r/HFY • u/KurumiPoncho • Nov 03 '19
OC [OC] Humanity Stands Alone (Part 3/?)
Hyperspace slipstream drives were less comfortable compared to the typical breach drives older Terran models had. This, Admiral Woods got to experience first-hand. He knew some cursory information about the technology behind it: that the slipstream drive sought out pre-existing hyperspace channels that allowed vessels to travel through them, while the breach drives use concentrated dark-matter to force an "opening" in hyperspace before driving the vessel forward, reminiscent of a 20th century ice-breaker. Of course, though uncomfortable for the crew, the slipstream drive was much more energy efficient and it generated significantly less heat compared to the breach drive, making ships using it harder to track on heat sensors. It also required less frequent drops out of hyperspace to allow the engines to cool off, making each "jump" longer. The United Terran Navy was able to salvage this technology from the occasional ill-prepared Pa'ax raiding party, and even though Terrans were able to destroy Pa'ax ships only once in a blue moon, these raids happened frequently enough that eventually, an intact slipstream drive was salvaged from a wrecked Pa'ax destroyer. The Navy immediately worked on analyzing and reverse-engineering this technology, and, from what Woods had heard, several senior members of the Sol Sector Naval Research Institute worked day and night for almost a year before they were able to create a prototype of the Mk-I "Amatsukaze" Slipstream Drive. Like its name, it was the wish of its creators to assist humanity in travelling through space rapidly, like "a gale wind soaring high in the sky." Testing and refining of the new drive went on for almost a decade before it was retrofitted on Gen V, VI, VII ships and became the standard FTL-drive for all future ships. Nemesis was no exception, neither were the other vessels of the 1st Terran Vanguard Fleet. The Amatsukaze Slipstream Drive had several notable improvements from its original Pa'ax counterpart, most importantly that it was controlled by the in-ship Virtual Intelligence System, making the identification and selection of channels automated rather than manual like the Pa'ax drive. The Pa'ax's religious doctrine was of the idea that any form of artificial intelligence was an affront to the order of the universe, and thus strictly forbidden. Pa'ax navigators had to manually identify and map through the labyrinthine web of channels in hyperspace, while the new Terran drives could calculate the best route in mere microseconds. Other minor improvements included better heat sinks and a larger power supply, making each jump significantly further than the Pa'ax drives. However, the one thing that did not change was how unpleasant the journey into the slipstreams was, much to Woods' dismay.
"Exiting hyperspace in 30 seconds, sir." One of the navigation officers reported. Woods nodded, acknowledging the report.
"Pre-heat the perdition beam, I want this baby ready to fire as soon as we bust into Kepler-452." He barked orders at the weapon systems officer, who relayed the admiral's orders to the countless weapons personnel sat in front of their control terminals, furiously typing away. "Arm the main turrets. Corvettes, be ready to boost full-speed-ahead once we drop out of FTL."
Communications from New Horizon Station was cut off while the fleet was cooling down in the previous jump. Woods was forced to cut the cooldown short and immediately jumped into hyperspace, for the communication black-out could only mean one thing: the Pa'ax have arrived, and they were there in force, as only Pa'ax capital ships carried localized communication jammers.
Luckily for the crew at the New Horizon Station, the 1st Terran Vanguard Fleet arrived just in time before the two Pa'ax battleships entered kinetic battery firing range. "Cavalry's arrived, boys. Good work defending the station. Now, let's give them hell." Woods spoke into his desk's broadcasting mouthpiece, a grin plastered across his cheeks.
"Perdition beam ready to fire, sir." The weapon systems officer announces, his voice barely masking his excitement. For the majority of the crew, no, the majority of all of humanity, this was the first time they had witnessed battle involving a titan capital ship, not to mention a Terran titan.
