Chronicles of Sol: The Fall-Chapter 231 One Ninety-Two Peaceful Departure

June 2nd, 007 SDE; EFS Enterprise 1100 hours:

Countryman settled into his chair, the last few days having been pleasant yet tense. He'd found that many of the Drifters were nice people making the best of a bad situation. Hell he found them respectable given what had happened to them, he and many others felt sympathetic for them since they had experienced much the same.

More importantly, he'd gained formal recognition of the Sol Refuge as a faction by the Drifters. That might not mean much to the average citizen of the Enterprise, but it did mean something to him. It gave him diplomatic legitimacy within the Storm and that could prove useful.

Far more importantly it had opened the doors to much more interesting discussions with the Drifters, like trade rights. That had been the subject of several days, but they had secured the right to send their Artic class heavy cargo shuttles to Drifter-controlled facilities to buy and sell goods. Naturally the Enterprise coming in would make anyone nervous, they'd been fine this time since they were announced days in advance, but it was also not practical to fly the ship out this way any time they wanted to trade.

He had also agreed to respond to drifter distress calls and provide reasonable aid, and they had in turn agreed to do the same if any Refuge vessel was in similar straits. This provision might benefit them more, but he felt it was a good agreement. The agreement didn't extend to interfactional war and related distress. Neither of them had agreed to aid the other in faction war.

They did discuss a mutual defense treaty as well, and ultimately ended up agreeing to a limited treaty. Something Countryman considered a major diplomatic win, the Enterprise might be a powerful vessel but she was just one ship. The Drifters had a fleet and by virtue of the treaty, if another faction declared war on his, they'd be drawn in to aid him. Something that just might come into play soon enough with the Raiders. Countryman doubted the loss of two battleships would deter them from further combat. He'd gotten the drop on those two ships, but they could have been a threat to the Enterprise if things had gone differently.

Greyman stepped up next to him, "All departments report blue across the board. We are ready to depart when you are."

"Excellent," replied Countryman, "Eri take us out, one-half sublight."

"Aye, sir," she replied, "Coming about, increasing throttle to one-half sublight. Shall I set a course for Anchorage?"

"Not just yet, maintain a random course for now. Once we are out of range, we'll turn towards Anchorage."

"Understood sir."

The blast door opened behind him. Countryman turned to see Richards walking in, "Ah just the woman I was looking to see."

"I heard, something about a project you wanted to discuss?"

"Well now that we know there are hostile factions out there, I think we should fortify Anchorage. We left only a couple of light particle cannon emplacements to protect it."

"Right, I did previously discuss some plans for that."

"So you did, and it's a good start. More immediately, however, I think we should deploy our DP-12s around Anchorage. Also, now that we know the other factions do not employ fighter craft, we should design the defense around large-scale capital defense. If we do find someone else that uses fighters, the DP-12s and our own fighters would be sufficient"

"Hmm, you might be right. Speaking of the DP-12s, I've been modifying them to use the same modifications we are planning for the Enterprise."

Countryman nodded, "Yes I've been looking forward to testing those. We have everything worked out, we just need to dock with Anchorage to do the testing and modifications. Anything else you have in mind for the DP-12?"

"Pulsar mounts, I know we originally wanted to put torpedoes on the platform, but instead opted not to, but the mounting space for them is still there."

Greyman blinked, "Torpedoes? Why wasn't I briefed on that?"

"They were removed early in development," replied Countryman as he tapped a key, a screen on the left shifting from a directional view of the storm to a diagram display of the DP-12. Four locations on the lower segment near the primary emitter were highlighted, "These nodes here were intended to mount four fixed-mount torpedo launchers."

Next the lower missile bays were highlighted, "Originally these would have been used to stow torpedoes, instead of missiles. However simulations found the platform fared better with a large reserve of missiles rather than a few torpedoes. Unfortunately that did leave us with an awkward bit of space that now had nothing in it."

Richards nodded, "Ultimately we ended up tossing a tertiary capacitor bank into those four nodes for the main cannon, but they aren't really needed. It wouldn't be that hard to switch it out for four fixed-mount pulsar torpedo launchers. I've had some ideas for a heavier version of the weapon with a longer range, and a bigger punch. My tests in simulation work."

"Sounds interesting, can our fighters use it?"

"No, it would be a version best suited to small ships, large shuttles, corvettes, and frigates."

