Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

April 8th, 005 SDE:

The alarms blared within the dimly lit bridge, as the console lights flickered. Something sparked in the background, and several groans filled the room as people picked themselves up. Countryman released the crash net around him and unplugged from his station. "Report!" he barked, as his arm closed back up concealing the cybernetic circuitry within, the mark of his cybernetic enhancement.

"Heavy damage to the outer hull. Hull plating has failed. I'm reading hull breaches on every deck. Power failures on decks four through eighteen, twenty-eight, thirty-four, forty through seventy, and all decks below one twenty-six. Main power is offline, I'm reading multiple fuel line ruptures across the engineering section. Warp drive is inoperable, and heavy damage has been detected in the port nacelle. Main engines are not responding."

"Weapons?"

"Offline sir, the mounts are intact, but no power is getting to them."

He sighed and then glanced at the flickering screen showing him the raging storm outside. It was oddly beautiful as swirling hues of blue, violet and green meshed together in a violent haze that beat against the ship. A flash rippled in the distance, but it did seem calmer than the leading edge that they'd just been through. It seemed the hull was holding together for now, but with the engines down they were at the mercy of the currents.

Leaving his chair, he took the steps down the side of the bridge, leaving the command balcony for the lower bridge. Reaching the bottom of the steps, he stopped by the ops console and talked to the young ensign manning it. "Misaki dispatch damage control teams, focus on the hull plating, restoring power and sealing those fuel line ruptures. The rest of the damage can wait."

"Understood sir."

Countryman turned to his first officer Greyman who was settled by the strategic master display in the center of the bridge, a fuzzy plot showing on the screen. "Checking the sensors?"

"I was trying to see about that last dreadnought, they didn't warp out when the storm hit."

Countryman nodded, and looked over the plot. Sensor coverage was rather spotty, and he didn't really see much of anything out in the soup. "I'd say we'd have better luck conducting a fighter sweep."

Eri, his helmsman, looked up from her post, "oh? Can I take the lead on that?!"

He chuckled, and Greyman commented, "Would a fighter even be able to survive in that?"

Countryman looked at Misaki, "The AIF failed, but secondary structural fields seem to be keeping us in one piece. It might be a bit rough, but there's no reason a fighter can't survive in that."

"Hanger status?"

"The port bay took some damage, the outer doors were breached and the bay is currently flooded with gasses from the storm. The bay is also without power due to a hit to the local power manifolds, so we can't even raise the bay shield."

He nodded, reminded about that useful piece of tech they'd picked up over the years. It allowed them to conduct open-bay operations without having to decompress the bay. "I guess that leaves us the Starboard hanger. Eri, get down to the starboard hangar and organize a few recon flights. I don't like being blind, and if that dreadnought survived I don't want them sneaking up on us."

"Aye sir!"

Eri rushed on down to the starboard hanger bay, vanishing into the lower bridge access corridor. He figured she'd get things going quickly enough, and Countryman looked over to tactical but noticed his chief tactical officer had already made herself busy. Seeing Kaori was already hard at work, and Misaki was coordinating with Engineering to get the ship back into some semblance of working order, that gave him a moment to confer with his first officer.

"Looks like we've gotten into a real mess this time."

"So it does, but if it makes you feel better I don't think any of us could have done better. Hell, I thought we had all the bases covered, but it seems that things can still go wrong even when things look to be in your favor."

"Well, we got the cloak. I'm sure once the storm passes we will be able to do something about it."

Greyman glanced at the storm, "Right, speaking of the storm, any idea what the hell a Hyper-Ion storm is? What makes it hyper and how does it differ from a regular ion storm?"

Countryman shrugged, he didn't really know. Ion storms were ionic wavefronts thrown off by local stars, they tended to wreak havoc with ships. More intense ion storms could even destroy ships but they were primarily characterized by intense ionic radiation. A variant of an Ion storm was an Ionic Plasma storm, which paired superheated plasma with intense ionizing radiation. Both were deadly space phenomena. Plasma storms were also something to fear, they could be thrown off by stars and were noted for waves of charged plasma that could tear ships apart. Space exploration was by no means safe, between deadly phenomena and other potentially hostile space travelers, there was no shortage of dangers out here in the depths of space. "I was thinking of looking it up, I recall seeing something about them in the Krall database, but I..."

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"Hmm sounds like a good idea, I'll go with you."

Countryman glanced around the bridge, "You sure? Shouldn't one of us be here..."

"I think Kaori can handle it, and if not we'll be in your ready room. She can just get us if we are needed."

