Post by Strangetides on Apr 14, 2006 0:32:34 GMT -5
If he concentrated, Director Vilag could feel the subtle vibrations of the SL engines engaging; a gentle pressure increased as the powerful thrusters moved the ship up and out from the close planetary orbit. The civilian exploration ship “Aeon”, was no longer state of the art, but she was fast and eminently comfortable. Through the observation port of his cabin; a true luxury on more modern ships, he could see the huge amount of traffic surrounding this world. One of the more powerful Primacy worlds, it was home to massive fleetyards, currently involved in expanding its Sector Fleet to meet the potential threat of the strange machine intelligence which appeared to be consuming the worlds and populations of the Crosshoff and Alpha Sectors.
The “Aeon” slid gracefully past a dozen or more shipyards putting finishing touches on long rows of “Judgement” Class Battleships while a sizable fleet of predatory “Marauder” Class Destroyers patrolled the sprawling orbital facilities. A swarm of tugs and transport shuttles moved thousands of crewmembers to their new ships while others ferried seemingly endless loads of torpedoes and missiles to stock launcher magazines. In the distance, the first wave of the Expeditionary Defence Fleet let forth a dazzling display as the ships tested their Disruptor batteries before hyper-jumping out of the system. The “Aeon” smoothly passed beyond the vast bulk of the “Maelstrom” Class Titans in the outer orbit; each with exotic firepower dwarfing the entire first wave fleet.
***
Space rippled like a stone throw into a pond, but instead of receding the ripples came faster and faster, until a small ship was expelled and the rippling portal closed an instant later. The “Aeon” immediately accelerated under SL drives to retain its momentum and curved down toward the first planet of the system while its escorting fleet peeled off to sweep the system.
Director Vilag monitored the approach with interest, though on the surface the world hardly seemed worthy of his intense scrutiny. ‘An altogether average world, much like the scores colonized across Primacy space. Except for the unusually circular shape of the single continent, if you were loose with the usage of circular,’ he mused. But then first glances could be deceiving…
The air smelled sweet, a hint of some strange subtle fragrance. One of the researchers had mentioned it was in fact a waste product of a form of photosynthesis utilized by much of the flora. In fact, each new world discovered by the Primacy had been a treasury of such knowledge of life’s permutations. It was one of the main driving forces for exploration.
As he crested a small hill, he saw his destination. The shuttle had landed very near the site of many ruins. Very intriguing, but it would have to wait. First he wanted to see the high detail holograms in the researcher’s tent.
A large precisely laid out compound held this area’s contingent of researchers, explorers and experts as well as their security detail. An excited young intern; Feric he recalled from his briefing, waved and rushed over to lead the Director into the pre-fabricated work area. It was several steps down to the floor of the structure. Vilag stood on the top step and stared across the several hundred foot long room with its smooth alloy floor.
The Intern smiled, “Amazing isn’t it. We are still studying the alloy, but the entire continent is composed of it. We have done test digs to confirm our scans at several hundred different sites.” He pointed to the centre of the room where a huge holo-image instantly appeared. “This is real-time from a drone mapping the ocean floor.”
Vilag increased the resolution and zoomed in his optical implant to record the input for later study as he watched the drone skirt along the edge of a metal hull then swerve to get a wide angle on its surroundings. He could see submersibles and divers sprinkled through-out the field of vision, but it was the thousands of spacecraft littering the ocean floor that dominated the scene.
‘What had happened here, and to whom?’