Chapter 38: Chapter Thirty-Four Exploring a Wreck

 

Kiru stepped into the room. It was about time for her squad to deploy. As such, she had followed May, and Qei down to the shuttlebay. This room was an equipment locker just outside of the shuttlebay. Looking around she could see numerous lockers sealed with some transparent material. Behind these barriers she could see rows upon rows of rifles, pistols, grenades, rocket launchers, and more. Even weapons she could not even identify. Assuming they were even weapons. They looked like they might be a weapon, but she could not be sure. She gazed around at the different alien weapons.

Qei smiled, “Impressive sight isn’t it. More so for you, maybe, since you didn’t get the download.”

Kiru nodded, It was an impressive-looking armory. May approached a locker full of pistols and opened it. She pulled out a few pistols while saying, “Based on the mission brief, we shouldn’t need these, but they might be handy in a pinch.”

Kiru accepted one, and looked it over curiously. May informed her, “That is a standard-issue L Double P infantry plasma laser. Model 2311. It draws power from an interchangeable Hyperphased Plasma cell in the grip. It has three variable intensity settings, and can be set for either focused or wide beam settings. The pistol also has a secondary firing mode in which it rapid fires charged plasma pulses. While useful we won’t need the secondary mode. The main reason we are bringing these along is that unlike our personal defense cannons, LPP-2311 has a stun setting.”

Kiru interrupted her there, as she had a couple of questions. She had no idea what a Hyperphased Plasma Cell was, and she was pretty sure that most Solean weapons didn’t have a stun setting. “What exactly is a Hyperphased Plasma Cell? I have never heard of that technology.”

May sighed, “In simple terms, it’s a form of fusion reactor. It utilizes a low energy form of plasma fusion to generate usable energy. These types of reactors are remarkably efficient at converting generated power into usable energy with virtually no loss.”

Qei interjected, “Plasma reactors have a long history. The oldest versions were first employed on Battlehawk class vessels, but they weren’t even phased then. Often employed in grouped arrays, as the cells are rather small individually. I believe it was not until the Solfire class that the Solean people started to employ Phased Plasma cells. Hyperphased is a wholly different animal. Hyperphased Plasma actually exists in a state of hyperspatial flux.”

Kiru stopped her, this explanation was getting rather above her head. She knew enough now to know what was in the pistol. “So in other words this pistol is powered by a miniaturized fusion reactor? I was not aware fusion reactors could be made that small.”

They both nodded, and Qei said, “Most forms of fusion can’t be, but plasma fusion can. A fact that makes it invaluable. Its invention revolutionized small arms, and it will do the same for the Neku if they discover the secret.”

She could imagine so. It would allow for infantry and ship crews to wield more powerful small arms. May suddenly interjected “Anyway, you can read more about them in the ship’s library. Anyway, what you do need to know is that the plasma cell in the pistol should be good for about twenty thousand shots on the stun setting.” She paused and pointed out three spots on the grip, “These nodes are designed to interface with our systems. Your hud will keep track of its settings and power level for you. You can also change the firing settings with a thought. However, you must physically depress the trigger to fire.” 

May pointed out a large grey button just below the display on the pistol. “This here is the firing trigger. The display above it would give you everything your hud does. So feel free to ignore that.”

A third voice interjected, “As fascinating as this is, we do have a mission to get to.”

Kiru looked over. It was the hacker who had been assigned to the team. Kiru had met her briefly earlier. Thankfully she didn’t look like her, like Qei and May did. As the hacker came from a different batch with a different base genetic template. Kiru believed the young woman had been introduced as Iris, and she seemed quite proficient with computers. Not that Kiru could really judge the young lady’s skill set. May replied, “We can finish on the shuttle, I guess.”

