Fiction:Voyages of the Avenger

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Part One – Departure
The ‘’Avenger’’ is a highly advanced Venator-class Star Destroyer constructed in the year 1 BTC by the Shipyards of Cyroenia for the Republic Fleet. At 1,540 meters long, it is a relatively large destroyer commanded by over three thousand officers. The ship was originally commanded by Fleet Admiral Cretecea, and was the flagship of the Fleet of Retribution; however Cretacea graciously passed it down to his favourite officer, Captain Helo Roslia, a veteran of the March of the Apocalypse.

Born on Caprico’an in 27 BTC, Helo Roslia is a very capable and experienced officer; he is wise beyond his years and has experienced a lot since the beginning of his military career. Probably the strangest thing about him is an apparition of a young woman that has been appearing to him since the end of the Intergalactic War. This apparition refers to herself only as Shelly Liada and appears as an attractive Libertus. She is often very forceful in her beliefs of a One God and claims to be a messenger of it.

Captain Roslia was overjoyed with his promotion to captain and Fleet Admiral Cretacea’s generous gift, the Avenger. Helo arrived at Cyroenia just as the huge battle that plagued it ended, the space above the planet was filled with debris and his shuttle had to slowly navigate across it in order to avoid an impact. Helo cursed the Confederacy under his breath, while trying to look oblivious to Shelly’s presence in the seat beside him. She was being unusually quiet, though looked rather amused.

‘What are you smiling about?’ Helo asked under his breath in order to avoid the attention of the pilot of the shuttle. ‘''Wake up and smell the progress, Helo. I always knew you had leadership capabilities, this is a sure sign of the One’s love for you.''’ Helo smiled nervously, he knew to never question Shelly’s religion.

Just as Helo was about to comment on Shelly’s statement, his attention was caught by a huge ship dock, housing over twelve Star Destroyers, one of which was destined for the exploration of unexplored space. The Avenger was newly cleaned and retrofitted for all the challenges that its designers expected her to face. Helo looked on in awe as the gigantic destroyer contacted the shuttle. This is Avenger Actual, you have permission to land in hanger bay four. said a female voice, Helo recognised it as a Libertus. Roger that, Avenger. the pilot said in confirmation. The small shuttle proceeded to land on the Star Destroyer, where a group of troopers greeted Helo and escorted him to the bridge. ‘Not too shabby’, Shelly says as Helo enters the bridge. The bridge crew all applauded the new officer of the ship, before he gives the command, ‘Engage hyperdrive!’

Prologue - The Departure
As the dust began to settle in the newly claimed Commonwealth of Cyannia in the Cyrannus galaxy, Warlord Kilnok, his fleet of 50 Subjugators and a Gargantuan met with Vice Admiral Cretacious and Captain Rambas II to explore new territories. Much of the First Gigaquadrant was unexplored, but the DCP wanted to expand ever further. Kilnok was transferred to the new ship Iron Hammer. The nearest major unexplored territory was the Xanthrus galaxy. The DCP did have colonies there, but was eager to expand after the cessions in the Treaty of Galayru.

Part 1 - Xanthra Cluster
The three captains, and their fleets joined at Cryoenia, where they set off to their first destination, and that was Xanthrus. The cluster was so distant at well over 30 million light years it took the large fleets over a week to reach it. If the DCP had used shift, the speed would rise expotentially, but the DCP opted for hyperspace so they could travel with the Rambo and URC. As soon as it reached the edge of thw Xanthrus spiral, most of the colonization ships and research craft began to expand existing territories, strengthening the DCP and SSA's position. It would become the Sanctuary space for the DCP and SSA, and the DCP shall build other large fleets to aid their besieged colonies (the DCP by now was fighting the MSP/Vartekians/Imperial Remmant, Grox/CAS/Tralor and the Marinoxidiz/Iteok.

But other riches remained, such as the Niumbus and Lyra galaxies, inhabited by two massive and wealthy empires few had heard of. There was great technologies too to be uncovered. The three fleet commanders set off in their ships, bravely into Astrum Incognita...

Journey of peril - Anomalies
The colonies of the DCP that existed in the Xanthrus galaxy were only on the very edge of the Rim. For reasons yet to be discovered, the Xanthrus Cluster was riddled by spatial anomalies, massive gravitational waves created by colliding black holes big enough to tear systems apart and stranger still, rifts in time. The Raven'rii favoured this region, its near-impenetrable maelstrom cloaked much of their mysterious activities. But within the delphs of the galaxy's murky interior lyes incredible secrets and great treasures, including 3 ecumenopoleis of the Core Federation.

