WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS WITHIN!!
Tales of the Union.
In The Beginning
Wind Season, Gram, Avalon-A II. Planetary Coordinator Ben Bruce looked out of the air-conditioned crawler as it traversed the desert baking under an orange sun. Low rolling hills stretched out before him, the foothills of the Mountains of Mourning, named after a particularly bloody battle at their foot in which neither side could claim victory and both sides suffered horrendous casualties, for the time. A Gorgon was displaying in the distance its cries carrying clearly to the crawler, above a Harpy cruised looking for an easy meal. They were still hours away from the test site. Bruce thought again about the project, transplant the whole population from Gram to Excalibur, but only after it had been warmed up some. Gram was a water starved world, hot, dry and dusty apart from a few oases, the objects of ferocious battles and the source of life on this barren planet. It had only been the discovery of the large cache of advanced tech war materiel that had enabled The Conclave of Windwalkers to sweep over the opposition and bring the whole planet under one rule for the first time in centuries if not longer. They were now the prime movers in the Union of Avalon; no one became Planetary Coordinator without blood ties to the Windwalkers.
There were so many anomalies. The Cache had advanced the science of the Conclave many generations in just a couple; it was difficult to digest it all. His great grandfather had been a nomad warrior sage, using simple slug throwers, alcohol powered internal combustion engines and solar powered light flyers, He was fortunate to stumble across the Cache after the wind had exposed it for the first time in many lifetimes. He had had the wit to understand some of what he had seen. First came the understanding, then came exploitation of the miracles, the atomic missiles, armoured leviathans that cruised the desert crushing all before, the magic suits that made a man a virtual god, they still couldn’t reproduce the last two technologies. The real wonder was that the language of the Cache was Standard, archaic Standard, but Standard none the less.
The geneticist say that humans and the animals and plants associated with them are radically different from and unrelated to the rest of life on the planet which was also of a much more primitive form. Which didn’t stop the sand dragons from being a considerable threat, 50 metre behemoths were not unknown and until recently were the real masters of the planet, now they were rare and a conservation movement had started up to stop their extinction. The records in the Cache appear to indicate that humans came from somewhere else to this world, but that data base in the Cache was one of the most heavily corrupted ones.
The list of miracles seemed endless, the indestructible curved plate with the orbits of the solar system inscribed on it, all the planets and moons with a diameter greater than a couple of hundred klicks all had their names neatly inscribed beside them, potions that healed former killer diseases, and in the last twenty years something the physicists’ called the trans-dimensional elements which had unleash yet another generation of miracles. In fact the changes this discovery made were so great that the year was reset to the first year post TDE to commemorate it (coincidentally coinciding with the formation of the Union of Avalon, which of course it had nothing to do with). The population had burgeoned, there were now in excess of one-and-a-half billion humans on the planet. The population was outrunning the carrying capacity of the planet; it just could not support such a population for many more generations. Thus the great enterprise was born. The astronomers could see great ice sheets on Excalibur, megatons of water locked up just waiting to be released. Remote operated landers had confirmed its presence. The terraformers said it would be simple, just pump enough CO
2 into the atmosphere and the planet would warm up nicely and become a paradise. For a generation they had striven to make this a reality. Now above his head orbital construction yards were building the great terraformer vessels, the freighters and transports to realise the dream. As an off shoot small planetary survey vessels were being built to survey the solar system. The new trans-dimensional elements were not in short supply but if they ever ran out they would be irreplaceable, best to try and safeguard their supply while it was not an issue.
Several hours later the crawler arrived at the test facility, a few low buildings and a bunker, the 250 ton ion engine dominated the site. This was to be the first full power test, on it rested the fate of the fleet under construction above their heads. Commodore Morgan Sykes, a tall wiry man in his late thirties with a dark, almost burnt complexion, he had seen considerable exposure to the sun, either in the deserts or in orbit, greeted Bruce as he dismounted from the crawler, the orange sun was low on the horizon but would not set for five hours yet, “Welcome to Project Starfire Coordinator” Sykes commanded all space borne assets (although all this amounted to at the moment was a collection of orbital structures) and was a second cousin on his father’s side, best to keep it in the family. “I would like you to meet Kane Austin, Savant of propulsion technology at Glaston University. He has been instrumental in the completion of this project.” Austin murmured pleasantries as the official party moved towards the administration building to meet the project team and take refreshment. Three hours later with the above ground buildings evacuated, the massive ion engine awoke with a full throated roar; the test assembly shook as if shaken by an invisible giant, a nearby phoenix shot into the air trailing scintillations. For thirty minutes it went on, the exhaust raising a sand storm, then it cut off. The test had been a resounding success.
