> Sins
>  by Killbles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sins
Chapter one: Escape
 
Capitan Chezknov ran a hand over his stubbly chin, a deep frown creasing his otherwise perfectly chiselled features. The bustle of activity around him was ignored, status reports, engine and reactor readings flew over his head as he scrutinised the faint blue holographic layout of the gravity well.
“Captain, message from FLEETCOM.” Lieutenant Ralloz manning the COM station called out.
“Put it through on my screen.” Chezknov ordered, looking up from the display to examine the communique.
He read through the short message boredly, nothing he didn’t know already. He was sorely tempted to send a message back up to the Vice-Admiral telling him to frak off and stop wasting his time, but that would just get him in trouble. He pulled a battered pipe out of his pocket and tapped the end thoughtfully.
“Orders sir?” Another young lieutenant manning the NAV station asked.
“Bring us about on heading two-zero-eight, link us up with the rest of the fleet.” Chezknov said, noting to himself for the third time that day that he should learn the young man’s name.
‘Maybe if we stopped losing people in this damn war I might actually get to know him.’ he thought sourly.
“Aye, sir. Coming about on heading two-zero-eight.”
There was a faint push of acceleration as the Kol’s engines, three and half kilometres behind him, flared into life. A faint shift in gravity settled over the Capitan as the manoeuvring thrusters came online and pushed the mighty battleship onto the new heading.
The ‘Mobius’ was a marvel of engineering; a superb blend of armour, speed and firepower wrapped into one dull grey, fish-looking package. At over three and a half kilometres long, the mighty ship was among the largest in the TEC fleet, baring the mighty titans and orbital stations. Designed during the ongoing war, the Kol class battleship was the first ship designed for combat in centuries, a fact that Chezknov enjoyed over the captains of hastily repurposed ore freighters and trade ships that made up the bulk of the TEC’s navies.
Then again, the way the war was going, the TEC was desperate to get their hands on anything it could.

