- Joined
- Sep 23, 2014
- Messages
- 137
- Reaction score
- 38
This is a story somewhat inspired by one I read a few years ago, which I was just reminded of when discussing something for my starmade server.
The tale is also set in the "universe" of my server.
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Alarms. The first thing I remember... Alarms. Blaring in the enclosed space of my cryo chamber, which was slowly bringing me out of cryo sleep. I pushed myself out... and drifted. I shook my head to clear it, confused as to why the artificial gravity hadn't kicked in. And then the emergency lighting system kicked in... Red light began to alternate with almost complete darkness, the faint glow of ice crystals remaining from my pod all that was left when the red faded. I grabbed hold of one of the pieces of metal that made up the tiny "details" of my ship... The Stormbound Vigil. Something must have happened for the Vigil to have lost power... I aimed for the maintenance vent nearby, and floated into it. I sighed into the silence outside my helmet.
"Computer, scan for any lifeforms." I muttered, feeling the need to keep quiet, simply due to how eerily silent the ship was. I "climbed" around a corner in the vent and found myself looking through a grate. I carefully detached the grate and then gently pushed it, sending it slowly drifting away. Then I pulled myself out and grabbed the grate before putting it back on.
Turning around, I was faced with a horrifying sight; the reason the ship had no power... and no sound could be heard? A hole had been ripped right through the hull, seemingly originating from the reactor.
"Scan complete. There is... 1... lifeform on the ship. Designation: Captain Aelexander Johnsson." The computer's voice was cheery... too cheery for the view in front of me.
"Damage report?" The computer was silent for a moment.
"Internal sensors report: Hull integrity... Minimal. Life support... non-functional. Powered systems... Non-functional. Reactor functionality... Unknown. Reactor physical integrity... Compromised." I bowed my head; the Vigil was dead in the water. But still the computer continued.
"Elevator systems... Non-functional. Communications array: non-functional." I was about to tell the computer to end report, when it got to the hangar section.
"Hangar Area functions: Hangar doors... Inoperable. Weapons caches... Structural integrity maintained. Docked craft... 30. Overall assessment of craft systems: 29 ships... Critical damage. Do not attempt operation. 1 ship... Structural integrity... 99%. Shield integrity... 100%. Ship reactor core... Intact." My head snapped up. A fighter, still intact?
I launched myself towards the hangar, and said,
"Computer, convert text logs to speech for T-5 minutes before the damage to the ship's systems was sustained." The computer was silent for a moment.
"Playing logs."
"[Static and popping] Stormbound Vigil ship log. Aebus Cluster Date Classified. Terran Calendar Date Classified. Begin log." I jumped around a corner, listening to the log as I went. Almost to the hangar...
"Alert: Hostile signatures detected. Raising shields. Alert, shield integrity at 75%. Alert, shield integrity at 50%. Alert, shield integrity at 25%. Alert, shield failure imminent. Alert, hull breached. Alert, extensive damage to hangar. Alert, reactor core critical. [CRITICAL WARNING: REACTOR FAILURE] Initiating failsafe protocols. Shield integrity restored. Alert, backup power at 50% and dropping. Shield integrity at 5%.
Scanning cryo pods for surviving personnel. One surviving crew member found. Initiating pre-thaw sequence. Alert: Backup power failure. Cryo chamber power levels at 7% and dropping. Emergency power nonfuncshoo... <END LOG>"
Just as the log ended, I reached the hangar. It was a complete mess; there were pieces of shuttle all over, but the weapons locker on the other side looked intact. I saw a fire extinguisher floating nearby and grabbed it, then aimed the nozzle behind me.
"Here goes nothing..." I muttered, and released the foam inside. Instantly I was rocketed across the hangar, and had to use the foam to slow myself down as well. Soon enough though, I had reached the other side. I smiled, noticing that the only intact ship was one that still had its shields up. I pulled out a small emitter and aimed it at the shielded fighter and pressed the button. Immediately, the ship's shields began to slow their pulsing, turning into first lots of three lines, then two, then just one, before that too faded away. I floated in and flipped the switch to boot up the main reactor, and was relieved to see the board light up green. I flipped another switch and the gravity slowly came online. At least that worked still... I climbed out of the ship, having "popped" the missile tube insertion panel, and loaded in some missiles. Then I replaced the cannon batteries, and also the power cell. Finally, I grabbed a rifle and a pistol, along with a flashlight and a plasma cutter. I stowed them all in the fighter's cockpit and activated the engines. Knowing they'd take a minute or two to warm up, I turned the gravity off and floated down under the dock. Finding the release levers, I pulled them each in turn, save for the last, which seemed to have become stuck.
I went back to the fighter's cockpit and brought out the cutter, and began to slowly cut away the docking clamp. Soon enough, the fighter was free, and began drifting downwards. I shot myself towards the fighter and activated the antigravity module, stopping it from hitting the floor of the hangar by under a metre. The engines finally showed up blue, unlike the green that dominated the rest of the board. Soon enough, I was away. I raised the thrust a little on the engines and I began to move. However, the hangar doors were firmly shut. Well, not for long.
