Chapter 1

RRS - Evokaren

Sector-9854

Space

1st May 2341 (BSST)

"Get going man! Come on, Come on. Hurry your ass up and move it" The chief shouted at some poor sod as they ran past the launch bays in a cacophony of thudding, clattering and panting.

At almost full pelt they slipped into and out of view along the narrow corridor that connected the many subsystem rooms on the bottom floor. Once such subsystem was the launch bays, where I am now, and another was where I assumed them to be going; engineering. In a few seconds they had disappeared as they raced on in pursuit of whatever emergency was occurring.

The chiefs shout was partially obscured, even to me, by the loud sirens that indicated that something was going wrong. Probably whatever they were chasing down I thought to myself. And quite seriously wrong if the huge rumble that knocked me down to one knee a second later was anything to go by.

I rose to a full stand and planted my feet more securely to brace for the slap back wave which sure enough flooded around me making the whole ship groan again as the metal stretched and protested to the harsh treatment. The slap back was a reverberating wave created by an incident EM wave and material wave as part of the 14th generation of EMBBCM that my computer told me had hit us.

The EMBBCM or Electromagnetic Mass Based Ballistic Coaster Missile was a virtually invisible missile that was placed on an intercepting path so that it would hit orthogonal to the protective plates that were a major component to a ships defence.

As a result, an incident wave was sent the length of the ship that made the ship ripple. It not only destabilised the crew but put huge strain on the ship and to unshielded ships the EM wave could knock out the power supplies.

Depending on the propulsion system that could end catastrophically. If it was a Mk9 or below Antimatter or Nuclear based engine, then a loss of power would result in the fine-tuned balancing act of modulating such an engine failing and depending on the deployment of the control rods end in two possible results.

An epic explosion that would rip the ship apart or a failure and shutdown of the engines. Both of which were basically deathblows as it took several hours for the engines on Interstellar star ships to warm to operating conditions.

A tutor at the naval academy had likened it to the nuclear power stations of the 21st century. During nuclear fission, neutrons are ejected from decaying atoms at such a velocity as to initiate the next reaction. Control rods regulate the numbers of incident neutrons to prevent a shutdown or meltdown of the reactor.

24th century reactors operate in much the same way. Except for being much more finely tuned of course. In fact, they were so sensitive such that a couple of escaping neutrons could end the stable reaction and I don't need to spell out how bad that would be. These high tolerances had to be controlled by computers of course, what wasn’t these days. The entire engine system is dependent on them to run smoothly and efficiently and for the most they did.

Of course, the engines could be flooded with the control fluid to shut down quickly and they often did, but that was the beauty of the EMBBCM it was so quick and efficient there was no auto or manual shutdown possible after a successful hit.

I caught myself drifting away from the situation and snapped back to the present a little more. Thankfully the ship was protected from such EM attacks. However, the mass aspect still sent chaos running through the ship.

Like any good non-essential crew, I stayed rooted until the ripples faded. They got more frequent but less intense until they were not noticeable in comparison to the regular background running thrum of a ship.

The engineers were busy dealing with the damage to the propulsion systems and soon the Evokaren began to perform evasive manoeuvres. Since I was just about suited up. I climbed up into my Mk23 IRJ-Droplet Fighter Class 7.

Carpe Victoria, my ship was a sleek fighter. Droplet in shape with angular wings and a sleek black finish with silvery flecks. Against the darkness of space, a ship wouldn't be able to see me very well, but the silvery shimmer would give my fellow fighters a chance to see me.

A brand-new model, the Mk 23 was an improvement over the previous version in a number of ways. First and foremost, it was faster by a tenth. And more manoeuvrable besides. Capable of sharper banking and more abrupt changes in direction it made for an altogether different beast than the Mk 22.

Increased weapons and pilot interface meant it was a big improvement. That as not to say it was flawless. It certainly wasn't. Longer to repair and charge. More difficult to arm and just in general more expensive it would be a while yet before the navy fully adopted the model

The inboard authentication systems confirmed my identity and unlocked the systems readying for deployment. I thought about readying the engines, but I would have to wait for the command first. As I finished putting on my under suit I clipped it into my in-body systems and stepped into my flight suit.

A flight suit was incredibly tight with rigid supports around the middle, and extremities. The main purpose of a flight suit was to keep everything secure and tight, so I could perform the evasive maneuverers that a fighter jet was capable of.

A fighter was a much nimbler craft than the Evokaren was and the forces involved during turning could literally rip someone from the controls. That wasn't even to mention the muscle damage that could occur. So, a flight suit was a requirement to keep a pilot safe and secure as it could clip into the space suit and support you. A series of locks clicked into place as I sat in the space suit shell. The space suit was an emergency suit that acted basically like a chair.

On detection of a breach in the fighter it would seal around me as an extra layer of protection. Protection I was happy to have even if it meant another layer I had to wear. I already had to wear a body suit, an under suit and a flight suit so it was a little annoying.

Sighing, I reached above my head and pulled down the helmet. From inside I pulled out the inner lining and hooked it in to the body suit. I left the outer helmet off until I would need it. Whilst it wasn't uncomfortable it also wasn't exactly nice to wear. Besides it also hooked into the space suit which would prevent me from moving my head around freely.

