This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/KyleKKent on 2024-09-06 22:47:32+00:00.

First

(Sorry for the lateness, new oven finally came in and I can finally eat normally again!.. But it took so long I need to get new ingredients. The ones I got last month have gone bad by now. But first I wasted WAY TOO MUCH time trying to figure out just how the oven controls work… I thought I was getting something exact but it’s just HI and LO. Good grief. That’s a whackload of minutes in the toilet.)

Elsewhere, With Others

“Captain, there’s something here on the scanners. I don’t know what I’m seeing exactly and it only shows up on thermals. Only vaguely.” Mister Wind states and Captain Ragni frowns.

“Do we have some kind of visual?”

“I can bring up the camera feed of the patch of space it’s in, but we’re not detecting anything.”

“On screen.” He orders. And while the view of alien stars is truly beautiful in it’s ethereal way. There is nothing there. Just the general blinking shining tapestry of starlight. Albeit not in any pattern Ragni finds familiar. The cost of sailing the stars, they always look so very different between looks.

The blinking pattern shifts ever so slightly and Ragni’s eyes narrow. “Focus in on the bottom left quarter. Something is there.”

The screen zooms in. In the distance there is a pale purple nebula with numerous bright white spots between them and it.

“Sir?” Mister Wind asks.

“I thought I saw…”

“Sir! I spotted it!” Mister Wind says and quickly the image zooms in again. Then it’s much clearer, something dark is blocking out a star then moving on before semi-blocking the view of another. It’s clearly artificial. “It matches up perfectly with the thermal signature.”

“So we have guests…” Captain Ragni says before tapping a few controls on his Command Couch. “Consultant! On the bridge! We have something strange here.”

“Prep for teleportation.” Harold replies.

“Confirmed, you won’t be shot if you just appear.”

“Thank you sir.” Harold says as he’s suddenly there. There is a sensation of something… other. A not sound that Captain Ragni clearly did and yet did not hear. “Potential hostile?”

“Possible. They’re skulking about.”

“Hmm… not hostile but suspicious as it gets.” Harold notes as he slinks through the bridge to stand behind Mister Wind. “Do you mind me being here?”

“I do, but I’ll put up with it, this could be bad.”

“Thank you for your patience.” Harold says as he watches the distortion. “Well it certainly is a starship, it just changed it’s flight pattern.”

“Yes, that much is obvious.” Mister Wind notes.

“At this range our sensors won’t be able to determine much more about it without possibly alerting our skulking friends.”

“And do you have any actually useful insights?”

“In a moment, if it passes in front of that slight extension of the nebula…” Harold begins before chuckling. “Okay, that sucker is considerably smaller than The Inevitable. It’s general shape suggests it’s a frigate for lack of a better term. This thing is fast but not well armoured. However, it can have all sorts of Axiom surprises.”

“If it attacks what are our options?” Captain Ragni asks.

“Flack and chaff are our best solutions if it’s hostile. Standard shielding in the galaxy is geared towards lasers and plasma and a frigate like this won’t have the sheer bulk to resist something like rail shot or even just some well aimed missiles or torpedoes. We hit a ship like this kinetically and the whole vessel feels it and loses a great deal of its combat capacity.”

“Hmm… makes one wonder why kinetics aren’t more widely used.”

“Cost primarily. Lasers are basically free after installation and plasma rounds are compressed, agitated, and magnetically bottled gasses which any nearby world or even just a bit of light asteroid mining can get you by the kiloton. Both burn through ships well enough while leaving a good chunk intact for capture or salvage despite taking them down, but a kinetic attack rips things apart and you have to carry the ammo which to be truly useful needs further refinement and manufacture.”

“Sensible. Furthermore the lack of proper atmosphere means that the lasers and plasma attacks have a truly respectable range.” Captain Rangi notes.

“Correct captain.” Harold notes. “So do we kick this potential beehive?” He asks and Captain Rangi considers for a few moments.

“No, but I want to know where that thing is at all times.” Rangi states.

“Fair enough. I’ll be putting my team on alert in case things start getting exciting.”

“See to it Consultant.” Captain Rangi states and Harold salutes before teleporting out.

“We need a way to block that.” Mister Wind notes.

