Chronicles of Sol: The Fall-Chapter 197 One Hundred Sixty-Four Imperium Border

January 22nd, 005 SDE:

Countryman set the report aside. The last few months had been fairly peaceful aside from the weather. Regardless, the Velosa cluster was still dangerous, and they hadn't had much chance to really rest. At least they didn't have to worry about the Valorians, after that encounter at Feros, he hadn't seen hide nor tail of the persistent bastards. As far as he was concerned that was a good riddance.

The battle at Feros had gone fairly well for them all things considered, the hull plating needed an overhaul, more than one AIF generator had overloaded while keeping the ship together, and the storm that followed had really strained the structural integrity fields as well. However the plating itself was largely intact, it was just the underlying systems that needed replacing. Richards had found the time to patch them and keep them working, which was good.

Aside from armor damage, they were generally in good shape. The fact both shield generators had burned out didn't really matter, it just left him without protection from radiation spikes, but they still had the inner hull liner to protect the crew.

At the moment, they were closing on the Krall border, he hoped to spend some time here to resupply and potentially get more up-to-date info on the surrounding space so they could continue their course for Brathra. He knew they were going to need a new plan to get there, but it was also their best bet for finding a new homeworld. The region was remote with several unclaimed Garden worlds, with a lack of expanding empires nearby he was betting they'd be able to move in and build a new home for their people.

Stepping away from his office, he headed for the bridge. Greyman greeted him at the door, "Afternoon, sir. Eri reports we are ten minutes from the Krall Border."

"Excellent, switch our transponder codes to active."

"Aye, sir."

Tika leaned over the console, her gaze locked onto the newest contact. They'd been sent on another patrol into this boring region, and for a while it looked like it was going to be just as dull as the preceding one. She glanced to her sensor officer, "Confirm readings, is that transponder a fake?"

"Confirmed, warp signature matches. That starship is the EFS Enterprise, currently approaching the border at warp four point three. At her current course and speed, she will arrive at Hylis in thirteen days, and four hours."

She nodded, Hylis was a system she was quite familiar with. The system was highly industrialized and the home base for the local sector fleet. The Teketh had even been operating out of the system for the last few months. The military maintained a repair yard in the system, and a full starbase. There were also several civilian shipyards, and the system was home to the largest market in the sector. Honestly, it wasn't a surprising destination, if you were looking to trade, or resupply it was the sector destination. In fact the presence of the military outpost in the system was entirely due to the industrial trade that grew up in the system. The local sector fleet was here to protect the valuable trade going through the system, just as much as it was there to protect the people.

Turning to the helm, she said, "Begin calculating an intercept jump. I'd like to say hello to some old friends."

Someone commented, "Finally something interesting."

She ignored the outburst and didn't blame them. A patrol was honestly the most boring assignment.

"Jump point calculated ma'am. Spooling up the Inversion matrix, ready to jump on your order."

"Excellent, you may jump when ready."

A moment later, she felt the usual stomach churning of a subspace inversion jump. One moment they were in the middle of nowhere, the next they were in the path of the EFS Enterprise, but still in the middle of nowhere.

Seconds later, the other vessel dropped out of warp, a few thousand kilometers distant. The first thing she noted was the hull looked scorched, but the superstructure seemed fully intact.

"They seem to have gotten rather cooked, sir. I'm not reading any hull breaches, but they appear to have taken heavy damage to their structural integrity grid. I don't think they can maintain more than thirty percent of nominal field strength."

"30? That would preclude them from maintaining high warp," she commented, understanding how the human vessel protected itself from translight particle impacts. At high warp the frequency of such events increased dramatically, which would require stronger defenses. Not to mention no matter how you looked at it, losing seventy percent of your effective protection was bad. That put some extra perspective on why they were heading for Hylis.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Thoughts aside, she soon opened a channel.

Countryman's familiar form appeared on their as typical dimly lit bridge, he smiled, "Tika, it's good to see you again, although I wasn't expecting you to greet us so soon."

"We happened to be in the area when you appeared on sensors, and there isn't much to do out here. Although, it looks like you had some trouble."

