Smoke billowed in from the vents, her eyes stung and watered as she hopped over a fallen beam. In the background fire crackled, one of several that had broken out over the ship, but her gaze wasn't for the damage her ship had taken. On the screen she watched the last Raider vessel slip away, her muscles relaxing a bit as the tension drained away. Without looking away, she asked, "Damage Report?"
"Main drives are out, primary power has failed. Fires reported on decks three, four, seven, nine and twelve. Hull plating is a mess, multiple hull breaches, decks thirteen, fourteen and fifteen have been vented. Defense turrets four, six, nine, and thirteen are out of commission, and we've lost power to the main cannons. Other than that, we are doing just dandy."
"Shields?"
"Intermittent, generators are fine, but they hit the distribution manifolds. Unless we fix them, the shields will fail in seven hours."
"Get a team on that," she ordered as she turned to their mysterious savior. She'd seen the fighters, but not the mothership yet, "I guess that the shadows people have been talking about are real."
Her first comment was, "I never thought anyone would be crazy enough to fly a fighter in this storm."
"Nor did I, but I'm seeing it now."
"Contact! Very large bearing nine-four mark one-two."
"Let's see her," replied the commander as the screen flickered then shifted to show a massive vessel emerging from the swirling clouds, lightning flickered along her hull, revealing the dark black and silver paint. There was no doubt about this being the mothership, and her lines were sleek yet predatory.
"Definitely a warship ma'am. I'm reading multiple concealed turrets, beam arrays and missile turrets. Hull plating is fairly thick as well."
"Incoming data stream! High-density lexicon code."
"Reply with our own," she responded, then glanced at her sensor officer, "What kind of weapons are we talking about?"
"High energy particle cannons from the look of it, same as the fighters, just a hell of lot bigger. Beam arrays also seem to be particle based, no idea about the missiles but I imagine they'd hit harder too."
"I'd wager they are photons, the fighters were using photon warheads."
"Wonderful, let's hope things stay friendly. The gods know we could use more friends out here."
"Ack, well you know how it is out here. Friends today, enemies the next. Doesn't help that resources are scarce out here, you know that."
"Doesn't mean we can lose our morals," replied the captain.
"Incoming hail!"
She looked up just before the screen flickered again, this time giving her a fuzzy view of a dim alien bridge. An alien figure sat in a chair on a balcony, but he was kinda hard to make out. At least she thought it was a male, "I'm Captain Countryman, commander of the EFS Enterprise and you are?" began the alien.
"Felki of the Drifter vessel Stormwolf. Thank you for driving the raiders off, but I can't say I have much to thank you with. Ship's a bit of a wreck and we are kinda low on fuel already."
"I can see that. I can certainly lend a hand getting your ship back order, as for payment we could use some more information. We haven't really had much time to do any exploring since we got here. Nice to meet someone who isn't trying to shoot at us though."
She chuckled, "The raiders? You get used to them, resources are scarce out here, piracy is one of the few ways you can get them. It's just as dangerous but the storm swallows plenty of wrecks and the occasional celestial body. We drifters largely prefer harvesting from those rocks as they often have useful materials for patching hulls."
"Nice to know, but since you mentioned fuel I take it that's as hard to come by as I fear it is?"
"Afraid so, the most plentiful fuel source we've found is uranium, plenty of rocks are laced with it. Assuming you don't mind relying on fission power over cleaner more powerful forms of energy."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Anyway about that help? We could use some extra hands patching some power conduits and manifolds. I've got a bit of a clock before the shields fail."
"Oh? We haven't had much luck with shields. I think we can help out, in exchange for a few notes."
She blinked, "I see, but if you don't mind me asking, how are you not dead from the radiation?"
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
"Superior medical technology, long story short, we figured out how to render ourselves immune to the radiation."
"...Fancy trick that," she replied after a moment's hesitation. The advantage that gave these newcomers was quite obvious to her. No wonder they were able to use fighters, they didn't need to worry about the exposure killing their pilots."
A couple of hours later Countryman was in the starboard hangar watching the pilots and engineers prep for the mission. His initial impressions of the Gyn'ri captain were pretty positive. She was a younger woman from the sound of things and that tail of hers was somewhat expressive.
Richards popped into view half out of uniform and carrying her Delta series suit of armor. Countryman blinked, "Going over there yourself?"
"Well I heard you were going over for more discussions, figured I'd take advantage and get a close and personal look at their systems." said Richards as she closed the door, dumping her gear to the side.