“We do, however any modification to the ship has to done by officially sanctioned engineers.” Captain Rangi says with a sigh as he starts to feel the red tape outright strangling him.

“And they can only use technologies and techniques properly studied by the appropriate approved scientists.” His communications officer Mister Shen adds.

“And THEY cannot approve of a subject unless they have a legally recognized Higher Education accreditation in it.”

“And no non-Earth University or Collage is legally recognized as appropriate accreditation. Meaning Axiom based studies are OUT.” Mister Wind finishes.

“I know. I know. It’s a clusterfuck. However, I’ve been speaking with Observer Wu, we’re finding loopholes.”

“Maybe sir. But every day I’m out here the more I understand why the first ship went Rogue.”

“It’s not hard to figure out. You teach people to beat anything and then tie them down and of course they’re going to break out.” Captain Ragni states. “But our duties are our duties, no matter how understandable The Undaunted are they’re still a potential problem. We take their measure and go home.”

“Yes sir.”

“Now, keep me updated on that ship. I want a report every five minutes unless it’s status changes.”

“Yes sir.” Mister Wind notes.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

“So potential hostiles? None confirmed? Var’Yania asks.

“No, but a ship skulking at the edge of sensor range, without it’s IFF, transponder or communications on is suspicious as all hell.” Harold states.

“If we were in a patrol ship we’d already be hailing those people.” Suri’Char, a very distant relation to Brin’Char, says.

“Not all of us worked as officers before oh dear sister in battle.” Larl’Hren says.

“Not much to recommend to it. A lot of red tape as humans call it. Also there’s just so many Platen working in it. It’s almost a parody.”

“Is it true that if you scare them really badly they curl up into armoured balls?” Larl’Hren asks.

“I can answer that one, and the answer is no. At least, not adults. They’re too big for it.” Harold says holding his arms out as if containing a sizable bust. “The little girls though? They can do it.”

“Oh… would that mean a well mated mother could also do so?”

“Yes, but they still make breathing hard.” Harold answers.

“And how do you know this?”

“I have the memories of a high rank Intelligence Officer. The sheer amount of nonsense that goes across Herbert’s desk is enough to casually gain an understanding about just about anything. Not a deep understanding I will admit, but an understanding none the less.”

“Consultant.” Harold’s communicator activates and he taps it.

“Present Captain.”

“We’re being scanned on a low profile, it’s paying attention to the more inhabited parts of the ship. We suspect that they’re about to do something. Give me insights.”

“Inhabited areas, low profile ship, in unpatrolled space and… We may have slavers or pirates. I’m going to spread my team and myself into those areas being scanned so we might intercept any incoming or outgoing teleports. Tell your men to be on guard and ready to rumble at any moment.”

“Boarding teleportation. Well that’s an issue.”

“And takes very specific materials or shielding to block.” Harold says. “I’m going to get moving now, Jameson out.”

He puts the communicator on standby and looks to his squad. “Well you all overheard that, spread out among the ship and be ready for interception. Banshee, Eve, do you two know how to…”

They teleport behind him and he turns with a smirk. “Good. You have your orders. Carry them out soldiers.”

He begins moving. If the other ship was probing them then they were about to do something. The question is, what and when?

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

The answer was, teleport kidnap someone and the when was in five minutes.

Harold had intercepted the sensation and had introduced himself to the kidnappers with an Axiom infused dropkick that cratered the chest plate of mechanized armour and sent the battlesuit slamming into the far wall after knocking over two of it’s fellows like bowling pins and sending them careening into waiting forces.

“You’ve done it now!” He calls out. His communicator goes off as he grabs a blasting stun cannon with the electricity parting against his palm before pulling it, and the mechanized armour holding it, over his head and slamming it to the ground.

“Too much! They’re too much! Send him back! SEND HIM BACK!” Someone screams out before he feels things invert and the ceiling lights up. Slaps his left hand over his pant’s pocket and a single device is gone. He’s then teleported back into the forward mess hall and still has the cannon going off against his palm as he arrives.

“Hunh… firing mechanism’s stuck. Hang on.” He …

Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1fasb4o/oocs_into_a_wider_galaxy_part_103/