When the Vasari had appeared years ago, the Trade coalitions where taken complete by surprise. Used to years of peace and prosperity, they had grown complacent and were ill-equipped to fight a full scale war against the alien invaders.
Eventually the tides had started to turn, and the fractured coalitions had united under a single banner and the TEC, or Trader Emergency Coalition, was born.
Even then, after years of fighting there seemed to be no end to the war.
Chezknov glared at the display which was now showing the small TEC fleet. A motley collection of light frigates, Cobalts, hung in a loose defensive formation around a half-dozen Percharon light carriers which looked like converted bulk carriers. The sleek form of a massive Akkan battle cruiser drifted behind them, a far cry from the boxy, industrial looking combat vessels. A squadron of strike craft from one of carriers approached the Kol, as if daring them to a fight. The plucky pilots pulled out of their run a few hundred meters abeam and slotted into escort positions.
A puff of blue fire came from the Akkan’s engines and it accelerated smoothly towards the planet Charadris which was now filling most of the forward screen.
“Follow them in.” Chezknov barked. “Ralloz, get onto ‘Kazamarov’ and secure us a docking boom at the station. I want our resupply completed ASAP.”
“Aye, sir.” The Comms officer responded.
Chezknov’s tapped a screen, magnifying the forward camera’s display. A large star base bristling with lasers and missile tubes snapped into view. Heavy beam turrets adorned the corners of the upper diamond like structure.
“Inform the rest of the battle group to stock up with what they can, we’re not going to get another chance for resupply for a while. Reroute all incoming communications through to my station; I want to be kept informed of any developments.”
“Yes sir. I have incoming status reports from Charadris, putting them through now.”
Chezknov nodded and bought his data pad up. The small device beeped twice and projected the report if front of his eyes. Nothing unusual, data from the mining rigs scattered through the gravity well harvesting the precious metal the TEC needed to build its ships, a few rough reports on the colony’s status and a few sweeps from the phasic radar array in orbit.
Chezknov blood ran cold as he examined the radar sweeps.
“Ralloz, get ‘Kazamarov’ on the horn now!”
“Yes sir!” he responded, snapping upright in his chair. A few glances were exchanged around the bridge. The few veterans knew little could get the captain worked up like this.
A few tense moments passed before the commander of the star base appeared on the forward view screens.
“Captain Chezknov, I assume you are not here to talk to me about docking permissions.” The commander said smoothly.
Chezknov sent a copy of the Radar scans through to the commander.
“We have a problem.”
The commander’s eyebrows shot up.
“You think space debris is a problem?”
“That’s not space debris, that’s a Vasari task force.”
“Impossible, no Vasari ship is that large. The tonnage is far in excess to any of their ships.”
“What about a star base? Those things have phase drives Commander. An entire fleet could hide in the shadow of one of those monsters.”
The Commander visibly paled.
“What do you suggest Captain?”
“Bring the ‘Kazamarov’ to combat alert, start evacuation of the colony. We might be able to buy enough time to get some of the civvies off world..”
The commander nodded and the view screen snapped off.
“Sir?” One of the bridge crew asked.
“Put the battle group onto combat alert alpha, bring the reactor to one hundred percent and  rendezvous with the ‘Kazamarov ”
“Aye sir, reactors to one hundred percent.”
“ETA?”
“Five minutes sir.”
“Too slow. Reactor to one hundred thirty percent.”
“Sir?” The system ops officer asked, uncertainty tinging her voice.
“Do it!” Chezknov snapped.
“Yes sir, making it happen! Engines now running at maximum power.”
“Jagger, arm all laser batteries, get the crews to their guns and warm up our beam capacitors.”
“Aye sir.” The lieutenant manning the weapons console responded curtly.
An alarm blared and a red strobing light snapped on
“Short range sensors are detecting inbound phase signatures.” A crew member yelled out.
A few seconds later a massive Orkulus star base phased into the gravity well, the large bulges and smooth contours a stark contrast to the rabble of TEC ships that opposed it. The star base was massive, even the mighty ‘Kazamarov’ seemed baby-like next to it. Chezknow suddenly wished he had a squadron Ogrovs with him, the cruiser's massive missiles would have made short work of the lumbering behemoth. Then again, he might as well just wished for a titan and be done with it.
“Shields up!” Chezknov roared as a swarm of smaller vessels raced out from behind the hulking Orkulus that was slowly advancing towards the beleaguered planet.
There was a sharp intake of breath as the size of the fleet opposing them became apparent. A pair of Kortuls lumbered out, their heavy wave cannons smashing apart a tiny trade ship unlucky enough to be caught in the path of the rampaging battleships. A score of nimble skirmishers darted forward, guns blazing as targets presented themselves.
A small swarm of Kanraks fired salvos of missiles at a pair of Cobalts, their missiles winking out of existence a moment before they hit the light frigate's shield only to reappear within the protective barrier.
”Fire when ready.” Chezknov ordered, undaunted by the fearsome display of firepower the Vasari vessels were showing.
“Firing, standby.”Jagger announced as the four beam projectors mounted on the nose of the ship glowed a brilliant orange before spitting out beams of fire towards an approaching Skirmisher. The small ship’s shields flared once then failed under the barrage of energy, popping like a bubble.
“Re-direct beam fire, finish it off with the autos.” Chezknov said.
A few seconds later the pair of heavy autocannons mounted on the nose opened fire, high explosive shells blasting the stricken Vasari vessel apart.
The crew let out a cheer.
“New target, capital class.” The ops officer announced.
As if to punctuate her point, the deck shuddered beneath Chezknov’s feet as a volley of phase missiles smashed into the starboard side, a small number of the intelligent warheads blinking inside the protective barrier of the ‘Mobius’’ shields.
“Bring us around, load gauss railgun. Prepare to fire.” Chezknov snapped.
The stars on the screen wheeled as the ‘Mobius’ spun around to face the new threat. One of the Kortuls, bored with playing with trade ships and frigates powered towards the Kol, eager for a real fight.
“Status on the railgun?”
“Capacitors charging, 90 percent.” Jagger called out.
“Fire when ready.”
A lance of fire shot out of the Kortul’s bow, washing over the shields of ‘Mobius’ in a shimmering haze. A few pulses of the curious wave cannons the aliens used followed suite.
“Shields holding. Barely.” 
 “Guass capacitors charged, firing railgun.” Jaggers cried out.
A super dense ferro-uranite round spat from the underslung gun and crashed into the Vasari shields, the sheer amount of force exerted by the round spinning the Kortul off course. The shields on the Kortul failed explosively as they tried to compensate for the tremendous force of the railgun’s shell.
“Captain, I’m detecting a power surge from the enemy, they’re dumping power to their weapon systems!”
Another volley of beams smashed into the ship, too bright to look at. The abused shields on the ‘Mobius’  flicked once then died.
