Captain’s Log November 9th, 158 CSD,

Today we finally reached the first star of the Alpha Centauri System, Proxima. There is some debate going on about the continued use of the colonial calendar, and several proposals have been put forth to change the calendar to mark Earth’s destruction as the start of a new age. We have also had several heated debates on what to call ourselves, but we have finally decided to call ourselves the Sol Refuge. Long range scans have pinpointed several planets in the Alpha Centauri system with two lying in the habitable zones one of which is already known to be uninhabitable the habitability of the other has not been established. More recent scans have revealed a significant number of asteroids orbiting the three stars. The majority of these asteroids can be found between Proxima and Alpha Centauri AB.

“We are secure from warp speed, sir,” reported Eri

“Position?” asked Countryman.

“21,000 Km out from Proxima b,” reported Sanchez.

“Switch to Aux power and scan the System,” ordered Countryman.

“No ships in the immediate vicinity, sir, but I am picking up a ship near Centauri II. Sensors are having difficulty identifying it though,” reported Misaki.

“Scan the planet, and Sanchez chart a course to Centauri II,” ordered Countryman,

“Proxima b reads as a barren world, but she has abundant surface minerals, sir,” reported science.

“On sublight, it would take several weeks to reach Centauri II, but at warp 3 we could be there in a week,” reported Sanchez.

“Set a warp course and engage.”

One week later they came out of warp near Centauri II. They were some distance out and the immediate vicinity was clear of asteroids and debris. Not far from their position was a moon not far from their position and a ship could be seen orbiting the planet.

“We are secure from warp speed, sir,” reported Eri.

“How close are we to Centauri II?” asked Countryman.

“310,000 Km out, sir,” reported Sanchez.

“Is that ship still in the area?” asked Countryman.

“Yes, sir, and sensors can now identify it as a Newton class science cruiser. Sensors indicate she has taken damage to her port sub-engine and has a hull breach encompassing three decks. Her port aux power module appears to be missing,” reported Misaki.

“Set course for the ship and open hailing frequencies,” ordered Countryman.

A few moments later an older man appeared on the viewscreen. He was wearing an old Venusian colony uniform. His hair was beginning to gray, and he was unshaven. Behind him was a small but orderly bridge. Although if you looked carefully you could see signs of the crew having made repairs to the consoles, chairs and the walls. There was a dark spot, where a fire must have been in the past.

“What’s an Earth warship doing out in the Alpha Centauri system?” asked the captain

“Surveying the system,” replied Countryman.

“Well, you wouldn’t happen to have some spare parts and fuel I can borrow, Otherwise I will never get back to Venus.”

“No point going back, the system is uninhabited and the colonies destroyed,” replied Countryman.

“Impossible”

“A lot has happened since you left, The colonial wars ended and then an alien race invaded the system,” replied Countryman.

“I find that difficult to believe,” replied the ship’s captain.

“Well before we continue I think we should introduce ourselves, I am Captain Countryman of the Earth Fleet Ship Enterprise Earth Fleet Registry Experimental 1250 and you are?”

“Captain Stalwart of the Venus Fleet Ship Horizon Venusian Fleet Registry 22470.”

Countryman spent several hours explaining the last few years to Captain Stalwart. Starting with the final days of the Third Colonial War and ending with the Battle for Earth which occurred just 177 days ago. Countryman included the historical recordings of the battles and the Enterprise’s sensor records of what happened on Earth in his description.

“Well after I have seen all this I find it difficult to refute. I assume you are here looking for a new homeworld then?” asked Stalwart.

“We are,” replied Countryman.

“Well I spent the last three years surveying this system, the system is minerally rich but the only habitable planet is no garden world. Centauri II is mostly desert with a small habitable band around the northern hemisphere just below the ice cap. Gravity is 1.2 Gs, the atmosphere is slightly thinner than Earth's, and vegetation is scarce. It would be almost impossible to establish a colony here and the planet can only support a population of 1.2 million,” said Stuart.

“Interesting, why don’t you come aboard and bring your data with you,” said Countryman.

“Sure,” replied Stuart.