One of the known anomalies was a mysterious nebula, known as the  Violet Ghost Nebula , often quoted as "sweeps throughout the galaxy's eastern arms once every age", it is unknown what causes the nebula's appearence and dissappearence. The DCP wondered whether it was related to a similar feature in the Milky Way center, known as the Paradox of Youth, a star forming region that occurs time to time around the Core, only to be chewed up and erupted into the abyss. Yet sweeps through indicates something else entirely. Warlord Kilnok, Admiral Horlin, Dr.Kenders and a crew of scientists were dispatched in the Iron Hammer to investigate. Using inertial dampners, Tachyon shift and frequent graviton sweeps Kilnok was hopeful that anomalies would be detected, but as Kenders warned, some appear randomely. But the nebula's location was seperated by over 3,500 light years of space.

The wear
It was not long before an anomaly had claimed its first victim. An expeditionary team of the Seven Starr Alliance was ensnared in a gravitational sinkhole. The anomaly was similar to that of a black hole, almost identical infact although this was caused by turbulent phenomena in subspace, and once inside space calms to a standstill (the light is still able to escape and spacetime is falling at the speed of light). Since the ship was not Tachyon shift or ghost capable, its mass would increase and time on board the ship would dilate in time, causing its crew once inside to fall fast into the future.

Luckily the Iron Hammer was within a range of 30 light years, which ghost phased above the sinkholes near-event horizon. As the crew looked blow they could see a dull grey light, as some of it was escaping (as young as it was when it had fallen in, as light has no mass), Dr.Kenders advised that that firing nearly all the negative mass on the ship aboard would decrease the total mass of the sink hole, flattening the the gravity well enough so the the ship in peril could fire its thusters at full force and escape. Using subspace superliminal communication Dr.Kenders tried to instruct the strickned vessel to direct full power to its thrusters, but unfortunatly the sink hole was stronger in subspace and the information wasn't being recieved...

Unfortunatly the commander of the falling vessel was in a panic, and accidently directed to the wrong angle, the ship spiralled into the sinkhole, it looked as if it had been gone for good. As the crew of the Iron Hammer watched helplessly the ship passed through the horizon, and appeared to slow down just above it like a black hole. It was over.

But then Kenders and his collegue Droon thought up a solution. The ship once in the gravity well was actually safe, the inside of such wells were cal,, however because space was moving at the speed of light into the sinkhole, the ship would be forced to time dilate to the future. It was estimated that at the distance x speed x mass covered, the ship would be stranded 25 years into the future, where it would be able to use its FTL to escape (space was calm inside). For the crew onboard however, hardly any time would have passed. So Kilnok ordered a cannister carrying the information needed should be dropped into the sinkhole as well. Content that hopefully the crew will free themselves back into normal time 25 years in the future, the Iron Hammer left. Despite the ghost phase, the Iron Hammer was still subject to some time dilation, and had travelled 6 minuites into the future.

Eubranchids
After the Iron Hammer's rescue, its exotic matter reserves was quite low, so Kilnok ordered the ship to stop by at a nearby star to refuel via the bussard collectors. The superheated hydrogen would be enough to kick the generators into working again. But as the ship was refueling, the ship detected an inhabited planet, scans revealed a very fertile world indeed.

The planet was fourth from its star, and its composition registered as quite a normal silicon crust, but the atmosphere was five times thinner than standard Grimbolsaurian worlds (absorbing more hgeat yet releasing it more quickly into space), yet the planet had a huge life signiture. Several sterlized probes were sent to investigate, meanwhile, on the planet...

''Swaying slightly in the gentle warm wind of the west, the organism and it neighbors stretched out in the direction of the rising heat spread, recieving its life giving energy, and behan to generate what was lossed to the cold rise. Yet, as it watched from inside its transparent chamber, it could see another, smaller heat spread, yet it was far cooler than the daily rise. It was approaching, the heat spread had never done this before, suddenly a feeling of mutual nervousness spread throughout the community, and soon wall buuilders were strengthening the outer walls which thicker sap.''

As the probe travelled over the surface, it was flying over a jungle-like forest of plant-like organisms. Yet as the probed zoomed up on one, it appeared to have giant cells, that reacted to the probe, thickening its walls. Other plant-like flora recieded into the ground.

''The thing, much like the Grazers extended a long tebndril, that scraped through the protective membrane. How could this be possible, no grazer could tear through. Some of his neighbors began ti get submitted to their own fear.''

As the probe inserted its instrument into the plant, it detected smaller heat signitures inside, that were in motion, a whole cluster of organims were living inside. Was were they using the plnt as a home or did they have a symbiotic relationship?

