Sali sat up, and was greeted by White, "Not bad, excellent job getting that shuttle back to the Enterprise."
"Um, thanks. I actually found it rather enjoyable, a good challenge of my skills, those simulated pilots weren't bad at all"
"A lot of pilots appreciate that one. I've got a few more I'd like you to complete, but not today. We have just enough time for another lesson on field maintenance, and maybe a few questions."
"Speaking of questions, I do have one. I noticed the satellites..."
"The Sentinels? What do you want to know about them?"
"Is that what they are called? Well I noticed they seem to be built around some kind of particle weapon."
"Well not officially," she replied as her demeanor shifted. Her chest puffed up and she grinned, "They are the work of our own in-house development team. We needed a cheap deployable weapons platform, and they came up with the DP-12 or Sentinel. A half dozen missile launchers, a capacity for sixty warheads, and four particle turrets can fend off smaller vessels, but the real jewel of the platform is the main cannon. It was based on tech we developed during high-energy research back on Earth, it takes advantage of the high energy output of a reactor in a near-overload state to produce a highly focused high-intensity energy pulse, we are talking the kind of firepower typically reserved for large capital ship guns with similar range as well. Any capital ship entering the line of fire of a Sentinel is going to take some punishment."
"I'd imagine, it sounds powerful and looked like it would pack a wallop alright. Just how much damage are we talking?"
White gestured towards the hull, "They can punch through heavy starship armor like what you find on the Enterprise, a single hit would pierce the plating and punch through two decks easily."
Sali frowned as she stepped out of the simulation pod, "Only two decks? I thought it might be more."
White chuckled, "That's actually very impressive, the Enterprise is outfitted with battleship-grade armor and those satellites pack enough punch to penetrate it. So keep that in mind."
"I will," replied Sali, "but why have I not seen any of the Sentinels before?"
"We have a few in storage, but they are only really useful when we plan to stay in an area for some time. Defense platforms are great and all, but they aren't really mobile. You know what I mean?"
Sali nodded as they left the room, the conversation soon shifting to other topics.
Countryman stepped onto the bridge, feeling good about his recent meeting with Ruri. The revised project Deathhawk was getting started and it wouldn't be long before they were done. It wasn't a crazy "develop a new starfighter" project afterall, it was a simple case of taking a highly modular spaceframe they already had and updating it with new technology. Hell it was the kind of project he'd worked on before, commissioned hulls often received updates during their service back home. If the Enterprise was back at Earth she might also be due to receive one in a few years, of course they'd already done a few updates themselves since they left port. The ship was starting to feel more like a flying city than a ship. They had markets, theaters, parks and other amenities you often wouldn't find outside of a major port. Most certainly not on a ship, even one as large as the Enterprise, but they also had a large civilian population and plenty of kids.
It was hard for the ship to feel like a warship these days, even if she'd technically been built as one. Her origins as a fleet support cruiser and command ship remained well felt even today, but perhaps also quite useful to their continued survival. Her vast industrial bays, and large cargo capacity certainly helped quite a bit.
Greyman noted his entry, "Ah, good evening sir, you're meetings go well?"
"Nothing significant to mention, well outside of what your wife found. She dug up some old blueprints for the 1204, nothing you'd look twice at until you realize whose work those blueprints were."
"Old blueprints? I don't see why that would be much of a deal, we've made..."
"Made discoveries in the last seven years yes, but this is Kentoth's take on the fighter. He had some interesting ideas, some of which remain relevant...."
"Kentoth? What an unusual name, who was he?"
"Count your blessings, but a long story short he was one of our brightest minds. As for the name? Well your guess is as good as mine, I never knew where he was from. Anyway as I was about to say, he penned a blueprint for a fighter-sized antimatter reactor."
Greyman blinked, "He what? Seven years ago? We..."
"I wouldn't trust his design, its interesting, but knowing him its likely not safe. We'd need to test it, but it would be a good starting point. As it is we need to look into better energy solutions, our fuel sources are limited and aside from the fuel pods we've procured from wrecked Raider vessels, we don't have a means of resupply. I just discussed a few of my ideas for more efficient sublight engines with Ruri, designs we plan to test with the 1204. One of several upgrades we are planning for the fighter, its about time we did an update of the design."
Greyman chuckled, "I'm sure the pilots would be thrilled, they always seem to enjoy new toys."
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Countryman took his seat and replied, "And I've got seven years of feedback on the design to base my upgrades on. I'm sure they will be happy knowing someone listened to them."
"Planning to help with the project yourself?"
"Why not? It's not like I can't find the time, we certainly seem to have a lot of idle time these days."
From below, a familiar female voice commented, "Quite a bit of it sir, but it might be a little less today. I'm picking up weapon signatures and a distress call."
"A distress call?" he turned to the helmsman Eri, "Set an intercept course," then he focused back on the operations officer Misaki, "What'd it say?"
"Not much, they say they are under attack by Raider vessels and are requesting immediate assistance from any Drifter vessel in range."
