Messages In This Thread

Maverick · 01-09-2021, 02:54 PM

Disclaimer: This thread at times will brutal and graphic because it is about a very very bloody war. Although not all posts contain graphic description, some of them do. You have been warned.

Cornucopia System,
Klendin A,
The Hoffman

Klendin was an ice giant of the Cornucopia system. Far away from the metropolitan Stoinian world booming with trade and commerce. However during a recent probe survey to locate new resources on Klendin's first moon, strange subspace readings were recorded in orbit of the moon. These readings weren't discovered during the early charting of the Cornucopia system and appeared to come from nowhere. The scientists couldn't make heads or tails from probe's readings. It was like nothing they had seen before. The corporate higher ups wanted answers and so invested in a scientific mission to answer their uncertainties. They hired top scientists from Cornucopian Planetary University and set them on a mission to reveal the mystery of the probe's data. The Hoffman was a small scientific vessel, an AriesCorp Corporate-class cruiser, equipped with sensors for their mission.

The Hoffman.

The Captain of the ship was Cosmin Leonard, a veteran freighter captain for Smith Mining Corporation. This mission was nothing like his normal job, but the pay was good and that was good enough for him. He sat in his captain's chair and smoked a cigar to counter his impatience with these higher folk who called themselves professors.

"Professor Middleton, do your fancy instruments pick up anything yet?"

Professor Lynn Middleton was amongst the most praised astrophysicists of Cornucopia. She had jumped on the chance to get some more fieldwork and leave the halls of her university for once.

"Perhaps if you studied them more you'd know it yourself."

"Lady, we both know that's above my paygrade."

"A pity. Science really is a fascinating subject."

Cosmin rolled his eyes. He was set out to make a simple living for himself not some sort of grand understanding of the universe. He wanted to make it clear to the professor, but he knew it wouldn't matter much and so continued to puff from his cigar.

"Hold on... Preliminary data is coming in... These are strange readings indeed. It seems that the initial space-time distortion ahs increased. But how?"

Cosmin continued to puff from his cigar. The professor and her team were working on the data and disturbing them wouldn't result in a productive working environment. As far as he was concerned, this was a easy job. Collect and come back, nothing more, nothing less. However after half an hour of scientific debate, the professor's team had come to a consensus. They would need to arrange the deflector to emit a large magneton pulse towards the distortion.

"Captain, I believe we may have stumbled unto a wormhole. We'd need to rearrange the deflector to emit a large magneton pulse to open the wormhole. When can we expect it to be ready?"

Cosmin blew out the last of his smoke towards the professor. She didn't like the gesture, but was in no position to comment on it.

"I'm sure the crew can handle it in an hour. Hell, I'll even let you join in on the fun as well. Coordinate with Chief Ugarte."

"Thank you Captain."

With that the scientist worked together with the ship's engineers and modified the deflector to emit a magneton pulse. When it was ready, the science team fired the magneton pulse. It was in that moment that something magnificent opened up the wormhole. It was magnificent to look at, as if it were a reverse black hole. The science team reviewed their data and they couldn't believe it. The wormhole was stable and there were no severe subspace fluctuations. The science team cheered and laughed as they realized the scope of their findings. This was unprecedented, a gateway to another part of the galaxy with near instantaneous travel! Surely they would eventually find a way to artificially create it and make Warp Field Drive obsolete.

The wormhole opening after the magneton pulse.

"Professor, did we just find the gates towards heaven or what?"

Cosmin was dumbstruck about what just happened and hypnotized by the beauty of the wormhole. If he knew about this, he would have dropped the pay for this job, for the beauty was deserving enough.

"No Captain, it appears to be the first stable wormhole. This is completely unprecedented, we have to prepare to go inside of it."

The professor was ecstatic, but the Captain didn't share her enthusiasm.

"That's out of the question! We don't know what lies beyond there. Perhaps it was closed for a reason."

"Captain, you don't understand the scientific importance of this discovery. It shows that many of our theories were in fact ri..."

The Captain interrupted her.

"Mrs. Middleton! For all we know on the other side await dozens of Velutarians. We won't proceed until we have support from the military. We can't risk another first contact war."