“Get those shields back online!” Chezknov barked.
“Trying sir, the enemy’s strikes seem to be disrupting our electronics.”
The ‘Mobius’ shuddered again as another beam struck out against its armour. A dull thump of explosive decompression was heard through the ship as the hull was breached.
“Hull breach in sections three to five, deck seven. Sealing.”
“Redirect all fire on that bastard.”
The beam cannons spat another quad beam of hellish orange fire at the Kortul slicing open several holes in the hull. Atmosphere vented and explosions chained along the Battleship's ventral surface. The ship listed to starboard, crippled.
“Status on the rest of the battlegroup?” Chezknov asked, confident his ship would hold under whatever fire the crippled Kortul could throw at him.
A tac display snapped on, showing the small TEC task force against the Vasari fleet. Chezknov scowled, the vast majority of the Cobalts had been swatted away like flies leaving only a few to guard his carriers, the Akkan ‘Ultimus’ was under fire from a group of skirmishers but its shields were holding. Just.
“Status on the ‘Kazamarov’?
Ralloz tapped a few commands into his station.
“‘Kazamarov’ has twenty six kills, shields are holding on all sectors. Light missile damage to some battle surfaces.”
“Good, position of that Orkulus?”
“Enemy star base is entering weapon range of ‘Kazamarov’ now.”
“Assessment?”
“Data from prior engagements suggests the Orkulus will destroy the ‘Kazamarov’  sir.”
“How long until that thing can hit us?”
“The base will enter weapon range of our battlegroup in two minutes at current speed and heading.”
Chezknov sighed explosively and weighed up his options. The deck under him groaned again as another barrage from the crippled Kortul slammed into ‘Mobius’.
He could stay; and die under guns of the Orkulus. Or leave with the remnants of his fleet to fight another day.
The Vasari made the decision for him.
“Sir, more phasic signatures. Hostile reinforcements phasing in!”
A swathe of cruisers and support vessels appeared on the ships tac display.
“Inbound bombers from the reinforcements, ETA thirty seconds.” Jagger announced calmly.
A small swarm of strike craft moved towards ‘Mobius’ and ‘Ultimus’, small dots of black on black.
“Pull back, get the fleet back the jump area at best speed. Move up and cover ‘Ultimus’ as she retreats”
“Aye sir.”
A view screen snapped into life and the captain of the ‘Ultimus’ appeared.
“Pulling out so soon Viktor? This fight was just getting started.” He said, addressing Chezknov by his given name.
“Shut your trap Leo and get your ship out of there. We’ll be paste when that Orkulus finishes off ‘Kazamarov’. I’m sure your colonists would be ever so upset of their ship disintegrated beneath them.”
“Noted.” The screen snapped off again.
“Cocky bastard.” Chezknov muttered. Commander Leo Rankins was a good officer and a personal friend of Chezknov’s but the officer sometime let his brashness get to him. He was impulsive and needed to be reined in every now and then, especially now that he was in command of a ship full of civvies. Unlike the Kol which was designed for a direct role in combat, the Akkan Leo commanded was built as a support vessel, using an advanced targeting computer to assist allies and colonising new planets with its numerable prefabricated bases and shuttles.
“Is ‘Ultimus clear yet?’ Chezknov asked.
“Nearly sir, the bomber wave is still closing sir, ten seconds.”
“Prep all starboard guns with high explosive shells, set time-delay fuse on the shells, two seconds. Prepare to launch on my mark.”
“Yes sir.”
Chezknov clicked his tongue impatiently as the ‘Mobius’’ opened up with her limited point defence guns. 
A blur of a black bomber zipped past the bridge camera, a second later the missile payload it had been carrying crashed against the side of the Mobius. A second later the rest of the bomber swarm raced past, puncturing the thick armour and opening the pressure hull. Small explosions chained along the port side as the ammunition in the auto-cannon turrets stored there cooked off.
“Get us out of here! Fire all guns!”
As one the multitude of guns dotting the ship blasted away, the high explosive shells landing amongst the swarm of bombers. A moment later the shells exploded, peppering the single ships with shrapnel.
“Estimate 90 percent of the bomber force destroyed sir.”
“Good, damage?”
“Fire on deck twelve, hull breaches in sections seven through to one on decks twelve and five. We have a minor leak in reactor two. Turret four, five and seven offline. Structure is holding for now but we can’t take another hit like that.”
“Can we phase?”
“Yes sir.”
Then get us out of here before they.” He tapped the tac screen where the ‘Kazamarov’ was being torn apart by the Orkulus’ disintegrator arrays. “Catch us.”
“Aye sir.”
Another shudder went through the ship as a few long range shots from the second Kortul reached them.
A red light flared and a siren howled
“Collision alarm, Vasari ships are performing an in-system phase jump!”
Chezknov blinked and a Vasari cruiser appeared off the port side not even a hundred meters away. The alien's mastery of phase space was both an annoyance and a marvel to the Capitan.
“Sir they are disrupting our weapons systems, we can’t fire!” Jagger cried.
“Divert all power you can to the engines, get us out of here.”
Another two cruisers blinked into existence next to the first one. Luckily, they wee only lightly armed, their purpose to slow the fleeing ‘Mobius’ rather than destroy it.
The engines abruptly cut out.
“Engines offline, the fusion core is being scrambled by some sort of interference from the cruisers.” The system ops officer reported, “Auxiliaries coming online now.”
Chezknov eyed the Kortul tailing them nervously.
Another pair of beams lanced out and played along the bottom of the ship making it lurch sickeningly as the beam breached several sections..
“Hit to our keel, Railgun is offline. Sections one through to ten are breached on deck thirty eight. Sealing now.”
“Get us moving!”
The primary engines hummed back into life as if hearing the captain’s yell.
“The fleet is in nearing position for outbound jump. It may take some time to align back to-.” The navigation officer said curtly.
“Screw that, tell the fleet to jump on our heading. We won’t make it otherwise.”
“Sir, that’s a blind jump! We might just land in dead space or a sun! We need proper jump calculations before we go to phase space.”
“Just do it, we're not getting out of here otherwise.”
The navigation officer’s lips pursed into a thin white line. “Yes sir, making it happen sir.”
“Get our phase drives charged, I want to jump as soon as we hit the edge of the gravity well.”
“Aye sir, Phase drive online, jumping in ten seconds.” A faint aura of green built around the bow of the ship as it started transitioning to phase space.
Chezknov prayed that his battered ship would hold together.
A bright light filled the aft cameras as the ‘Kazamarov’ exploded in a brilliant ball of nuclear fire, its reactors going critical in a last ditch attempt to take out as many ships as it could.
“Brave souls.” Chezknov murmured as the majority of the Vasari fleet vanished off the tac display.
“Phase jump in 3…”
Another beam lanced across the ‘Mobius’ cutting deep into the damaged superstructure and then the Kol was gone, instantly catapulted to faster than light speeds. The depleted battle group followed a moment after their leader.
Deprived of targets, the Kortul noted their escape vector and returned to Charadris, its planetary assault beams already warming up.
 