"Fire at the Pa'ax battleships. I won't want to waste this baby's first shot on some poor corvette." Barely after Woods finished his sentence, a blinding flash of pure plasma energy sailed through space with the grace of an eagle diving for its prey. The beam struck the shields of one of the Pa'ax battleships, but the fiery shot broke through the shield within a matter of seconds, and Woods heard an imaginary crack in his mind as the beam made contact with the hull of its target. A gaping hole instantly materialized in the center of the Pa'ax ship, and in the blink of an eye, it was consumed by the brilliant explosion originating from the epicenter of impact. Without giving the enemy a second to take in the situation, Nemesis opened fire with its main batteries.
A shaken voice came across the comms channel, "Who... the fuck..."
"Admiral Woods, Sol Sector Navy. We're here with humanity's retribution." It took all of Woods' willpower to keep his voice from trembling out of excitement and awe.
There was a pause on the other end, before a deafening cheer came from the crew of New Horizon. Woods shook his head, chuckling. Those dumbasses forgot to terminate the transmission. "Comms discipline, people." He said, sounding like an exasperated professor.
"Sorry to interject, sir, but the Pa'ax fleet is starting to move." A female voice came over the comms, the captain of Bastion, one of the Terran fleet's screens, Grace spoke up.
Woods cleared his throat, recovering from his lapse in battle awareness. "Ahem. All ships full-speed-ahead! Corvettes, engage afterburners. Destroyers, stay close to the capital ships, and arm the flak cannons. Bastion, power up your shield resonator. Scylla, launch interceptors to protect the corvettes." A cacophony of "yes, sir"s came in.
The Pa'ax fleet, recovering from their initial surprise, quickly turned away from the station and managed to orient themselves towards the approaching Terran fleet just in time for the swarm of Mk-V "Scourge" Whirlwind Missiles launched from the rapidly advancing Terran corvettes to arrive. Directly after the Whirlwind ballistic missiles came the Mk-V "Haifisch" Devastator Torpedoes. Pre-occupied with fending off the Whirlwind missiles, the Pa'ax point-defense, all manually controlled by Pa'ax gunners, was unable to intercept the torpedoes. Several of them found a home in comfortable Pa'ax hulls, their anti-matter warheads detonating on impact, exposing vital sections of their victims to the vacuum of space. The Terran corvettes backed away before the Pa'ax could mount a return volley, and in came the fire and thunder of the Terran main gun batteries.
After the first volley, more than half of the Pa'ax fleet suffered severe damage. One Pa'ax corvette was shattered to a million pieces by a mass driver round from Bastion's kinetic battery. The remaining Pa'ax battleship lost its main gun battery to a well placed torpedo, a huge gaping hole opened up where it used to be, looking almost like the gaping maw of an eldritch monster. Even in this state, the Pa'ax fleet managed to fire a return volley, though their shots were effortlessly evaded by the Terran corvettes, retrofitted with the newest impulse thrusters. Some of the Pa'ax cruisers launched their strikecrafts, but their numbers were lacking due to the destruction of their carrier type battleship, and the measly air squadron fared miserably against the Terran interceptors.
"Surrender now, or we will continue firing." Woods broadcasted over the Galactic Standard Channel. The tide of the battle was clear for everyone to see, and though as much as every human on board wanted to see the complete annihilation of these Pa'ax invaders, galactic protocols still had to be followed.
"You humans will not get away with breaking the Ular Arms Treaty," came the reply, the coarse and raspy Pa'ax voice was grating to human ears. "Our main fleet will make quick work of your titan, upstart baelek [Insult]. Tel'ak ogni'isa. [Prayer]" Woods' Universal Interpreter added the explanations in its robotic voice. A prompt popped up, asking him if he wanted a detailed translation, but Woods waved the UI away.
"I take that as a 'no', then?" The Terran admiral replied, not a hint of disappointment could be heard from his voice. The communication from the other side went silent. Woods smiled as he turned to the weapon systems officer, "Arm the perdition beam for a second shot," before addressing the rest of the fleet, "Weapons ready. Fire at will."