On the trip back to the Capital Bruce reflected on the day’s achievement, five years would see the first ships ready to move out of orbit. It still seemed an impossible dream to change the climate of a planet. As he tossed and turned in his bunk and the crawler ploughed across the landscape he wished he had been allowed to fly to and from the facility, but his security team would not hear of it. It was only two years ago that his predecessor had come to grief when a sand storm changed direction suddenly and brought his flyer down with catastrophic results for the then Coordinator. Outside there was the scream of a rabbit that had wandered too close to a hydra which had closed its outstretched limbs around it in a death grip.
High Sun Season, 23. Gram. Project Paradise, Oversight CommitteeCoordinator Bruce was in the Chair, Savant Connor Power, Chief Astronomer, Hawkdreaming Clan, had just started speaking “We have now finished the observational analysis of the rocky bodies in our solar system. There are in fact several candidates for terraforming, the most obvious is of course Excalibur – Avalon-A IV, an ice ball with a surface temperature of 185.4
oK and a gravity of 93.7% that of Gram and the only body with surface water, albeit locked in an ice sheet. But it’s not the only candidate. For instance Clarent – Avalon-A III lacks surface water as much as Gram does, has a surface temperature of 198.7
oK and only a trace of atmosphere, but we now know how to create an atmosphere thanks to the terraforming (although he pronounced it terrorforming, much of the language used in the Cache was strange) knowledge from the Cache and while it has only 31% of the gravity of Gram it would still provide a habitable planet and an export market for foodstuffs from Excalibur. However if we are to consider Clarent a possible terraforming target we should not overlook Aiglos, the largest moon orbiting the gas giant Steropes – Avalon-A VI or Narsil, the largest moon orbiting the gas giant Arges – Avalon-A VII, both have a greater diameter than Clarent and while Narsil is devoid of atmosphere Aiglos actually has a thicker atmosphere than Clarent, their main problem is they are both very cold, 93.5
oK for Aiglos and 72.6
oK for Narsil. But this can all be overcome and with Excalibur acting as the bread basket of the system our population would know no bounds.” As Professor Power sat down the Chair asked for any questions, the chancellor, Seven Zhong of the Chin Sun Trader Enclave (they operated large moisture farms) spoke up. “An interesting point you made Professor Power, If Excalibur could act as the bread basket for Clarent, could it not do the same for Gram?” At this Commodore Sykes looked daggers at the chancellor who continued to speak “then we could save considerably on the proposed fleet of colony transports, we would only need the farmers!” Before Sykes could explode Coordinator Bruce Cut him off “that is not up for discussion, the terms of reference of the project have long been settled, would you deny your clan the opportunity of paradise?” “Well then” replied the Chancellor, What say we open the project to private enterprise, even if the government had to pay a premium to a private transport company, it must be cheaper than building and operating government freighters.” Bruce wondered what the chancellor was up to, but the project was a crippling expense on the Union and if it could be eased then all to the good. The meeting of the Oversight Committee broke up after receiving the rest of the reports, the project was on schedule, in two years there would be five terraformers, five colony transports and five freighters to start the actual work of transforming Excalibur.
Storm Season, 24. Gram. Researchers delving into the Cache had come across a new calendar system. A year on Gram was taken as five revolutions of the primary which it orbited every 72 days; however, it was known that Excalibur took seven times as long to orbit the primary, thus a year was only part of its orbit. Should other bodies be colonised then time keeping would be further disordered. It was thus proposed that this recently recovered calendar system be introduced for all government and military functions, which neatly avoided clans competing to have their preferred time keeping arrangements selected as the only official one. Thus the year 25 would begin on the first of New Sun, (Authors Note: I will continue to use the Gregorian calendar for the readers’ convenience) which was deemed to be the day the first ships were delivered to the fleet. The new calendar system would introduce a day of 24 hours each hour made up of sixty minutes and each minute of sixty seconds. There would be 360 days in the year made up of twelve months. The division of time this way was strange and no reason was given, but curiously the length of the day was not too dissimilar from that adopted by most clans anyway. It would also benefit the collection of taxes from the populous, no more arguing over the due date. Finally to back up the new calendar several atomic clocks were found in the Cache already calibrated to the new system ready to be distributed to the new colonies as the master time keeper.