The temperature inside the colony was now dropping, and several of the organisms neighbors were too close the opening, and they were succumbing to the cold rise.

As the probe scanned the colony, it discovered it had a neurological system. Was it an animal? But it also photosynthesized and cllected water and natrients from the soil. But as the probe continued its scanning it found that in fact the plant was a colony of animal-like organisms. The cells inside were in fact eusocial organims who had built a colony that they can control (like coral and Man O' War false-jelly fish). It was more like a sky skraper than anything else. In fact the entire jungle was a living city of eusocial organisms. Soon it was realized that they created these to conserve heat that was easily lossed from the planet's thin atmosphere, and that by puncturing the "stem" they had caused harmed it. The probe moved back, but as it watched the "tower" rebuilt itself. Never had such an ecosystem been discovered before, an entire world of colonies. However, the Iron Hammer was ready to press on and it called back all its probes.

''Unlike any grazer the organism had seen before, the thing left as quickly as it appeared. The breach was being sealed and he decided to help clean up the mess to his shared home.''

Gut contact
The Iron Hammer was now a 1,360 light years from the Violate Ghost Nebula. As it was announced by one of the astronavigators, Kilnok considered how mere this distance was to the DCP. However, he remembered that to a civilization with very limited FTL or none at all, such a distance was inaccessible. It struck a memory, one from seven senturies before, when the Grimbolsaurians were only beginning to explore space, and Kilnok reflected how much had occured both in his life and the lives of his people, perhaps as much as twelve to fourteen generations of them, give or take considering how lifespan had increased each half-century. Kilnok should not have seen most of that, but earlier in his life he was able to acces the secrets of old lifespans...

Suddenly, a short-range signal had been detected from a nearby star system. They had wandered into the territory of a civilization, and the Iron Hammer intercepted exactly where it was coming from. The planet was orbiting a good distance from an O-type star, and scans revealed that it had a civilization. It wasn't long before ships from the surface moved into investigate. They scanned the Iron Hammer, but made no moves. Kilnok sent several incoming communication windows, however, no reply was made...

The ships held their positions, they were no harm to the Iron Hammer. Meanwhile, some of the crew scanned the planets ecosystem, which was very strange indeed, it lived mostly underground, detected via emissions from cave and fissure outlets, but some extremely UV resistent life stood on the surface, basking in the ultraviolet sun.

Admiral Horlin and all Jarzo onboard were struck by digestive problems. He had recently eaten, but was complaining of pains in his bowels, and when the medical team checked him, they discovered he had no healthy bacteria in his stomach, not a trace, and he was suffering from not being able to break down his food easily. It was easily solved, however, it became obvious that the mysterious civilization was more intersted in the bacteria carried in the stomach carried by Jarzo, and had teleported them away. Their biodeversity and ecosystem was so unlike the crew's, that they had no interest in the sapients on board, as they simply did not recorgnise them.

The Iron Hammer left the system before more bowel movements would begin...

Violet ghost nebula
In the last 1000 light years, there was a dramatic increase in anomalies. As the Iron Hammer searched for inhabited systems along the way, they found every system sterile, of course, they could not rule out the possibility of Truly Alien life. The nebulosity was getting thicker and thicker, and so were the gravimetric shears, making sensor readings difficult. The crew decided to speed up the ship instead of slow down, the faster in shift the less physical the ship became, and so the less susceptible to dangers. But as the tachyons lost ever more mass, the ship's speed increased expotentially until they hit the location of the so called nebula. Kilnok ordered full stop, and has soon as the tachyonic field was dispersed the ship made a complete standstill, and no g force was felt.

There was no sign of any nebula. As the legend goes it sweeps by once every eon. There was in fact, no trace of any evidence that the nebula existed. What the nebula only temporary? Where did it go and was it a metaphor? The Iron hammer began to explore surrounding star systems in search for it.

Departure
Rambas was furious, as the Quadrantia Disorder and the Great Cyrannus War were raging on, he was assigned to exploration duty with the Avanger. He just returned from the Battle of Cyroenia and now he was to go to the unknown regions, meeting with the DCP and URC there. He resupplied at Ramaprica, the capital of the Rambo Nation colonies in the Cyrannus Galaxy and headed for the Unknown Regions.

However, arriving there he did not encounter Kilnok or Helio, instead he saw no one and asked his communication officer if they were at the right location. The hel, officer looked surprised and hesitated to tell the Vice-Admiral, but did so none the less. He told Rambas he had no clue where they were as sensors were spinning and they even lost communications with Rambo Command.

Rambas sat heavily in his chair and sighter, what a great start for an exploration mission crossed his mind............