Edit: Kudoz to Turnsky for tweaking the image and generally making it more ub3r!!


Once upon a time, this system was known as a paradise; a virtual haven to one and all.
For the rich and wealthy; it served as a vacation spot where one could get away from the stresses and workload that came with their regular lives. To the poor and less well-off masses, it proved to be a lucrative job market, with a plethora of needs and requirement for workers and laborers to support the rich in their many vices. To the artists, philosophers and writers, this placed proved to be a virtual haven where they could express their works, beliefs and stories. Most people were happy here, with only the few normal exceptions and misfits that came with most societies. Till recently, they were only the few exceptions; mere drops of oil in a vast, clear blue sea.
But then, oil has a habit of spreading. And so it did...although the seeds of discontent and the rife of war were far from this planet; fear, hatred and discontent spread across the galaxy. Faster than light, faster than life, it had settled itself in here, causing a degree of unruliness. The paradise began to grow blotches of conflict and strife, marring it's pristine beauty with blood and tears. It was surprising how fast the hatred spread and how far the general feeling against of oppression had spread. What was even more surprising however, was the swift reaction by the controlling authority. They garrisoned this world, using the revolts as an excuse for the military. Although the rich and the wealthy still went there, gone were the workers; replaced by military machines; gone were the artists and philosophers; replaced by soldiers and tacticians. Lakes of clear water turned dark as they were shadowed by massive installations from orbit.
And so Delta Tranquility became one of the bastions of civilized humanity. And it was not
just a bastion, but an impregnable one of the highest order. Almost invulnerable and equally well-armed, nobody could enter if they were deemed unworthy.
Despite having heard so much of it however; it gave little concern to the recon pilot currently inbound to the system. This was simply another routine assignment intelligence had given to her; and it seemed somewhat random, considering the fact that she was normally deployed to more 'hot' zones with the most conflict.....
The cockpit was like most other recon fighters; aesthetically minimal with a more functional aim in mind. Comfort was little concern here, and most ordinary pilots (especially those who flew the heavy bombers) found it too cramped for use. But she was used to it; after all, 20 years of experience did have it's worth. Instrument panels covered almost the entire lower part of the interior, each one emitting a glow that reflected off the helmet and space suit that she wore. It created a permanent barrier of sorts around her body and legs - which disappeared under yet another panel that extended halfway to her waist. A small hologram emitted from the panel, showing a three-dimensional representation of the space around her. To either side were control yolks, which when combined with the foot pedals, would assist in controlling the ship's movements in any direction. Although each panel glowed brightly, there were three primary monitors that cast the most light. The one directly ahead, just beyond and above the hologram displayed the current target information and trajectory; while the one to the left showed the current systems status, while the one on the right - which, unsurprisingly, was the most empty- showed the operation of the weapon's systems. Other than that however, a transparent canopy allowed the full view of the entire night sky ahead of her and to her sides, as well as directly above.
To a new pilot, all this was incredibly overwhelming and even after they learnt the basics, it either took years of practice in the academy to get used to it....or less than two days of duty on a front-line battleship or carrier, assuming they survived their first few sorties with the enemy.
Of course, she had plenty of both, allowing her the skills to maneuver through the many asteroids that littered the outer edges of the system. Having exited from FTL speed, these now posed little challenge to move through with the tiny fighter. Weaving around each one, the sun faded in and out as she went around them. Many of the asteroids dwarfed her small fighter, with the smallest being the same size. Most of them were slow moving however, allowing for quick and easy dodging. However, capital craft may have found it harder to move here, and would have jumped in closer to the system.
Adjusting the empty weapons display, the pilot pressed a few controls, causing a rather loud launch sound to be heard from the rear. The display turned for static for a second before turning to a display of an external view of the ship from her left hand side.
