Beyond the Horizon

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Chapter 10
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    • Chapter 10

    "So, you developed fusion reactors that do not rely on Helium-3?" Sura asked. "What do you use instead?"

    "We managed to crack Protium reactors nearly a thousand years ago and haven't looked back since," Dr. Kelley replied as they worked on the installation of the 400 rated fusion engine that would be the power source for the omniforge that they had just finished the construction on. "We even use it in our tanks among other things if we can afford it."

    "I believe our vehicles run off of a similar principle," Sura stated. "But ours use the lower mass to try and boost speed and the power generated to power kinetic barriers over whatever armor the tank or vehicle possesses. Are your fusion powered ground vehicles faster?"

    "It depends on the tank oddly enough," Dr. Kelley laughed. "We have some that are lightning fast, and some that are much slower," He checked the readings on the fusion engine as they slowly powered it on in stages and monitored the power requirements. "We have fusion engines that are rated for a multitude of things, similar to the way that you described different eezo cores. And they produce different speeds or velocities depending on the vehicle that they are installed in."

    "Do any of your work VIs possess such a fusion engine?" Sura asked as she pointed at the modified Lumberjack in the distance as it cut apart a starship and assisted a Jabberwocky in loading it up onto a flatbed for hauling.

    "Actually, those are driven by pilots," Dr. Kelley stated as he brought the 400 engine fully online. "And it depends on the manufacturer and what level of technology the world they would be selling it to might possess. For instance, the mech over there with the excellent hands and other things for dragging salvage is called a Jabberwocky, it possesses a fusion engine, and is more valuable than the one next to it that is cutting the starship apart. That Lumberjack is run by an internal combustion engine that is much simpler to work on and can be maintained by a planet that might have regressed technologically."

    "Interesting," Sura said in response. "Is all of your technology constructed with this in mind?"

    "It depends on the budget for the most part," Dr. Kelley replied. "A poorer world may only be able to afford an ICE engine, whereas a richer world might go with something that is powered by a FE. Or the reverse may be true for any number of reasons. The mechs that you see being used now have been in operation for centuries and have been used by generations of people."

    "Similarly to our ships," Sura realized. "Only you do the same thing with equipment that we do with ships."

    "Ours is more of a design choice though," Dr. Kelley replied. "We chose to build things to last so that they may be of continued use to the future generations. I'm afraid that your Migrant Fleet isn't left with that option."

    "Sadly, yes," Sura replied. "Many of our ships are falling apart and have been in service for centuries past when they should have been scuttled. A place where we could get a complete overhaul would be a miracle but I'm not certain that it will happen at all."

    "Korlus is open to business from everyone," Dr. Kelley said with a grin. "While official alliances may be out of the cards, I do not believe that any yards we have in the future would deny business from a fleet that needed a good overhaul."

    "I swear you're worse than the Volus sometimes," Sura elbowed the man in his armored ribs and winced. "All of you are looking at how best to profit from all of this."

    "Science is driven by two things, my dear apprentice," Dr. Kelley laughed. "War, and business, and when one falls behind, the other one takes up the slack. If you want your discoveries to be funded by someone with fat checkbooks then you'll find a way to profit out of it." Dr. Kelley then turned and walked out of the omniforge's central room and began to run it through the first test cycle. "Remember that, and you'll be set in funds for the rest of your life."


    "I'm seeing some quality issues with the first batches," Sura reported, changing the subject as she looked over the report with her omnitool.

    "Well within the predicted margins," Kelley replied. "This is the first test anyway, and we can further refine it as necessary.



    “How is everything going on Veil?” I asked Melissa over the HPG. “I know that Ward is a good leader, but I was worried some of his Clan tendencies would manifest while he was in charge.”

    “We’re solid here,” Melissa replied. “It’s a bit warmer than I’d like, but I’m from Tharkad so I’m not sure I get to complain.”

    “Any natural resource deposits found yet?” I asked. “Anything that would allow us to be able to manufacture more of our gear would be nice.”

    “The asteroid belt has some nice looking rocks from the few spacers that we’ve got with us, they’re using the Elephants to push them up into orbit so we can mine them easier. “We haven’t had time to survey the rest of the planet yet though, so I can’t give a full report yet.”

    “That's fine, just send a report if you do happen to find anything,” I replied. “Have a good night Melissa, Hull out.”

    “Things are going too well,” I muttered to myself as I glanced down at my slate. “We’re about to get hammered by something, I just know it.”

    I began looking through my files to see if there were any local governments that we had pissed off aside from the ones on Korlus.

    “Shit,” I said to myself as I facepalmed. “That Baron was linked to a Turian Arms dealer. We may have a shitstorm coming down on us because we just killed his main middleman.”

