Chronicles of Sol: The Fall-Chapter 226 - One Eighty-Eight Stormwolf

May 12th 007 SDE

Countryman watched the forward screen closely; the shuttle rocked as an energy discharge hit the hull. Without even looking at the plating he knew they were fine, a glance confirmed that plating hadn't even budged. In the Enterprise he hardly noted the discharges, her sheer mass helping her absorb them more easily than any shuttle. Still with the occasional jolt from the storm to spice things up he could still appreciate the strange beauty of the place, the swirling gasses and electric discharges lit the storm, giving it a mystical feel.

Like a steel beast rising from the clouds, the alien vessel Stormwolf shifted into view, her hull was scorched and pockmarked, her shields flickering. Yet even with the battle damage, he could make out her lines, she looked rugged and sturdy, yet elegant and graceful, like a stalwart protector. Now that he was up closer and could make things out he was pretty sure the Stormwolf was a light cruiser, she lacked the heavy torpedo batteries expected of a destroyer.

Idly he took a few scans, as he noted down their defenses, weaponry and hull construction. The ship was built out of polycarbonate alloys and reinforced with durasteel, the two different alloy types being used intelligently to produce a strong hull. The main frame of the ship was durasteel but the hull and armor was primarily polycarbonate alloy. The ship had both a main and secondary shield grid. The shields appeared to be of a multispectral configuration, quite a different approach from Valorian shield design. Still it was valid, simulations showed the ship's shields would be quite effective in normal space able to absorb more damage than Valorian equivalents, but they would take longer to recharge. A lot longer, so while this cruiser had roughly double the shield strength of a Valorian Ophera it would take four times as long to restore shields after a failure.

Likely that played into why they had two shield grids, that way they weren't entirely vulnerable while the main shields were regenerating. The hull however was far more interesting, they actually had a thick layer of polycarbonate armor backed by a layer of treated durasteel and a series of structural field generators were located behind that, providing a strong AIF to help maintain armor integrity. Countryman didn't see that often, their approach was dated but similar to something his own people had used once upon a time. Perhaps it wasn't so surprising the Stormwolf had survived a transition, her shields were struggling to protect against radiation in the storm but she did have a strong hull design.

As for weaponry, he noted they had a number of large turret emplacements along their centerline mounted along the dorsal and ventral. It fit well with the ship's shape, the stormwolf was 1402 meters long with a narrow front that widened out towards the rear. Her hull was roughly rectangular with angled plating that helped soften her look and give her the elegance he'd noted earlier. The wider rear sections encompassed the main hangars located port and starboard like on the Enterprise. Several large thruster ports were located on the rear, two behind each hanger, and three in the middle along the centerline. All offline at the moment, but they should give the ship a good speed. They were ionic engines from the look of it, built more for efficiency than power, but at that size they would still give a good deal of thrust.

Countryman also noted the large torpedo ports facing forward and located on each wing. Both wings also had several smaller turret emplacements and VLS launch tubes. He didn't see any rear-facing torpedo tubes though. Her overall weapons arc seemed generally balanced, but with a clear preference for targets in front of her.

The hanger came into view, the alien doors hung open, while a light purple energy field glimmered over the opening, the gasses of the storm swirling before the opening, while discharges struck, sending little ripples over the field. The pilot spoke, "We are receiving field telemetry, standby for landing, adjusting EM field to match."

The ship passed into the bay, shaking a bit as another discharge hit them but doing no damage. A second after that they passed through the field, the energy shimmering around them. A few other shuttles could be seen landed already, the crews already at work.

His shuttle landed in an open spot and an alien came up to him. They were smaller, roughly humanoid and rather young-looking. They couldn't have been more than twelve with light green skin, long black hair and a pair of horns on her head. The young girl was dressed only in a light skin suit and had a little pistol on her belt, along with a tool kit. A long supple tail swayed excitedly behind her, but Countryman caught sight of the tip; it ended with a bulb not unlike a flower about to bloom. It kinda reminded him of a succubus's tail too, but green wasn't the usual color for one of those.

"Captain Countryman right!?"

He chuckled to himself, "That's me."

