Astral Light - A Story by Anna - Prologue up!

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Anna
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Astral Light - A Story by Anna - Prologue up!

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Astral Light
By Anna

Prologue
"Status Report."

"Everything's in the green, sir. The power core is running smoothly, with minimal amounts of gamma and beta waves, which the shielding is handling. The Astral Drive is charged and primed. Weapons are also primed. Y'know, in case things don't go as planned."

"Excellent. Now all we do is wait."

The hull of the SINS Experimental Destroyer Astral Light shimmered brilliantly in the light of the nearby white dwarf, its metallic hull bristling with large amounts of potent firepower. Around its cores, rows upon rows of slender fins glowed bright red, the Astral Drive preparing for activation. It was situated one thousand clicks from Orbital Prime, the large, unfinished Ringworld that encircled a nearby Gas Giant. From the outside, everything seemed calm and peaceful. Aboard the ship, however, it was a different matter. Even with a skeleton crew, it seemed hectic and chaotic aboard, with the small crew of fifty seeming closer to several hundred.

On the Bridge, Captain David Locke sat in his chair, taking another large gulp from his mug of coffee and looking distinctly irritated, with faint dark circles around his eyes. Why in the hell did they have to have this test run so early in the morning, and more over, why the hell were things going so roughly. All the preparations had been made days in advance. Everything should have been fine. Only when they began charging the Astral Drive, problems started cropping up all over the damn ship, affecting nearly every system. Shields were flickering on and off, power to the sensors seemed to be fluctuating wildly, and they'd nearly had one of the matter/anti-matter shells detonate itself in storage. That wasn't to mention that most of the automated systems were down, so his small skeleton crew could barely keep track of everything.

The only upside was that it wasn't his problem. Apparently the mission was too important to be trusted to a mere Captain, so they had one Admiral Alton Keyes overseeing the operation, and the grey-haired old man had taken to handling all these situations with an alacrity that David would have admired if he weren't still waiting for his caffeine hit to kick in. In the chair beside him, Commander Brent van Riet -- a Vilushan originally from the Alliance, but now an SIUS citizen for at least fifty years -- was reading over various tech reports, with a faint frown on his face. He always seemed to be frowning, from what David had seen of him. A very melancholic man, but with a bearing and leadership ability that was to be respected, not to mention an extensive military record.

"Captain?" The ship's computer, Taonas addressed him via his neural comm, "I seem to have most of the problems under control, and thankfully none of my systems seem to have been effected permanently. It was probably due to the exotic matter used in the Astral Drive's power distribution systems that caused the problems, sir. Admiral Keyes is on his way back from Engineering. The test of the new drive can commence then."

"Excellent. Thank you, Taonas." He responded, "Run a full systems analysis none-the-less. I don't want you exploding underneath me, if something goes wrong."

"Very good, Captain."

David let out a sigh and sat back in his chair, setting down his mug and raising a hand to rub at his temples, "Okay, everyone. We've got an Admiral watching over our shoulders on this run, and we want to be sure everything goes smoothly. Not dying would also be a plus," He gestured to Trent Winterbourne, the excitable helmsman who somehow managed to even look casual and laid back in military uniform, "Trent, make sure the course is laid in perfectly. I don't want the Admiral to even feel a micrometeorite grazing against our shields."

Trent grinned, raising a hand to run his fingers through his messy black hair and turning back to his controls, "Already way ahead of you, Cap. This ride 'll be so smooth you'll swear we barely moved at all."

"Brilliant!" David stated, suddenly feeling much more chipper than he had been mere moments earlier, pushing himself to his feet and turning to face his bridge crew, "Alright, boys and girls. We're about to do what no one else in the Milky Way Galaxy has ever done before. We're going to travel from here, to Andromeda, and then back again, in all of-" He mentally ran through the specifications of the Astral Drive, the snapped his fingers, "Thirty seconds. Think of that! Thirty seconds! At speeds like that, we could cross to the other side of the universe in what, a few weeks time? So be proud, and most importantly, don't screw up. You'll make me look bad."

The bridge crew all laughed at David's words, despite the fact that they were said with a completely straight face, they new it was just him trying to ease the tension. More over, it worked. The sense of uneasiness that had been hovering over them like a dark shroud had now lifted, and even the Commander had a faint smirk on his face. Well then, now all I have to do is sit back and hope we make it there in one piece the Captain thought to himself, taking his seat once more and nodding to the Admiral as he stepped onto the Bridge.

"Everything's ready, sir."

"Excellent work, Captain. This is a fine crew you have here. I'm sure you've got everything under control."