"Good point," he looked at his tactical officer, "Kaori, you're in command. If you need us, we'll be in my ready room."

"Understood sir," she looked around, "but somehow I doubt it."

She had a point there, thought Countryman, as he headed up the stairs to the command balcony with Greyman. They went right past the captain's station, and passed through the blast doors into a short hallway. There were two guards on duty and three other doors. The rear door led to a lift, while the door on the right led to a conference room for officers to meet. The final door led to his ready room, which was the door they took.

Heading into the room, he quickly headed for his desk. Being his work desk, he kept it rather utilitarian. The room was moderately decorated with a few photos and some memorabilia he'd picked up over the last five years since they launched. He settled into his chair, turned on the monitor and brought up the database in question. Greyman moved in behind him, so he could observe the screen.

Hyper-Ion Storms are a rare multispatial phenomenon. Little is known about these storms and what causes them, even how they are sustained is a mystery. Attempts to study the storms have proven difficult due to their rarity and danger. Hyper-Ion storms rarely appear in normal space and while in normal space they manifest as a massive ionic plasma wavefront the size of which determines the category of the storm. The larger the wavefront, the more powerful and deadly the storm is. Category one storms are young and weak, typically no more than a light year across.

"Interesting, but I don't think this was a class one."

Countryman nodded and quickly checked the report they had received, Misaki had glossed over the class only reporting the warning. "No, we are dealing with a class 12."

He skipped to where it mentioned class 12s. Class 12 storms are typically between 500 to 1200 lightyears across. They are noted to have a particularly intense outer 'shell' where the storm is most intense with a calmer inner field. Ships attempting to pass through the shell of a class 12 are almost always destroyed due to the intense plasma turbulence and ionizing radiation. Only vessels with extremely strong shields have a chance of surviving.

Even if a vessel survives passing the outer layers, the inner field is no eye of the storm. The region is flooded with ionized gasses and intense radiation. These storms are also noted for a unique radiation; Isanir Radiation. This unique form of radiation is known to interfere with shield generators and bypass most forms of radiation protection. Prolonged exposure is not recommended...

"Great, deadly radiation. I don't recall any alarms for it going off though."

Countryman sighed, "Of course not, our sensors are in shambles and the ship is a wreck."

Thankfully these storms don't remain in normal space for long. These storms typically emerge into normal space for no more than a few days once every ten years. The rest of the time, these storms remain in hyperspace. While studies of the storms in hyperspace are limited, it is known that the storms exist in several layers of hyperspace all at once. The uppermost layer of which is typically found at the fourth layer, which thankfully for hyperdrive-using races is below the third layer which is often used for hyperspace travel. This uppermost layer of the storm is also the part of the storm known to surface briefly into normal space and is where any matter pulled into the storm will reside.

"Hyperspace? As in subspace? I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

"I don't either, and there isn't much here on conditions in the storm after entering hyperspace. For all we know things get worse."

"I guess that means waiting for the storm to abate isn't an option."

Countryman shook his head and pointed at a section, "Agreed, it says here the storms can last for decades. We'll need to get out before the storm descends into hyperspace."

Greyman frowned, "Something tells me we'll be waiting years for that."

Countryman sighed and closed the file, "Sadly I'm inclined to agree. We aren't really going anywhere. Not while we are blind and adrift. Not to mention we have..."

Greyman shuddered as the entire room suddenly felt weird, just as a charge seemed to ripple through them both. The two shared a look, and then rushed through the doors back to the bridge, questions in mind. Both of them hoped that wasn't what they thought it was.

Eri shuddered as a weird charge passed through her, then her wingwoman White commented on the comms, "That was weird."

"Agreed, but all instruments read normal."

"Confirmed, whatever that was, seems to have passed," replied White. Then suddenly she raised her voice, "Contact!"

Eri turned to her sensor panel, "I see it. Scanning."

She quickly noted the target was huge and it wasn't long before she confirmed what she was seeing. They were less than five thousand kilometers from the Enterprise. That was spitting distance and well within the ship's sensor range. It was a miracle they hadn't seen the giant vessel sooner.

White commented, "Looks like they've lost power, I'm reading numerous hull ruptures as well. I'd say they are adrift like we are."

Eri frowned, "They need help, according to these readings their hull will fatally rupture within hours."

White blinked on her screen, then noted something, "And they are sending out a distress call too."

"Call the ship, I'm going to head out ahead, and scout the situation. They might have been our foes, but I don't think we should leave them to die. Some Valorians are actually nice after all."

"Good point, but I'm staying with you."

She smiled and the two adjusted course to close on the crippled dreadnought.