:: 00-12-31 ::
Chapter 3: The Burning of Kharak
Fleet Intelligence Personal Log
Kharak is gone.
The Mothership emerged from hyperspace on course, two kilometers from the Scaffolding. It was then that we were devastated to discover that the aliens had already been here. (It would be several hours before we realized that it was not the same group we fought by the Khar-Selim... but another band, with ships more powerful than the first group of aliens.)
The Scaffolding was destroyed. A significant debris ring was starting to circle Kharak. It was Karen Sjet who voiced our horror... all emotion leached from her voice as she spoke... yet we all knew what she was feeling. Mere words cannot describe the anguish of our loss.
Kharak was burning. Firestorms raged across the surface of Kharak. The Great Desert was turned to molten glass. Nothing could survive that. Systems across the board fluctuated as Karen Sjet tried to regain her composure.
There were no signals from any beacons in the system. The Somtaaw mining ships... several research satellites... the science team at the gas giant... all were silent.
The Somtaaw in the mining ship Dreamscape went into lower orbit to start harvesting some of the debris. However, it need not be said that we did not touch the Scaffolding. While we could have gained significant resources from it to build up our fighters and corvettes... the Scaffolding was now the tomb of 20,000 of the best engineers and scientists that Kharak had to offer. It was also a monument to Kharak... that we had reached out to touch the stars.
Three hours after reaching Kharak... Karen emerged from her sorrow to report that she was receiving a signal from the Cyro Tubes. One of them was suffering a massive malfunction.
The repair corvettes Patches, Stitches, Solitude and Quiltwork were dispatched to try and repair the malfunction. What they reported mobilized us into action.
The Cyro Tubes were under attack by five large starships. One was still burning, having sustained significant damage in an earlier battle (with the Kharak Missile Defenses, we would learn), while the other four were nearly undamaged.
Scout and Interceptor wings raced to attack these starcraft (we have since named them Assault-class Frigates as they are the next logical step up from the Corvettes), followed by the two captured fighters, the captured missile corvette, and the three light and three heavy corvettes. Unfortunately, repairs to the alien fighter had not yet been completed, and the controls were a bit stiff. After Jenalle Soban's fighter crashed into the damaged frigate, forcing it up above the Cyro Tubes, we called back the second fighter.
The crew in the missile corvette refused to retreat however, and discovered an interesting attack that the corvette could do. By dumping the tubes, all of the missiles in storage would quickly launch. While they were not too accurate, most of the missiles did slam into a second Frigate, causing significant damage.
We decided to capture one of the alien Frigates and dispatched the Water Thief and the Rogue. However, the aliens knew what the salvage corvettes could do and two of them shifted fire to attack the corvettes. The Patches and Solitude were sent to assist the salvage corvettes, as well as the Assistance (which was still by the Mothership).
Two of the alien Frigates pursued. Unfortunately, the other Frigates started firing on a second Cyro Tube that was not being repaired. The Quiltwork and Stitches were sent to start repairs on it as the first Cyro Tube was no longer burning.
Even after releasing the Frigate, the enemy Frigates continued to fire on the salvage corvettes. Despite orders to destroy the enemy Frigates, they went in to capture one of the pursuing Frigates, while the fighters finished off the second.
Instead of risking more lives, we voided the atmosphere of the second captured Frigate. The first, we sent in Soban soldiers, and were able to capture the alien Captain and half of his crew. We suffered two fatalities and five casualties in the fighting.
The six Corvettes had during this time been fighting off the remaining two Frigates on their own. One light and one heavy corvette had suffered significant damage, and the Patches and Quiltwork undocked from the second Cyro Tube to assist in in-flight repairs.
Unfortunately, the enemy Frigates turned their guns on the repair corvettes. The Quiltwork was destroyed, and the Patches suffered massive damage and was forced to retreat. Retreat orders were also issued for the two damaged combat corvettes, and later for a third corvette that had suffered significant armor depletion.
The fighter wings returned at this time, and the missile corvette had finished building more missiles and launched a second volley against the Frigates, destroying one of them. At this time the Water Thief and Rogue slipped in and disabled the third frigate, bringing it in for conversion.
It was decided to tear apart the first frigate and reverse-engineer it. We were able to reverse-engineer the Frigate Drive technology and made significant inroads on the Frigate Chassis.
New designs of ships were created. First was the Support Frigate, a fighter and corvette repair-and-refuel ship, with hyperdrive engines, the ability to dock 10 fighters and 4 corvettes.
Second was the Resource Controller. Using a variation on wormhole technology scientists had discovered several years ago (it was useless for transporting ships as the wormholes were only a few feet in diameter and tore what went through it into its component atoms), the Controller will be able to transfer resources direct to the Mothership without needing to dock itself. Mining ships will dock with it instead, which will increase the efficiency of our mining operations.
The last ship we created was our own Assault Frigate. The alien Frigate did have several blindspots its cannons could not reach. We feel our design will hopefully compensate for that.
The Somtaaw did attempt a landing on one of the highest mountains on Kharak. They claimed to have received what they felt was a radio transmission, possibly by survivors. There were none, and the Somtaaw engineers are tight-lipped about what they found. Considering the atmosphere was boiling off... I personally hope that no one survived the burning of Kharak. Death by asphixiation is not a fate I would wish on anyone. Except these alien scum.
Interrogation of the alien Captain revealed that they are an advanced fleet for a huge galatic empire. They call themselves the Taidin. The Taidin Captain claims we broke a 4,000 year treaty forbidding us from developing hyperspace technology. The consequences of breaking this treaty was the burning of Kharak. The Taidin Captain did not survive interrogation.
While our forces have increased with the building of the Assault Frigate Dune Strangler and the renamed former Taidin Frigate Death's Redemption. The last Taidin Frigate was torn apart for resources, as it had suffered massive damage. In addition, the Resource Controller Far Seer and Support Frigates Farstar and Sand Crawler have entered service as well.
My comrades in Fleet Intelligence have decided not to continue research in the first alien's fighter technology. After the destruction of the second fighter, it is felt the design is flawed. Nor will the Missile Corvette be retired for research, at least not until we manage to capture a second one. It is felt that its firepower, though less than that of our own corvettes, will be useful against enemy fighters.
We are now fleeing to a nearby star system. Our astronomers feel that there may be useful resource deposits there that can be harvested.
We emerge from hyperspace in 14 hours.