1st January 25. Gram. Commodore Sykes stood on the observation deck of his first flagship. The 10,000 ton AUS Searcher was a search, rescue and surveillance vessel, It had the largest sensor it was possible to build, capable of registering a ship past the orbit of Steropes - Avalon-A VI from Gram. The orbit of Steropes marked the limit of ground based sensors on Gram. The Searcher was intended to patrol beyond the orbit of Steropes and monitor traffic. It had the endurance to reach Hrunting, the outer most rock in the solar system and return home, just. The observation deck was a blister on the nose of the spheroid shaped vessel, a frippery and likely to be the only ship ever to have one. Through the armoured port Sykes watched thrusters flare as the first group of terraforming vessels broke orbit for Excalibur. The great enterprise was nearing reality. The Searcher was the first real ship in the fleet as Commodore Sykes saw it; he didn’t count the little 900 ton planetary survey craft. Later that day they would disperse across the system performing the duties they were designed for.
It took just 22 hours for the terraformers to reach Excalibur and begin pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Quietly without much fanfare the New Shipping Line, Stokes Shipping Company was registered with the governmental trading and logistics department. The chairman was one Severn Zhong.
Ships of the Union of AvalonArgosy Mk I class Freighter 51,500 tons 603 Crew 1105 BP TCS 1030 TH 3000 EM 0
2912 km/s Armour 1-123 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 13 Max Repair 38 MSP
Cargo 25000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Celesteon Designs Ion Engine E0.8 (20) Power 150 Fuel Use 8% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres Range 131.0 billion km (520 days at full power)
Active Search Sensor MR12-R100 (1) GPS 2100 Range 12.6m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposesVoyager Mk I class Freighter 32,550 tons 498 Crew 1318 BP TCS 651 TH 2250 EM 0
3456 km/s Armour 1-90 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 25 Max Repair 38 MSP
Colonists 50000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Celesteon Designs Ion Engine E0.8 (15) Power 150 Fuel Use 8% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres Range 207.4 billion km (694 days at full power)
Active Search Sensor MR12-R100 (1) GPS 2100 Range 12.6m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposesGram Mk I class Terraformer 79,350 tons 1033 Crew 2232 BP TCS 1587 TH 3300 EM 0
2079 km/s Armour 1-164 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 18 Max Repair 500 MSP
Terraformer: 2 module(s) producing 0.0024 atm per annum
Celesteon Designs Ion Engine E0.8 (22) Power 150 Fuel Use 8% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 550,000 Litres Range 155.9 billion km (868 days at full power)
Active Search Sensor MR12-R100 (1) GPS 2100 Range 12.6m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposesGem Mk I class Survey Craft 900 tons 82 Crew 263 BP TCS 18 TH 60 EM 0
3333 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/2 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 9.83 Years MSP 183 AFR 6% IFR 0.1% 1YR 3 5YR 51 Max Repair 150 MSP
Starr Industries Ion Engine E8 (1) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 500.0 billion km (1736 days at full power)
Improved Geological Sensors (1) 2 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposesSearcher Mk I class Scout 10,000 tons 951 Crew 2145.35 BP TCS 200 TH 900 EM 360
4500 km/s Armour 1-41 Shields 12-300 Sensors 150/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 9 PPV 0
Maint Life 2.49 Years MSP 1207 AFR 88% IFR 1.2% 1YR 270 5YR 4054 Max Repair 1050 MSP
Starr Industries Ion Engine E8 (15) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 450,000 Litres Range 101.3 billion km (260 days at full power)
Beta R300/12 Shields (8) Total Fuel Cost 96 Litres per day
CIWS-250 (1x6) Range 1000 km TS: 25000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Active Search Sensor MR28-R20 (1) GPS 2100 Range 28.2m km Resolution 20