"Just a bit, but the Third Fleet certainly got the worst of it."

"Oh? I remember the distress calls, a few rescue ships were dispatched and picked up survivors, but you weren't in the area."

"I remember the incident after they caught sight of us, they chased us consequences be damned. Right into a system whose star was starting to collapse. We warped out just after the initial shockwaves hit us and right into a plasma wavefront, but I'd rather brave a storm over a supernova."

"A supernova? You were actually caught up in that?"

"Only the leading edge, certainly shook us up real good and drained the AIF. That made braving the storm more interesting, though."

"I bet it did."

"I believe you noticed the result, which is part of why we are heading for Hylis. We figured it would be a good system to make some repairs and resupply. I have a long list of items I'm looking to acquire or replenish."

"Not a bad pick, they have the largest market in the sector. I don't have much else to do anyway, so why don't I escort you there?"

"A little company would be welcome, it's going to be a long few days."

February 4th, 005 SDE:

Countryman walked down the corridor. They'd spent the last thirteen days with the Teketh and her crew for company. The Krall had been interesting guests, and more than one of them had stopped aboard the various recreation facilities they had available. Apparently patrol duty was rather boring, and the Enterprise had much better entertainment options than the Teketh did.

Not entirely surprising however since they'd been out here for years now. Hell they even had their own in-house animation company, several of them in fact. These studios had started up and were producing content that was proving rather popular these days. These new shows would be shown in local theaters, often long before they were made public on the ship's data net.

Still it went to show that in the last five years they'd made the Enterprise their home. Still Countryman hoped he'd be able to provide a proper home for mankind's future. The Enterprise was a good ship, but that didn't mean they could live here till the end of time. Brathra looked promising for finding a liveable world upon which to rebuild their civilization.

In the meantime, they'd managed to negotiate a docking slip, and he had a meeting with a local merchant. Countryman had made the arrangements en route, so it had been a simple matter of docking after getting here. As for the merchant, they'd done some research, but the local market was huge. There were countless merchants to deal with, so Countryman had found someone of some importance who was willing to meet them.

The merchant belonged to a general trading company that dealt extensively in high technology, but they'd branched out into other goods as well. He figured the man they were meeting would be a good start.

Entering the shuttlebay, he was greeted by two of his officers. Megumi Richards, and Eri, the pair were waiting for him. Eri had volunteered to fly him down to Hylis for the meeting, while he was bringing Richards along since she had a good idea of everything they needed.

A shuttle was already being made ready for the flight, and several crewmen were loading a few sample items for the meeting. They'd discussed with the council extensively what they could afford to trade. They were taking crates of food, small arms, and precious gems as trade goods. They had plenty of them gathered or produced during their time in the Velosa cluster.

Eri smiled, "Ready to go meet a merchant sir?"

"About as ready as I can be." he looked at Richards, "You've got the shopping list right?"

Megumi nodded, "Yup, I've got the whole list right here," she said while patting her breast pocket," I just hope we can get it all. I've sorted things by priority."

"Then get yourself strapped in and let's go. I'd like to get things done sooner rather than later."

She chuckled and headed for the shuttle. "Agreed, the sooner we get what we need, the faster I can overhaul the AIF generators, and the faster Kaori can have her torpedoes."

New novel chapters are published on freewёbn૦νeɭ.com.

He smiled, but didn't reply as he followed the two women onto the ship. Eri rushed up to the control console and started her preflight checks. As she was doing that, Countryman turned to Megumi for one last chat. They ended up talking extensively on how much they could afford to trade and for what. Along with deciding how much any given item on the long list they had was worth to them. All rather important given the merchant they were meeting.

Countryman just hoped they'd be able to get everything without having to hunt through countless local merchants. The list was fairly long, but a tech company should be able to provide most of the gear they needed for the hull plating, and the components to resupply their arsenal of torpedoes. He also figured they could buy some extra fuel with anything left over, but the most important thing on the list after the repairs was to locate additional information. He'd heard about the war, so he was going to need to figure out a safe route, one that would potentially cross a warzone to reach their intended target. Updated star charts and information on the war would be important, but he had a few ideas on that, but credits would be important.