Gerin's loss, Listening outpost

Edge of the Sonran Cluster, System 12-KJ, Gerin’s Loss.

3rd day of spring's blossom 74 ACW (GSY 1.1), Time: 15.26 CST

“This is Squadron 11, to Seccom. Making a pass by point 3. No signs of pirates, my Scanner isn't picking up any readings.” came the Pilots report through his comm as he banked his fighter around, the two recon drone fighters either side of his craft banked with him as he proceeded towards the next waypoint, for the recruit in question this was routine scout job as the patrol moved through the outlying colonies that had long been abandoned during the pirate wars. Although space was a void in which silence reigned, the system had an almost eerie feel, or at least from the pilot’s view as he flew towards the Ice rings of the single Ice planet Gerin’s loss.

This planet had been the first loss when the Colonies were hit by the pirate warlords, and this was inevitably going to be the last on the agenda for the mining outpost, for the moment it was more convenient to have it as a Inops Listening post in the event of pirates. As the pilot saw the automated station built into one of the ice covered asteroids he heard his comm come alive “This is Seccom to Squadron 11, do you have visual of Outpost?” “Confirmation of visual... I’m preparing to do a pass by and then returning to the Pad.” There was a small pause as a second voice entered his intercom “Proceed with sweep. Seccom out.” It was then that one of the recon drones chirped up “My analysis of the voice waves show that the Commodore is concerned over the broadcast.” It got a calm sigh as the pilot asked “Is it still broadcasting that beacon?” “Affirmative, Pilot. The EDB was set off under protocol and is broadcasting on all frequencies for at least One Light year. It is like a candle in the darkness.”

“Let’s just hope this is just a rogue call out then.” As the scout vessel did a fly by of the listening post, the AI chimed in again “Scan complete... no traces of warp formation. Radio signals appear to be silent on all pirate frequencies... but that listening post is going for a good stars nearby.” As the scout passed by the outpost and began to head back to the Section. “Seccom, squadron 11 has completed flyby, heading back to the carrier now.”

Far out, the outpost detects a gamma-ray pulse, heading directly for Gerin's Loss. More anomalies appear, closer--radiation signatures as bright as dwarf stars. The speed and heading of the closer signatures places them near the second world within a week, but the gamma-ray would strike Gerin's Loss in mere hours.

UCSNV Exarch, Command deck, Inops chamber

“AURA, is this outposts data correct?” came the question from the black clad inops splicer as he brought up a number of readings on his own glass screen and carefully staring at them, a small icon in the top right hand corner started to speak in a calm, monotone voice “Confirming data... data confirmed. There are abnormal readings of radiation heading towards the Third and second planet of the system... cause of readings: Unknown.” There was a small frown as the splicer conducted a few more taps and finally a screen of a bald, aging Lamansci came up, judging from the screen it was evident that this was the AI of the listening outpost as he bowed his head “Sir, I sent the data as requested... is there... a problem with it?” The AI asked, the splicer standing there, his hands firmly behind his back and asking “These appear to be radiation anomalies not a cause for a beacon.” It was a common tactic by Inops to give the AI’s a hard time, but in this case... the splicer needed to know more and the outpost had the equipment to do that as various screens started to appear. Each showed the trajectory of the radiation...

“It’s not normal, sir.” came the AI’s response as the splicer merely asked “How long do we have?” “errm...” the screen shifted so that it looked like the old lamansci was sifting through alot of paperwork and coming out with “Approximately 3.21 hours... sir.” Came the nervous response adding “Once I could confirm the trajectory... I-” There was a sudden move of the black gloved hand coming up as the splicer and his hand tapped a key “You followed protocol and our scanning system shows that you have no problems with any hardware or software... Thank you for your time.” “I-thank you, sir.” came the relieved look on the Lamansci’s face as the screen closed and the Inops splicer turned on his heel and walked out towards the command deck itself. Holding a small tablet as the door slid open and the command deck revealed itself, A large semi circular room which had various command consoles where the carrier’s day to day operations occured, from strategy planning all the way through to the engineering decks.

At the centre of this was a single podium with three glass screens formed to hide the circular wall where Commodore Teleni stood, staring at the sensor readouts of the Section, she was a Telian of around one hundred years old, her own commodore’s jacket was hung on a chair that was down near the podium as she finally spoke there was a calm tone to it “It’s a dead world, with a listening outpost nearby... I hope Inops are not bringing the UCSN on another wild pirate chase.” The sounds of snorts came from a number of nearby officers as the splicer merely responded in a tone which showed he wasn’t going to be goaded by the commodore “There are Radioactive Anomalies heading this way, Commodore. Rather accurate Anomalies which will hit within three hours... under the EDB protocols, you must remain in the System until we can confirm what is coming.” “I know the protocols, Splicer.” the Telian carefully turned to look at him before finally looking back and ordering in a more louder tone “Move the fleet towards orbital positions near Gerin’s loss, Orbit Vector is to be above the asteroids, All Elements and Cap ships are to be brought to Combat Readiness.” As the order sunk in, the various officers started to speak and tap into their comms at a more faster rate as the sensor showed the Carrier starting to move.

In space,

Coming into high orbit above the Ice field that made up Gerin’s loss ring was the Commonwealth section, the Carrier was flanked by Two Battleships as various frigates seemed to flank them, Around this pattern was a number of scout squadrons which appeared to be creating a perimeter for the Carrier’s sensor grid as they waited for whatever this radiation was.