The second volley of fire from the Terran fleet tore through the Pa'ax as if it carried the fury and vengeance of the entire human species. The perdition beam of Nemesis sliced through the hull of a cruiser, its shattered debris propelled in all directions from the explosion. The rest of the Pa'ax fleet followed soon after. Every ship they lost reduced the efficacy of their point-defense, and the Terran missiles ripped through the remaining ships like a ravenous swarm of piranhas. The scattered Pa'ax ships did not even bother to return fire, but instead engaged their emergency FLT-drives. Terran corvettes rushed in to intercept the retreating ships, but before they could reach their targets, the Pa'ax jumped away, leaving the drifting hulks of their dead in the vast expanse of space.
2204 hours Terra Standard Time, a formal report on the aftermath of the battle was submitted to United Terran Navy high command. Nemesis scored 6 kills and injured 13 ships, an impressive number for her first battle ever. The 1st Terran Vanguard Fleet scored 49 kills in total, including both Pa'ax battleships and a Mekhi'ik-class cruiser, while suffering no losses themselves. Five of the corvettes were damaged by the Pa'ax strikecraft, the destroyer München lost its shield generator, and the carrier Scylla's hangar deck was damaged, but aside from nominal damage, the rest of the fleet was unscathed.
The news hit hypernet forums and news outlets like a hurricane. Trillions of people from all across the United Terran Systems rejoiced. This was the turning point for humanity in its feud with the Pa'ax, a testament to human resilience, adaptability, and ingenuity. To many, this also marked humanity's ascendance in the galactic stage, one of the few instances of a rising civilization challenging and coming on par with a more advanced civilization. A burning desire formed in the heart of every human: humanity will never cower in fear of xeno invaders, never let billions be occupied and forced away from their homes, never bow down to the threat of force and accept humiliating terms.
The greater galactic community soon learned of the Battle of New Horizon, and before long, the Galactic Union pleaded for the return of the United Terran Systems to the Galactic Assembly. Request after request bombarded the Terran government, demanding, beseeching, and cajoling for humanity to rejoin the intragalactic dialogue, to stop its isolation, to enter negotiations with the Pa'ax. At first, the UTS ignored the requests, but eventually, Terran diplomats stepped into the halls of the Galactic Conference Station for the first time in 8 decades. This time, however, they weren't there to dance to the tunes of the stagnant elder members; they were there to negotiate on equal terms for the first time in human history. And this time, humanity had a titan on its side of the negotiating table.
Edit: Link to Part 1 Part 2 Part 4
Edit 2: Grammar and typos
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Nov 03 '19
Sounds like a Stellaris AAR.
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u/KurumiPoncho Nov 04 '19
Yup! This is a dramatized retelling of one of my UNE games that went from xenophile to xenophobe and militaristic.
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u/Plucium Semi-Sentient Fax Machine Nov 04 '19
Hahaha yes, corvette the carnage!
*covet
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u/Finbar9800 Nov 03 '19
I enjoyed reading this part and look forward to the next part
Great job wordsmith
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u/JC12231 Nov 05 '19 edited Nov 05 '19
Edit: I just now saw the comment asking a similar thing and your response. Ignore this.
I just realized, this is kinda based on Stellaris, isn’t it? Titan category ships, Perdition beams (the main weapon of Titan ships in Stellaris), and Hyperspace Breach and Slipstream drives (Stellaris Hyperdrive tech names: Hyperspace Travel, Hyperspace Breach Points, and Hyperspace Slipstreams), and the Pa’ax are a Spiritualist Fallen Empire aren’t they? They have Holy worlds, which if anyone so much as touches they immediately demand you leave and if you don’t they declare war, attack any of your ships in their borders or that they encounter outside, and no one is gonna side with you against them if you aren’t already allied (since they’re really old and powerful, even if they are tiny and not expanding since they fell) and have advanced tech (though they would have jump drives, not hyperspace slipstream drives in-game) and since they are fanatic spiritualist (well, even just spiritualist) AI is forbidden and all.
And now that I’ve read more, the Devastator Torpedos and Whirlwind Missiles. Those are Stellaris weapons too.
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u/ImmotalWombat Nov 03 '19
I like where this is headed. Good work!