allowed it to punch through the armor of heavier vehicles. Not really recommended for up-close combat. XR series rifles were favored for close to mid-range engagements, while the EX series wrist cannons were great sidearms Although for those who preferred a pistol or wanted something with a stun setting, the LP Series pistols were quite popular especial among security personnel.

Looking over the rocky terrain before them, he saw no movement. They were navigating a series of rocky cliffs and moving to get eyes on a settlement that was in the area. His squad included himself, a pair of twins, one of those new Psymages, and a young man that kept trying to hit on the twins. He was not sure what he was going to do with the last man. As for the Psymage, she was useful even if her abilities were largely an unknown. After the incident on the Enterprise, they had been trying to study this new branch of Psionics. Officially it was called Transcendent Psionics, but most just called it Psy Magic. The Elemental Arts as they were starting to be called were still fairly new and were largely being explored. The young Psymage assigned to his squad had been attached mainly because she had demonstrated talents useful for recon missions.

Gesturing he signaled them forward. Without a word, his squadmates followed and they made their way through a gap in the rocks. On the other side of the rocks was a small clearing before more rocks. He made note of the clearing, as command might want to place a walker here. The position was good, and the rocks would make it rather defendable. Even more important, it was not far from the settlement, and it would be important to have a Disruption walker unpacked near the settlement.

Again there was nothing around, so they made their way forward. Picking over rocks, and winding trails. It wasn’t much longer before they reached a position at the top of a small rise that gave them eyes on the settlement. With stealth active, they settled onto the rise, and the commander pulled a scope out to view the situation.

Below countless drones were working. Moving between buildings, and setting up equipment. It seemed the collective was doing something. Changing the focus on his scope, he studied the equipment. It did not take long for him to identify it as scanning equipment. The commander figured they were trying to probe the disruption field. He doubted the probe would work though. Reaching behind him, he pulled a small device of his back. It was a specially adapted communications device that operated on a small set of frequencies. The field was scheduled to open for a brief comm window for one of them every twenty minutes. That window was meant to last for two minutes. While brief it was enough time for their needs.

He checked the clock and waited. After about a minute, the window opened and he gave a brief report. There was no response, but he didn’t expect one until the next window in twenty minutes. Turning he signaled his squad, and they settled in to wait. Each one of them using scopes to spy on the Cylovan settlement. They had some time before they got their next set of orders. The commander, however, knew this settlement was merely a roadblock. Their real target was still quite the distance away.