"I hope you're right, sir." David replied with a chuckle, "Okay then, Leiutenant Winterbourne. Activate the Astral Drive."

"Done and do-"

---

Watching from the Bridge of a nearby Gilgamesh-class Titan, Aradel Seraphim raised a brow as the Astral Light suddenly flashed bright blue and appeared to explode, before disappearing without a trace, leaving only an expanding cloud of blue plasma where it had been.

"That wasn't meant to happen, was it Admiral?" Aradel asked calmly.

"No, Mister President. Still, we should wait to see if it returns. Perhaps it was just a minor malfunction." The stern looking Admiral replied in a cautious tone.

Aradel turned to face him and frowned, "Here's what you're going to do, Admiral. You're going to remove any record of this ship and its crew from existence. If they have families, I want them paid off, blackmailed, or otherwise silenced. This ship never existed, its crew never existed, and if you fail in this task, the same will go for you. Understand?"

"Yes, Mister President."
Last edited by Anna on Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by ddx420 »

I'm assuming that some cross-wiring of the Wave Motion Cannons with the Astral Drive (where is that on the actual ship in-game?) caused the Astral Light to divide itself by zero and jump to oblivion. Amirite?
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DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN
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Anna
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Post by Anna »

"Nrrrg..." David Locke groaned, rolling over and raising a hand to cover his ears, "What the hell is all the racket, can't you see I'm trying to... sleep?"

That last word trailed off uncertainly as his eyes flickered open, and his surroundings became clear. He was lying in the middle of the bridge, flames flickered about uneasily, the area was strewn with chunks of debris, and several bodies and other groans could be heard amongst the wreckage. Pushing himself cautiously to his feet, he wobbled a little as a sharp pain shot up his leg. That can't be a good thing, he thought to himself, hobbling towards his chair and collapsing into it.

"Computer, status report." He said, his voice shaking a little.

Everywhere on the bridge there were bodies. Some he had known for a long time, working side by side with them. Others were relative strangers, but still, the loss hit him hard. These people had been depending on him, and five minutes into the mission, so many were dead. Admiral Alton was clearly one of them.

"Taonas, status report!" He repeated again, punching furiously at the manual console on the armrest of his chair.

The screen flickered a little, displaying a handful of useful information and a lot of gibberish. Internal sensors were offline. Short and longrange sensors were operational but damaged. Weapons and sublight engines were offline. The hyperjump engines were completely dead, and repairs would likely be impossible. The reactor was running smoothly though, which was a relief.

"I'm afraid Taonas had to retire. I am his replacement." The hologram emitters flickered and the image of a teenage girl in an SINS uniform, with long lavender hair appeared in front of David, "My my, what a mess. I am... well, I am your ship, and the registers inform me that this is the SINS Astral Light, so I guess that makes me Astral. Hmm. I suppose I should clean up."

Sweeping lights arced across the room, and shortly afterwards every body and strewn piece of debris had vanished. David scowled, narrowing his eyes, "Internal sensors are offline, Astral, what if there were survivors?"

"There were survivors. They have been beamed to the medical quarters, which my fully functional internal sensors inform me is largely undamaged. Now, if you'll be quiet, I'll set to work doing my job. Which apparently involves saving your worthless organic asses."

David was shocked by the AI's attitude. He had no idea what had happened to Taonas, but he had the sinking feeling that it was permanent. The AI aboard SIUS ships were meant to be obedient and polite, but evidently whatever had damaged the computer systems and caused the system to reset, also caused the emergency AI creation program to skim over the bits on proper social interaction, and heaven knows what else.

"Listen here, Astral, I am your Captain, which means I give the orders." He stated firmly.

"Actually, all that means is that I can't just beam you into the cold vacuum of space. Not without altering my own programing significantly.
Technically, yes, I have to follow your orders. However, I have initiated a shipwide state of emergency, and used my incredibly vast medical skills to determine you are presently unfit for command. Allowing me to temporarily ignore your orders until primary sensors determine that I was lying through my secondary neural matrix." The hologram paused mid-rant and offered a bright smile, "Now, sit tight and I'll have everything sorted out momentarily, Captain!"

Okay, so apparently it had skimmed over more than just the parts on social interaction. David Locke had the distinct impression things weren't going to end well.

"Urghh... head... oww... what happened?" asked Lt. Trent Winterbourne, climbing up from behind his console and smacking at the side of his head, "My neural interface with the ship is down... oh, hello Captain!"

David sighed and sank his head into the palms of his hands. No, this wasn't going to end well at all.
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