The Captain had made his point. Perhaps she was blinded by the scientific miracle that had just happened and the Captain saw things more realistically. Regardless of what she thought, the Captain was right. They alerted military authorities and within three hours a squadron was there to escort them. They then proceeded to go through the wormhole. They were taken away by beauty of the inside. It was indeed otherworldly and no Stoinians could have imagined it before. A weird congregation of blueish clouds formed the subspace tunnel. After three hours of travel in the wormhole they had exited the other end of the wormhole. This was uncharted space. The professor was already dreaming of missions of exploration and scientific experiments on the wormhole. Her plans were cut short as the military squadron forced them to return.
A ban on solitary travel was also enforced, military escorts were required for any travel through the wormhole and exploratory mission were put on a halt for now. The scientific community was outraged, but the military wanted to ensure their safety for a first contact situation wasn't ruled out. High Command decided that the exploration of the other end of the wormhole would fall to Grand Admiral Corvousier and initiate first contact with whomever was on the other end. The Joint Stoinian-Treecuu Exploratory Fleet had embarked to uncharted space. For now the task would be up to the Old Dreadnought.

One week later,
Cornucopia System,
H.M.S. Eternity

Grand Admiral Corvousier had finally arrived Saint Alexis. It had taken him a while to prepare this operation and took the whole 65th Fleet with him. As five hundred ships made their final calibrations for a smooth ride through the wormhole, the Grand Admiral was visited by professor Middleton. He sat on his chair in his ready room as the door chimed.

"Enter."

The eager and young professor entered the room. Corvousier wasn't too impressed by her and continued to smoke from his pipe.

"Please have a seat."

"Thank you, Mr. Corvousier."

"Pleasure is mine, Mrs. Middleton. Now tell me, you wanted to install some new sensors to the Eternity?"

"Yes, these instruments will help us identify the properties of the wormhole. That way we can triangulate where the wormhole leads exactly. From the star density we gathered when we first entered it, it should be around the same distance from the galactic core as we are. As of yet that is our only clue. Our mapping systems are affected by the wormhole in some manner and we hope to eliminate the interference to finally gather the exact location of the wormhole entry points."

"I see, how long will these sensors take to install?"

"Oh about an hour, we took the liberty of calibrating it beforehand."

The Grand Admiral looked sternly at her, she began to stress as her face became redder. He wanted to test her for a bit, though he figured he had made her uncomfortable enough. However he smiled as he had good news for her.

"Very well Mrs. Middleton. You may proceed. It will be a while before the fleet will be ready and I'm sure we can work in the interest of science in the meantime."

The professor was overjoyed and gasped a breath of happiness.

"Thank you Mr. Corvousier. This means so much to us. I can't tha..."

"On one condition."

The professor was surprised. Had she spoken too soon?

"You and your crew will leave the ship before we leave for the wormhole. We're going into potential hostile territory and I don't want to unnecessary civilian casualties. Our ships operate with skeleton crews as is. Am I clear?"

"Yes Grand Admiral. As you wish."

"Good, hopefully we will get the results you're looking for."

"We all do Sir."

The following three hours might have been the longest of Corvousier's life. He felt a certain uneasiness about this mission and by now he had learned to trust his instinct. It was because of them that he was able to survive the Velutarian War for so long. Awaiting the final moments of the preparations he made a promise to himself. Whatever we find on the other side. I won't allow another war. With those words he entered the wormhole with his fleet. The Cornucopian Defence Fleet was also alerted of the situation and forces were ready for anything. The instruments of professor Middleton proved to work as intended and the mapping systems of the Eternity weren't affected by wormhole radiations. Finally after the long ride they had arrived in uncharted territory and he set out an audio-visual message on an open subspace channel for all to hear.

"This is Grand Admiral Corvousier of the Stoinian Star Kingdom. We have travelled here through a wormhole and we come in peace. We wish you no harm and come here to open diplomatic relations. We will remain here in this position for the coming week, that should be long enough time for anyone to respond to our calls. If we don't receive any messages by then we will start to explore this uncharted space. I repeat we come in peace. Corvousier out."

The Stoinian fleet then took a dispersed defensive formation surrounding the Grand Admiral's superdreadnought. Whatever would happen next, they would be ready for it. Unbeknownst to them, they had just entered Venterran space and their actions would influence to course of history.

Pacifica: Myria, Sallodesia, Stoinia • A1-0: Stoinian Star Kingdom • Aurora: Kingdom of Threnebor

(This post was last modified: 06-15-2021, 07:19 AM by Maverick.)