***


Chezknov started the inky blackness of phase space and let out a long breath.
“Status?” He asked quietly.
“Jump successful, heading unknown. We have significant structural damage on the port side.and to one of our reactors” The system ops officer reported.
“Railgun inoperable. Ammunition for our remaining auto-cannons is running low and the capacitors for our beams need recharging.”Jagger continued..
“Good.” Chezknov muttered, at least his ship was still in one piece.
“Fleet status?”
“Telemetry before our jump indicates the ‘Ultimus’, two Percheron light carriers and trio of Cobalts  made the jump.”
“Good, we’ll need them.”
“Sir… Permission to speak?” His navigation officer asked, spinning around on his chair to face the captain.
“Granted.”
“We jumped without proper telemetry, we could jumped into a region of dead space for all we know. Once we emerge from phase space, wherever that may be, we’ll be lost unless by a stroke of luck, we happen to jump into a known system.” He indicated to their outbound vector on his star map. An uncomfortable amount of empty space filled the area.
“What are our options then lieutenant…?” Chezknov left the word hanging, hoping for the young man’s name.
“Rinzler.”
“Then are our options, Rinzler?”
“The phase drives will power down if we approach a gravity well due to the gravity disruption of our phase bubble, we may be able to navigate our way back to Trader space if we are lucky.”
“And if we aren’t?”
The officer shrugged. “I don’t know sir.”
Chezknov scratched his chin again and investigated the star chart. “Can we get an ETA to the next gravity well?”
“Yes sir.” Rinzler responded, he tapped a few buttons on his console and the tac display switched to an image of the star field. A rough line appeared on the chart, marking their approximate course.
“We’re jumped near the edge of Trader space, beyond that is mostly uninhabited systems.” He tapped the star map and it zoomed out. “This region of space is unexplored so I can only hazard a guess as to when we will encounter another planet but I would say… Three, four months tops.”
“Not exactly next door.” Chezknov muttered.
“No sir.”
 

***


“Captain Chezknov? Wake up sir.” The disembodied voice of the ships computer said. “’Mobius’ will be entering real space in two hours.”
Chezknov groaned and opened his eyes, small ice crystals falling from his eyelashes as he clambered out of his cyro-pod.
“Ship status?” he asked, coughing dryly. Around him the rest of the bridge crew clambered drunkenly from their pods.
“Hull breaches patched, decks twelve and five are at dangerously low integrity. Reactor two is inoperable. Gauss Railgun destroyed. “The computer droned.
  “Fantastic.” Chezknov muttered dryly. “How long were we out?”
“System automation has been active for Six-hundred and fifty two days, seven hours.”
‘A bit more than four months’ Chezknov thought.
“Crew status?”
“One thousand nine-hundred and thirteen crew on board and accounted for.”
Chezknov nodded as the computer continued to report on the ship’s status.
“Bring the ship to action level gamma, have gun crews on stand-by and get set to bring our shields online when we enter real space, I don’t want to be caught by surprise if we encounter resistance.”
Chezknov and his command crew assembled on the bridge and waited.
“Real space transition in thirty seconds.” Rinzler announced.
“Power down all systems, go dark.” Chezknov announced. A moment later the lights went out, plunging the ship into darkness.
“Transitioning… Now.”
Another glow of green surrounded the ship and white points of light started filling the screen. The smears resolved into faint pricks of light and a large Terran planet filled the screen. A few seconds later the remainder of the battered battle group emerged around them.
“Scan for any possible hostiles. Rinzler, where are we?”
The lieutenant ran a hand through his short cropped hair.
“I don’t know sir. This system is on none of our star charts.”
“Any known star formations we can use to navigate?”
“Negative sir, I’ve got nothing.”
“Keep trying.”
“Sir, we couldn’t jump if we wanted to.” The system ops officer reported.
“Explain.”
“I’m getting a report from engineering, the phase coils in our drive are burnt out. We can’t phase.”
“Can we fix it?”
“Stand by.” She tapped the commbead in her ear. “Yes sir, it may take some time though.”
“Rinzler, bring us into close orbit of the planet. Get ‘Ultimus’ to conduct a surface scan, I want to see what’s down there.”
Both Ralloz and Rinzler jumped to their tasks.
The task force drifted slowly towards the planet.
A view screen popped on and the face of Leo appeared.
“Initial scans complete sir, the planet is a molten core Terran-class world. The atmosphere appears to be breathable..”
“Anything else?”
“Stand by, detailed sweep coming in.”
His face lit up in surprise.
“The planet appears to be inhabited.” A picture of the planet snapped into focus on the display “These areas here show higher than average temperatures consistent with large towns or cities. Lack of active radiation sources indicates whatever is down there is pre-nuclear technology though. No low or very low radio frequencies detected either. The planet itself is rich in ores and if the scan is showing this right, an almost unprecedented amount of gems and other crystals close to the surface. This would suggest the world itself is young, geologically speaking.”
“But it’s inhabited?” Chezknov asked in surprise.
“Almost certain of it, sir.”
“Acknowledged. Ralloz, start broadcasting this signal, all frequencies.” Chezknov ordered, punching in an automated distress signal for the COMs officer to transmit.
A few tense minutes passed.
“No response sir. I’m not picking up radio frequencies or chatter of any kind. If they are receiving, they aren't responding.”
“Perhaps they don’t have the technology?” Jagger suggested.
“Perhaps.” Chezknov muttered, tapping his pipe against his chin. “Commander, send a few shuttles down. Establish a base. We need all the Intel we can get… On wherever the hell we are.”


