Crusade (standard:science fiction, 2926 words) [1/11] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 11 2003	Views/Reads: 3247/2181	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The first part of the tale of the Furie War, told through the exploits of SNS Crusader. This first section is the prologue in the form of a timeline, if you wish to dispence with this, then start reading from Crusade Pt.2.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

objects as well as very small or stationary ether shifted objects; the 
epdar ‘ping' gives away the sensors bearings. 

October 13th 2000. During an experiment with long range epdar a very
strong echo is received and at that range the echo is too strong to 
come from a non shifted mass. The conclusion - there was another 
starship in the solar system. During the next seven days the echo moves 
only a tiny amount, it is ranged at 40 light minutes from Earth, there 
is a very large object 40 light minutes from Earth, it is from Mars and 
it is assumed that there is a derelict craft there (if it were not 
derelict then the Etheric mass would have been unshifted upon 
touchdown). 

October 22nd 2000. Work restarts on Envoy 1 with renewed vigour, it has
been re-designed to stand up to the six-month journey to the red 
planet. 

January 2nd 2002, Envoy 1 is completed and its six-person crew selected:


Dr. Yuri Bogdanov, Nationality: Chechen, Training: physicist, Function:
space mission commander/technology scavenger 

Alexis Vablatski, Nationality: Russian, Training: mathematician,
Function: navigator/pilot 

Dr. Carol King, Nationality: American, Training: medical
doctor/psychiatrist, Function: medic 

Richard Carver, Nationality: British, Training: physicist, Function:
technology scavenger/ship's engineer 

Nagumo Takahama, Nationality: Japanese, Training: engineer, Function:
technology scavenger/ship's engineer 

Alison Chambers, Nationality: South African, Training: geologist,
Function: aerologist/ground mission commander 

The choices were obvious, the candidates must be experienced and expert
in their fields, yet young and strong enough to endure the 6 month 
journey there and back and with the right mindset to endure nearly 15 
months with the same other five people, there were only a few people 
who fitted these requirements. 

Carver and Takahama, having designed Envoy 1, knew the ship better than
any and the experience thus gained meant that even among the elite 
ranks of Neo Mir they knew more about the practical applications of 
spacefaring technology than almost any, and so were the obvious choice 
to head the scavenging team. Chambers was a recognised expert in 
aerology before joining Neo Mir and was recruited especially to 
co-ordinate the surface phase of the mission. King had won a Nobel 
Prize for her research into long term closed group dynamics and again 
was especially recruited for her unique expertise. Vablatski was a 
pilot in the Russian air force and had also spent several months aboard 
the Mir station, where he was regularly required to remote pilot the 
proton re-supply capsules into dock with the station, few people were 
more experienced vacuum-pilots; he was already a member of Neo Mir 
before the Mars project was planned. Bogdanov was one of the founding 
members of Neo Mir, he had been stationed aboard Mir, and along with 
Vablatski, is the only one to have first hand experience of space 
travel. 

March 31st  2002. The last part of Envoy 1 is launched into orbit. Over
the preceding months, six separate parts have been launched using Nova 
Tech and B.S.D. as cover, the parts being disguised as space station 
sections under the pretence that the companies wish to conduct research 
in zero-G and are unwilling to wait for the international space 
station. Once in orbit the separate parts used on-board small Etheric 
mass units to change their orbits until they are close enough to dock, 
all controlled by a primitive non-sentient artificial intelligence 
created with a backwards engineered bio-computer. 

April 7th 2002. Bogdanov, Carver and Takahama go into orbit posing as
Nova Tech technicians. All systems are brought online. 

April 10th 2002. Remaining crew board Envoy 1. 

April 11th 2002 01:14 GMT. Envoy 1 leaves Earth orbit on one of the most
audacious journeys ever undertaken by human kind! 

As the journey progresses and Earth becomes more distant, communication
becomes harder as the lag between transmission  and reception grows. 
Envoy 1 is large, and compared to other human space vehicles luxurious: 
she is equipped with artificial gravity and had been provided with as 
much in the way of diversion and entertainment as possible to keep the 
crew occupied for the next 15 months. 