A few minutes later the four ships were flying together in a medium orbit over Centauri II, as Stalwart’s shuttle docked. As soon as the main shuttlebay pressurized Countryman entered the bay and greeted Stalwart as he got off the shuttle. 

“Welcome aboard captain,” said Countryman

“You have a nice ship here, captain” replied Stalwart as he looked around the bay. Noting the reinforced and armored internal walls, and the excellent layout of the shuttle servicing equipment. Countryman then motioned towards the exit and said, “This way Captain.”

Moments later they left the bay and headed towards the aft lift. They passed a sign labeled deck four and then entered the lift. Countryman entered the destination as deck one. They came out in a short corridor. They took the door on the right and entered the Officer’s Conference Room. The officer’s council was already gathered. Stalwart’s system survey was presented to the gathered officers and the group began to debate whether or not they should settle in the system.

“I don’t agree, even if the planet can support all of us it is too close to our home system the Cathamari will find us here and we don’t have the resources to defend a colony we must look elsewhere,” said Greyman.

“We don’t have the resources to survey every local system and it takes weeks to get from one system to another we should take our chances and settle here, with a little work we can terraform this world so that it can support a larger colony and the resources here could fuel the construction of a new fleet to defend us in time,” said Williams.

“I agree with Greyman this world is completely unsuitable,” stated Drakes

“I think the planet may be worth the risks,” said another officer.

“I would prefer a world further away as well,” said Countryman.

“If we are to rebuild we will need a new homeworld as soon as possible, we should take the risk and settle here, if we build the colony underground we could avoid detection from would-be invaders,” suggested another officer.

The debate was still going nowhere with the officer’s council still split when the tactical alert went off. Countryman quickly left the room and entered the bridge. He took his seat and then asked for a report.

“One Cathamari ship just came out of warp near Centauri Prime, class unknown.”

“Has she detected us?”

“Doesn’t look like it, sir,” replied Misaki.

“Maintain minimal power and keep an eye on her,” ordered Countryman.

Several agonizing minutes later:

“The ship appears to be surveying Centauri Prime, sir”

“Slowly charge the particle cannons, on all ships to 2 percent then stop. assuming they are surveying the system how long before they reach our position?” said Countryman.

“Based on planetary positions, this planet would be the next logical stop in a system survey. If they jump to warp they can reach our position in six minutes, sir.”

“Try predicting their warp out coordinates and position the fleet to ambush them, limit to shadow maneuvers,” ordered Countryman.

“Aye, sir,” replied Eri.

The Cathamari ship spent the next four minutes scanning the planet before leaving orbit. As soon as the ship was out of orbit she made the interplanetary jump to Centauri II. The ship came out of warp 6 minutes later 40 km off the Enterprise’s port bow and on a collision course.

“Open fire all batteries, Evasive maneuvers,” ordered Countryman.

Eri maneuvered the ship to avoid the collision. While the ship maneuvered to avoid collision, the particle cannon emitters all along the Enterprise's hull realigned position and angled to fire at the cruiser. The many cannons then opened up firing a short burst of particle bolts at the Cathamari cruiser. The bolts lanced out across space and then tore into the hull of the cruiser as if it was tissue paper.

“Full power now, and bring us about,” ordered Countryman.

The ship's hull plating and weapons quickly began to charge to full, but the Cathamari did nothing. The Enterprise rapidly repositioned to face her opponent, who sat there as air, and fuel leaked from her many new wounds.

“The Cathamari have not raised shields or charged weapons, sir,” reported Misaki.

“Scan the ship.”

“Sensors indicate she has lost power and is venting atmosphere on multiple decks, sir”

“Stabilize the ship's orbit and launch a boarding party. Also, what is the condition of her warp engines?”

“Her engines appear to be mostly intact, sir,” reported Misaki.

A few minutes later the Enterprise had stabilized the ship’s orbit and her marines were boarding the ship. The ship’s numerous hull breaches proved to provide an excellent entry point. The marines were easily able to take the engine room as it had been vented to space, but the bridge proved more difficult. As the Crew had fortified their position, forcing the marines to break their position. Fortunately, the widespread venting prevented the crew from getting the heavy weapons in the armory lockers. A few grenades followed by a charge, allowed them to break their fortifications and take the bridge. Ten minutes after boarding:

“Boarding party here, the ship is secure.”