***


Twilight peered out of the window excitedly. The twinkle of stars against the velvet black of night sparkled down at her, almost begging to be investigated.
No clouds: check
No wind: check
Grumpy assistant: check
Perfect conditions for stargazing: check
Holding back a squee of delight she bounded back from the window and levitated her telescope to eye level.
“Gee, what’s got you so excited?” Spike asked dryly, hefting a massive roll of scroll in his claws. A pot of ink and quills were balanced precariously against his snout and waggled around as the young dragon talked.
“This is the best day we’ve had in weeks! With all the cloud cover I haven’t had a good chance to star gaze in so long! Come on Spike, we’ve got stars to examine!”
“Never knew anypony could so excited over a ball of gas.” Spike muttered, following Twilight out the library door and shutting it behind him. He followed his surrogate parent/sister to a small grassy hill just out of town and placed the rolled scroll on the ground where Twilight was excitedly setting up her telescope. After checking the oil and readjusting the sights, Twilight oriented the device towards the heavens.
She was about to place her eye to the lens when something in the sky caught her attention.
“Spike, is it just me or is that star moving? In fact, those two stars?”
“Technically they’re all moving, stellar drift and all-. “ He was cut off as Twilight pointed out the two white pricks of light slowly crawling across the night sky.
“You’re right, that is a bit… odd.”
“Take a note of this. Perhaps it’s some sort cosmic anomaly? Maybe Princess Luna will know more about it.”
Spike started hastily scribbling the details of the event along with the rough position of the two stars.
“Uh, Twilight there weren’t any meteor showers planned for tonight were there?”
“Not that I know of, why?”
“Well… What’s that then?” Spike asked, pointing up at a small cluster of fiery streaks heading towards the ground.
“They don’t look like meteors.” Twilight muttered. “That big one there almost looks like it’s being controlled.” She laughed nervously in an attempt to sound like she was joking.
“But that’s impossible, right?”
“Of course it is!” She said, not quite beliving herself.
The objects cooled down as they entered the lower atmosphere, their fiery trails being left behind. Twilight was certain they were getting closer.
A low rumble reached her ears then turned into a deafening roar as the trio of objects flashed overhead. A few seconds later they were gone over the horizon, far beyond the borders of the Ponyville towards the Everfree forest,
“Twilight, what were those things?” Spike asked nervously.
“I don’t know Spike.” She said back in a manner that suggested she didn’t want to know. A ray of hope flared up in Spike as the possibility of not going on a insanely dangerous adventure in the name of science and discovery showed itself.
His hopes were suddenly dashed when she turned around, fire in her eyes.
“But we’re going to find out.”
 


> Crash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sins
Chapter 2: Crash

Sergeant Lansky took a deep breath as he pounded down the ramp of the lander onto the soft ground. The air here was different, fresher, than the recycled air aboard upon the ‘Ultimus.’ It lacked the faint metallic tang that he was used to after several months of travelling. He adjusted the strap of his rifle, and marched down the ramp behind a small group of robots. Even though the landers had only touched down a few minutes ago, the largest one was already crawling with civilians who were expanding the massive into a hub of prefabricated buildings.
As he thought about it, the word 'building' was probably an understatement. The lander was at least fifty meters high and at least twice that in length. The ‘Ultimus’ could carry sixteen such vessels in its massive hangers.
The feeling he got when the sense of scale clicked in never got old.
“Hey Lansky, pay attention.” His CO, Lieutenant McGrath, snapped as he gathered up his NCOs for a quick briefing.
“Sir.” He said, unwillingly tearing his gaze away from the monolithic structure being erected.
“Take Piers and conduct a perimeter sweep. Apparently this place is inhabited so be aware you could make contact with some natives. Try not to piss ‘em off, we’re stuck out on a limb here and we don’t need to add a bunch of angry earthies to the mix.”
“Yes sir.” He motioned to the Piers, the young trooper falling in behind him.
The duo marched to the edge of the rapidly expanding base where another pair of troopers was scanning the lush green countryside with a set of amplivisors.  The faint glow of the planet’s sole moon bathed the countryside in cool, white light that lit their way easily. An light all-terrain buggy roared past them and out into the night, headlights bouncing around erratically as it crossed the fields surrounding their new base.
He nodded to the troopers as he past and then motioned to a large hill about half a kilometre from the base.
“We’ll go up there first and get out bearings”
Piers nodded and unslung his rifle, holding it at ease.
The climb was short but exhausting, the hill being much steeper than it had looked from afar. The view however, was well worth it. Fields of green grass covered the ground, marked by an occasional tree. Snow-capped mountains rose up a in the distance and a dark green outline at the base of the hill marked the start of an impenetrable looking forest.
“I feel sorry for the suckers who’ve gotta go through that. I've read enough slates about forests to know they’re about as fun as they look.” Piers muttered, pointing towards the forest.
“Probably full of bugs.” Lansky muttered sourly. “I hate bugs.”
Behind them, the base was rapidly growing, the prefabricated modules coming out of the lander and being assembled with a speed that came only with experience. A boom came from the construction as another piece slid out and locked itself against the ground.
“Hey, what’s that?” Piers murmured, handing Lansky her amplivisor. He motioned towards a valley set between two large mountain ranges through the forest. “Kind of looks like a bunch of lights.”
Lansky readjusted the amplivisor and nodded in confirmation. “Looks like a settlement of some kind. He pressed a button on the side of the device, sending the image to the orbiting ‘Ultimus’. He waited for a few silent moments as his superiors undoubtedly decided on some course of action that hopefully wouldn’t get him killed before the commbead in his ear crackled into life
“Lansky, get over there and collect some intel.” The rough voice of McGrath whispered in his ear. ‘Ultimus’ is getting some good thermal signatures there but the visual feed is being blocked by low cloud cover.”
“Transport?”
“All assets are currently assigned, looks like you’re walking.”
 “Copy that.” He said bitterly before cutting the link and turning to his companion. “We’re moving out. Objective, reconnaissance of native settlement. Keep quiet and try not to be too jumpy, we don’t want to start shooting each other if things get exciting, do we?”
Piers shook his silently silently.
“Good, move out.”
 

