So I stopped makeing FS_Open campaigns ... but that doesn't mean I won't let the stories I wanted to tell die (esspecially since there appears to be some demand for it)
After the introduction of the fiction viewer, I actually moved some of the story-telling for Workings of the Warp out of the actual mission/briefings/command briefings/debriefs into a format that could be read by the fiction viewer. Of course I don't have it all on the computer right now (most of it is still handwritten) but as I get it done I'll post here on HLP.
First off - Epicenter, for all those who wanted to known what exactly happened at the end of Faces Of Treason....
Workings of the Warp - Epicenter
Part 1 - T minus 0
So GTVA ship were shooting at each other once again, eighteen months after the NTF Rebellion had ended in a blood run to Gamma Draconis war ships that were flying the same colours were once again bent on destroying each other.
Yeah, Big Deal. Stuff for the newscast surely.
But Allen Laecsis was a man of science and politics and science didn’t mix in his opinion. The days were scientists had to fear political change were long gone and no one would try to burn you as witch one day after being sworn into a civil office. So why the entire bridge crew of the GTSC Haeckel had abandoned their posts to study the readouts of the science cruisers sensor equipment pointed away from the most interesting trinity of stars in known space to watch some military grunts kill each other, was beyond him.
Instead Allen focussed entirely on his console and the measurements of the stars’ gravity wells interacting. What he was doing was science, the boring part of science, observing, but science nonetheless. And there was no pursuit in the entire universe more worthwhile than science - at least as far Allen Laecis was concerned.
As he was the only one on the bridge of the ship still focussed on the readouts from the sensor data coming from in front of the ship he was the first one to notice the alarm. At first it was just a simple energy spire in nearby space, maybe the result of a solar eruption that had escaped the eyes of his colleagues or had been masked by equipment failure.
But then only seconds later that assessment turned out to be untrue as the readings climbed and climbed until they finally reached a safety limit. At that point the ship’s computers acknowledged the event with a warning klaxon.
The scientists and bridge crew of the Haeckel now rushed to their stations, forced away from watching the spectacle elsewhere in the system by more immediate concerns.
“Report”, the ship’s captain demanded.
“We are reading an energy spike ahead. The computer identifies it as a jump signature but the power levels and duration of the spike are irregular.”, replied Allen.
“Definition of ‘irregular’, please.”
“Most subspace transitions cause an energy spike depending on the volume of space time that travelled on the trajectory defined by the wavefunction the drive generates. It normally should only last for several seconds.
But this output is more massive than what any drive currently in use within the GTVA should be able to produce. And more so the spike is still increasing while normally it should be dissipating by now.”
“So something big is jumping in? How big?”
Allen checked the readout and punched a few numbers into the computer to get answer to that question. When the computer returned the results he keyed in the command to recheck the result. The computers returned the result as correct. If the computer was correct there was no running from that following conclusion:
“At the current level the power output we are detecting would correspond to space-time volume that equals a medium sized planet.”
And then the first shockwave hit.
Part 2 - T minus 0
Archibald Richter surveyed the construction side as the GTCv Noir drifted past. There it was the great, magnificent experiment he had helped realize: Excalibur - It is name was appropriate for its final purpose, a purpose that in this moment he alone knew.
Suddenly an alarm from his desk intercom shock Richter from his silent reverie. He answered the unbidden call.
“Richter.”
“Sira speaking, Admiral. We have a situation.”
Richter was genuinely surprised - something that rarely happened to any of the higher echelons of the Galactic Terran Vasudan Intelligence service, let alone Richter himself. He had hand picked the crew the Noir when the ship was given to him as mobile command centre during the NTF Rebellion and he had trained them to be direct and precise. That the operative at the other end was at an apparent loss for a more accurate description made the situation highly unusual. And in Richter’s personal book unusual was not far away from bad.
“Define 'situation'.”
“The ETAK prototype just went live. On its own, Sir.”
“Without the Lesser Key the prototype is just another inert piece of hardware. How can it be that it activates on its own?”
“Unknown, Sir. But...”
Line went dead abruptly, Sira’s voice was replaced with the sharp sound of ... something that was not exactly static. The noise was barely distinguishable from electromagnetic static but then again it had a rhythm to it, like looping signal.
Richter reached across his desk and pulled an old fashioned voice recorder from across the table to the speaker of his intercom. He pressed the record button down and held it fixed in place with the strength of desperation.
If he had looked up from the intercom for just a second, a man who had just received news from the netherworld would return his gaze from the reflection in the glass. A sight he hadn’t seen for more almost thirty years.
Part 3 - T plus 1 hour
“Hold it steady there” the engineer said as she guided Allen’s hands into the position she required him to hold the flashlight and griped the light source tightly. “You are doing great” the unseen woman affirmed the scientist and slid into an equally unseen opening.
Laecsis had been unfortunate enough to be slammed into his console as the first shockwaves had rocked the Haeckel and by sheer force had overpowered the ship’s stabilization thrusters which should have kept it steady in such an event. But while the bruise from the hit on the console hadn’t been that bad the electrical discharge that had passed through the console following the failure of the ship’s magnetic shielding had been a different kind of animal all together. Said discharge had been enough to blow out the display Allen had just hit and had forced the crystalline surface of the display to explode outwards and showering the unfortunate scientist with searing hot splinters. Though non of them had been large enough to cause lasting harm Allen’s face was now covered with minor burns and the medic treating him had bandaged his eyes as a precaution.
So with no sight he was reduced to the role of lamppost for a technician that fixed the pressing problems of the damaged ship.
Under normal circumstances he would have been confined to the infirmary or the his bunk however with most of the ship’s systems damaged and out of order for the time being, every single crewmember had do what that person was able to. Even if it meant standing still and holding a flashlight pointed steadily for times it took for someone else to make much needed repairs.
“Okay ... Wow, that’s fried alright. Damage control 4 to engineering, I need a full replacement for entire FTL-com decoders.”
“That bad, DamCon 4?”
“Bad is no way to describe this, boss. The entire circuitry has melted down due to the overcharge. I can’t even distinguish the fuses from their housing anymore.”
As in all systems on a space craft the Haeckel’s systems were isolated against radiation spikes and overcharges from outside influence. But to Allen’s ears it sounded like all the elaborate safeties of their modern technology had surrendered to the violence of what had wrecked the Haeckel.
The engineer voiced Allen’s thoughts just like she had stolen them from his mind: “Thank who-ever-is-watching, for the secondary faraday-frames in all compartments.”
Part 4 - T plus 0 hours
The GTVA is ill-prepared for the ways of the war that awaits them.
Preparing them is out of the question.
You must ensure sufficient time is available.
Improvise.
Improvise.
To be continued...