October 18th 2002. After successful Etheric braking Envoy 1 achieves
Mars orbit. Focused high definition epdar scans reveal a large 
subterranean echo near the centre of the Hellas basin. The Envoy's 
orbit is altered to over fly the basin. 

November 20th 2002. Envoy 2 is deployed; it hits the atmosphere, deploys
atmospheric wings and under Vablatski's control, glides to the surface. 
Because of ultra-light materials Envoy 2 weighs very little even though 
it is large enough to support six people for a month. Bogdanov becomes 
the first human to set foot on another planet. 

November 23rd 2002. ‘The Behemoth' is sighted by Chambers - there is a
small section visible above ground and is named Behemoth once the crew 
enter and discover how vast it is. Examination of corridors, doorways 
and rooms leads to conclusions about the race which constructed her: 
they were between seven and eight feet tall, heavily built by human 
standards and appear to move upright on two legs, as no bodies are 
found nothing more can be discovered of the Behemoth's crew. The vessel 
is equipped with a bio computer more advanced than the one on board 
Envoy 1 or that which had been on board the Tunguska vessel, however 
the organic computer had run out of the nutrients required to keep it 
alive and so could not be interrogated about the ship or crew. 

November 30th 2002. Carver and Takahama penetrate a new area of the
vessel: they discover what at first appears to be an enormous Etheric 
shift actuator and they transmit data about it back to Earth along with 
all other discoveries made that day. Detailed analysis on Earth reveals 
that the device, though based on Etheric shift technology is not an 
Etheric shift actuator, instead it is theorised that the device allows 
shift into a different extra-spatial dimension and work begins to 
replicate the technology. In another part of the ship Bogdanov and 
Chambers make another crucial discovery, they find a bank of Etheric 
shift actuators linked to particle accelerators. When this information 
is received on Earth it is soon realised that the accelerators would, 
when Ether shifted, cause a focused shockwave through the Ether capable 
of damaging non Ether shifted objects - the devices are weapons, and 
the Behemoth is a warship! 

September 18th 2002. Envoy 2 deploys solid fuelled rocket motors and
ascends into orbit, where it docks with Envoy 1 after which Envoy 2 is 
cast lose and burns up in the Martian atmosphere. Envoy 1 activates its 
ion drive and leaves orbit bound for Earth. On board are samples of all 
materials not previously encountered as well as examples of all 
technologies small enough to be transported home; in addition to this 
are samples of Martian rock, soil and atmosphere. 

October 18th 2002. The first prototype of the replicated non-Etheric
shift actuator is tested and it is found that the device opens a portal 
into what is quickly dubbed ‘hyperspace'. Within hyperspace the speed 
of light is many thousands of times faster than in real-space and the 
amount of energy required to reach a given speed is reduced by the same 
factor. This technology means that if a large enough portal can be 
opened then a vessel could cross vast distances of real-space, using a 
backwards engineered ion drive, quickly and without the problem of 
time-dilation dictated by the general theory of relativity. 
Furthermore, combining this technology with conventional human 
electro-magnetic transceiver technology allows communication over large 
distance with almost no time lag. 

October 21st 2002 21:44 GMT. First contact. During an experiment with
hyperspace transceivers a signal is detected that was not transmitted 
by Neo Mir, since Neo Mir are the only humans with hyperspace 
technology the signal must be extra terrestrial. 

October 27th 2002. Construction begins on Endeavour 2. It is to be
equipped with a hyperdrive actuator and hyperspace transceiver and its 
mission is to return to Mars and cannibalise the Behemoth for 
technology and materials. Carver and Takahama collaborate on the design 
from Envoy 1. 

December 1st 2002. A signal consisting of ascending prime numbers is
directed at the source of the original alien transmission and 17 hours 
later another signal is received. It is deciphered as pi to 36 places 
and this is taken as proof that the human signal was received and 
understood. Over the following months transmissions between Neo Mir and 
the alien civilisation become more and more common and informative to 
both sides. The aliens identify themselves as Andurils. 

February 17th 2003. An Anduril vessel is dispatched to Earth. 

March 1st 2003. The vessel arrives and takes up position behind the moon
to remain undetected by astronomers. 

