StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Well, this is some stuff I wrote about 2 years ago. I think my proficiency in English has, of course, advanced since then but that was the last time I did any writing of the fictional variety. Enjoy, hate, criticize - whatever gets me feed back.

504.06.30

The sounds of busy civilization were dim as a single figure made his way through the broken down gate and abandoned watchtower of the decrepit military base. He quickened his pace, checking his watch constantly, a small bag slung over his shoulders. His recently healed leg still tender as he ambled along. He was surprised to not to be in prison, never mind in command again.

But Xan Osiris didn't let his good fortune blind him into thinking all was forgotten. The fact he was so far without evident punishment put him in great danger. He knew something would go down on this mission, he would do his best to ensure it wasn't him.

He was inside the compound now, moving cautiously. The recent episode did not endear the TDR military to Starport Nuribis, so they had backed off. He also knew this now remote location was the perfect place for someone to be killed.......and forgotten.

He felt for his small pistol inside his jacket. It wouldn't do much against an armed contingent of TDR soldiers, but it was better than nothing. He stopped and settled against the wall of a barracks. Looking up into the sky, he tried to scan for an incoming ship. The horizon was filled with interstellar traffic, the noises of engines rife.

After a few moments, a black dot became a bit larger and clearer on the horizon. His stomach tightened a bit as it came ever closer.

It was a shuttle.

A hundred yards away, he identified the TDR insignia emblazoned on the hull. It was above him now, its thrusters activated, it descended slowly ten tards ahead of where he stood. It made contact with the ground softly, the hissing of various innards shrill. A landing ramp shot out and a hatch opened.

For a moment, he stood. Was someone supposed to come out? Should he board? Should he run? Finally, with a gritting of the teeth, he walked up the ramp, into the ship and arrived at the point of no return.

The moment he was within, the ramp retracted and the hatch shut with another hiss. He felt the craft lift off and gain speed as it sped out of the atmosphere. It wouldn't be long until Warp Drive was entered.

The shuttle itself was dimly lit, with a small compartment with a benches on either bulkheads. A sealed door led to what Xan presumed was the cockpit. He thought about knocking and asking about their situation. He felt so confused, so left in the dark. The communique had been clear enough, but there was an evasiveness to its tone. Almost as if Black just wanted to get him close.

Deciding against disturbing the pilot, he sat down stiffly. The compartment was drab, with the benches being the only real appliance present. He tried to figure how long the jump would take to whatever point outside Zanalisk they were headed. The shuttle's Warp Drive would likely not have the punch a capital ship would.

"Maybe a day and a half," he thought. Black had mentioned that the mission briefing would occur on the first of June, but wartime often trivialized punctuality.

Massaging his face in his hands, he thought about what mission he might have. A frigate analog would likely be an escort protecting the ship that would be carrying out the actual mission. Stressful, but he had been through tougher things.

Like murder.


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504.07.01

A jar awoke Xan Osiris from his slumber. The shuttle had at last pulled out of Warp Drive. He blinked, yawned and stretched, gritting his teeth against the stiffness in his back. He still had not had any contact from whoever it was that was piloting the shuttle and he was quite famished, having not had anything since a quick bite before his journey.

He felt the shuttle begin decelerating, and he also thought he heard the dull sound of repulsors being activated. Feeling a wave of apprehension, he reached for his bag and rose. The shuttle set down, and the hatch in his compartment opened. He took a deep breath, and walked down the ramp.

The bright, white lights of the sterile docking bay blinded him momentarily, though he continued down with eyes squinted. The ship, whichever it was, seemed to be going about its business as usual. However, there was someone waiting at the end of the ramp.

"Osiris, how nice of you to show up," Commodore Black nodded curtly to him.

Xan barely managed to hide his surprise. In the middle of a large scale naval assault mission, why did the commanding officer have time to personally meet a shuttle of one junior commander? Granted, Xan had caused a ridiculous blunder of his previous assignment, but that still didn't explain Black's sudden interest in relatively mundane affairs.

Before Xan could react in any way, Black gestured forward.

"Lets go for a walk, shall we?"

The pair walked across the hangar, through the doors and down a large corridor.

"You're confused, I'm sure, about why you are here and not arrested, or dead." He smiled thinly at this last outcome but not looking at Xan.

Osiris kept his composure. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, sir." His fists were tightened, and his jaw clenched slightly.

"Please, lets not bullshit each other. You were at fault, Lt. Commander. You disobeyed orders and endangered your entire crew, resulting in the death of one Lt. Avery Macintyre." Black seemed calm, though Xan could sense a definite chill to his voice.

By now, they had reached another set of doors which Black entered a key-pad code to enter. The doors hissed open and the large bridge of the ship was revealed to them.

Xan paused. "I realize that I was beyond the advisable proximity to Zanalisk that my mission suggested, but I did not feel that...." He broke off as Black rose a hand.

"Whatever you might have felt means jackshit to me, Osiris". His face wore an ugly look. "You fucked up, but you've been granted a stay of execution." His face went back to its expressionless leer. "You are on the Bard, a Titan-class Battle Cruiser. Right now, we are just beyond the Zanal system. Based on the information you garnered during your.........fiasco, High Command has decided Zanalisk is a viable target." Black stood with arms crossed, gazing mechanically out the bridge's expansive viewport.

Xan nodded, "Targeted for invasion, sir?"

Black paused for a moment. "Negative, targeted for orbital bombardment of the facilities your scans uncovered producing war materiel. The Leviathan will take care of that, as well as other expected military locations, such as docks and silos." He looked at Xan. "Once our mission is complete, we are to enter Warp Drive and head home to Staging Point."