Countryman recalled the charts, they were still in Raider territory but they were getting closer to Drifter territory. Still, they were known to shift a little, so his calculations might be off, or the Drifter ship was lost. In either case, this was a chance to make contact with someone who wasn't going to shoot at them, at least he hoped they wouldn't.
Regardless this was an opportunity for a friendly encounter in this forsaken wasteland, and he wasn't going to waste it. With that in mind, Countryman turned his attention to getting the ship ready for battle. Orders to sound General Quarters and get the pilots ready and on standby were among his first, even as he planned out the encounter based on what little he knew. Caution would be well advised, so he figured he'd send the fighters ahead to scope out the situation.
Countryman leaned over the strategic master display on the lower bridge. Moments ago the four squadrons he'd sent ahead had reached the target area. Already they were beaming back useful information with which he could make an informed decision about the Drifter vessel.
The Drifter ship was a small capital ship, likely a destroyer or light cruiser based on the size, certainly not one of the major capital ships that all powers would keep track of. As for the Raiders, they were numerically superior, but they didn't have any vessels in the same tonnage as the Drifters, he counted four frigates and about a dozen corvettes. "So Greyman what do you make of the situation?" he said to his first officer who was also studying the strategic display.
"Hmm, the Raiders clearly have an experienced leader at the helm, his formation is solid. They've got the Drifter vessel cornered, its only a matter of time before they wear down the larger vessel and board."
"I agree, if we are to intervene it would be better to act sooner rather than later."
Greyman tapped the display, "I don't think we will have time to send additional ships out, the cruiser's armor is in bad shape, multiple hull breaches, several weapon systems appear to be out, and several of their thruster ports are stuttering."
"I concur, the frigates have the biggest guns of any vessel on the field. I'm thinking we launch a simultaneous attack on all four of them, a squadron each for the best effect. With any luck the show of firepower will encourage the remaining corvettes to retreat."
Greyman nodded, "It would fit standard Raider actions, they aren't the type to stand and fight. Honestly rather refreshing compared to the foes we fought before."
"Very much so," said Countryman as he turned to the operations station, "Misaki relay my orders to the pilots, they are to take out the four frigates, one squadron per ship, I leave the attack pattern up to the squadron commanders."
"Already done sir."
He chuckled, it seems she was efficient as always. Turning to Kaori, he inquired, "Weapons status?"
"On hot standby as per your orders, all launchers are loaded and ready to fire, and all cannons are charged," she replied.
He glanced at the display, they'd be entering the extreme edge of weapons range in about five minutes at their current speed. "Excellent, keep your finger near the trigger, I want you to be ready to fire at a moment's notice."
"Yes, sir."
Suddenly the ship rocked under their feet. It wasn't the first time it had happened though, so he glanced to Misaki.
"Reading a Hyperspatial Eddy, .68 lightyears distant category nine."
It was a good thing it wasn't closer, so far they'd been lucky but it bothered him that they couldn't predict the eruption of an eddy. It didn't help that they were a phenomenon influenced by the deeper layers of the storm. Multispatial physics were something they weren't used to dealing with, but they were in hyperspace now and that came with a whole list of new phenomena to deal with.
By now they'd seen the Eddies emerge more than once and a pattern to their behavior had emerged. Nothing consistent enough to predict when they would emerge, but enough to base a theory on them. The current theory was that the various layers of hyperspace were separated by something akin to a physical barrier. The eddies form in the deeper layers creating a form of growing pressure on this non-physical barrier, when it reaches a breaking point, they erupt into this layer not unlike a volcano. How accurate that theory truly was remained to be seen, as they didn't fully understand this realm. Only thing he really knew for sure, was that a large eruption like that usually meant there would be fewer eruptions in this area for some time. "Keep an eye out, but its nice knowing we won't have to worry as much for one of that scale."
She nodded, as Countryman refocused on the tactical plot. The fighters they'd sent ahead were beginning the attack. He watched as they moved in, each squadron had picked their targets well, breaking off into half squadrons, they opened fire on either flank of their targets.
The display highlighted the short but intense energy bursts they unleashed as they raked the frigates from the flanks. Just moments before several torpedoes slammed into their sides, first one then a second frigate blinked out as the damage inflicted was catastrophic to the vessels. The remaining two frigates however survived the strafing attacks.
From here he watched as the Raider fleet, startled by the sudden fighter attack broke off their action against the lone Drifter vessel and promptly retreated. The corvettes shifted into a formation to protect their stricken frigates. Without looking away, Countryman ordered, "Let them go, no point wasting valuable munitions on a beaten foe."
"Aye, sir. Standing down."
"Should I disarm our weapons?"
"No, not yet. Remain on standby," replied Countryman, "Eri move us in closer, and Misaki see if you can't make contact with the Drifter ship."
"Will do, sir!"
He chuckled, it seemed she was excited and it leaked into her response. Then again he was looking forward to the meeting as well, it was bound to be interesting. He just hoped their rotten luck didn't taint this encounter like previous encounters had been.