Chronicles of Sol: The Fall-Chapter 230 - One Ninety-One The Lodge

May 21st, 007 SDE; 1439 hours:

Countryman took a moment to double check his gear. After several hours of remote discussion, arrangements had been made for himself, two of his officers and several guards to head down to the surface as part of a diplomatic conference. Of course this meant he needed to be properly geared for a trip to the surface. For that purpose, Richards had freshly fabricated a customized Centurion-S suit for him to wear, something a good deal more protective than the Delta series suit he'd worn the other day when he'd boarded the Stormwolf.

Although he wasn't exactly a trained marine, so it wasn't equipment he'd used all that much. He was far more familiar with Delta series armor, afterall the Delta series was designed for use by engineers and given his engineering background, few would be surprised to learn that he had worn the Deltas before. Most of his experience with the Delta line was with the Delta II suit, but he'd taken the time to get rated on the Delta III and the more recent Delta IV.

The Centurion-S Mark IV however was specifically designed for general combat. The suit was built around a titanium skeleton that nullified most of the weight of the suit. A feature that was quite important given the armor wasn't light, not by any metric. Not surprising however, considering how the suit was structured. It was constructed out of a series of laminated plates coated with a thin layer of treated titanium, each plate contained integrated circuitry. That circuitry was a mix of AIF generators, an energy absorber matrix, and a few other little gizmos. These plates were layered and floated on a layer of shock gel, and under that was a very special nanoweave. The Delta had similar construction but the Centurion-S featured thicker heavier plates.

That nanoweave was present in both suits and was perhaps the most important part, it contained a mix of sensors, circuitry, artificial muscles, and even an emergency medical system. The layer also acted as a final layer to catch shrapnel, and penetrating shots, in addition, it was highly effective at absorbing and dissipating thermal shock. In many respects, the suit was like a miniaturized personal form of the same armor the ship used to protect itself from enemy fire.

Now the suit normally relied on a series of high-density power cells, but so did he. This version of the suit was able to integrate with his built-in power cells. That meant he had more overall power than the average marine, but he was also more reliant on it, so running out was worse. Like his Delta suit, the modified Centurion-S featured integration with his integrated particle cannon, giving him a solid weapon to rely on. One that he was more familiar with than some of the other options like the XR-471 that the Marines favored.

Sighing he fitted the helmet on, and activated the interface. His HUD quickly came online with all of the features the armor provided him, it wasn't really needed. Not for him, all that data was now something he was intimately aware of, in the same way he knew every facet of his physical health. Still it was a neat feature, displayed in the upper left were a series of bars and figures that represented his power reserve, AIF field strength, and general health. On the upper right was his weapon status display, and on the lower left was his tactical display map. Countryman miniaturized all of it with a thought, then stepped out of the armory.

Drakes, similarly dressed, greeted him, his face appearing on Countryman's hud in the empty corner, "Well you clean up nicely sir."

"Did you ever end up in one of these before?"

"Not as a captain, the Yamato was usually there to show the flag, and then there was the war and you know my full career on the Umikaze. Did have a couple of stints in power armor back when I was an ensign and another time when I was a lieutenant. Things were simpler then, those were straightforward boarding actions, not this."

"Is the armor really needed though?"

Drakes gave him a look, "Do I need to remind you what happened last time we had an off ship conference and you went out without armor?"

"That was a freak incident and I should remind you that I was never in danger."

"Well we'd all be more comfortable if you wore armor. Hell, I feel more comfortable going over there in armor."

Countryman sighed, "Fine, let's get this over with." Then he looked around. The guards were here, and Drakes was here, but his other choice Misaki wasn't. "Where's Ensign Amano?"

"She went ahead to get the shuttle ready."

He nodded and gestured for the others to lead the way. It wasn't far to the hangar and they were soon underway.

The shuttle set down in a smaller bay on the south side of the complex. From the air he'd noticed they'd built up quite the facility here. There was plenty of traffic moving about and the facility was clearly rather established.

Countryman waited for the guards to disembark first before leaving himself. Felki was on the platform with an unfamiliar young man he'd not met.

As he approached the young man spoke, "Good day, I am Hylix, commander of this base, and alongside Captain Felki here, I will be the local Drifter representative."

Countryman shook his hand, "I'm Captain Jac Countryman, commander of the Enterprise, and I have with me, Captain Ashley Drakes and Ensign Misaki Amano."

The young man blinked, "Captain? You're the same rank?"

Drakes interjected, "I was formerly the commander of the EFS Umikaze, sadly my ship sank shortly before we encountered this storm."

Hylix chuckled, "I'd been wondering about escorts, a ship like the Enterprise surely would have had them. The Umikaze was one of your escort vessels wasn't it?"

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Countryman sighed, "It was," he turned to Felki, "I did tell young Captain Felki here some of the story but I don't suppose it's relevant now."

