The Shogun's Shield

Continued from The Shogun's Shield)


Author: Falconous Jakal
Title: The Shoguns Shield
Location: Battle Cruiser Vengeance, Outer Asteroid Belt
Timeline: 10043 AF (After Fall)
Tag: FJ5
Content: G

Falconous was brought to a start when the Vengeance rapidly decelerated as they approached the space station Reclaimer. Falconous left the office and stepped onto the bridge to see the immense space station come into view and grow as the ship closed the distance.

"Sir, I am picking up a ship on long range scanners coming from outside the system."

Falconous stepped forward to see the signature on the scanners. "That should be Balanna, but I do not recognize the signature, keep an eye on it and hail it as soon as it is within range."

From behind him, Falconous hears the tactical officer ask, "Should we raise shields, Sir?"

"Not until we find out for sure who that is." Flin answered.

The Vengeance came in along side the station and docked without incident. Falconous took the lift to the debarkation level and headed to the nearest portal connecting the station and the Vengeance.

Mitianna Marks' slender form appeared when the bulkhead door was opened in front of Falconous, who jumped with a start. Even 5 months straight of long hours and hard work did not diminish the General of the Shogunate Army. The only sign of dishevel was a loose ponytail.

"You didn't think you could get on my station without me being here to meet you, did you, My Lord?" She said with a devilish smile, her green eyes sparkling in the light of the corridor.

"Not even if I tried, Mitianna. What news?" Falconous said, taking up position beside her as they started to the control room.

"Well, My Lord, we have barely began the salvage operations, and already we have excavated near a million metric tons. we are still scouting all of the wreckage, it seems that over the last 13 years, the debris spread itself out quite a bit." She stated and started to tug on her ponytail to get it a little more orderly.

Falconous glanced at her hair and then to her face. "How is Station life treating you?"

"I fair well, My Lord, though I think my captains back on Tagnus wish it were them here so they did not have to do all of the reports I need." She chuckled to herself. "But it is good to get away from all the nonsense of command for a bit."

"It is good, but you never really do escape it all."

They entered the room and began to discuss page upon page of scans.

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Still lost in conversation, neither Mitianna, nor Falconous had noticed Balanna standing next to them, studying the prints for the last 15 minutes. Mitianna was pointing out a mass of debris to Falconous, "This seems to be a dense pocket here, possibly 25-40 metric tons in all."

"That is a ship." Balanna interjected.

Falconous and Mitianna both jumped slightly. Falconous turned to see who it was and the same smile was instantly etched on his face once again. "Balanna, when did you get here?" He gave her a quick hug.

"14 minutes ago, My Lord Falconous." She stated returning the friendly gesture. "How does this day find my Liege's health and welfare?"

"I am better now that I am around old friends." He looked from the android to his General. "One of these days we will all be back in the Imperial Palace and we will have a grand dinner with all of our friends and family."

"I look forward to that, My Lord." Mitianna said, inclining her head slightly.

"I would be honored, My Lord Falconous." Balanna added. "Now as soon as you are done, I will be in my guest quarters waiting to go over the information I have with you." She bowed slightly at the waist, turned and left.

Mitianna and Falconous turned to each other, still smiling. Then as if at once, remembered what Balanna had said, and they turned back to studying the scan page. Indeed the debris field was far too organized to be random.

"Mitianna...." Falconous began.

"Already on it, My Lord." She turned to a Samurai standing behind her. "Daniel, order a scout to this location at once. Notify me as soon as it is on site."

Daniel straightened, bowed his head and replied, "Yes Ma'am." He turned to the door and was quickly gone.

"Let me know what you find out." Falconous said and left through the same door, Balanna and later Daniel exited through.

Author: Progen Cruiser's AI
Title: Awakened to a Familiar Presence
Location: Debris field in the outer asteroid field in the Te'Kal system
Timeline: 10043 AF (After Fall)
Tag:
Content:

In the darkness of space and debris, a lone derelict ship from a war of the past drifts lifelessly. It's passive sensors picking up a somewhat familiar reading it has not come across in nearly 20 years. AI processing units begin slowly powering up, coming back to life after the ship's long slumber. Start up calculations begin running through the AI’s digital mind as it resumes the last order given to it by it’s captain before the crew abandoned ship do to failing life support and the inability to re-enter slipspace after damage sustained in it’s last battle.

The Progen captain’s orders where very simple and direct, “Fight on”. The AI planed to do just that, any and all combat vessels in range with a GSS identification tag would be targeted and eliminated to the best of the ship’s abilities. It would succeed or it would fail trying, it’s standing orders and programming would allow for no other course of action. It is the command and control AI for a warship and warships fight, they have no other purpose.

With the last of the remaining power in the ship’s fusion batteries, it slowly starts up the secondary fusion cores. Being careful to keep them at minimum power to remain undetected for as long as it could, all systems running in silent mode to produce as little energy readings as possible. The cruiser’s triamino hydrazine fueled thrusters begin a slow burn, propelling the large vessel at a near crawl as it begins to make its way ever so slowly out of the debris field and closer to the source of the enemy identification tag.

