Valhalla Rising

[MB52]

*Onboard the LNX_ThunderBay, enroute to a classified location*

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if I may have your attention " Jessica looked down the long conference table, all her officers were paying attention but a couple scientists were still busy discussing some reports "Ahem, everyone"

They put down the papers and looked up at her.

"Alright, as you all know we are at the edge of the California system. Navy command has assigned us an interesting task. It would appear the war with Rheinland is under control for now, and we are to deal with other matters. At 15 hundred hours, yesterday a deep space sensor satellite in Alaska picked up some alarming readings in the Coronado system"

She brought up a display, showing the readings, then put them next to the readings from a Dom, Kavosh hypergate in the Omicron Minor system.

"Seems there might be a gate in this system, and we are to investigate. I want everyone ready, we don't know what to expect."

The ship entered Cortez and immediately the Cloak was raised. The ship silently moved its way to the location of the Coronado Jumphole, or at least the location a greedy freelancer had given them. Reaching the jumphole the ship jumped inward. The area the signals were coming from was the interior of an ice field... the ship slowly moved in, its scanners at full strength when the comm unit activated.

"Admiral, we are receiving a message from the Louisbourg Fortress, they have been apprised of our mission and are standing by to provide support"

"Alright, acknowledge that we've received the message. helm how are we doing"

"We are, about 20k from the structure, it should be in sight soon, Ma'am"



She cringed... did he just call her Ma'am.. she hated that.... "On screen"

Visibility was low... nothing out of the ordinary for the barrier nebula, but a lightning flash... and the silouette of a vast gate could be seen... the ship approached, taking careful scans.

"It appears to be damaged and inactive" shouted an excited scientist
"Theres a ship nearby!" shouted another

"Scan the ship"

"its a rogue freighter of some sort... no power, no life signs.. no damage... "

"strange bring it in.."



Suddenly the ships alarm system went off, indicating high levels of radiation

"Admiral! there is extremely dangerous radiation coming from that gate"

"Shields up! back us off slowly, get Dr. Valdores up here"

"its hull seems to be regenerating or repairing itself slowly..." one of the scientists pointed out, showing Jess his data.

"Damn, if this is right, this thing might become active, if it keeps repairing itself... why is it still damaged? whats taking so long?"

"The lead scientist stepped up, I believe we can answer that... you see the damage appears to have occurred thousands of years ago, when this gate would have been in a deep freeze, with all this ice.. however most recently the Barrier nebula has shifted.. and now more sunlight is entering. We figure this is triggering the repairs, likely this gate stayed dormant for thousands of years until only recently."

"Ok, so we need to stop it from re-activating, options?"

"We could blow it up" John blurted out, always eager to fire his weapons

"why not let it activate, then see whats on the other side?"

"No, I think we best destroy it... probably thousands of Nomads are gonna come pouring out of this thing if it opens... arm all weapons"

"Aye, Admiral, all weapons are armed"

"Fire, conventional weapons"

The Thunder Bay opened fire with all her turrets, however none did much damage to the structure, then several missiles were fired. In a comical turn of events the structures radiation field knocked out the missile guidance systems and they turned nearly hitting the Thunder Bay.



Finally the ThunderBay opened up with her forward mortars, both doing minimal damage, but damage none the less.

"That did it, not much though, call in the Louisbourg, lets see if a little team work can make a dent in this thing.

The Fortress arrived shortly and both ships began to pummel the structure, trying different locations, all seemingly working but not nearly as fast as it could be. Finally and Order vessel arrived, after being contacted, and it itself aided in attacking, however even its heavy mortar did little.



"I got an idea, take your ships and back off about... 5k from here" Jess told the other two ships.

"John, prepare that Mark 20 nuke, you have stashed away in the armoury..."

"I doubt that would do much..." he protested

"Just do it, and get ready to fire it"

The nuke was prepared, and fired between the gate and the sun, the Thunder Bay moved off to a safe distance...

The explosion itself was amazing, thousands of asteroids were vapourized, forming a cloud.. enough to block the sun.

"Admiral! the power levels are drastically dropping..."

"This will buy us time for now, lets head home, signal the Fortress to form up on us, and thank that order ship for its help"

The ships moved off, heading back to Liberty space, they'll be back once command was briefed...

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I’ll carry this flag
To the grave if I must
Because it’s flag that I love
And a flag that I trust