***

 
Lieutenant Fischer ran a gloved hand through his short cropped hair. He looked around the confines of his bridge, a few warning lights pulsing feebly. Unlike the mighty Kol which floated past lazily, the bridge of the Cobalt that Fischer was in command of, the Invincible II, was a small, cramped affair.
“Engine status?” He asked nervously. It had been several hours since their arrival and the engines were still not running.
“Fluctuating, I can barely keep the reactor stable.” The terse voice of his engineering officer said.
Fischer swore quietly. His small ship had taken a hit to the reactor during their escape and it seemed the repair drones hadn’t quite fixed the problem.
“Can we restart them?” Fischer asked.
“We can try…”
“Do it, I don’t want to be stuck out here alone.”
“Yes sir.” The audio link snapped off and a few moments later the engines rumbled into life.
“Good, move us into a high orbit.” Fischer let out a quiet sigh of relief.
The nimble frigate drew ahead of the ponderous Kol which had remained away from the planet and accelerated smoothly in system. The agile ship slipped past one of the other Cobalts, on a direct course for the planet. A tense minute passed.
“Okay, now that problem is out of the wa-.”
A klaxon blared loudly. Fischer didn’t know what it meant, but it couldn’t be good.
The audio from engineering snapped back on. “Sir, the reactor’s flaring, I can’t control it! We’ve probably got a minute at best till this bucket becomes a fireball!”
“Fischer’s eyes widened and he grabbed the ship wide intercom. “All hands, abandon ship! Get the hell out now!” He yelled, leading by example and racing to the escape pod at the back of the bridge. Within seconds the rest of his command crew joined him and he punched the release switch, blasting the small pod away from the hull violently. He watched the Cobalt grow smaller and smaller through the back view port.
A second passed.
 

***

 
“What the hell was that?!” Chezknov barked as one of his Cobalts exploded in a flash of light. The back of the Cobalt erupted into fire and vanished, instantly turned to slag. The front half of the ship spiralled out of control and tumbled lazily into the atmosphere of the planet below. The remainder broke into pieces, multiple streaks of fire punching through the sky, some dying out as the heat of heat re-entry melted them to nothing and others being lost beneath a high cloud cover.
“Appeared to be a critical reactor failure. Possibly breached the antimatter reserves on board…” The ops officer said, her voice laced with shock.
“Survivors?” He asked numbly.
Ralloz punched a few dials and shook his head. “Only a few escape pods got out. Maybe forty crew at most.”
Chezknov glared at the screen harshly and reached for the intercom. “Rinzler, get us in position to pick up survivors.”  He flicked the intercom on. “General quarters: Hands to rescue stations .”
 

***

 
For the second time that night, a second sun rose over Ponyville. Barely hours after the trio of stars shot overhead, another one fell from the heavens.
Unlike the other ones though, this one was larger and moved without purpose. As Twilight watched, the star split apart. While see couldn’t tell it was, she estimated the largest piece must have been in excess of a hundred meters long.
“Twilight.” Spike said as he looked out the window next to her. “What if that thing hits us?”
“Too interesting…” She mumbled. Unlike many other of the town’s residents who milled around in panic, Twilight watched the falling star in rapture.
“Twilight!” Spike yelled, jabbing an elbow into her ribs.
“What!” She yelped. She glared at him for moment. “What is it, Spike?”
“What if it hits us?” Spike asked again nervously.
She looked at the falling star for a moment, rudimentary calculations running through her head. “I’m sure it won’t hit us, I’d say it’ll hit maybe a few kilometres to the west.
Spike sighed in relief, letting out a breath he had realised he’d been holding. Twilight muttered a few more calculations under her breath and nodded in satisfied manner.
“We should go.”
“Go? Go where?” Spike asked, his trepidation returning as quickly as it had left.
“To the crash site of course, there’s no way I could pass up examining this sort of event up close!”
“But… but…” Spike sighed in exasperation; it seemed a perilous scientific expedition was now all but guaranteed.
“I’ll go pack some things.” He muttered dourly.
 