Active Search Sensor MR630-R100 (1) GPS 105000 Range 630.0m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH25-150 (1) Sensitivity 150 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 150m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes18th February 25. Excalibur. Captain Lewis Higgins sat at the command station of the Union Survey Vessel Opal, she may be only 900 tons but she was his, he had seen Squadron Leaders and Group Commanders begging for a command, but there were only six that were not terraformers, freighters or colony transports in the whole Union, five of them little Gem class survey craft. He was also lucky when he was given Excalibur as one of his survey targets. Captain Higgins was looking at the report from the orbital geological survey module his science officer had just sent to his console. Well, the Union would never want for Duranium! There nearly 70 million tons of readily accessible Duranium on the planet. But then a note caught his eye on the screen, there was an uncharacteristic surface feature which the programme could not classify. His interest piqued he took a closer look at the images the note referred to. He was looking at a temporarily ice free area seeing a series of regular circular depressions, which overlaid an obvious grid pattern which he could have sworn was a city! “Lieutenant Gan, drop a deep radar sond at this grid location Higgins ordered as he sent the coordinates from his station to his science officers console. A few hours later it was certain, the remote bot delivered by the sond confirmed the remains of a lost colony on Excalibur that appeared to have been obliterated by bombardment, but ages ago, the craters were smoothed by the weather and ice flows. The information was transmitted to Space Corps HQ with all dispatch.
19th February 25. Excalibur. The Searcher was by far the fleetest ship in the Space Corps, capable of 4500 k/s. It thus took twelve hours to reach Excalibur from Gram. Once the news had reached Space Corps HQ, Commodore Sykes had taken it upon himself to organise an investigation team and take the opportunity to visit Excalibur himself, command has its prerogatives. Thus it was on a bright cool evening with the chill of distant glaciers in the air that Commodore Sykes finally reached the Promised Land. He still required a rebreather to warm the frigid air and concentrate the oxygen, an unprotected human would not last long even at these latitudes, but the landscape was riveting for one used to sand and rock, softly rolling hills clad in green photosynthetic plants, even at these temperatures, the bulk of a glacier poking between the hills with the run-off forming a frozen river, that would only run when the planet reached perihelion a few months from now. A winged animal flew fast across the scene, disappearing into the distance. Captain Declan Walker of the Moonstalker Clan organised the disembarkation of his team and their equipment, in only a couple of hours the shuttle would lift leaving Walker and his team, taking Sykes back to his office, Sykes reflected on life, what he would give to be in Declan’s boots now.
9th February 25. Gram. Planetary Coordinator Ben Bruce was today elected to the position of Director of the Union of Avalon by the Heads of Clans Council. This position was created to establish a head of government for a multi-planet polity. This was partly in response to the realisation that while Excalibur had millions of tons of several of the trans-dimensional elements it did not have all; it was completely deficient in Mercassium, Vendarite and Uridium. Gram would need to continue as a mining colony if nothing else. Nathan Connor took over as Planetary Coordinator of Gram and Freya Potter of the Potters Guild assigned to the Coordinator’s position of Clarent, although it would be a long time before she would have any one to govern.
9th December 25. Gram Project Paradise, Oversight Committee. It was becoming obvious that the Project Paradise was devouring the entire tax take of the Union, if nothing was done then it would eventually lead to bankruptcy. The committee was packed with vested interests, the shipbuilders, the scholars, the bureaucrats and Clan chiefs. There was much discussion, mostly characterised by arguments. Only two measures were agreed; the first was that any company setting up to transport colonists or material to Excalibur would be entitled to a government grant of 1000 Shillings. The second was that anyone could set up a civilian mining concern on any system body beyond those already scheduled for government exploitation so long as they paid the requisite tax.
22nd January 28. Excalibur. Captain Declan Walker finally submitted his report on the ruins found on Excalibur. They were constructed by the Aeten Clan, They used Standard as their means of communication and they appear to be human in all images so far recovered to ten decimal places. Further Captain Walker estimated that there could be 57 structures that were not completely destroyed and they or their contents may be salvageable. All the examined technology and installations seem to be remarkably congruent with the Cache on Gram, and of a similar tech level.
The first new ships for the fleet finally left the ‘Yards, four troop transports, with one to follow in a few months.