“Prepare to receive science team,” said Countryman.

“Moments later a science team was dispatched to study the ship’s engines and other surviving technologies of interest. As they were studying the ship Ruri came to the bridge.

“Sir, we have finally created a rudimentary translation of the recovered data modules from the outpost.”

“Anything interesting on them?”

“A few contained local star charts but it is mostly outdated tactical deployment data, the only thing of interest is that it lists the locations of a few nearby Cathamri outposts but not their homeworld. Apparently they have an outpost at Barnard’s star for example. With this information we now know the location of several habitable planets in local space unfortunately almost all of them are either inhabited or in systems with Cathamari outposts, also the data indicates the Cathamari were engaged in the Sirius system with someone called the Krall Imperium. For the most part, I would say the Cathamari control most of this star sector,” said Ruri.

“Then I guess we will leave the sector, maybe we will find a nice planet elsewhere. Did the maps list any worlds belonging to these Krall the Cathamari are fighting?”

“No, only that the Krall attacked them at Sirius was mentioned.”

“Unfortunate I would have liked to meet a race at war with the Cathamari. However we are currently studying an intact Cathamari ship, would you care to see the initial results?” asked Countryman.

She said she would and was present a few minutes later when the initial report came in.

“This Cathamari ship appears to be a scout or survey ship, sir. It is lightly armed, and most of the onboard space is devoted to sensors, while her sensor arrays took heavy damage there is enough left to study, Her engine design differs from our own, sir, the advantages of this FTL configuration is not yet apparent, but the ship has an extra drive core that appears to be directly linked to the other two. As far as we can tell the extra core seems to function as a regulator. In other news the ship’s computer is intact with a little time we may be able to access the data stored on its drives,” reported the boarding party.

“Send all your data to Ruri’s lab and get to work on the computer, but continue studying the drive.”

“Aye, sir, boarding party out.”

“What do you make of the data?” asked Countryman. Ruri who was looking at the preliminary data stopped and answered.

“The initial data answers quite a few questions on their drive configurations but more study is required before we can give a definitive answer on their tech,” replied Ruri.

Three days later Ruri came to Countryman with an updated report.

“We have been able to download its database, there's quite a bit of data and the battle fragmented its database so it will take a while to catalog all the information. The data cataloged so far has identified this ship as a scout, the Cathamari name for its class roughly translates to Seeker, so we have designated it the Seeker Class. Our study of its sensors has yielded information which will allow us to increase our sensor range by a tenth of a lightyear and resolution by three percent.

 We have also learned a great deal from their warp engines. It seems the third core is used to regulate the spatial field, it seems the Cathamari computers are slower than ours and cannot regulate the field properly without this core. The Cathamari engines are more powerful and generate a denser spatial field, which results in higher rate of spatial folding, I believe we can modify our engines to increase the spatial folding without significantly altering fuel consumption now. I did find one important fact about our drive compared to theirs, it seems their drives are nowhere near as efficient as ours which limits their range, this weakness has nothing to do with the Warp engines but the sublight component. Our sublights provide better speed, range, and maneuvering than theirs do. We can’t match their folding rate, but we should be able to get close to their speed, close enough in fact that we can outdistance them. Their tractor beam tech appears to be more advanced than ours and doesn’t require a mag plate to establish a lock, I have a team transferring their tractor emitter to lab 5 for analysis,” reported Ruri

“Did you find anything on their comm systems?”

“No, unfortunately, that subsystem was destroyed,” replied Ruri.

“How much longer do you need to complete your study of the ship?”

“A day then the engineers can take it apart,” replied Ruri

Two days later they began to disassemble the cruiser. They were still in orbit building the parts they needed to modify the engines a week later. It was now the 28th of November, the crew of the Horizon had transferred to the Coto and the Horizon was scuttled. Countryman and the officer's council had decided on their next destination star, but were planning on waiting until the engine modifications were complete before leaving. This plan was blown out of the water when seven Cathamari cruisers came out of warp.