"I guess not," he gestured behind him. "We prepared a conference room right down this hall."

"Sure, but my guards would want to check it out first."

"Go ahead. While we wait, there is something I'd like to ask. I hear Felki extended you an invitation to join our little group, but you turned her down. I was wondering about your reasons?"

"Well as I told her, we've just met. Now I have a feeling you are good people, my impressions of young Felki are positive, but I'm not in the position to enter into something so binding carelessly. I'd rather take my time to get to know you first. I have thousands of other lives that depend on me to make the right call."

"Well that still leaves some room to test the waters. I for one would like to be friends," replied Hylix.

"Glad to hear it."

A guard came back, approving the venue and the group headed to the conference. They resumed moments later when they sat down, with Misaki opening. "We'd previously discussed an exchange of information. I've brought a compiled document of raider intel with me."

Felki spoke, "We figured you'd need a primer on the storm, we will give it for free. We have other things we'd offer for the intel. After all, we've survived a couple cycles in the storm already."

Countryman nodded, "Yes, you mentioned that, I'd love to understand why you failed to escape previously."

Hylix sighed, "It's easier said than done, you've seen the rim?"

"It's troublesome, thick and turbulent, won't be easy getting through."

"I'm afraid things get worse, that's only part of the equation. Right now we are in a calm phase, the storm isn't very active at the moment, and it's going to stay that way for a few years, but the storm will get much more active in the months before the surfacing. Significantly more active, you've seen the hyperspatial eddies?"

Countryman nodded.

"Well they are rare right now, a few events occur in the area every week, but during an active phase, you'll see hundreds each day. Sometimes even more, and those eddies represent a significant navigational hazard and they are nearly impossible to predict. There are a few ships able to detect and predict them before they occur but those ships aren't common. The best you can do is go to ground near a high-mass facility equipped with gravimetric repulsor arrays. They greatly reduce incidents within their radius.

Felki interjected, "I mentioned before that our previous attempts didn't go well. We lost a fair number of ships trying to reach the rim the first time, and the second time we risked only a few small corvettes to test our revised theories. It didn't go well either."

Misaki frowned, "Why not?"

"In order to escape the storm, you need to pass through the rim while it's in normal space, unfortunately it only stays there for a few days at the most and prior to that you have a minefield of hyperspatial eddies to navigate. Now if you went to ground to avoid them you'll find yourself too far from the rim, to make the jump out of the storm, but if you went out into the storm to get to the rim so you could jump you'd be torn apart. This problem is made worse by the fact that the exact date the storm surfaces is hard to predict."

They shared looks, as they considered the implications. All three of them realized this didn't bode well for their plans. "The council will want to hear this," commented Misaki.

"Agreed, but I don't think anyone would like this. We should keep this to the council, at least until we have a chance to verify the information ourselves."

Countryman sighed, "That does seem prudent."

Felki spoke up, "Council?"

"Our ruling body, I mentioned we were looking for a new homeworld. The Enterprise carries our leadership."

Felki and Hylix shared a look. After a moment Hylix said, "I guess inviting you was a bit premature then."

Felki nodded, "I should have asked about that."

Countryman frowned, "Hmm? What's this about?"

Felki replied, "Well from the sound of it, you've already formed your own faction, you already have a governing body, even if you have fewer ships than most factions."

"Well when you put it that way, I guess we have."

Hylix smiled, "Well that's fine anyway. We can just discuss future relations between our factions, the most important thing would be right of salvage, then territory, followed by right of aid."

Countryman leaned forward, "Sounds like we might be here awhile, but what about trade?"

"I figured we'd get to that. I'm sure on occasion we'd both have something the other needs. We do trade on a limited basis with other factions. Just this week, a Raythil ship arrived for some trade. They sold us some ore, and we sold them food in exchange."

"We've yet to have any contact with them."

"Well the Raythil are a loose organization of survivors, they've got a number of mining ships and even some science vessels. It's not uncommon for their ships to travel into the deep storm on prospecting missions, they bring back lots of rare valuable ores."

"The deep storm?"

"Towards the center of the storm, compared to here in the middle, it's more violent, but more valuable materials are to be found there. Without a strong hull and good sensors however, its not worth visiting the region. Eddies are more common there but if that was all it wouldn't be so bad. Powerful plasma surges, gravitational rip currents, and worse are to be found there. At least out here, the occasional plasma surge is rare, and your shields can usually handle the ionic discharges, only thing you have to really worry about is an eddy erupting right where your ship is."

"Wonderful place, so who's out that way anyway?"

"The Raythil tend to visit only briefly, but apparently the Bresh'i have quite the presence in the deep storm. Thankfully they are more than happy to keep to themselves."

Countryman thanked them, "Nice to know all that."

"Right, now, lets get to the more important topics."