Deliverance class Troop Transport 33,600 tons 491 Crew 1354.7 BP TCS 672 TH 2100 EM 0
3125 km/s Armour 4-92 Shields 0-0 Sensors 6/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 25 Max Repair 51.35 MSP
Troop Capacity: 5 Battalions Cargo Handling Multiplier 10
Celesteon Designs Ion Engine E0.8 (14) Power 150 Fuel Use 8% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 240,000 Litres Range 160.7 billion km (595 days at full power)
CIWS-250 (2x6) Range 1000 km TS: 25000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Active Search Sensor MR12-R100 (1) GPS 2100 Range 12.6m km Resolution 100
Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1) Sensitivity 6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 6m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes17th April 28. Excalibur. Colonel Michael Parsons could not explain what happened. His engineer brigade was clearing the access to a buried crypt. They had just finished clearing the doors and begun to open them when small calibre autoguns brought his men under fire. It was chaos for a time as the doors completed opening by themselves. Armoured vehicles emerged from the bowels of the crushed building. The first to respond was the duty security battalion, 10th Mobile Infantry Battalion from the 39th MI Brigade. They were able to counter attack swiftly. It was fortunate that the heavy assault division was on planet for winter exercises, an activity that could never be undertaken on Gram and very much a novelty. The 36th Leviathan (heavy armour) Brigade, which had been conducting live fire exercises, was the second formation to engage the enemy and able to bolster the MI and contain the assault to the excavation site. But the enemy was in at least in brigade strength and was not giving ground easily. However, the enemy appeared peculiarly unimaginative and assaulting troops rapidly work out ways to avoid the predictable enemy fire.
22nd April 28. Excalibur. It took five days of fighting to clear the approaches to excavation, one enemy brigade being overwhelmed by the 37th Leviathan Brigade. Once more all casualties were on the enemy’s side, apart from the occasional minor injury. Strangely no bodies were recovered.
27th April 28. Excalibur. The 39th Mobile Infantry Brigade held the enemy thrusts while the heavy assault brigades assisted by the 38th Assault Infantry Brigade made a flanking manoeuvre, catching two enemy battalions out of position and utterly destroying them. The lack of enemy infantry was especially telling.
3rd May 28. Excalibur. It took a further five days to secure the basement the enemy had issued from, the odd vehicle popping up in opportunistic ambushes, but they were no match for the Union forces. The campaign was concluded without loss of Union soldiers and only forty or fifty life-threatening wounds had to be stabilised before being evacuated off world.
Later examination proved the enemy vehicles were almost identical to that operated by the Union of Avalon Ground Forces, Which in turn had been recovered from the Cache. They appear to have been jury rigged hurriedly to act autonomously, triggered by a photocell in this case. Much to the annoyance of the heavy division they were ordered to secure the site until excavations have been completed, meaning they would miss the high summer festival and a national holiday on Gram.
28th June 28. Excalibur. General Robinson looked on with a jaundiced eye as the colonists debarked from their shuttles. The little bother they had had a month ago may have turned out a little different if civilians had been present. The factories and living quarters were located at the dig, and very vulnerable if there was another attack, there was nowhere else to send them. General Robinson had protested, but the government needed some publicity to show how the great enterprise was progressing and consequently ignored his protests.
22nd August 28. Excalibur. 2.85 million Colonists now resided on Excalibur, the conditions were appalling, outside temperatures were down to 198
oK, everyone crowded inside in insufficient shelter, diseases unknown on Gram for decades ran rampant through the population. General Robinson’s troops turned from protectors into enforcers. The population pressure was increased by the unscrupulous operating strategy of Stokes Shipping Co. Everyone had assumed they would start with a freighter shipping infrastructure, but no, Zhong had seen a much better way to squeeze credit out of the colonists. They took bookings from would be colonists who thought that it would be beneficial to get in “on the ground floor” on Excalibur, but Stokes Shipping Co. neglected to tell them there was no accommodation suitable to keep out the still freezing temperatures. Such unprepared colonists were usually the first to succumb to the polar conditions. Thus it was easy money and no one made it back to complain. In the end Commodore Sykes stopped the exploitation by only approving flight plans when suitable accommodation on Excalibur was available. It had exercised the Commodore somewhat when he realised all the Searcher had to intimidate another ship was the anti-meteor guns, very short ranged, and without a programmable fire control, he would have been as well ordering the Searcher to ram the other ship if he had to stop it. Thus Commodore Sykes started encouraging weapons research and diverting funding to those savants who would agree to his goals. This was also something of a down payment on an insurance policy, it was entirely unclear who or what had destroyed the colony on Excalibur, theories abounded, it was internecine strife between factions on Excalibur and no one won, it was a war between Gram and Excalibur and Gram won. It was also unknown who was meant to trigger the booby trap, was it survivors from Gram or something else entirely? The only certainty was the fact that the Excalibur colony was bombed to extinction and the Cache on Gram had damage not entirely consistent with weathering.