Tiny was the word to describe it. Unlike the behemoth 50 or 60 meter-long heavy bombers, her recon craft was barely 12 meters in length, and half that in width. Basically a large cockpit built on top of an engine pod, the dark blue and black hull sported a 2 meter long, smooth wing to either side, as well as one extending above and below. Towards the end, they angled back smoothly to meet the body again just before the main rear thruster. Blue lines ran along these wings, casting a dark glow along the edge, outlining the craft, but not so much to the point where it was too visible. The rest of the hull was a mixture of dark blue and black, with the exception of around the cockpit area, where the canopy radiated light outwards and towards the rear. Directly underneath the canopy were a small group of symbols. The cockpit ended just a meter short of the nose, which extended outwards into a sharp point. The craft was clearly designed for fast movement and maneuverability, as signified by the series of thruster nozzles that pocked the hull in a long line, stretching from fore to aft. Every so often, during a maneuver or a barrel roll around and over an asteroid, these nozzles would flare up, release a flame that extended several meters before being extinguished by the icy cold of space.
The most interesting thing however, was the logos on the side of the nose. The primary one was hard to determine, for a majority was dark, blending in with the hull too easily. However, due to effective shading as well as specifically colored brighter parts, one could make out the figure of a cloaked person facing away; or, judging from the dark scythe the person wielded; one would easily recognize it as the traditional reaper of ancient lore. Facing away, at some unseen landscape, the figure seemed to be hunched over a bit, leaning on the scythe for support. Right next to the image of the figure was the words "108th Dark Reapers", indicative of the squad's name. Right below that were several smaller images - top-down images of what seemed like several different fighters and bombers, actually. All in all, there were 48 of them. 48 kills; some civilizations would have viewed it as only a few, but when one talked about the enemy they were fighting, it immediately became a sign of an ace and very old pilot.
The pilot pressed a few buttons, canceling the view and detonating the drone. She checked the ship status, and cancelled the fuel leak alert that had made her send out the thing in the first place. She continued to pilot onwards, going deeper into the system. Normally, one would expect the combs. Chatter here to be rife with that of the ships that passed through, as well as the stations. Yet the small communications panel to the right was blank; there was only silence in the system, and the only thing she could hear was Command speaking into the radio, trying to reach anyone, as well as relaying orders to her. The voice was low, yet somewhat deep. It was definitely male; but someone in the communications had screwed up, and turned the volume up, causing some of the voice to spill out of the helmet. You could see the pilot wince a little every time Command spoke. At least, it was like that till she got fed up and switched it to external speakers instead. The voice clearly blared through the speakers, filling the till-then silent cockpit the voice.
"This is Allied Command to Delta Tranquility IV defense system, please respond! Is anyone out there?"
When no response came, the pilot simply shook her head and muttered something under her breath. Command, however, heard it loud and clear.
"I heard that pilot; and yes, this IS how loud I speak. Curse one more time and I'll have you demoted."
Again, the pilot muttered something.
"I don’t CARE how many times I say that! Today's bad enough of a day for me to actually go through with the threat!"
In reply, the pilot just sighed and kept silent. The person over at Command continued speaking, as if nothing has happened.
"Never mind, I'm just receiving the local sensor readings from your ship. It appears your local vicinity has suffered a massive gravitational change or shift. It also appears you have entered a thicker part of the asteroid belt. Authority is on the way to increase sensor band to Delta so you can scan the entire system."
Again, the pilot mumbled something in reply.
"What did you say? You've got to stop mumbling otherwise we're not going to understand a word you say!"
"I SAID, it feels exactly like that here! I've been flying through these damn asteroids for fifteen minutes now!! Hell, I've even passed Delta Tranquility VI! If you leave me flying blind out here, you're obviously going to get no data you know!"
The pilot spat back, her tone irritated and filled with some anger.
"Well, the authority has just come in. Set your sensor levels to delta; with the installation not responding to an in-system source, it seems stealth is no longer an issue here. Something MUST be seriously wrong here."
The pilot simply sighed. She acknowledged and adjusted a few settings, setting the sensor inputs to the specified level. It took up more power and made the craft significantly less stealthy; but it significantly boosted the range of the sensors to include the entire system, as opposed to just the local area around her right now. Keying the display to show up on the right monitor, she knew that Command must have been studying the data as well.
Then she froze....she just froze, staring at the data and translating it, with realization slowly dawning upon her of what it was saying. The person at command came to this realization as well, and spoke out what she was thinking...