March 1st 2003. The first face to face meeting between the Anduril
representatives and Neo Mir ambassadors takes place in the Australian 
desert. The Andurils are between three and four feet tall, basically 
humanoid with pale grey skin, large heads and slanting black eyes, they 
have three fingers on each hand, the middle finger being about twice as 
long as the other two. 

June 20th 2003. The Anduril vessel departs for home, three Andurils
remain as ambassadors to Earth. 

July 3rd 2003. The crew of Envoy 1 enter the re-entry module and
disengage from the ship. The computer pilots Envoy 1 into the sun. 36 
hours after abandoning Envoy 1 the re-entry module enters Earth's 
atmosphere and splashes down in the Atlantic. 

July 4th 2002. The crew are recovered and taken to Neo Mir headquarters
in Aachen. They are debriefed and meet with the Anduril ambassador. 
When the ambassador learns the details of the Behemoth he identifies it 
as a Megaeran old style battleship. He reveals that to his knowledge 
there are three spacefaring species in the galaxy, the Andurils, the 
Humans and the Megaerans. Until 180 Earth years ago there was another - 
the Tisiphones - but they were destroyed in a brutal war with the 
Megaerans. The ambassador explains that the Megaerans have a policy of 
treating other spacefaring civilisations as potential threats and so, 
even though the Tisiphones were relatively peaceful they had been 
attacked and destroyed by the grudging Megaerans. The Andurils realised 
that it was only a matter of time before the Megaerans set their sights 
on them, so launched a pre-emptive strike whilst the Megaerans were 
still weakened by the war and the technologically superior Andurils 
succeeded in destroying their military might and confiscated all 
surviving Megaeran warships. They crippled them and dumped them on 
uninhabited planets adjacent to life baring planets who's inhabitants 
were on the verge of discovering spacefaring technology. The ambassador 
also explained that the Megaerans have been rebuilding their military 
over the last few decades and unlike last time their technology is now 
comparable to the Anduril's. 

July 29th 2003. Realising that the Megaerans pose a very real threat to
Earth, Neo Mir sign the ‘Aachen Pact' with the Anduril government. The 
pact is an agreement that in exchange for technology and technical 
training from the Andurils, Earth will provide military aid in time of 
war and vice-versa. 

August 23rd 2003. Endeavour 2 is completed, she becomes the first
starship of the newly formed Solarian Stellar Navy, she is named the 
SNS (Solarian Naval Starship) Endeavour 2. She is launched in one piece 
with the aid of Anduril graviton manipulators. On board is the Envoy 1 
crew plus 13 additional people and one Anduril advisor; also on board 
is the equipment necessary to build a semi-permanent installation on 
the Martian surface. With the aid of the hyperdrive the journey back to 
Mars takes only three days. 

August 29th 2003. Work begins on Hellas station. It is a huge complex
dug deep under ground and it becomes the headquarters of the Stellar 
Navy. Soon after, construction begins of an orbital shipyard above as 
unmanned drones are dispatched to the asteroid belt to begin extracting 
raw materials. The Behemoth is piece by piece dismantled and shipped to 
the Andurils home solar system along with large quantities of asteroid 
material. 

September 5th 2003. Construction of the first ship in Martian shipyard
begins. 

September 30th 2003. Work begins on a ship in an Anduril shipyard. The
ship under construction is too large for the Martian shipyard and is 
being built by the Andurils using supplies shipped from Mars; it is 
being built to a design by Carver and Takahama and is a battleship 
designated Knight class and will be the Stellar navy's flagship. 

December 26th 2003. The first ship to be built in the Martian shipyard
is completed, she is a Lucifer class destroyer named SNS Wildfire. The 
same day the Stellar navy goes public and at a stroke everything from 
SETI to the international space station is rendered moot. There is huge 
number of people who want to join up, because of this the Navy can take 
its pick of the best. They also strike deals with many national armed 
forces thus allowing them to headhunt the best officers. The navy funds 
its operations using precious metals recovered from the asteroid belt. 

January 7th 2004. Two more shipyards in orbit around Mars come on-line.
The SNS Wildfire was a destroyer, but frigates and corvettes are also 
produced and plans are drawn up for another larger shipyard capable of 
producing Cruiser class warships. 

April 2nd 2004. The flagship is complete, her name 

SNS CRUSADER 


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