Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Tika was looking over the latest status reports, as her ship the Teketh was getting ready to depart. The refit was about finished, and they were taking on supplies for a new shakedown cruise to make sure the new engines were up to spec. If everything went to plan, they would be joining the seventh fleet which had been tasked with monitoring the Krall-Cathamari border. With rising tensions, and recent border incursions and skirmishes it was only a matter of time before a formal state of war was declared. In her opinion they had less than a month before the war would begin. Likely sooner given current events.

Suddenly the door to her office slid open, as the chime went off, and a flustered junior crewwoman ran in holding a pad. “Ship-Leader! Have you heard the news?”

She frowned, “what news?”

“Cathamair! Its gone, someone blew up the planet!”

For a moment or two she just stared at the junior crewwoman, as her mind worked to catch up. Then wanting to know if she heard that right, she slowly repeated, “...Someone destroyed an entire planet? A heavily defended homeworld no less?”

The crewwoman nodded, “Slammed their ship right into it, and boom no more Cathamair. It’s on all the holofeeds.”

Still not quite believing it, she turned to her monitor, and closed the status reports. Before accessing the holofeeds, where she soon got a somewhat different story. One a little more believable but still quite shocking. Someone had indeed crashed their ship into the planet, at near-relitivistic velocities no less. The ship must have been carrying a massive quantity of antimatter with it as well, as the devastation is unreal. Two continents and much of the surrounding ocean vaporized, and a large chunk of molten debris was catapulted into orbit where it slammed into ships, stations, and satellites. Initial casualty estimates sit at nine billion dead. Rescue efforts are underway, but there is no infrastructure in place for evacuating an entire planet. Even worse, the planet is experiencing severe geological disturbances as a result of the impact. Not to mention they are on the clock now, as the remaining continents won’t remain habitable for much longer.

Preliminary reports of the incident, indicate that the crash was deliberate, but no one has come forth admitting responsibility for the incident. The ship that crashed into the planet was apparently a modified Cathamari cruiser. Exact modifications are sketchy, but apparently, they upgraded her systems well beyond the normal specs, enough that she was able to blow past the entire Cathamari fleet. Even more eye-raising, was the speed the ship had been traveling at on her course to Cathamair. Tracking data had picked the ship up even here in Krall space, as it tore its way across space at the mind-boggling speed of warp eight. That raised serious questions, as all but one of the warp-capable races known to the Krall had not yet breached the warp five barrier. That one remaining race was the Humans, a race they had personally helped breach the warp five barrier. She knew that quite well, since it was her decision to help them. Yet, while she could certainly assign motive to them for this attack, Tika had a hard time believing they could do it.

She leaned back, and thought more about it. Her eyes widened as she considered what she knew of their technology. Their ships likely couldn’t exceed warp six, but if they were willing to burn out their drives they might be able to go faster. For how long was the question. This had been a Cathamari ship with radiators, that had evidently been left in place, but if that system had been augmented with human heat recyclers... They just might have been able to do it. In fact they were likely the only ones able to carry out an attack like this. In other words, this whole incident was technically her fault, since she had been the one to help them develop the engine technology for this.

She glanced up to realize the Junior was still here. She dismissed the other woman, even as she wrapped her mind around the fact that she was now indirectly complicit in a war crime. Thankfully it was one that most people would likely let slide since the Cathamari were not well liked. What this meant for the war, remained to be seen, but she doubted the Cathamari would be able to effectively wage a war. They had not only lost their homeworld, but the entirety of their central leadership. They were an empire with no ruler, and no one to take the reigns. Civil war was the inevitable result. Letting out a breath, she started typing a report to the council. A part of her just wanted to hide what she had indirectly aided, but she knew it was better that the council knew.

The Councilwoman smiled to herself, as she walked into the building. Yesterday had been great, mostly. After getting out of her work early, and sending that useless report up the chain, she had gone to her daughter’s play. It had been fun, her daugther being young wasn’t anything special, but she played her part well. At least until she got into a fight with another student. Dealing with that wasn’t fun. Nor did she enjoy having to replace a perfectly good outfit since it had been ripped up in the fight. It wasn’t exactly wearable after that. Her daughter was past the age of needing spare clothes all the time, so the councilwoman hadn’t brought any with her. Didn’t help that her costume was merely extra elements added to the outfit, she had gone to school in.