"And what is my mission, Commodore?" Xan asked, curious, despite his still-live apprehension.

"The Bard, though an impressive craft, cannot hope to bombard and defend if, as we presume, the Gohorns are adequately defending it. Therefore, five Okinawa Frigate analogs have been added to this fleet. Your mission, as well as the other four frigates' will be to protect the Bard at all costs. It is imperative that we destroy these bases. Doing so will significantly reduce Gohorn industrial strength in this sector, and perhaps in other areas. The four other frigates are the Krayt, the Jackal, the Mercury and the Mariner." He paused to give an order to deck officer.

Xan felt somewhat relieved, the four other frigates as well as the Bard gave him confidence. Such a fleet would be quite difficult to repel, and even harder to damage.

Black returned "Any other questions?" He waited a moment. "Good, you will meet with the other commanders in twelve hours. We deploy in another twelve. Return to the hangar where your shuttle will take you to the Leviathan. Dismissed."

Black watched intently as Xan saluted and departed.

504.07.02

The colossal mustard yellow ball that was Zanalisk loomed ahead of them.

As the Bard moved into position, the frigates surrounded it in a close defensive matrix, similar to an hourglass; two above the cruiser and two below, across from one another.

"This is Alpha Command, assume ready positions," a metallic voice blared from somewhere within the Leviathan's bridge.

Xan Osiris nodded towards the communications officer, who replied an "affirmative" back to the Bard. The hum of the weapons system's diagnostics could be heard, though not much else. Everyone was tense, tempers were short. Only having stepped on the ship ten hours ago, Xan already had needed to help mediate a heated dispute between an engineer and an irate marine.

The meeting yesterday with the other commanders had gone reasonably well, most of them seeming as uneasy as Xan was himself. Commodore Black alone kept up a continuous supply of bluster and confidence. The meeting content itself was fairly simple: stay close to the cruiser, do not bother with targets more than fifty kilometres away from the cruiser.

It seemed easy then, Xan reflected. Now, however, they were less than five standard minutes from the scheduled beginning of the bombardment. He glanced over to the weapons officer. "Are the diagnostics and warm-ups completed, Mr. Stirling?"

The young man nodded, "Yes, sir. We're operating at full output. The targeting systems have also been calibrated."

Osiris nodded absently. He hadn't really heard the man's answer. All his attention was focused on the planet, his eyes wandering in turn to the general areas he had been briefed on. The North-eastern continent would be targeted, as well as the south pole, and the South-western continent. The Bard weapons would be primarily focused on the planet, with thirty turrets engaging each of the targets. The firepower released would be enough to vaporate the general area, according to Black.

Go time in t-minus thirty seconds.

Xan's stomach clenched and unclenched, but annoyance racked him. He was both confused and dismayed at his nervousness. He was a career soldier, and a simple battle was messing him up like this. Perhaps it was just his anxiety over a repeat of his last mission. Whatever it was, he tried to force it back, to think of things objectively, without emotion.

Suddenly, space lit up, Zanalisk was on fire, and nothing else mattered.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, unmoving, stunned at the sudden arc of energy that was plummeting toward the planet of Zanalisk. Perhaps a minute in, he gave himself a mental shake.

"Ms. Dolohov, dim down the optical sensors to 30% intensity", he said, squinting in displeasure at the bolts of red light that seemed to invade his vision. He opened his eyes fully once the viewport's sensors were dampened, giving a reduced, but still dazzling display to the crew. He checked his display and called up the readings of the planetary orbs that had been deployed on the edge of the planet's atmosphere.

The reception was garbled, no doubt a result of the massive energy present. He could make out stadium-sized craters and fields of wreckage where he assumed a factory or laboratory had once been. A sensor blare jarred him out of his observation.

"Sir, long range sensors pick up seven frigate analogs. Look to be Gohorn," an officer whom Xan did not remember the name of called.

Before Xan could respond, the comm crackled to life.

"Guardians, Alpha Command has seven blips. Assume positions."

Xan stood and headed to the viewport. As he walked he pointed to the bow of the Bard. "Alright, take us in, Lieutenant. Nice and smooth, leave about seven hundred metres between us and the Titan."

The Navigation ensign nodded and added a "Yes, sir," before hitting a switch. The frigate moved sluggishly towards the Bard. Xan turned to the sensor operator.

"I'd like long range sensors focused on the closest enemy frigate. Hold your fire until I give the signal," he added to the weapons officer.

The Leviathan settled close in below the Bard, facing towards and beyond its bow. The frigates now appeared as small specks, rising up from the planet.

Settling back down in the command seat, Xan opened up the comm channel.

"The Leviathan is sitting hot, waiting for your permission to fire." He heard a "Roger" and settled back to wait. The Bard was still letting loose its volley of destruction, but it seemed less impressive, almost boring even. The frigates, meanwhile were changing from specks to straight-edged blobs on the viewport.

Xan was feeling almost relieved. Seven Gohorn frigates could not hope to overpower their five equals and a Titan battlecruiser, plus it seemed that that was all the ships the enemy was deploying. He ran a hand through his hair absent-mindedly. He supposed that his mobility was restricted, it was more or less his mission to only chase bandits in or around the Bard. This would not be diffcult, as the Titan's own defences were considerable at all angles.

All guardians open fire.

Almost before the order was finished being transmitted, five beams arced in a starfish shape towards the enemies. Xan was surprised and rather impressed at how fast his own weapons officer had responded. The man looked stunned at his own reflexes, but covered that look up quickly.

The battle was on.