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Greyman commented, "Could still be useful."

"Any other changes you're working on?"

"Quite a few actually..."

After a bit Countryman took the others into his office, where they could talk in more detail about future plans. A discussion that would end up taking most of the day. In addition to the DP-12 and future fortifications, they also ended up discussing applications to the latest developments Vera had given them in regards to shield technology. She'd finally cracked the problem, but they were still unable to use their shields and force field systems. Thankfully now that they knew the issue, the solution was a simple retrofit of the existing array. The question was how best to implement said refit.

June 7th; Port Qeritas, Raider Territory:

A figure walked into the room, despite their large size they had a gentle aura about them. Another noticed them come in, and put aside the repair report they had been reading. "Desh'ra, I wasn't expecting you, do you have something for me?"

The woman chuckled, "I've brought you an update on Dehmrick's Blunder. We've got some more information on the Phantom Battleship he faced as well. It seems the Drifters have a new friend."

"Oh? How interesting. What's the highlights?"

"Our spies did well this time, we've got some good data. The ship is named the EFS Enterprise, she's a battle carrier. She features advanced armor, reactionless propulsion drive, and highly advanced passive stealth systems. In addition to all that, she is heavily armed with powerful beam weapons, high yield charged particle cannons, photon torpedoes and missiles."

"A tough ship to crack then. How does she stack against our battleships?"

"The Yurifa, and the Fang of Li'aous are about even with her known capabilites. Assuming she doesn't get the drop on them, the outcome of a duel between either ship and the Enterprise would come down to the skill of the captains."

"Quite the ship. Any weaknesses?"

"None that we know of."

"Shame, so what else do I need to know."

"Not much, we now know they belong to a group called the Sol Refuge. The Drifters have recognized them as a new faction and negotiated some agreements with them."

"Hmm interesting. Any idea where we might find this new faction?"

"Not a precise location, no, but we did get some data on what area they negotiated as their territory. It's not small, encompassing seven major debris fields across fifty-eight lightyears.

He blinked, "They can't have secured all that territory could they?"

EFS Enterprise; Lower Market Blue Sector:

The lower markets were quite busy today, but that wasn't any different from any other day. Hundreds of people were coming off their work hours and looking to enjoy themselves for a few hours. Today many of them were flocking to the theaters, a new show had been announced on the net and it was starting showing today.

Sali pressed against her boyfriend Robert as they pressed through the crowd, "So what are we going to see?"

"I thought we would see the new show. Should be better than most of the others, unless you want to see one of the old b-movies on offer at the moment?"

"You know I haven't looked at what's showing, been too busy."

"Well you aren't missing much, in terms of shows you've got the usual suspects. There are a couple of interesting items, a new episode of The Thieving Pixie, and another installment of The Adventures of the Melbourne."

"Hmm sounds fun. Think we can find time to see Thieving Pixie as well? I like seeing what she gets up to," she giggled."

"Sure, it's a good show. Just figured you'd like a movie first," he replied as the theater came into view.

Sali broke from him as she noted someone familiar. "Captain?"

Countryman turned, "Evening Sali, come to see a movie or something?"

"I did, what brings you here?"

He gestured to the girl next to him, "I dragged Ruri out of the lab, she could use a break and I have an idea of something that would help her..."

"Relax?"

He chuckled, "Something like that, anyway how do you feel about your pilot training?"

She grinned widely, "I think it's going well. Instructor White promised to take me out on a recon tomorrow! I can't wait to actually fly a 1204!"

Countryman was quick to reply, "I suggest you keep on your toes. It's hard to tell on the Enterprise but that storm out there is pretty turbulent."

"I've noticed," she replied.

Robert frowned, "So are we going in, or are we going to stand out here all day?"

Countryman smiled, "So what are you two watching?"

"The Moon of...."

Suddenly the deck rocked under their feet, bucking one way then the next. Alarms rang and the lights turned yellow. "Action stations! All hands report action stations. Damage control..."

Countryman and Ruri shared a look, "You two hunker down. Come on Ruri, let's get to the bridge."

Robert picked himself off the deck, "What the fuck was that?"

"Um, not sure," she replied as she studied the yellow lights and listened to the intercom for a moment. Grabbing Robert, she pulled him away from the theater. They had to get to their action stations. Maybe someone would be able to tell her what was going on by the time she got to the hangar, but first, she had to get Robert to his assigned station.