She grinned, "Big sister Felki wanted me to show you to the conference room!"

She practically bounced as she tugged him towards the door. He let her lead, while his guards, clearly amused, fell in line behind him.

The young girl led him through the ship with clear familiarity, bypassing a collapsed corridor, climbing two ladder wells, and into a lift before they arrived in a small conference room not far from the bridge. By then, Countryman had taken his helmet off and hooked it on his belt. His own sensors had confirmed that the air was safe for humans to breathe.

Another woman was there to greet him, older, but clearly related. Now that he wasn't looking at her through a monitor he took a second look. She wasn't particularly tall with a slim figure, modest breasts and a fair bit of muscle on her frame. Felki's skin was a shade darker than the little helper's and her horns were silver rather than white. Felki smiled, "I see my sister had no trouble finding you. How was the flight?"

"A little shaky, but that was to be expected with the storm." Countryman said as he shook her hand in greeting. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Captain Felki."

"I must say the same," then she gestured to the young girl, "And this is my sister Delfi." she sighed, "I often wish she wasn't here but there isn't much I can do about that. If our parents were still around..."

Delfi pouted, "Don't try to send me away again!"

Countryman chuckled, "I know what you mean."

Felki sat, "From our earlier chat I take it you are fairly new to the storm."

"You could say that."

"My people, the Gyn'ri, have been here long enough to see the storm surface twice." she gestured to Delfi, "My sister here was born here, the storm is all she knows."

Countryman gulped, "I hope we aren't here that long, I'd rather my own daughter know someplace else."

"Easier said than done, we've tried a couple of times. The rim lets you in, but doesn't really let you out. It doesn't help that the Storm only stays on the surface for a few days at most."

"I see."

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Felki shifted, "Delfi? Be a dear and get us some refreshments."

"Yes, sis!" she said before rushing out the door with the energy of youth.

Felki stretched a bit, "Alright I think I should tell you a bit about us. We Gyn'ri founded the drifters. At first, it was a cooperative measure where we banded together with a few other groups for mutual support and resource sharing. It happened not long after we found ourselves swallowed by the storm and we learned we shared it with others, some not so friendly. There was a group that was friendly enough, they showed us how to adjust our shields, but that was about all they did for us."

"Interesting, we got here ourselves about two years ago, but we weren't lucky enough to meet anyone friendly or otherwise. However the radiation quickly became apparent to us as an issue, we could treat the damage it was doing to us, but that wasn't going to stop it from eventually killing us. The only conclusion we came to was we needed shelter and we found it, a large asteroid that would help shelter us from exposure. We dug our way down, sealed the passage and then spent two years working on a solution to the problem. Never did get very far with shields, although more recently my scientists feel they are getting close. I am curious as to how you got swallowed."

"Not a big secret, we were part of a colonization fleet, we left the homeworld almost thirty years ago, on a trip that was expected to take about eight years. We'd found a nice garden world on the rim of explored space. My sisters and I wanted to get away from the oppressive government on the homeworld, a new planet seemed good. For the first six years things went about as expected, a couple of small issues here and there but nothing too worrisome, then during a warp pause we encountered the storm. It surfaced almost on top of us without any warning, we barely had time to raise shields before we were swallowed. Two of the colony ships were destroyed outright and we even lost a carrier, several smaller ships sunk that day as well but the bulk of the fleet survived including my Stormwolf."

"A colony mission? We were on something similar, but we weren't fleeing our homeworld, we were looking for a new one, we lost ours to hostile invaders."

"Sorry to hear that. Makes our own issues seem a little smaller."

"Perhaps, but I wouldn't belittle your reasons for leaving. Certainly not without knowing why."

Delfi came in with something, as Felki leaned back in her chair a bit, "On our homeworld political power is almost entirely controlled by the matriarchs of the five great families. There used to be nine, my own family was a less prominent one but we directly served one of those fallen houses, when they fell things started getting bad for us. One of the most impactful were the birth laws."

"Birth laws?"