Following the diffuse gamma-ray, there are no signs for almost three hours. Metaphorical silence before the storm. The radiation sources continue approaching--at 3% the speed of light, they are about twenty hours out.

And then, sensors detect a relativistic object eleven minutes away--the source of the original gamma-rays. It moves at 99.99% the speed of light, on a direct course for Gerin's loss.

The Von Neumann probe is twelve kilometers long and weights four billion tons. But to the sensors on the automated station, it appears to be only .17 kilometers in length--hull distorted by tremendous speed.

Ten minutes from impact with Gerin's loss, and a series of bombs detonate within the probe. The resulting explosions separate the ship in two and sends a blast of gamma rays at Gerin's loss and the surrounding space.

“Madam! Anomaly on sensor grid!” came the sensor’s officer as he tapped on the screen before looking over at the commodore’s raised platform “We’ve got Gamma rays inbound! Impact in five minutes” almost instantly, the bridge came alight as the Commodore shouted out “Brace for Radiation Impact, AI’s go to protocol seven. Get orders to the scouts to move! The Capital ships and elements might be protected but those scouts are sitting ducks.” there was a nod from the Fighter control officer as he started to speak into the comm as Teleni then opened up a channel to the bridge “All capital ships and Elements, this is Seccom, when the rays have passed us, I want the Battleships to move forward towards the epicentre of the source.” As the sensors officer shouted out “Three minutes until impact!”

Outside in space,

Most of the vessels were holding at their current position around the listening outpost but the scouts were going as fast as they could away from the gamma rays, pretty much at full speed as well, the small fighters passing by the carrier and battleship at this point as the rays continued before finally they reached the Section, passing by as the ships soon started to move towards the epicentre... their own fusion engines speeding them towards this location, as the two battleships formed an inverted V formation as they made their way forwards.

OOC::

Just detecting a relativistic object is absurdly difficult--and unless your sensors operate at speeds faster than light, by the time you see the object it's already hit.
The two halves of the probe slam into Gerin's loss, melting the ice world, boiling its seas and incinerating the atmosphere. The planet is knocked off-axis, its crust deformed, an uninhabited world rendered desolate.

Aboard their ships, Commonwealth crews must think this attack to be nothing more than senseless violence and destruction--what species would glass an uninhabited planet without reason? What a pointless waste of time and resources? But this action had a purpose--seventy years ago, Gerin's loss was inhabited. Inhabited, and transmitting. And this probe was launched long before then. A ship moving at such speeds cannot be stopped, even if it had a way to detect a change.

Further out, the five radiation signatures grow brighter. Each is the engine of another Von Neumann probe, arriving to harvest what remains of Gerin's loss.

There was silence on the command deck of the Exarch as the image feed of what was happening to Gerin’s loss was shown. A number of officers jaws dropped, a few more honourable souls were coming out with the readings as the Commodore merely stared at the desolate world. There was already radio feeds coming up with frigates and capital ships desperately requesting new orders as people were all waiting for the Commodore’s orders, who was staring at the sensor feed coming from the listening outpost, the screens showing up a number of other readings of the same frequency that was inbound as finally Teleni hit a button getting everybody’s attention on the Radio feeds.

“Alright you're angry, you're confused and you want somebody to give you orders. News flash people, we just lost Gerin’s loss again. This time, there’s noway to get her back... I don’t know about you, but that will not stand back home.” She stated outright, deciding it was time to do something “As of this moment and as the commodore of this section, we’re following the Evacuation procedures, with a twist. We’re not leaving this system without a fight. And attacking these bastards back. Frigates, form into roughly five patrols of three frigates... move closer and engage the targets that are inbound. Expect Radioactive attacks. Capital ships, move into the trajectory that their moving in on, we’re the last wave to stop them, while the listening post is being evac’ed. All Ships, full alert.”

The Officers began their barking of orders as the ship wide tanoy came to live and an automated voice came out “All hands! full Alert! This is not a drill! repeat this is not a drill!” as various ship hands ran around the vessels, the Inops officer stood behind the Commodore and coughed politely as he finally said “Admiral Pi has relayed the message that Elecwar vessels will be warping into the edge of the system within the hour, from what I can tell the President is also soon to be informed what happened here. Judging from the message, it sounds like Highcom and chomping at the bit to get more information, would you like me to relay what has happened?” It got a calm nod from the commodore as the battle readouts of the frigate patrols moving out could be seen on the map. The Inops splicer soon disappearing into his own chamber as Teleni turned back to the computer screens.

In space,

As soon as the devastation of the planet had ended, the section seemed to split off, a number of frigates dividing into five groups of three frigates and heading out along the trajectories that the enemy ships were inbound on, mostly thanks to the listening outposts data they had a relatively possible route for interception as if the Commonwealth ships were not going to let the destruction of the world go without consequences as the Capital ships stayed in orbit of the planet, a number of transport vessels leaving the carrier enroute to the outpost as the section began to prepare to attack.

Detecting heat signatures in the aftermath of planetary glassing, the Hekaton probes scramble to prepare themselves for battle. One begins constructing a warship, but it will certainly not be complete by the time of battle--the others produce a tremendous number of missiles. Half the missiles are armed with thermonuclear warheads, the other half are packed with small metal balls. Debris, refuse, junk and non-nuclear explosives are stuffed into empty fuel pods and loaded into the coilguns.