May and Qei gestured towards the door opposite the entrance. As Iris grabbed a pistol, they headed on through to the shuttlebay. Sitting not far from the door, ready for launch was an unfamiliar shuttle. It sat low with a sharp-angled hull. A pair of short predatory-looking wings spread from either side of the fuselage. Despite the predatory appearance, she could spot no obvious weapon mounts. No turrets, no gun ports, no missile launchers. Not only was there a lack of obvious weapons, but she could not spot any engines either. At least not at first. As she drew closer, Kiru spotted a pair of nacelles mounted at the base of each wing, but no other signs of propulsion. On the starboard side towards the front, there was a hatch just above the base of the wing. A gangway had been extended to allow boarding. There was a spot at the rear that also looked like it might sport a hatch and gangway, but it was sealed.

Qei informed her, “This is our ride. A Starwolf class heavy assault shuttle. If you haven’t already, I suggest you read the library entries on the shuttle.”

Kiru had not read those entries yet, but made a mental note to do so at the earliest opportunity. Especially since she had never even seen this shuttle class before. As she approached the hatch, she inquired, “Anything you can tell me now?”

Qei nodded, “The Starwolf is the mainstay assault shuttle of the Solean fleet. Equipped with multi-adaptive shielding, a supplemental energy armor matrix, and Overlord Armor 200 centimeters thick. This little ship can take quite the pounding. She is outfitted with two PPB banks, four hellfire plasma turrets, and a pair of torpedo launchers. The ship can carry up to forty standard micro torpedoes. The rear bay can transport two tanks and fourteen soldiers to the battlefield.”

As she entered the hatch, she thought back to her first look at the shuttle. It certainly did seem large enough to carry two armored vehicles, and still have room to spare for a few soldiers.

---

The shuttle landed a few hundred meters south of the main crash site. By then Kiru had been given a full inflight briefing on the operation of the LPP-2311. They never covered the secondary fire mode, but she had been told they won’t need it for this mission. She had a feeling they were right. The slimes were supposed to be nonaggressive, and she had been given a briefing on what kind of defenses the ship’s internal security grid would likely contain. Key areas would be protected by light plasma turrets, and armored security doors. Both of which could be dealt with from any security station. However the turrets were protected by only light armor, and could be disabled easily with more aggressive measures.

Kiru made for the door. Hoping that the mission would be as uneventful as possible. If she was lucky, the turrets would recognize them as friendly like they were supposed to. Unfortunately that was not guaranteed, but if they didn’t, they shouldn’t be much of an issue. Her personal shield should protect her from them quite well, and her own defense cannon should be able to knock a turret out in short order.

Kiru exited the shuttle with the rest of the four man team. Her eyes quickly surveyed the area around the landing site. The terrain was rocky and devoid of vegetation. Not surprising given that there wasn’t much light here. Comparable to a night with a new moon. Perhaps just a little brighter, as the land itself had a bit of a glow. Veins of light blue light formed intricate sprawling patterns as far as the eye could see. These veins even extended over the hulking form of the wrecked freighter. As such she could see its mangled and twisted hull quite clearly. In fact she could see it far better than she had expected. A fact she appreciated as the alien world was beautiful. The view overhead was dominated by the nearby worlds. Scattered between those alien globes was the light of twinkling stars. A view broken only by dark orange clouds that glowed lightly as they drifted through the night sky. 

Nearby she spotted the slow lazy movements of a few slimes. One of which formed a tentacle that soon faced them. At its tip was clearly an eye. The slime was looking at them. It stared for a moment or two. Then the tentacle retracted into its body, and it went the other way. With the distinctive and slow flowing movement of a slime. It seemed the ship was right, they were not inherently aggressive. Her eyes moved back to the wreck, and she commented, “It’s a bit brighter here than I expected.”

“Yes. Seems that some of the microbes have developed a form of bioluminace.” commented Qei.

Mei replied, “It’s quite the pretty vista.”

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Iris interjected, “Unfortunately, we didn’t come here to sightsee, but it is an impressive vista alright. Anyway, I think I see our entry point from here.”

Kiru saw it too. There was a breach in the hull at ground level. They should easily be able to enter the vessel from that breach. She agreed with the assessment of Iris, and the group made their way to the wreck.