29th December 28. Excalibur. The ruins had been fully exploited; it had been profitable for the Union. Some two and a half million people now called Excalibur their home in some comfort, there had been breakthroughs in science, and the University of Touchdown had been founded. The xenologists said the ruined colony had been founded by the same people who laid down the Cache on Gram. It was evident that they had been part of a star spanning civilisation from the flotsam which survived the centuries. Most important was the astrogation primer and the jigsaw pieces of information that fit with other pieces of knowledge from the Cache to open up the stars. It explained how to find the jump points and the principles of a jump engine. It incidentally also included a star catalogue with the spectral characteristics of each star and each assigned a name, a strange name, but a name never the less. A further miracle was the specification of the ansible, which using entangled photons meant instant communication over any imaginable distance. However there was a flaw, it was unidirectional. The transmitter was a small affair, but the receiver a much more massive and complicated piece of engineering to decipher the message. Thus a ship could report back but not receive. It was not long before the database was distributed round the fleet and ansibles were perfected and constructed. Commodore Sykes started agitating for a fleet of ships to explore beyond Avalon.
GramCommodore Sykes was almost incandescent with rage when the government of Avalon would only allow him to build a single ship, explaining that Project Paradise was taking all available revenue. Sykes thus took the design for the Searcher and redesigned it, taking out the large sensor array, replacing it with a jump engine, gravitational and geological sensors. The ship was larger than the government had imagined it would be, Sykes had said he wanted a survey vessel and the mandarins had thought of the little Gem class survey vessels. To tell the truth it would have been larger still if there had been an available construction bay. Sykes had wanted to include a weapons suite but once more all that could be fitted into the hull were a pair of anti-meteor installations that would also double as point defence weapons.
Discovery class Jump Ship 10,000 tons 902 Crew 1925.7 BP TCS 200 TH 900 EM 600
4500 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-41 Shields 20-300 Sensors 18/1/2/4 Damage Control Rating 8 PPV 0
Maint Life 3.58 Years MSP 963 AFR 100% IFR 1.4% 1YR 116 5YR 1735 Max Repair 400 MSP
J10000(3-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 10000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Starr Industries Ion Engine E8 (15) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres Range 67.5 billion km (173 days at full power)
Beta R300/12 Shields (13) Total Fuel Cost 156 Litres per day
CIWS-250 (2x6) Range 1000 km TS: 25000 km/s ROF 5 Base 50% To Hit
Active Search Sensor MR33-R20 (1) GPS 2520 Range 33.8m km Resolution 20
Thermal Sensor TH3-18 (1) Sensitivity 18 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 18m km
Gravitational Survey Sensors (2) 2 Survey Points Per Hour
Improved Geological Sensors (2) 4 Survey Points Per Hour
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes10th September 29. Naegling - Avalon-A VII - Moon 1. A civilian mining colony was established on Naegling - Avalon-A VII - Moon 13. This was the start of the gold rush. In the next few months mining colonies sprang up on Hauteclere - Avalon-A XIII - Moon 1, Kladenets - Avalon-A IX - Moon 2, Asteroid 47 and Dymwym – Avalon-A VII moon and several other sites.
29th December 29. Gram. The exploration ship Discovery emerged from her construction bay. The Endurance and Diligence were laid down as the Discovery set out on its proving voyage to chart the jump points in Avalon
24th January 30. Avalon. The Discovery found and confirmed the presence of a jump point in the inner system. The Discovery took the opportunity to test the new jump engine. Captain Jason Newman edged the ship towards the gravitational anomaly as the jump engine ran up. Space twisted and distorted, a ripple ran through the ship and suddenly the friendly K4 star of Avalon had disappeared, to be replaced by a K5 star accompanied by a lonely gas giant. Fortunately the gravitational disturbance of the jump point was easily discernible behind the ship. Navigation were able to take the unique spectra of the star and using the recovered catalogue identified the star as Gliese 763 There was little of interest to see so the ship prepared to return to Avalon.