"Nothing........the sensors are reading....
nothing where Delta Tranquility IV or V should be...How is that even possible?! What happened to the planets and defenses??!"
"......I think I might know, since I'm pretty much flying through it......" the pilot spoke out softly, a touch of sadness in her voice...what command had not seen, and what she had just noticed after rounding the gas giant Delta Tranquility VI was the sun. While this was not unusual by itself, it was what was in
front of the sun that concerned her the most. Sensors now picked up what she suspected. Delta Tranquility IV and V no longer existed. Both planets, bastions of their power and control, were now nothing but a rapidly expanding field of asteroid and debris that was slowly forming a ring around the sun, partially blocking out her view. The sun was now wobbling slightly off-centre due to the difference in gravity, and the outer parts of the system would more than likely re-arrange themselves due to this.....
She couldn't think of a word for it. Disaster was the closest she could come to it, but somehow it didn't seem large enough to encompass this.
"......what...the...." Command spoke out, equally shocked at the news. No doubt, behind him, everyone else must have paused in their work, also staring at the picture that she was transmitting to them.
A million thoughts raged through her head; ranging from
why to
how and then finally to
whom. Who could have done this? She did not know the number of lives that had been on the planet....but it had to be in the
billions to say the least. And yet, something or someone had come here, and within the span of 24 hours, had wiped out
everything. Could this have all been a disaster....or could it have been murder? Genocide even?
For several seconds, the channel stayed quite, and the pilot didn't move. It was hard to judge her expression due to the reflection from the helmet visor. But the way she reacted after that pause, after the thinking; one could easily see the feelings of rage, anger and sadness.
She jumped into action, stepping on the accelerator and pushing the small fighter forwards. There had to be some clue, some information - something,
anything that would explain what happened here. Distances that had previously taken her almost a half hour to traverse now became a few seconds as the engines accelerated to a high velocity.
As she approached the area where the planets were supposed to be, she slowed down, studying the sensors for anything. But they showed the same as before: severe gravitational anomalies and massive radiation.
But she could feel it; feel it in her bones and gut. Something was off here...some was not quite right. For this to have occurred naturally was impossible, which indicated that
they had been here. Command had this suspicion as well when they spoke up.
"Pilot, new orders. Run a search; look for survivors or anything else. Elements of the 6th and the 8th fleets are moving to assist. Whatever took this out has to be significant. Do not engage any hostiles you see, I repeat, do NOT engage! Your objective is to gather intelligence here, not get re-"
Looking at the rubble around her ship, she cut off Command before they could finish the sentence. "Command. An unknown number of billion people just died here, and you are fricking telling me to
not to get revenge? The only reason I'm actually here is because I’m trying to find a damn trail to where they went, so that we can fo-"
Then she froze. As the fighter rounded a rather large piece of debris nearly 10 kilometers in diameter,
it came into view just behind it.
"Pilot! Is everything all right?"
The pilot ignored him, instead focusing on the thing ahead, her voice suddenly going raspy and soft. Her tone changed to reflect one of pure fear, a sentiment that was echoed by many at Command as they too, saw what she did.
"Oh...my...God." the pilot muttered, unmoving; simply staring directly ahead.
Directly ahead of her was what could be described simply as 6 Kilometers of sheer and utter terror.