    “There might be some retaliation from this “Shadow Broker” as well,” Natasha said as she walked into our quarters. “We have killed every single one of their agents since they tried approaching some of our people.”

    “We’ll eventually lose someone to them,” I replied. “Most of our people are trustworthy, but there are well over twelve thousand of us, someone will betray us eventually, it’s only a matter of time.”

    “Then we continue to plug leaks here for now,” Natasha said with a shrug. “Now stop worrying and come to bed, you’ve been working for too long today.”

    –
    –

    Natasha and I woke up to sirens going off and flashing lights in our quarters.

    “All hands report to your battle stations, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill.”

    Author's note: Went back and revised the discussion between Sura and Dr. Kelley. It should work quite a bit better now.
     
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    • @Markwarrior is it possible for you to provide an information post on the Colonization Fleet's assets? It's been a while since I read the previous story I'm unsure what ship class and upgrade block each name matches.
     
    List
  • Extras
    • List of Warships, Jumpships, Dropships, and the assorted supplies that Hull and his fleet have among them.
    Warships
    –Manassas Aegis class heavy Cruiser(Modified)
    –Defender Narukami Block II Destroyer (Modified)
    –Redemption Stefan Amaris Class Battleship (Modified)
    –Secrecy Nightwing Class Warship
    –Snake     Bug Eye Class Warship
    Jumpships
    –Aurelius Leviathan Class Jumpship
    –Ceasar Leviathan Class Jumpship
    –Navigator Star Lord Class Jumpship
    –Unicorn Monolith Class Jumpship
    Dropships
    –3 Mammoth class dropships loaded down with colony supplies
    –10 Mule class dropships loaded with colony supplies and personnel
    –2 Colossus class dropships belonging to the Marksman and the Ducal Guard
    –5 Sting class gunships
    –5 Sting II class escort ships
    –1 Argo Class colony vessel
    –6 Triumph class combined arms dropships
    - 2 Elephant class Dropships/Tugs
    – Assorted dropships belonging to the Ducal Guard, Marksman, and the rest of the passengers.
    There are Data cores scattered throughout the fleet, and they are fully prepared to put down Terraforming equipment and begin manufacturing more if the world they should find themselves on is hostile.

    There are around ten thousand colonists and over 300 engineers and scientists with them. Experts in various things such as metallurgy and the building of factories etc.

    Anything not explicitly noted here is probably something they either didn’t bring, or is in one of the massive cargo areas that they have access to.
     
  • Extras
    • I can put up the modifications if necessary as well but it's mostly updates and upgrades to Clan based systems and some extra automation for the Warships
     
    Markwarrior said:
    Secrecy Nightwing Class Warship
    –Snake     Bug Eye Class Warship
    Click to expand...
    I'm not sure those count as warships. They are small frigate sized armed surveillance ships packed with sensors and computers. So much so they had to remove armor and weapons to fit them in. In any other setting anything under 100 meters is fighter and bomber sized. Or a gunship if it's an incredibly bulky fighter. Hell even the F35 is 16 m X 14.5 m X 4.5 m in size. The U2 is larger.

    The writers in ME are on crack if they think those fighters half the size of a Tomahawk can carry a pilot and have an effective load out.
     
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    AmosTrask said:
    I'm not sure those count as warships. They are small frigate sized armed surveillance ships packed with sensors and computers. So much so they had to remove armor and weapons to fit them in.
    Click to expand...
    They counted on Sarna so I threw them in with the Warship list.
     
    Markwarrior said:
    They counted on Sarna so I threw them in with the Warship list.
    Click to expand...
    Alright then. I guess if you stretch the definition a bit. They can count as Q-Ships. Since they were designed to look like unarmed civilian ships visually.

    Don't forget to threadmark the Fleet OOB under Informational so you don't have to keep answering the same questions in the future.
     
    AmosTrask said:
    Alright then. I guess if you stretch the definition a bit. They can count as Q-Ships. Since they were designed to look like unarmed civilian ships visually.

    Don't forget to threadmark the Fleet OOB under Informational so you don't have to keep answering the same questions in the future.
    Click to expand...
    I put them under the “extras” threadmark. I’ve never found an informational on The Sietch.
     
    Now,they need enemy stong enough to be dangerous,but not enough to wipe them out.
    So...what about Batarian pirates? 1o warships or something like that.
     
    Chapter 11
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    • Chapter 11

    "Where do you need me?" I asked Admiral Victoria Jewel as soon as I reached the bridge.

    "On standby," she replied as she glanced at me. "The Redemption and Defender were sent to defend Veil so it's up to us to take out the two cruisers that just jumped in."