“Report”

“Seven Ravager Class battlecruisers just came out of warp, sir. Distance 230,000 Km bearing 130 mark 20.”

“Seems they miss that cruiser already, Eri take us out of the system one-half sublight.”

“Sir?”

“Rather not waste ammunition if I don’t have too,” answered Countryman, glad that no one was out working on the alien cruiser, since there was nothing left aboard of interest.

Moments later the ship was heading out of the system, but not in a hurry. The Cruisers did not move to engage. Instead, they scanned the system and then merely kept their distance.

“Report” barked the Warlord from his throne. His tail poised as if to strike.

“What’s left of the Dredal is orbiting the second planet, Three Earth ships were near it but they seem to be moving away”

“Identify the worms”

“Class and Configuration Unknown, they appear to be two cruisers and a battleship.”

“Alert command and keep an eye on them.”

A few minutes later:

“Sir the Earth vessels just warped”

The warlord looked at the data and muttered something about the impossible just happening and then said:

“Recover the Dredal”

“Sir we have cleared the planet's gravity well,” reported Eri.

Countryman came down to the lower level and accessed the Nav console and laid in a course. Then said:

“Eri follow this course, maximum emergency warp.” Eri looked over her shoulder and asked, “are you sure?”

“Yes,” replied Countryman. Moments before Eri engaged the engines while saying, “Sir, I must remind you that we cannot sustain that velocity for long or we risk burning out the drive.”

“I am aware. We should be able to maintain it for two hours, drop out of warp in two hours,” replied Countryman.

“Aye, sir,” acknowledged Eri.

Two hours later they dropped out of warp in deep space. Countryman ordered Eri to continue following his course on sublight before heading down to Warp Engineering. Warp Engineering was a flurry of activity. With junior engineers scurrying about to complete various tasks. Countryman headed straight to Richards who was standing near a console next to the port side reactor.

“How long before you are ready to begin the modifications to the warp engines?”

“Another hour and we can begin, sir. We should have the modifications done by tomorrow, sir.”

“Good I’d like to be underway as soon as possible.”

The rest of the day was uneventful. It was early the next day that they tested the new warp engine modifications. The modifications worked better than expected. The modified engines were now capable of a cruising speed of 1000 times lightspeed, assuming the cooling systems could keep up with generated heat. But the current cooling systems can’t keep up with that kind of heat, this limits the maximum cruising speed to Warp 4.6 which is around 640 times lightspeed. The tests revealed this was because the ship's computer could regulate the field more efficiently than the Cathamari version, allowing the Earth vessels to take full advantage of the sheer power of the Cathmari enhanced engines. As soon as tests to the modifications were complete, they plotted a new FTL course and jumped to warp four. Their destination a system in a neighboring sector with no known Cathamari activity.

Around the same time, at the warlord’s council. High ranking Cathamari Warlords had gathered around a table to discuss the ships seen a few days earlier. A projection of the Enterprise was floating above the table. The cruisers that saw her, didn’t get a complete image so some of the ship’s appearance had been filled in by extrapolation. As a result, the version shown here had significantly more torpedo ports than the actual Enterprise. 

“No, we can’t track them. Like most Human ships, these have a scattering effect on sensors that makes getting a solid read difficult. To make it worse, they have a much lower energy signature than older ships, which makes getting a read even harder,” said one Warlord his face covered with scars from many battles.

“That means they can be anywhere!”

“Maybe not, their drive can’t be too powerful. They didn’t have warp technology at the start of the war, so their drives can’t push them much faster than warp three,” said another Warlord with bright blue scales on his face.

“I wouldn’t be sure of that the Dredal, was stripped to the bulkheads. We can’t be sure but they may have taken warp parts from our ship. Humans have proven very good with tech, we should expect them to be capable of warp four,” said the scarred Warlord.

“We should increase the local patrols, Humans are unpredictable it would be best if we had some extra security in case they attack,” said Blue scale.

“I concur, now let's move onto the Krall. We have seen an increase in probing attacks....”