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« Last post by Autohummer on December 16, 2018, 06:51:38 am »
-HNS Phuur-Nan Task Force, Unknown System-
The carrier, escorted by its entire air group, was a modest sight to behold, especially for sectors far from the war. Properly positioned and deployed, it was a key player even in pitched battles involving shipyards and battlecruisers. However, next to the Drones' megastructures, one would be hard pressed to even find their engine trails. The sheer discrepancy in size and scale was vertigo-inducing. The Phuur-Nan joined the stream of Drones, a foreigner following a silent pilgrimage. The megastructures stood, temple-like, beside the anomaly, sheltering it between their massive forms. The moment the carrier crossed some kind of unseen boundary, a few of the Drones that were travelling with them responded, closing in to investigate the interloper in the midst. Lights began flickering on the carrier, the PA speakers screeched and crackled and alarms screamed all kinds of mutually-conflicting warnings. Raonaid could feel a electricity-like tingling running down from her head to her feet. Looking at the way the rest of the CIC crew winced, it was likely they were going through the same thing as well.
"Our systems are receiving heavy interference from their scans, compensating," said the sensors officer. A moment later everything seemed to return to normal again.
"Are they done?" Raonaid asked.
"I think so. The interference has ceased."
"So far, so good. The grand total of times we've been shot at is zero, let's keep it that way."
"Boss, some of those drones are peeling off and coming all around us. We'll be surrounded at this rate."
"Steady now, nobody does anything stupid."
"Won't dare imagine it."
"Those drones have put themselves in a spherical screening formation, like those on our old sentinel microships," said the Air Battle Manager (ABM). "The only difference is every gun is pointed right at us.... I think."
"No other movement?"
"None except station-keeping maneuvers."
"Well, looks like we've gotten ourselves an escort. Maintain current course and speed and let me know if anything strange happens."
More than a hundred Drones kept the carrier and its escorts under constant watch, and, of course, threat of annihilation. The Phuur-Nan stopped a few kilometres short of the anomaly and the Drones stopped with it as well. It was clear the drones were waiting for the carrier to make its move and they had all the time in the world.
"All right, this is it. All ships, dock and prepare to enter hyperspace," Raonaid said.
"Yes boss," said the ATC officer. "All squadrons, you heard the order, come on in nice and easy."
"While you are at it, leave the third probe here before we go in. Make a backup of our logs and save it on the probe in case the rest of the fleet comes here. Helm, is the hyperdrive charged?"
"Emergency hyperspace ready to go, Boss. I'll kick it in on the first sign of trouble."
"Good, we're as ready as we'll ever get."
A minute later, all of the carrier's strikecraft were back in their hangars and secured for whatever that was to come.
"Helm, take us in, cruise speed," Raonaid said.
Everyone held their breaths as the carrier closed in.
"All hands, brace for impact," said the Helm officer. "Entering the anomaly in five, four, three, two, one."
There was no impact, if it wasn't for the fact that everything outside had changed and the navigation console was wailing that it could not locate the ship anywhere in known space, nobody could have told they had just been whisked untold light-years away to Sajuuk-knows-where.
"Anomaly navigation successful. All systems show green, except navigation. We'll shut it up in a moment.... There, we are now the first Hiigarans to venture outside our galaxy."
"And Taiidan," Ferdi said, "though that probably doesn't matter for you. Captain, your orders?"
"Give the homeworld a call and see if it goes through. Relay it through the probes we left if you have to. Tell them we have made it through and will update whenever we can."
"Very well."
"Meanwhile, keep following the outbound drones until they disappear. We'll set up shop there and try to figure out how their FTL works and where they are going. The folks back home would love to know this. Besides, we'll need to share telemetry with the homeworld. We're miners and soldiers, not engineers or biologists. We left them behind to make it here and pave the way for them."
"Should I ask the homeworld to redirect their scientific personnel transport here?"
"Sure. That's the sensible thing to do, unless the Admiral blocks it for one of her many reasons."
The "escorts" continued their cover around the carrier as it moved on. Eventually, when the Phuur-Nan was about a thousand kilometres away from the anomaly, the "escorts" decided it was far enough and began to lose interest. One by one, they returned to their perimeter around the anomaly. It was until the last drone left the carrier that the order was given to launch the standard escort flights.
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