Beside me in the other fighters my fellow pilots were beginning to get ready as well. About five minutes or so behind me, I just hoped we didn't get the call to deploy soon as I didn't think they would be ready. If we had to crash the wing right now I would be the only one left available. Crashing the wing was a risky move that involved a cold take-off with all of us together at the flick point of a spiral roll of the main ship.

The point of crashing the wing was to send out the one hundred fighters at once to the enemy at knife range to slaughter them. It was risky as my neighbouring craft was a good half meter away from me and the g-force exerted in a spiral was extreme, so it was most likely that we would crash and eliminate ourselves.

Not a future I was hoping for. I was not exactly a very experienced pilot having been a former marine. And at heart I was still a marine I was just looking for a new challenge and a fighter pilot was always something I had wanted to try.

Using my inboard computers, I patched into the main screen. To watch what the Evokaren's main pilot was seeing. To my surprise we were facing what looked like an Odrath Emperor class Superdreadnought. A task that our small Scorpion class frigate was ill equipped to deal with. You could always tell a dreadnought from any other ship by its enormity. Simply put they were a class unto their own.

A super dreadnought was a beefed-up scout version, instead of providing point or running escort, the super dreadnoughts were meant to be solitary hunters diving in and out of the line ripping holes in the defence and generally harrying the other side. We did it just as well as the Odrath, it's just we didn't have one of our very own here. Unless the captain of the Dreadnought was a moron we were going down and down hard. What on earth were they doing out here? I wondered silently to myself.

Sector 9854 was on the edge of Human controlled space, it was above and to the right of Odrath space from one perspective not even close to the border, and so it was not exactly expected to find one of their ships out this far. If it was authorised id be taken aback really, especially an Emperor class battleship. The Evokaren shook again but this time it was of our own accord as we fired of our first salvo from the main and support guns. The heady rumble of a well-oiled machine operating, we fought back with as much gusto as we could muster.

Unfortunately, it had little effect against such an outclassing foe and as the Main IBB rotated around to face us I could tell we were not going to win this fight. A world class strategist I may not be, but it was at least evident to me what the situation was. Luckily it was going to be a fairly painless way to go. We tried to shake it but fairly soon they had a lock and the tell-tale orange hue of the IBB's main barrel began to appear. It took a further few seconds before it was ready to fire. And fire it sure did.

A quick one-two pulse and the beam ripped into the ship. The main camera I was watching through burnt out and then the bridge was ripped apart sending the main crew out into space if they hadn't been sublimed beforehand. Next was engineering and then maintenance. All gone. Burnt out leaving a hollow wreck where before a bustling community of people working around the clock to keep us on track had been. As we fell through space I could see out of the front window of my ship, the red hue appearing in the IBB again I felt my doom approaching. It began to increase in intensity morphing from a cherry red to a bright fire red.

It's funny what goes through your head when you are about to die. For me my brain was telling me why I could see the red colour. You see the Ion beam had induced a current through the metal of the ship which had then induced a temporary magnetic field that had attracted us to the Dreadnought, so we had ended up closer. Close enough to see with nothing but the enhanced human eye the red glow of the barrel that signified my end.

It was just before the beam fired again that my head was rocketed into the headrest as the Electro rails initiating firing my Droplet out into space. Enough to start the IRJ engine from a cold start. We had basically crashed the wing, but the wing of a dead ship leaving nowhere left to return to. Especially as the next beam destroyed what little had remained leaving a broken drifting wreck and a scattering of millions of particles for the great stars to dispose of over the next however long.

The small lasers began picking the fighters off. At least those that weren't prepared to dodge. I began dodging whilst trying to fit my helmet on properly. Once it was on and locked in I could do much more. With no planets anywhere near by, nor hope of rescue I was determined to do as much damage as possible, so I worked my way closer weaving, banking, turning and just generally making my flight as erratic and hard to lock on too as possible.

However, it was seemingly futile as the small fighter just didn't carry enough heat to even scuff the paint on such a big warship. My ship was twenty-meters-long and rated for atmo, LEO and space with one 50cm cannon and twenty 5cm cannons. A PNB laser and a particle blade. Compared to a 1500m Emperor class Superdreadnought.

Needless to say, it did not go well. I was the last one left but that wasn't saying much. I was also the only one who was mostly prepared to control a fighter. They had stopped firing at me though and I was hoping they weren't coming to pick me up as a prisoner of war. The Odrath weren't exactly known for being nice to prisoners.

As I watched with dread the dreadnought seemed to shift and buckle slightly. Something was going on. Something that was unusual that was for sure. I got a warning on my system of particles in the surroundings and a suggestion to reduce speed as the ship wasn't equipped with ablative armour and what it did have would be burnt through quickly. I pressed ignore.

As I watched, the beast seemed to split in two lengthening by a few hundred metres. It was slow going but soon there were two sections connected by a thick rod in the middle. The rod which then twisted up and out into a form of barrel. From the two sides couplings were being pushed out and when they connected a series of running light lit up on the gun.

I gasped for breath as I seemed to have forgotten to breath as I watched the show in front of me. I was perplexed for sure. This seemed like a very stupid idea for a weapon. One that had to basically leave the ship vulnerable. Experimental for sure.

The gun fired, and I saw darkness. My screens spat up all sorts of warning, my Nav software asked for a reset and all the lights lit up in solidarity trying to tell me something was disastrously wrong.