As they drew closer, she commented, “It must have been a fairly violent crash to have mangled the wreck this badly.”

May replied, “Maybe not as violent as you think. It shouldn’t be this badly damaged, not from the crash anyway. The battle must have dealt serious damage to Structural Integrity. Without those systems reinforcing the hull...” She trailed off, but the point was already made.

Kiru recalled that SI systems were known to mitigate the effects of impact damage just as well as they did weapons fire. Those systems having failed would certainly help explain the extent of the impact damage she could see. Although not all of the damage was from impact. Some of it was quite clearly weapons damage. The hull breach they were approaching was clearly of the latter. The hull was melted and scorched in that section of the freighter, not twisted or mangled. Clear signs that an energy blast had impacted the hull at that point.

Moments later, the four entered the wreck through the breach. The entire section was scorched by whatever weapon had been used to penetrate the hull. They found a sealed blast door leading into the ship fairly quickly, but soon discovered that the door controls were nonfunctional.

“I guess we will have to cut our way through,” commented Kiru.

May glanced at Iris, who was still examining the broken door controls. “Perhaps not. Iris?”

“The outer casing is scorched, but the circuitry is still intact. Give me a minute to bypass the control panel and I can get the door open.” Responded Iris, as she opened her equipment pouch and pulled out a strange tool. Kiru watched her work, and true to her word, it only took about a minute to bypass the control panel. A minute after that, the door slid open with a slight squeal. Revealing a stretch of corridor lit dimly by flickering emergency lights.

Kiru appreciated their presence. As it gave her something to see by, and she marveled at the fact the wreck still had power. The briefing told her it did, but seeing it for herself just made it feel more real. The corridor was in fairly good shape, and she noticed a few doorways lining the walls of the corridor.

As they walked down the corridor, they peeked into the rooms. All of them were in disarray, and a couple were thoroughly destroyed. Yet there was enough intact to determine that these were crew quarters, and this part of the ship was low security. None of the quarters seemed appropriate for anyone of officer rank, so these quarters were likely used by lower-ranked crewmen. 

Making small talk, she commented, “It’s impressive that this old wreck still has power.”

“Not really. Of all the systems on a ship, the power systems are by far the most important.”

Kiru nodded, “True. Most designers give the power systems the greatest degree of redundancy. After all, if power fails, everything else fails. On my last ship there were even emergency power cells hooked up to the life support system as part of a last gasp measure to keep that system functioning.”

Qei nodded, “That isn’t all that uncommon. From what I have been taught, most races do that because life support is the system everyone prefers to have fail last.”

“True. Every ship I served on, and encountered had a high degree of redundancy for the life support and power systems.”

As they reached another door, May commented, “Well what good is a warship if power fails completely with the first hit?

No one answered. The answer being quite obvious. Instead they focused on the security door blocking their path. Kiru noted text written on a plate on the door. It was labeled ‘Arms Locker 17.’ She commented, “looks like an arms locker.”

“Yes, but it’s the last room we can access, and we can’t go further thanks to that collapsed bulkhead. Anyway there should be an emergency maintenance hatch in the arms locker. We can use that to get deeper into the ship.”

As Iris started work on bypassing the security lock to open the door, Kiru said, “I’d have placed defenses in an arms locker.”

Qei nodded, and May stated, “Yes, there should be two plasma turrets in this room. I guess we are about to find out if the target recognition system is still working.”

Qei replied, “Well if not our shields should keep us safe.”

Kiru agreed with that sentiment. She had seen the strength of her shields, and it was hard to imagine anything could penetrate them. Before she could say a word, the security door slid open. Revealing a dimly lit arms locker. Half the lockers were smashed, and the others were empty. Against a rear wall was a pile of bones still holding an old rifle. Kiru had barely registered the corpse, when the room flashed bright. Several angry red bolts of plasma slammed into the doorway, and her shields flared. A quick glance at her shield bar indicated that they had been drained a little over twenty percent.

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