***

Lansky held his fist up as a massive fireball screamed out of the clouds and hurtled towards the ground. His eyes widened as he noticed the faint silhouette of the front half or a Cobalt beneath the flames.
“Is that what I think it is…?” Piers breathed.
“Command, this is recon team Viper. What the hell just happened? Why is there half a Cobalt planet-side?
“Stand by Viper team.” A chippered voice said back. “That information is unavailable at this time.”
“Damn it.” Lansky fumed, command was telling him to shut up and sit in the corner.
“Boss?” Piers asked, scanning the surrounding tree line. The pair had moved down from the hill, crossed a large grass plain and was now skirting the edge of the large forest they had seen before.
“Have a break. We’ll be moving again-.”
A massive boom interrupted him. The ground shuddered beneath them for a moment and few more loud thuds announced the hulk had crashed into the surface of the planet. Another shudder followed as the largest piece of wreckage presumably pancaked into the ground and came to a stop.
“That sounded like fun.” Piers muttered, he straightened a thin pair of glasses and flopped to the ground. Unlike Lansky, Piers was lanky and un-muscled. He would have looked more at home in the data storage centres aboard the Ultimus than ground pounding.
“Yeah, just a little.  Give me a club and a few shots of amnsec any day though.”
Piers pulled a disgusted looking face and turned his gaze towards the distant crash site. A faint orange glow had appeared on the horizon marking the death place of the once intact frigate.
A loud roar came from the depths of the forest behind them making Piers scramble to his feet, rifle at the ready.
“What the hell was that?” He asked nervously, his fingers twitching nervously.
“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Lansky said, eyeing the trees cautiously. “Settle down trooper, you’re jumpier than a frog in a blender.”
Piers laughed nervously. “Better to be careful than be dead.” He scanned the trees more carefully, before turning around, apparently satisfied that whatever had sent him scrambling to his feet before wasn’t lurking in the shadows.
Lansky’s earpiece crackled back into life, a little fuzzy from the atmospheric disturbance. “Viper team, new orders. Continue on to the point designated on your HUD; I’m laying a marker now.” The voice said, an icon appearing on Lansky’s heads-up display, unsurprisingly in the general direction that the frigate had crashed in.
“Copy that, Viper team moving to target now.” Lansky said, giving Piers a friendly slap on the shoulder. The young trooper jumped from the unexpected contact, making Lansky laugh.
“Come on kid, we’re moving again.”
 
***
 
It was slow going and by the time the pair came across the first piece of debris, the sun was already rising slowly over the horizon. Lansky let piers poke around the first piece of debris with some tools for a while before ushering the reluctant trooper along the ugly scar that the doomed ship had carved into the planet.
“You know how much I want to go poking around some wrecked ship, sarge? That thing will be full of radiation, fires and sink-holes.”
“That’s nice.” Lansky said coolly. “Now shut your trap or I’ll make you go through it… in your skivvies.”
“Shutting up now sarge.” Piers said quickly, picking up his pace slightly.
 They followed the trail for a short while before it vanished, presumably a spot where the ship had bounced. Before them lay the imposing forest they had been skirting for most of the night.
“Where now?” Lansky asked, poking a five meter long girder cautiously with his boot
Piers pulled a small sensor device off his belt and waving it around. It beeped loudly as he pointed it down the trail of destruction.
“Radiation spike" He confirmed. "Now if I were a genius, which I am, I would say the ship is that way.” He noted wryly.
“Smart men first.” Lansky said, gesturing with a gloved hand in the direction Piers had indicated.  The trooper muttered something under his breath but strode off, equipment held in one hand, his rifle held loosely in the other. After a few minutes the wreckage came into view and large chunks of metal ripped from the hull started piling around them.
A nearby crack made Piers spin around nervously. Unlike the pops and creaks which occasionally came from the cooling metal around them, it was the sound of wood cracking under something.
“Relax trooper, that’s an order.” Lansky said quietly. “Probably just a tree falling over.”
“Sorry, haven’t been planetside for a while.” Piers apologised, picking up the sensor from where he had dropped it. He tapped it a few times, a frown forming on his face.
“Problem?”
“I’m getting a small radiation reading, tiny in fact.” He swung it around and pointed to a piece of large piece of wreckage looming above them distance. “Over there, unknown type. The computer can’t nail down an isotope.”
“Should we check it out?” Lansky asked. He was a soldier first, not a scientist.
“Probably worth a look.” Piers said, tapping the display a few times. “Okay, I’m tracking it now.”
The two troopers had barely gone a few meters when the device beeped in confusion. “What now?” Lansky asked.
“It’s gone…” Piers said with confusion. He madly pressed a few buttons. “Wait, there it is again. It’s like someone’s flicking it on and off.”
“Survivor maybe?” Lansky asked.
“Unlikely, there'd be lingering radiation if that was the case; this just appears then vanishes again.” Piers said, “This way.”
The pair moved closer to the wreckage, the little device beeping occasionally when the radiation source they were tracking vanished.
“Hold on, it’s moving.” Piers muttered.
“Where?”
“This way. It’s about one hundred meters to our front.”
Lansky looked around and spotted a twisted access ladder; he pointed at it and climbed from the ground onto a buckled deck plate. With seconds Piers had joined him and they both advanced cautiously towards the source. They froze at the sound of a voice.
“I don’t get it, what is this thing?” a voice asked.
“Was, I think it crashed.” A feminine voice replied.
Lansky dropped to the deck and crawled forward a few meters where a piece of debris had ripped through the deck, making a hole as wide as a tank.
“I’ve got movement.” Piers muttered quietly.
“Where?”
“Twelve o’clock, below us. Two targets.”
Lansky looked down and could only see a wall of smoke. “You’re shitting me, right?”
“Thermal.” Piers replied.
“Isn’t everything hot in here?” Lansky shot back, pointing out the rather glaring flaw he saw with Pier’s solution.
“Exactly, the targets are showing up as cool spots rather than hot spots.”
“Clever…” Lansky muttered.
Piers grinned and crawled forward.
The deck under the trooper suddenly gave way with a shriek and Piers vanished with a startled yelp.
“Piers!” Lansky yelled, looking down the sink-hole “You okay?”
No response. The two voices he had heard before had gone quiet. They had undoubtedly heard him.
“Piers, respond!”
“I'm here.” Piers said shakily “Still in one piece.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Fell down a deck, rolled out the side… Hold on… I’ve got a visual on the targets... They don't look hostile.”
“Hold position, I’m on my way.”
“Boss, they’re coming closer. I think they saw me.” He said, his voice a little nervous.
“Piers, whatever you do; do not enga-.”
A loud roar split the early dawn air.
“Oh shi-.” The radio suddenly cut off and the unmistakable crack of gunfire came from below him. The following silence was deafening.
“PIERS!”” Lansky bellowed, lowering himself through the hole in the deck.
Silence.
 
