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Alvis 3.1:
Some serious alien arse kicking happening there! Love it!

Alvis 3.1

Silver Fox:
Part III: Proscribed Space

The B’aran scoutship hung motionless in space, faint reflections gleaming against the silvered surface of its hull. The scout would have appeared to be at rest, if the tiny flickers of light on its hull hadn’t indicated that the ship was quivering. The slight quiver was caused by the powerful realspace engines, engines that even now strained to cause the ship to move. Movement of the length of a single wavelength of light would have been an improvement over the utter stasis of the last half hour. The titanic engines strained, forces incomprehensible to more primitive species threw themselves into the void… and accomplished, nothing.

The scout had dropped into this area of realspace unexpectedly some 40 minutes ago. The stardrive jump should have continued to the glittering cluster of stars seen ˝ light-year ahead, but something had thrown the ship out of stardrive. Now that, or a similar force, held the ship motionless against all that its massive engines could deliver. Over the next several hours the ship strained and fought, gaining nothing from its efforts except an expenditure of fuel. The commander grew weary of the task of fighting to do nothing and ordered the stardrive re-engaged.

The scout vanished from realspace as the stardrive came to full power… and never re-emerged.

A week later, the scout long overdue, another scout was pulled out of stardrive and fought the same mysterious force that had held the first. Under strict orders to return and report any unusual occurrence, the ship fought for only a brief period of time before reversing course. It was noted by all the crew that the turn was not resisted, nor was the efforts of the realspace engines to push the scout away from the barrier. Only the commander noted that the exhaust plume of the realspace engines passed the point where the scout had been stopped. Passed and continued on as if nothing was in their way.

The scout made its report and it was decided that the fleet would stand off, making no attempt to enter the area of the strange force. Scouts would probe the edges to determine the extent of the effect, and one ship would try the barrier to learn more about it. That ship would be one of the worldship-sized warships that had been built in the wake of the Balen disaster 4500 years ago. Massive, and massively powerful, it was thought that if any fleet vessel could decipher the strange phenomenon, it would be one of these behemoths.

Escorted by the last scout to probe the barrier, the warship arrived at the barrier. It too had been pulled out of stardrive, just as the smaller vessels had been. Now it turned its massive powers on the barrier itself. Weapons fired at the barrier proved useless. Beams passed right through the barrier without interference, and material weapons were stopped as surely as the ship itself.

The warship slowly backed away from the mysterious spot in space and fired weapons targeted not to pass through the barrier, but to detonate just before contact. The glare of furious fusion detonations lit space and threw reflections off both warship and scout. Gentle probing by both scout and warship proved that the barrier itself has unharmed.

The warship backed further away and then powerful engine flares sprang from the rear as it accelerated. It threw itself at the barrier, hoping to pass through on sheer power and inertia, where other attempts had failed. Reaching 80% of lightspeed before the barrier, the warship rammed. ˝ a billion tons of worldship-sized fury hammered into the barrier.

And was instantly compressed to just 2% of its initial length.

The barrier had held, but the ship had not. When the ship made contact with the barrier simple inertia had decided the rest. The bow of the ship had stopped and everything behind it had continued moving at its previous velocity. A compressed disk of titanium, manganese and various precious metals spun away from the barrier. The disk was 50 metres thick, and nearly 200 wide… and even that much valuable metal was of no interest to the B’aran scout.

Spinning away from the barrier, the scout fled. It sought the safety of the fleet, even as its crew wondered if even there would bring safety from whatever beings had emplaced the barrier. Arriving at the fleet, almost a light-year distant,  it prepared to give a report on what had transpired. Instead, just as the report would have started, a single pure tone was heard by every B’aran. The tone lasted only a few seconds before being replaced by a voice. It was a vaguely male voice, self-assured and gentle… but with the unmistakeable ring of authority. Its message was simple.

“Visitors we would have met, friends we would have welcomed… conquerors we have excluded. You will go now from this place. Do not return until your primitive race has matured.”

As the message started a huge sphere of space, some 65 light-years in radius, slowly darkened then returned to normal visibility. The sphere encompassed perhaps 2 dozen star systems. The intent of the sphere was clear, and its surface corresponded exactly with the known location of the barrier.

As the message ended, the stardrive engines of every B’aran ship quickly built to full power. Frantic efforts by panicked engineers to stop the uncommanded activation proved fruitless. Power built and the engines fired, hurling the fleet into stardrive before even a course could be set.

The fleet emerged from stardrive far from its home sector. Gone was the comforting glow of tightly spaced systems, here the stars were further apart. Study of (now local) space would reveal that the fleet had jumped 3 times further than it should have been able to reach. Furthermore, no fuel had been expended… the fleet was as well provisioned as it had been before the barrier had been found.

The B’aran found themselves in the inner surface of a peripheral spiral arm. Stars here might be further apart, but they also gave every indication of containing a higher percentage of heavy metals. Forage would be good for the B’aran and distance from the mysterious aliens who built the barrier was not an inconsequential bonus. Technologically advanced, and telepathic was something to be avoided at all costs.

dogsbody:
Awesome!

I await.



Chris

Silver Fox:
Part IV: Watchers

*We have set these beings against one of the more promising young races in this galaxy. What if they do not rise to meet the challenge?* The thought-state of the “Watcher” was clear, untinged with emotional content… as was to be expected from an ancient member of an even more ancient race.

The species did not now have a name, if indeed it had ever had one. Individuals were identified by some (indecipherable to most species) combination of gravity potential, space-time bending and quark spin and flavour. If a collective name for the species was ever needed, it was simply “Watcher”, an unusual name for those who did far more than merely observe. * was one of it’s most very ancient members, capable of remembering when Watchers did just observe, and the forecast of their own disappearance which had caused a change of philosophy.

^It is possible that the youngsters will fail, and fall prey to the barbarians, these “B’aran” as they call themselves. I do not see such potentiality as very high. It certainly exists as a no-zero possibility, but the youths are surprising. They have already casually violated the space-time “laws” governing this place… even if they do not know it, or know how. I believe they will survive handily.^

* reflected on the youth apparent, in moments such as these, of his companion ^. ^ was verbose as all such youth are, hoping to hide a lack of confidence behind complex ideas, ignoring that simpler thought-states would express greater confidence and clarity. Indeed, ^ was barely older than that galaxy they now observed. * reflected that things had been so much more… peaceful and quiet during the time before this universe had been born. The change of energy states was invigorating… but sometimes just didn’t seem to be worth the effort required.

*I am aware. You refer to them as youths, those who are barely past infancy… but I acknowledge they are already quite interesting. 27 species in this galaxy with potential, and yet less than the value of pi that are sentient. Only these have developed rudimentary technology. There is risk.*

^ Risk, agreed.^

The Watchers settled to observe events. A bare 2,000 years remained before the B’aran met the youngsters. The time for the exchange of thought-states had passed. The time for observations not quiet yet started. There was a chance for millennia or two of quiet rest, basking in the energy state of the singularity chosen as a vantage point.

GTX_Admin:
Thoroughly enjoying this.  You should perhaps enter this in the current Space GB

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