"The advent of birth control technology was a terrible thing as far as my people are concerned, it was great at first but as the technology improved the government started making use of it. At the time we left, the great families used it to control who was allowed children and how many" she gestured at Delfi," the reason she is so much younger than I is due to that. I was the only child my parents had been allowed by the great families. Once we left it took us a few years to figure out how to disable the damn implants the great families foisted on us."

Countryman blinked as he digested the awful thing he'd just heard. Humanity had a tendency towards authoritarian regimes, not dictatorships, mind you. They didn't like oppressive regimes, which was perhaps why they hadn't tried such an oppressive method of control. "You know I can't say I'd have gotten along with your matriarchs."

"I'm happy to hear that," she replied as the young girl put a cake in front of him. He eyed it, his sensors scanning its composition. Determining it was edible, he took a bite, then nodded to the girl. It wasn't bad.

"I guess we should move on to more important matters."

"Right," she pulled something out, "I'd like to extend an invitation for your people to join my faction."

"I'm not sure I want to take that just yet. We have just met, I like to know a girl before I take her out to dinner if you know what I mean?"

She giggled, "Ah, in that case, a general non-aggression pact would be enough. We'd prefer being friends, or at least not enemies."

"I can work with that. We've got enemies enough with the Raiders and they didn't seem keen to really negotiate."

"They aren't the best neighbors, I'll give you that."

"In addition to discussing a general pact, I'd also like to propose a general exchange of information. I've picked up a few databases from Raider ships that attacked us over the last couple of months, some of it might be of interest to you."

She leaned forward, a smile on her face, "That sounds interesting, these discussions might just be fruitful."

Richards stepped back from the alien generator. She'd been rooting around in the alien systems, the Gyn'ri ship was certainly interesting. She figured the scientists might be interested in her scans, but she noted a few things of interest down. The ship was different in a few very interesting ways. The use of shields alongside a dated powered armor system was rather enlightening in several aspects.

Their own use of shield technology was rather limited and she'd just gained some insight into how their advanced armor systems might be incorporated alongside a newer energy shield system. She'd taken quite a few notes, and also taken a hard look at the Gyn'ri armor. It wasn't the most advanced but the different materials and construction methods were worth taking notes on.

"Try bringing it back online now," she declared.

The green-skinned alien woman she was working with nodded and rushed to the console. Pressing a few buttons, the generator started to hum, a pleasant steady hum much removed from the intermittent one of an hour before. "That sounds better, what's the diagnostic say?"

"Stable, shield power in this grid is looking good."

"That's one worry down. Now how's the team working on the life support system doing?"

"They've restored power to this section, diagnostics show the local module is fine. Once we seal the local breaches, we can restore pressure."

"Good, I think we'd prefer that to working in suits," said Richards as she followed the other girl out of the room. Outside crumpled plating, torn walls and a collapsed bulkhead greeted her, along with a gaping hole in the ship looking out into the storm. If she looked to the left she could see one of the smaller turrets on the hall and its mangled emitter barrels. "Would you need help with the turret as well?"

"That would be appreciated, the main system is fine, we just need to replace the emitters."

"What kind of weapon is that anyway? It would inform my work."

"The main guns are Positron Shock cannons, they fire a focused positron pulse. They practically disintegrate armor and are quite effective against shielded targets as well."

Richards nodded as she noted that down. That was something she definitely wanted a look at, they'd explored such weapons before but they'd had limited success. The current weapons on the Enterprise however were pretty impressive as well, firing a compressed charged particle pulse that could punch through plating and was noted for effectively exploding shortly after striking matter. Not unlike a kinetic armor piercing high explosive shell, just far faster and much more powerful. "Let's see what we can do. I'd like you to be ready in case the Raiders come back with some friends."

"So would I, but let's not spend too much time on it. We can do proper repairs once we are back at the Lodge. Although I'd feel better if your captain agrees to escort us there."

"The Lodge?"

"Our little port in the storm, everyone has at least one. The Lodge is the nearest Drifter held port, a number of our cruisers operate from there and it has facilities to aid in proper repair."

"Ah, understood," replied Richards, deciding not to talk about their own port of Anchorage, the asteroid they'd spent two years hunkered down within. Instead she focused on the work, until Countryman contacted her.