They were in one of the observation posts, so they were somewhat out of the way, but he could already see what she was doing. "I was, mind if I leave you while you get dressed?"
"Nah, figured it wouldn't matter," she replied as she pulled what was left of her uniform off, leaving her in her skinsuit, which didn't really do much for modesty. "Did you see the specs they sent us?"
"I did, aside from the shields, that cruiser is looking about thirty to fifty years behind us."
"I noticed that, but they survived the transition, whereas the Valorian Dreadnought did not."
Countryman looking out on the flight deck replied, "I think that had more to do with their hull construction. They have a thicker hull and reinforced bulkheads, combined with half-decent shields they had enough endurance to get through the transition. On a different note I would be negligent not to remind you the dreadnought survived transition as well, they just broke up a few hours later."
Megumi poked him, making him turn, she was now half dressed in her armor, but she was still effectively topless. She looked him in the eyes, "I wouldn't really call that survived, but trust a Valorian to neglect proper structural integrity."
"Trust a Confederation designer, some of the ones we recruited have proposed some interesting upgrades to our armor."
"I saw, I was particularly interested in their approach to superconductors and energy absorber arrays."
"So am I, I have high hopes for that project. It's one I have an eye on."
"Well I don't blame you, it is certainly novel."
"Naturally, fresh eyes so to speak, we've had our own school of thought on the subject for decades. It's harder to think outside of the box. Meanwhile, the Valorian scientists don't have our predispositions, combined with suddenly being confronted with our knowledge on it, they are starting to look for new applications."
Megumi nodded as she secured her breastplate, "I noticed, they couldn't believe we used superconductors in nanites for example."
Countryman laughed as he recalled that discussion. Nanotechnology was possible without nanoconductors as they were called, but frankly they just wouldn't be as capable without them. Current generation nanites used nanoconductor filaments in their microcircuitry, these tiny filaments were only a molecule thick so the lack of resistance was vital. "Right well the Valorian confederation is centuries behind us when it comes to Nanotechnology, not surprising they would also be behind us with related superconductor technologies."
"Yeah I know, did you know that... Pelia I think was it?" she shook her head, "Anyway this one Valorian girl has been so fascinated by it that she's been designing a new nanite. Pretty impressive specs, really, she fitted an incredibly tiny grav field generator in it."
"Pelia? Yeah I saw her work, it passed my desk yesterday."
"So what did you think sir?"
"I'd keep an eye on her. If her insights into nanotechnology are anything to go by she just might crack the secret to practical regenerative hull armor," commented Countryman, the technology he was talking about already existed but the self repair abilities were limited, expensive to implement and generally not worth it. The idea showed up often in science fiction, but actually implementing it wasn't easy. Nanites did a wonderful job building stuff, but repairing a hull in vacuum just didn't work so well. They couldn't maneuver well in the environment. That problem with maneuvering played a large role in the current nanofabricator design, nanites were virtually useless outside of a fluid medium like water. A grav field engine small enough for a nanite would completely revolutionize modern nano-technology.
"I've actually got a couple of ideas on that. With a little work we could modify our armor with nanite channels and production nodes, the engines she devised won't work as well as I like, but it would allow nanite swarms to conduct minor repairs to the armor. Anything short of a hull breach, and they'd be able to deal with it."
Countryman blinked, "I can think of a lot of people that would like that. It would save a lot of effort replacing plates that simply fractured after a battle."
"Sounds like something to look into. I can think of a few names we might recruit for an armor improvement project."
"Sure we can do that later, in the meantime I'd like to get a good look at that drifter ship."
"Note, and it looks like the rest of your team is about ready."
"You coming with?"
"I'll be on the next shuttle, but a couple of my guards will be coming with you."
"See you there, then" said Richards as she moved out of the observation room. Countryman turned to watch the shuttles depart and waited to get the all clear signal.
It came a few minutes later, so he put on his helmet and headed for the waiting shuttle. Like Megumi Richards he'd also donned some armor before going over, nothing fancy just a modified Delta series suit. The main difference being that it included a modified weapons port that integrated with his own built-in weapon. While wearing the suit, he enjoyed the same firepower but the suit boosted his recharge rate. Hopefully he wouldn't need that, or the protection the suit would give him. The main point of the suit was to provide protection in the case of a hull breach; that ship had taken a pounding and some sections were vented.
Boarding his shuttle, he alerted the pilot to take off. In a few minutes, he'd be meeting the drifter captain in person, then they would be able to have a real conversation.