    I looked at the tactical map and saw that the two Cruisers were flanked by a trio of frigates.

    "Just how invisible are we to them?" I asked as I looked at the frigates and the cruisers. "You said that you managed to test it?"

    "Unless someone is looking out of a viewport we might as well not exist unless we just jumped into the system," she replied. "What do you have in mind?"

    "Have our escorts swing around to target the frigates, overload their kinetic barriers and Guardian system with LRMs and autocannon before shutting them down with our PPCs. Cut off their communications and let the cruisers wonder what happened to their escorts as we vent the ships."

    "Ma'am! Cruisers are launching shuttles, and they're headed right for Korlus!" The sensor officer reported.

    "Carter will have to deal with them," Jewel replied. "We've got bigger issues right now."

    –
    –

    "Alright people," Paige told the temporary crew of the cruiser that they had captured previously. "We've got five more enemy ships to take on and we were chosen to play bait. So we're going to lead the cruisers on a merry chase while the rest of our marines and sailors try to disable or take over the frigates while we keep those cruisers busy."

    "How do they expect us to take on two cruisers ma'am?" Mathias asked. "We're still rookies at flying this kinda boat."

    "We don't know the full limits of this technology yet," Paige's eyes sparkled with mirth. "So we're going to do things that we might have considered impossible and do our best to do what Marines do in the process," Paige began to look at her marines that were in various stations on the alien ship's bridge. "Make sure that you're vacuum sealed, because we're more than likely going to break this ship apart while we take on the other two."





    "Where is the female?!" A massive Krogan charged the fireteam of heavily armed and armored troops as they held off the Vorcha that he had brought with him. "We have come to take the fertile one back to Tuchanka where she belongs!"

    He was answered by an anti-material round entering his skull and exiting out of the other end leaving a blood trail. "Don't trash talk when in combat," a man muttered as he peered through his riflescope. "Ringleader's down, the cannon fodder should be easier to deal with now, boss."

    "Glad to hear it!" the sound of gunfire echoed in the background of her reply. "Still kinda busy on our end, but only a handful of shuttles made it down."

    "Boss, the big one down here was screaming something about them trying to reclaim a female and take her back to their homeworld. But my translation systems could have been off too."

    "I'll have our intel people go over it when we're done here," the sniper's CO responded. "We're going to try and take some prisoners and try narco-interrogation on them after we've taken them all down."

    "Copy that, my position should be clear, I don't think anyone saw the shot," the sniper replied. "I can remain on overwatch for the fireteams over here, or me and my spotter can transition to cover you."

    "Stay where you are, we've got things handled here."

    "Roger that, settling in."
    –
    –

    "We are losing the ground fight!" Garm threw his fellow Krogan into the bulkhead of the cruiser that he commanded for this battle. "Follow that ship! I want the enemy broken and laying at my feet!" the Blood Pack Commander ordered his two ships as they continued to follow the lone pirate cruiser.

    "Garm, our frigate escorts stopped responding, and they're drifting in space as if they just lost power!"

    "That does not concern me," Garm shook his head. "I believe our prize is on that cruiser, and so we shall get close and board it. Fire our guns and disable that ship!"

    The cruiser shook slightly as a round left the spinal gun. The round left the chamber at a fraction of the speed or light and barely kissed the pirate cruiser as it began a slingshot run around the gas giant. "First round missed, reacquiring target for when it swings back around."

    With assistance from the built in VI the paired Blood Pack cruisers fired one after the other, impacting on the enemy vessel and causing the kinetic barriers to activate and then die as they were overwhelmed by the destruction visited on the small area of the ship.

    "Enemy ship is drifting," one of the Krogan manning a bridge position reported.

    "Bring us alongside," Garm ordered. "We're going to board this ship and take back the fertile one!"

    —
    —

    "It was a good run, people," Paige commended her bridge crew. "What systems are still intact?"

    "Spinal gun is still charged," the marine manning the weapons console reported. "But the capacitors are losing charge at a rate of two percent per five minutes."

    "Are we facing the enemy?" Paige asked with a savage grin concealed by her helmet.

    "Aye ma'am, and one of them will be passing across our line of sight, or close enough to it by the time they reach knife fighting range."

    "Do we have any thrusters working?" Paige asked.

    "Yes ma'am, our port thrusters are still functional, but it's only the directional ones that work."

    "Good," Paige stated. "When they get close we'll hit the one ship with a point blank round and prepare to repel boarders. If they wanted us dead they'd have already opened fire."



    Author’s Note: a bit short, but the cliffhanger just felt right. Even if it is a bit mean.
     
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    • Idiot krogans would be idiot krogans.Do they hear about scouting before attacking?
     
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