"Time to get out of here and find out what's going on. Upload the entire log database to the fighter's internal storage, computer." I said, and waited for the confirmation of a successful upload.
"Upload successful, Captain." Smiling, I fired two missiles, which blew a hole in the hangar doors.
"Thank you, computer... Now, spool up the Vigil's reactor core. I don't want the ship to fall into the wrong hands." There was a bleep and then a timer appeared on my helmet HUD. 5 minutes to get out of the blast radius... Shouldn't be too hard... I gunned the engines and punched in the code to start charging the jump drive. However, it was worth nothing, as I'd soon find out...
As I reached the 100m mark away from the hangar, I realised that the nebula around me was... Dark. Almost too dark. Looking at the charge level of the jump drive, I saw that I'd maybe make it to the edge of the blast radius before the core detonated due to instability. Gritting my teeth, I activated the speed boost and launched at full speed, directing all power to either the thrusters or the charging jump drive.
"Alert: 20 seconds to ship core detonation. 12 seconds to full jump drive charge. 10 kilometres to minimum safe distance for first... 30 seconds... of blast shockwave expansion." I looked at my speed and then did the math. I wasn't going to make it.
"Alert: 10 seconds to ship core detonation. 2 seconds to jump drive charge complete. Ship core detonating." As the computer spoke, I saw a flash of light. I put my finger over the jump drive discharge button, ready to blindly jump.
"Jump drive charged. Ready to jump." As the computer said "charged", I pressed the button.
"5 seconds to detonation blast impact. 4... 3... 2... 1... Jump drive discharged. Initiating jump sequence." As the blast wave hit where I had been, I was launched to beyond the normal capabilities of the thrusters my ship had, the light around me forming a blue cone which slowly bled its color to become white in the middle. After a few seconds, the cone faded away, and I heard a kind of... Rattling noise. I was dead in the water. I hadn't made it in time... And my thrusters had been hit. The rattling noise was one of the thrusters banging against its neighbours. Sighing, I pressed the detach button and the thrusters floated away.
Luckily for me though... The jump drive had put me on the other side of the nebula. And I was drifting towards a civilised planet... Looks like I did make it after all... Knowing it would be a few hours before I was close enough to be scanned, I turned down the lighting in the cockpit and turned off the gravity systems entirely, but left the ship running hot, with priority on the shields, but also with some power reserved for the jump drive, and then turned to the side, laid my head against the headrest of the seat... and closed my eyes. It was going to be a long drift back to civilisation...
The tale is also set in the "universe" of my server.
================================
Alarms. The first thing I remember... Alarms. Blaring in the enclosed space of my cryo chamber, which was slowly bringing me out of cryo sleep. I pushed myself out... and drifted. I shook my head to clear it, confused as to why the artificial gravity hadn't kicked in. And then the emergency lighting system kicked in... Red light began to alternate with almost complete darkness, the faint glow of ice crystals remaining from my pod all that was left when the red faded. I grabbed hold of one of the pieces of metal that made up the tiny "details" of my ship... The Stormbound Vigil. Something must have happened for the Vigil to have lost power... I aimed for the maintenance vent nearby, and floated into it. I sighed into the silence outside my helmet.
"Computer, scan for any lifeforms." I muttered, feeling the need to keep quiet, simply due to how eerily silent the ship was. I "climbed" around a corner in the vent and found myself looking through a grate. I carefully detached the grate and then gently pushed it, sending it slowly drifting away. Then I pulled myself out and grabbed the grate before putting it back on.
Turning around, I was faced with a horrifying sight; the reason the ship had no power... and no sound could be heard? A hole had been ripped right through the hull, seemingly originating from the reactor.
"Scan complete. There is... 1... lifeform on the ship. Designation: Captain Aelexander Johnsson." The computer's voice was cheery... too cheery for the view in front of me.
"Damage report?" The computer was silent for a moment.
"Internal sensors report: Hull integrity... Minimal. Life support... non-functional. Powered systems... Non-functional. Reactor functionality... Unknown. Reactor physical integrity... Compromised." I bowed my head; the Vigil was dead in the water. But still the computer continued.
"Elevator systems... Non-functional. Communications array: non-functional." I was about to tell the computer to end report, when it got to the hangar section.
"Hangar Area functions: Hangar doors... Inoperable. Weapons caches... Structural integrity maintained. Docked craft... 30. Overall assessment of craft systems: 29 ships... Critical damage. Do not attempt operation. 1 ship... Structural integrity... 99%. Shield integrity... 100%. Ship reactor core... Intact." My head snapped up. A fighter, still intact?
I launched myself towards the hangar, and said,
"Computer, convert text logs to speech for T-5 minutes before the damage to the ship's systems was sustained." The computer was silent for a moment.
"Playing logs."
"[Static and popping] Stormbound Vigil ship log. Aebus Cluster Date Classified. Terran Calendar Date Classified. Begin log." I jumped around a corner, listening to the log as I went. Almost to the hangar...