Overall though it was a good day, and she had enjoyed it. It was something she needed, a welcome break from the dull monotony of endless reports and paperwork. Now it was back to that norm. More than half of it was stuff of little conseqence. Who cares if piracy is on the rise in the border regions? As long as the core trade routes are safe, those systems are of little consequence. Besides there are more important things to worry about closer to the core anyway.

Her thoughts were broken moments later, when she stepped into the council building to find it in a state not the norm. Where normally everyone would be going about their jobs looking a little bored, today it was anything but. As aides, receptionists, and office workers ran about the building. Rushing this way, and that with stacks of pads, and a noisy din echoed through the building. Everyone even seemed strangely worried. It was unsettling.

Before she could much think about the weird state of things, her own aide came out of a room. She seemed flustered and worried. “Mistress! Have you heard?”

“Apparently not. What on Valoria is going on here?”

The aide sounding almost fearful replied, “Cathamair was attacked. No one knows by who, but...” she trailed off.

“But what?”

“I think it better if you see it for yourself,” replied the aide, while pulling out a data chip. She continued, “here is today’s holofeed recording.”

She took it from her aide, and made her way to her office. The councilwoman did not forget to thank her aide for the recording, either. Settling into her seat, she inserted the chip, and loaded up the video. She often had her aide record the morning holofeed, since she rarely had time to see it while at home. As such the recording started off, as any normal one does. Before suddenly being interrupted with an urgent report. What followed was video of a horrific attack. This was far worse than any pirate attack. Not only that, but among the estimated nine billion dead was the Cathamari Grand Warlord. That did not bode well. The Confederation had several very profitable trade agreements with the Cathamari leader. They were bringing in much wealth, and luxuries to the core. The Cathamari had been one of their most important trading partners. Negotiating that contract had been a point of pride for her faction, and had given them a great deal of political clout, not to mention filling their coffers with valuable credits. Which in turn allowed them to fill key positions, and advance their agendas. One of their rivals must have been behind this attack. She had a few ideas of who. Perhaps it was time to speak with a few of their contacts? Something would need to be done in answer to this, and a little bit of controlled piracy never hurt... Thanks to her lacking technical knowledge it never occurred to her that her rivals couldn’t have been responsible for the attack.

The Pirate captain directed his crew, as they scurried about making repairs. The clan leaders had not been happy, when he came back without offloading their goods, or with any food. Not that there was anything he could do about that. It wasn’t his fault that the Cathamari pissed off some mysterious group of aliens. Can’t really make a deal, if the planet you planned to sell your goods at had been bombarded into extinction now could you?

Hearing footsteps, he turned to see one of his crewman approaching. She was carrying a datapad, and had a rather odd expression on her face. Handing him the pad, she said, “Seems our new friends have been busy.”

He cocked his head questionably, taking the pad, and he reviewed the video on it. Busy indeed, and he had to agree. While no one had yet admitted responsibility, he knew the Cathamari had many enemies. Not to mention after encountering those newcomers, and the way they nearly destroyed his ship. He couldn’t help but think of them. No one else had the ability to carry out an attack like this. Although he could not say for sure it was them. While yes, they had cracked a Cathamari colony world, just about anyone could inflict that level of damage. The clan had about a hundred cruisers like his and several hundred destroyers. Just one of those ships could inflict considerable damage to the surface of a world, the nature of the damage depended on the weapons aboard. He wasn’t armed right for cracking a world, but his cruiser could glass a planet in theory. It was just a huge waste of time and money for him to do that. There wasn’t any benefit to it, not for him or any of the clan.

“Yes it does seem they have been busy. Make sure everyone in the clan sees this video. It might be best to steer clear of the Cathamari Empire for the next few months. Then again a Civil war might represent an opportunity. Regardless that will be something to discuss. I’ll go talk to the other captains, and organize a clan meeting.”

She nodded and rushed off. Things were going to be busy around here. There was little doubt about that. He also knew there was still the question about what those mysterious friends of theirs were going to do next. He knew next to nothing about them, and they had already proven hostile especially to the Cathamari. If he had to guess, they might attack a few more Cathamari colonies. So there also that angle on the concept of avoiding Cathamari space, as those aliens were dangerous. Not to mention the clan was ill-equipped to defend themselves from those aliens. They had a lot to discuss, a lot to think on, and on top of that they needed to find new friendly ports. Preferably one that pays well, and has reasonably priced goods to purchase. A clan doesn’t run without supplies afterall, and that was what a good port was for, and they had just lost their best port for food.