Finally, it will be able to fulfill its mission and do battle once again with the enemy of the Progen Centuriata.

Author: Falconous Jakal
Title: The Shoguns Shield
Location: Battle Cruiser Vengeance, Outer Asteroid Belt
Timeline: 10043 AF (After Fall)
Tag: FJ5
Content: G

As the door opened, Falconous was greeted by Balanna, who had changed from her traveling clothes to her more formal instructor robes from the time at the palace. The dark blue color made her aqua hair stand out even more. Falconous always thought that she was a striking woman, even if she was an android. His father spared no expense when he had her created, even down to the personality chip and matrix. Balanna was truly one of a kind with her adaptive and growing sense of need to fit into the Terran life.

"As I told you before, Balanna, there is no need to wear those robes anymore. You have since been relieved of your responsibility to me and the Imperial Palace." He said as he entered her quarters.

"My Lord, Falconous, there will never be a time when I do not feel a strong sense of loyalty to you and your family. I was honored the day they activated my main programing of teaching and protecting you. Though you may have relieved me of duty, I have not." She led him over to a table in the dining area where a portable computer had been set up. Falconous was surprised to find that there were 3 external memory drives hooked up to it, feeding information.

"When you said you had a lot of information, I didn't realize there was that much...."Falconous stated indicating to the externals.

Balanna smiled, "What did you expect? You wanted everything needed for what you wanted, it is very in depth and Kason's team will have no issues with implementing everything we have into our systems."

"Good, lets see what you have then." Falconous sat next to the computer, Balanna pulling up a chair next to him as she began to explain the basics of what she had collected.

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"Scout 1, this is base, come in." Mike heard in his ear.

"This is scout 1, go ahead base." He replied as he queued his mic.

"You should be approaching the ship now, only 10K meters at 10 degrees."

"Visual not confirmed, there is a lot more debris out here that originally thought. Visibility less than 2.5K meters."

"Copy that, will continue scanner tracking and updating as you get closer. Out."

Once again back in the silence and solitude of space, Mike continued to scan the debris and marvel at the sights it brought to mind. A massive battle waging over the expanse of this region of the asteroid belt. Massive sections of once powerful warships float past as he progresses into the heart of the field.

Moving past what looks like the bow of a particularly large warship, Mike's heart nearly stopped as the name of the ship appeared. The Shogun's Shield was the flagship and personal warship of Ganald Jakal, late leader of the Galactic Shogunate and Falconous Jakal's father. From the looks of the battle damage, what took down this behemoth was a massive barrage of missiles.

"Scout 1, this is base. You are within 200 meters of the ship, please confirm."

"Base, this is Scout 1, I still have no visual on target. I am currently in the middle of the debris of the flagship Shogun's Shield. The debris is thick here, there was much damage and it looks like the ship was blown apart by a massive missile barrage. Over."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the transmission before the answer came back. "Understood, keep the channel open."

Mike slowed his sped to 1/2. The debris was bouncing off his shields making an eerie glow in the cockpit. Approaching a particularly thick wall of debris, Mike started to get a bad feeling in his gut and he cut his engines altogether. Concentrating on the wall, he saw what he could not explain. The wall was moving. At first toward the center, then as time passed, it became conical as if something was trying to push through.

The same glow that he witnessed earlier on his own shields were being mimicked as a nose of a warship broke through the wall of debris. The ship was moving so slowly that it seemed to scanners that it was only a drifting mass, but the attitude of the ship proved that it was being moved under power.

Mike was unaware of what this could mean. In all his life, he has seen only trade ships and the Galactic Shogunate ships. He has never seen this design, let alone encountered it in his 5 years of service. He decided it prudent to not alert the ship to his presence. He allowed it to pass in the darkness, and when it was fully past him, his fears were realized. There was a small glow from the engines. The ship was functional.

"Scout 1, this is base, report."

Mike was about to press the comm button when a beam of light hurled toward him from the other ship. "Base, I am under at....." The transmission was cut short.

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The chime of the door brought Balanna and Falconous out of their studies. "Come." Balanna said and the door swung open.

The officer bowed, "My Lord, we have a situation, please come with me."

Falconous Looked at Balanna who had the same look on her face. "Lets go." They both rose and followed the officer to the bridge.

Mitianna stood as they entered, "My Lord, We lost contact with our scout. Just before though, we picked up a small flash of light and an explosion from the vicinity of where he was last known to be."

"A collision with debris?" Falconous asked.

"I do not think so, My Lord, the last transmission we received from him..." She nodded to the comms officer who played back the message.

"Comms, open a channel to the Tagnus Shipyards." He waited until the officer indicated the channel was open. "This is Flaconous Jakal, I want the Retribution launched within the hour. Commander Gudd, contact me via private channel immediately."

"What are you thinking, My Lord, Falconous?" Balanna inquired.

"You said that mass was a ship, well that scout was investigating it, and look here." He pointed to the scan, "The mass has moved toward us since the last time I was up here."

Both Mitianna and Balanna started at the screen. "It was so gradual, we must not have noticed it." Mitianna replied.