The object in question was a ship, or more precisely, the enemy's siege carrier. At nearly six kilometers in length, the ship had a somewhat blocky body, which ended in two long arms towards the front. On top of the arms were massive triple-barreled turrets, each nearly a kilometer in length and a quarter of a kilometer wide. Each turret had yellow lines in a few spots, and a cylindrical object at the rear, towards the top. Just behind this was another pair of the same turrets, instead on a higher section of the arm, before it thinned down. The entire front section reminded the pilot of the older WWI era battleships they had studied about in history. Although terran design had mostly abandoned such notions, apparently the enemy hadn't. What was more fearful however, was the turret in the centre. Almost double the length and size of the other turrets, it was in the centre of the front array, as if the entire ship was focused on that one weapon, with the others being just accessories. It was massive, to say the least, and made the other guns look like nothing. Just behind this turret, the hull thickened and went upwards at an angle before reaching a flat plateau, upon which the bridge structure rested. The bridge structure was tall, and based upon a thick tower that connected to the plateau. It was wide as well, with the sides thinning down to find points from which wingtip structures protruded upwards, giving it the form of a neat wing. To either side, the arms extended backwards in the form of supports, reaching all the way to a set of rear engines. The hull extended out behind the bridge to a much lower panel, upon which rested a smaller turret much like the triple-barreled ones, except that it was missing a barrel. Just after this was another panel, nearly a kilometer long, it stretched all the way to the rear, and appeared to be some sort of hangar. To either side of the support from front to rear, wings began about where the bridge structure started, and stretched to either side, curving back and ending when they reached the same point as where the ship ended. They were very thick, and unlike the wings on some ships she had seen, they were completely connected to the hull, not just pieces angled outwards and left there.
From what she could see, the entire hull was lined with deadly anti-fighter missile and machine gun turrets. Any one could easily take out her fighter, but yet in front of here were over a
hundred of them.
"Holy. ****. Database recognizes the configuration - Triest Class Siege Carrier. We knew Delta Tranquility IV had been attacked by a couple of battlecruisers recently, but they managed to destroy them. Don't tell me that thing managed to get through the defense network! It doesn't have the firepower required to remove 15 layers of planetary shielding for heaven's sake! And it would have been destroyed before it got close enough to fire the main gun too!"
Command exclaimed. The tone of shock was still there in his voice.
"Well command, they did. I dont know how, but they sure as hell have done it, and now they must pay for it!" The pilot replied back, her voice filled with anger and rage. One could see from the way she moved, the way she manipulated the controls, that her mind was filled with the desire to do something,
anything against the enemy ship; to avenge the death the enemy had just caused.
Command sighed before repying.
"As much as I want to order you to do something, there isn't much you can do other than sit and wait. Both fleets are on the way, just sit tight a-"
Command never got to finish the sentence as static blared out on the channel, cutting him off. Somewhat confused, the Pilot examined the communications panel and cursed. Someone was jamming command! This meant that they probably knew that she was-
Her thought was cut off as well, as a beam lashed out from one of the bridge's wingtips, enveloping the ship in a bright purple glow. The pilot had to raise her hand to the visor to block out the light. A second or two later, she lowered it, somewhat surprised to find that she was still alive. Looking around her, she realized that the control panels were all dark, leaving her stranded. The beam had shut down all the power in her ship! And from the looks of it, it was also pulling her towards it. The ship grew larger and larger, till it finally filled the entire canopy. Panicking, she tried to restore power as much as possible, but working at the controls did nothing and they remained dead. All she could do was sit back and wait…wait till either the beam let her go, or the carrier blew her up to hell and back.
She watched as the beam pulled her towards the carrier’s port support, just behind the arm. She saw a section of the arm just in-between twin series of turrets go dark, before lighting again in the form a sequence of glowing arrows. They pulsed periodically, in a sequence that acted not unlike directional lights. In this case, they were pointing towards the rear of the craft. She frowned. Now
this was unusual, to say the least.
The beam left her fighter craft just at the start of the support structure, right behind the massive turret. After it vanished, her fighter’s systems came back up, albeit at minimum status. Checking the engines, she cursed – they could only move at 10% at most, and the FTL drive was out as well. Looking down, towards the hull, she saw two lines of turrets to either side. They had to be over a dozen in each line; probably two from the looks of it. Unfortunately, each and every one of those turrets was now pointed directly at her. With such limited speed as it is, she had no chance for escape whatsoever.
So, seeing little choice, the pilot cautiously increased the speed, moving the small fighter forwards along the direction of the arrows. The ship moved at a slow crawl across the hull; a mere speck upon it’s vastness. A few seconds later, she breathed a sigh of relief as none of them opened fire on her. But nonetheless, they continued to track her fighter, ready to fire if she went astray. Cursing to herself, she looked around, trying to find some route of escape. But it was almost useless.