***
 
“Lay it out to me Leo, how are we looking?” Chezknov asked, walking around the large holo-display aboard ‘Ultimus’. After the incident with the Cobalt had been resolved, Chezknov had taken a shuttle to the monolithic Akkan which was now hanging in high orbit above their new colony. After an enthusiastic greeting from Leo and the lead civilian, he had been lead through the luxurious ship to the briefing room, Chezknov slightly envious of the wide, open corridors and extra comforts the Akkan possessed.
“Not too bad actually, we’re sending down the third wave of supplies to the colony now.” He tapped the screen once and an image of a flight of laden cargo shuttles spilled out of the Akkan’s port hangers. “We should have full effectiveness within a day.”
“Okay, what about resources?”
The civilian tapped the display again and the image zoomed out to view the entire gravity well.
“Some of my geology teams have been tagging asteroids with usable materials all across this system, shouldn’t be too hard to get a few automated rigs set up once the colonists unpack a constructor or two.” She paused as an asteroid tumbled lazily across the hologram. "I've never seen a system so rich in natural resources before."
“The planet itself is incredibly rich in ores and crystal as well.” Leo paged through one of the numerous slates lying around the room. “We have some small scale operations already active.” Leo held up his hand for a moment as one of his subordinates talked with him over the com. “First constructor is in the black.” He said with a grin.
“Seems like you have that under control.” Chezknov said, pleasantly surprise by the speed everything was being set up. “What about natives?”
“We have recon teams sweeping now, no contact as of yet.”
“I’ll assign some aerospace assets to assist them.”
“That’d be appreciated.” Leo said, nodding his head slowly.
“Lastly, what about manufacturing? Will we be able to build anything in the near future, I’m talking about ships, ammo, defences. Any chance?”
“We’ve got the resources; we just need the manpower and the production facilities to keep it all running.” The civilian said. "I'll get the next available constructor to start work as soon as it breaks orbit."
“Manpower." Chezknov repeated.”Could take a while then."
“We could break out a batch from our clone banks…” Leo said, already knowing his friend’s response.
“No, they’re for emergencies only. If we get hostiles showing up we’ll warm them up. . How many colonists do we have?”
“I’ve got three thousand down there already and almost triple that still in the cooler.”
“That’ll have to do for now.”
“You’re expecting trouble, Captain?” The civilian asked.
“No, but it never hurts to be prepared. I’ve got our remaining frigates placing sensor nets which should give us some warning…”
“You really think those Vasari will follow us all the way out here?” She asked sceptically. “We’re years from any know Trader space, heck, we don’t even know where we are.”
“I’m a warrior miss. If I grow complacent about my enemy, I die. You don’t have that problem with your little toys.”
“I’ll have you know that-.” She shot back.
“Miss Schaffer, please. This is not the time for arguing.” Leo interrupted. “Captain Chezknov is right though, we should be prepared. Just in case.”
“What about the colony though? You’ll just abandon us when you get your phase drives working again.”
“Unlikely, this world is rich in mineral wealth and would be a valuable resource in the TEC’s war effort.” Chezknov said flatly. “My intentions are to enact repairs then inform fleet command of our find upon arrival back in TEC controlled space.”
“What about the natives, you can’t just expect they’ll be happy about that.” Miss Schaffer shot back.
“You’ve never seemed concerned about this before…” Leo said.
“That’s because we’re usually taking something from some Vasari monster or Advent… freak. These things are completely new.” Miss Schaffer said. The two officers exchanged glances; Miss Schaffer was a staunch loyalist and unlike some members of the crew believed that some aliens could be trusted. “I don’t think you’ll just persuade them to let us take their world.”
“I think we can be quite persuasive…” Chezknov said, referring to the nuclear payload his ship carried for surface bombardments.
“I’d rather not resort to that.” Leo said diplomatically. “They’re an unknown that we’ll just to deal with when we make contact. They might be happy to help us for all we know.” He finished. He frowned as another message came through his commbead. He listened intently for a moment, his eyes slightly widening as he did so.
“Problem?” Chezknov asked, not being privy to the ground operations on the planet.
“One of our recon teams made contact with the aliens.”
“And?”
Leo tapped the display a few times, a topographical display of the crashed Cobalt appearing. “We’ve got trouble.”