The comms officer spoke up, "My Lord, Commander Gudd is on a secure channel for you."

"I will take it in the office." Falconous said as he left the bridge.

Falconous re-appeared 2 minutes later. He looked at Mitianna, "Prepare to raise the shields after we depart. Balanna, get to your ship, and get that information to Kason now. tell him all other projects are secondary. Contact the Vengeance, tell them to prepare for my arrival and departure."

Falconous Turned and left the bridge.

Author: Progen Cruiser's AI
Title: Awakened to a Familiar Presence
Location: Debris field in the outer asteroid field in the Te'Kal system
Timeline: 10043 AF (After Fall)
Tag:
Content:

Slowly the ship makes its path through the massive field of stellar debris, the decaying husks of once powerful ships float by cruiser. The ship's shields at minimum power to keep from being noticed, the energy field just powerful enough to shrug off the impacts of damaged hull fragments as it pushes through the debris looking for targets. As it begins pushing through a rather dense field of debris belonging to one of the last ships it destroyed before going dormant, the passive sensors pick up a small contact transmitting a GSS signal.

Quickly and just for a moment the progen vessel allows its secondary fusion reactors to spike, funneling energy into the MAC weapon's capacitors. Before the little scout ship can get off a signal, the cruiser fires a heavy round at the little target. The heavy round streaking through space at more then half the speed of light, the friction of it leaving the barrel causing it to glow brightly light a flare at is makes its way to the tiny scout vessel and punches through the shields and hull, destroying the scout with such ease as if it was no stronger then a piece of paper.

After it makes the kill it's sensors detect another much large vessel approaching, the new contact's active sensors scanning the general vicinity. No longer being able to keep its presence hidden for much longer, the cruiser spools up it's main reactor and begins activating all combat systems. The dim shields brighten to maximum power, pushing off the debris around it like they where nothing more then a group of annoying insects. The weapon capacitors charging up to ready the main cannon for rapid fire as the safeties are removed from the remaining stock of archer missiles.

The main fusion engines come to life and propel the ship faster to it's next target, all weapons at the ready as it prepares to do battle and fulfill its orders and purpose in the universe.

Author: GUDD
Title: The Shoguns Shield
Location: Battle Cruiser Retribution, Tagnus
Timeline: 10043 AF (After Fall)
Tag: FJ, Admin
Content: G

Flying in geosynchronous orbit of Tagnus, the crew of the new Battle Cruiser Retribution became leery of their next assignment. Not only was the crew apprehensive about a next mission, but the crew was as green as they could come in their new posts. Their commander, GUDD, had just been promoted and as every other new commander was eager to prove themselves, Gudd was no different. His crew was eager as well, most were the new recruits and veterans command staff were itching for action.

Down in the mess hall, First officer Akira and Chief engineer Ken had just sat down for a drink and some treats. "Did you happen to see the latest orders from fleet?" Ken asked with a eager tone.

"I have, however we are not scheduled for any mission anytime soon. It looks like we are stuck on guard duty for home base." Akira replied, followed by a long pause.

Ken was not pleased at this point, he understood that the Fleet consisting of only two ships was in the process of rebuilding. The Vengeance was out on a mission, and the Retribution had to stay home. “How are we going to be able to do anything with such a small navy?” Ken said with a more straight forward tone.

“At this point, our shipyards are working as fast as they can to get new ships out, and we need to conserve what we currently have, not risking….." Akira was broken off mid sentence by an Intercom message from GUDD

“All senior officers’ report to the bridge”. Ken And Akira look at each other with both confusion and a glimmer of joy and ran out the mess hall, their drinks and treats a distant memory.

As the senior officers begin to enter the bridge, GUDD ask his communications officer to put a message and some tactical information on the main viewer. When all were present he told them what was going on.

"The Vengeance with our Shogun on it, has located a Progen cruiser and has been spotted, the Vengeance intends to intercept and engage before it gets to the Reclamation Station. While the officers are reviewing the current situation report," GUDD says “This type of ship was a major cause of a lot of strife and hardship for our people, Falconous intends to engage, which is the correct thing to do, but that cruiser still has a lot of fire power available and the last thing we need is another dead Shogun at the hands of the Progen. We have been given orders to assist Shogun Falconous.”

Akira then stands up saying “I agree to this, the odds of our victory against that ship increase exponentially if we attack in numbers. What are your orders GUDD?”

After a quick shrug and smirk, he replies, “We will move at maximum speed to the Reclamation Station and rendezvous with the Vengeance and will assist our Shogun in the fight." Gudd turns to his engineer. "Ken get down to main engineering and give me all the power you can out of the engines!" He turns back around to face Akira, "Akira set course and prepare the ship for immediate action if necessary and..." He straightens and addresses the remaining officers gathered, "the rest of you, man your station and get the people ready.”

The senior officers stand up, and in unison give an “Yes Sir” proceed to their duty stations, and a couple minutes later the Retribution sets off on their first mission, a combat mission.


Continued in next section GS vs. Progen Cruiser