Instead, she looked at the ship itself, studying it carefully. Perhaps there was useful information to find here, something she could take back to command. Her intelligence training didn’t fail her as she cautiously set the port camera to focus in on the windows in the block underneath the bridge. The port side monitor came on, acknowledging the command. It initially showed the view that she could see now, with little difference.
Then it slowly began to zoom in. Windows which were previously points of light began to grow in size. At about 3 or 4x zoom, the Camera’s magnification maxed out. It was just enough to get a good view of the scene inside the windows. It moved a bit too fast and was quite blurry due to the fighter’s speed, so she slowed it down a bit to get a better view.
What she saw quite literally shocked her.
She had expected to see inside the windows either parts of long corridors, recreation or observation areas, or personal quarters, not to mention people moving about in them. All three were present, and there were definitely people there. However, none of them were moving about. Each one of them either wore some strange kind of full-body armor, or plain drab clothes, but with a visor or mask over their faces. They were clearly humanoid, of not completely human in size and appearance. The only thing that gave the mystery however, were the faces. She had expected them to be working, walking around or doing the usual tasks that came about with running a starship.
Instead, as the view passed by each window, she observed that each one was standing facing the window…facing
her in particular. Standing at attention, right hand up to their heads in a sharp and crisp salute. As she passed by each window, the hands lowered, and the people in the next one raised theirs, much like what one would expect in a military parade when soldiers paid their respects to the leader, or an important figure.
She was shocked, to say the least. They must either be incredibly crazy, or somehow, she was a very important person for some incredibly strange reason. She threw out both options almost immediately. The rage subsided, leading directly to curiosity. What the hell was going on here?
This enemy, they were known to be ruthless, merciless and supposedly without honor. They had committed massacres and outright genocide for some unknown reason. Every fiber in her being wanted to believe this, to throw it’s hate and rage against them out of the thirst for revenge. She had lost too many friends, too many comrades to this enemy. She knew almost everything about them – their tactics, their methods and how the went about doing their business.
But at the same time, judging from what she had just witnessed, she knew
nothing about them either. Nothing about their motives, or
why they did what they did. Nobody knew this throughout known space. Questioning every other planet, every other known surviving sentient species simply yielded more questions than answers. They only knew that they came every once in a while, attacked everything and then continued on for some unknown reason. They were without mercy; killing everyone and everything with a ruthlessness unseen till today. She had only heard stories from the ground of the devastation their land invasions left in their wake…yet, oddly, now that she thought about it, she also remembered hearing several rumors….rumors about the strange and odd behavior that occurred not
during the battle, but
after it. Of course, these were all but rumors, totally unsubstantiated and without any backing. But in light of what she had seen…perhaps they couldn’t be
completely true, now could they?
As she approached the end of ship, the arrow signs below her changed, now turning to face left, indicating for her to proceed to the hangar. Here, too, turrets tracked her every movement, so she could do little but comply. As she turned the hangar wall she saw the massive entrance loom in front of here. Visible here were four ramps; the outer two having arrow signs pointing inwards, with the words ‘ENTRY’ clearly written just at the lip of the entrance. The centre lanes had arrows pointing outwards with the words ‘exit’ written on them. Clear directional and safety marks; very handy in case of emergencies when you needed some sign of where to go.
Right now only the port side directional arrows were lit, and the other entries/exits were all dark. Walls extended to the sides of this, with four turrets guarding each side of the entrance/exit bay.
Sighing, she pushed the craft into a lazy yaw, turning the corner and flying just above the turrets in front of the wall. She then turned the craft slowly outwards for a second, before picking up the speed and circling back in towards the lit up entry way. She was perfectly aligned now, and saw crash-wall at the end of the runway, along with an exit to the side. About half-way through was a second exit, with directional arrows pointing along it. Just before the arrows, she could make out the words “Emergency Only” in clear Terran standard. She pushed the ship into it, and was somewhat surprised as it pushed through a transparent thin film that stretched throughout the bay’s exit.
Forcefield she thought to herself. This was relatively new tech to them, and it was only recently being employed on the fleet’s carriers. Sighing, she slowly cruised through the hangar’s runway, not sure what to expect next.