1st May 30. Avalon. The Discovery found another jump point and once again probed the unknown. This time a planetless red dwarf was revealed, the catalogue identified this dim star as Gliese 804.
.
27th June 30. Avalon. Once more Discovery prepared to face the unknown as a third jump point was located. This was the most interesting system yet found, a binary system, a yellow G8 accompanied by a red dwarf M3, both with planetary systems, the one around the red dwarf having at least one reasonable terraforming prospect. The Discovery returned to Avalon with the news. The binary system was identified as Beta Aquilae in the star catalogue.
12th August 30. Avalon. Yet again the Discovery found a jump point and yet again transited into the unknown. This time they almost hit the jackpot. The system, an F0 star with a modest planetary system, but the outer most pair had habitability indices of 0.59 and 0.7 respectively, prime terraforming prospects, Delta Aquilae, as the catalogue named it, must surely be the next system occupied by the Union of Avalon. Using his discretion Captain Newman took the Discovery further in system with a view to surveying the four planetary bodies circling the star.
30th August 30. Delta Aquilae. The Discovery made orbit of Delta Aquilae-AIII and begun their survey. It was rapidly apparent that the planet was home to an alien intelligence. The orbital survey revealed over ten million tons of Duranium at 0.8 accessibility, in addition there was evidence of a ruined outpost on the planet. But the real shock was the detection of a small thermal signature of 55, indicating a small alien installation or population, perhaps a small colony or a pre-technic civilisation. Captain Newman reported this astounding discovery to Star Corps HQ via ansible.
8th September 30. Delta Aquilae. The next survey target was Delta Aquilae-A I – moon 2, the Discovery slid into orbit when the thermal sensor board at the sensor station sounded an alert, much to the shock of Captain Newman there was a ship in orbit of Delta Aquilae-A 1! As the Discovery moved on to Delta Aquilae-A I the alien vessel made off at 1600 k/s. The Discovery activated it search sensor and got a cross sectional measurement on the alien ship, it was only 2500 tons and from its activity probably a survey vessel. It was given the reporting name of Selket 002. However the alien retreated 13 million kilometres then stopped, and just waited. What were they waiting for wondered Captain Newman? Once more Captain Newman made use of the ansible to report to Star Corps HQ.
14th September 30. Delta Aquilae. It was 03:36, Alterday watch when the collision alarm sounded. Captain Newman bounded out of his cot and dashed half naked to the command deck. Perhaps the Discovery had outstayed her welcome, six ships approached and entered orbit of Delta Aquilae-A 1. The alien fleet consisted three vessels of 14,400 tons assigned the reporting name of Ra 002 through 004, two further vessels of 14,400 tons assigned the reporting name of Chert 002 and Athor 002 respectively and a vessel of 21,600 tons assigned the reporting name of Ahemait 002. There was a seventh vessel of 7200 tons still on approach assigned the reporting name of Anhur 002. What followed surprised Captain Newman, the aliens activated S80/R62 and S96/R1 search sensors and then retired at 2222 k/s once the Anhur 002 had reached the alien fleet. Again the ansible was brought into use; Newman began to wish HQ had the ability to advise him.
16th September 30. Delta Aquilae. Captain Newman had coolly completed his survey of Delta Aquilae-A I and its moons. What now? Newman decided to press his luck and complete his system survey before withdrawing to Avalon. As the Discovery made its way to Delta Aquilae-A IV Selket 002 tried to shadow the Discovery until the Discovery left her behind. But as the Discovery approached Delta Aquilae-A IV the sensor officer detected the thermal signature of an alien population, indicating a population just over half that of Gram. Captain Newman had a difficult decision to make, He could chose to complete his survey or take the valuable real time intelligence on the alien race back to Gram. He was in no doubt that the ships that visited him at Delta Aquilae-A I were warships, and the Union possessed not one and he had lost his shadow! The decision was his……
End of Part One.