"Alert: Hostile signatures detected. Raising shields. Alert, shield integrity at 75%. Alert, shield integrity at 50%. Alert, shield integrity at 25%. Alert, shield failure imminent. Alert, hull breached. Alert, extensive damage to hangar. Alert, reactor core critical. [CRITICAL WARNING: REACTOR FAILURE] Initiating failsafe protocols. Shield integrity restored. Alert, backup power at 50% and dropping. Shield integrity at 5%.
Scanning cryo pods for surviving personnel. One surviving crew member found. Initiating pre-thaw sequence. Alert: Backup power failure. Cryo chamber power levels at 7% and dropping. Emergency power nonfuncshoo... <END LOG>"
Just as the log ended, I reached the hangar. It was a complete mess; there were pieces of shuttle all over, but the weapons locker on the other side looked intact. I saw a fire extinguisher floating nearby and grabbed it, then aimed the nozzle behind me.
"Here goes nothing..." I muttered, and released the foam inside. Instantly I was rocketed across the hangar, and had to use the foam to slow myself down as well. Soon enough though, I had reached the other side. I smiled, noticing that the only intact ship was one that still had its shields up. I pulled out a small emitter and aimed it at the shielded fighter and pressed the button. Immediately, the ship's shields began to slow their pulsing, turning into first lots of three lines, then two, then just one, before that too faded away. I floated in and flipped the switch to boot up the main reactor, and was relieved to see the board light up green. I flipped another switch and the gravity slowly came online. At least that worked still... I climbed out of the ship, having "popped" the missile tube insertion panel, and loaded in some missiles. Then I replaced the cannon batteries, and also the power cell. Finally, I grabbed a rifle and a pistol, along with a flashlight and a plasma cutter. I stowed them all in the fighter's cockpit and activated the engines. Knowing they'd take a minute or two to warm up, I turned the gravity off and floated down under the dock. Finding the release levers, I pulled them each in turn, save for the last, which seemed to have become stuck.
I went back to the fighter's cockpit and brought out the cutter, and began to slowly cut away the docking clamp. Soon enough, the fighter was free, and began drifting downwards. I shot myself towards the fighter and activated the antigravity module, stopping it from hitting the floor of the hangar by under a metre. The engines finally showed up blue, unlike the green that dominated the rest of the board. Soon enough, I was away. I raised the thrust a little on the engines and I began to move. However, the hangar doors were firmly shut. Well, not for long.
"Time to get out of here and find out what's going on. Upload the entire log database to the fighter's internal storage, computer." I said, and waited for the confirmation of a successful upload.
"Upload successful, Captain." Smiling, I fired two missiles, which blew a hole in the hangar doors.
"Thank you, computer... Now, spool up the Vigil's reactor core. I don't want the ship to fall into the wrong hands." There was a bleep and then a timer appeared on my helmet HUD. 5 minutes to get out of the blast radius... Shouldn't be too hard... I gunned the engines and punched in the code to start charging the jump drive. However, it was worth nothing, as I'd soon find out...
As I reached the 100m mark away from the hangar, I realised that the nebula around me was... Dark. Almost too dark. Looking at the charge level of the jump drive, I saw that I'd maybe make it to the edge of the blast radius before the core detonated due to instability. Gritting my teeth, I activated the speed boost and launched at full speed, directing all power to either the thrusters or the charging jump drive.
"Alert: 20 seconds to ship core detonation. 12 seconds to full jump drive charge. 10 kilometres to minimum safe distance for first... 30 seconds... of blast shockwave expansion." I looked at my speed and then did the math. I wasn't going to make it.
"Alert: 10 seconds to ship core detonation. 2 seconds to jump drive charge complete. Ship core detonating." As the computer spoke, I saw a flash of light. I put my finger over the jump drive discharge button, ready to blindly jump.
"Jump drive charged. Ready to jump." As the computer said "charged", I pressed the button.
"5 seconds to detonation blast impact. 4... 3... 2... 1... Jump drive discharged. Initiating jump sequence." As the blast wave hit where I had been, I was launched to beyond the normal capabilities of the thrusters my ship had, the light around me forming a blue cone which slowly bled its color to become white in the middle. After a few seconds, the cone faded away, and I heard a kind of... Rattling noise. I was dead in the water. I hadn't made it in time... And my thrusters had been hit. The rattling noise was one of the thrusters banging against its neighbours. Sighing, I pressed the detach button and the thrusters floated away.
Luckily for me though... The jump drive had put me on the other side of the nebula. And I was drifting towards a civilised planet... Looks like I did make it after all... Knowing it would be a few hours before I was close enough to be scanned, I turned down the lighting in the cockpit and turned off the gravity systems entirely, but left the ship running hot, with priority on the shields, but also with some power reserved for the jump drive, and then turned to the side, laid my head against the headrest of the seat... and closed my eyes. It was going to be a long drift back to civilisation...
