AmenRa
Thermonuclear Omnipotency
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2001
- Posts
- 2,505
Blind jumps weren't at all unusual. They were sometimes very necessary to get out of a tight spot. The pilot of the RSC37 transport just happened to think that two Asix missiles homing in on his craft constituted a "tight spot". So, as he shouted to the Special Mission Force team leader he was making a blind jump, he engaged the field encaser. He didn't have time to program any coordinates into the NavComp. See, usually, in a blind jump, the NavComp selects a pre-programmed destination and controls course for the vessel.
Those two Asix missiles were about to change all of that, though. One of them exploded just as the field encaser enveloped the ship, just as the vessel was beginning to slip from realspace into otherspace where it could travel faster than light. The resulting concussive blast from the missile knocked out the navigation sensor array. That wasn't a good thing. Not at all, because now the jump truly was blind. The ship had no destination. It was traveling at three times the lightspeed threshold, tumbling from a shock wave, and it had no idea where it was headed.
The pilot, a LT from the 2nd Division assigned to the SMF team, shouted and cursed as he banged on his flight console. "The fucking encaser control system is jammed! If we don't come out of otherspace right now we could hit a shadow and it'll be over!"
What he meant was the encaser, which is more properly called the dynamic field encaser, is a device that projects a field of stable particle flux atoms over the ship to protect it and its occupants from the space/time distortions caused by entering otherspace, had its circuits fused. In otherspace, where the laws of physical, or realspace, didn't exist, faster than light travel was possible. The only trouble was there were shadows of objects that existed in realspace. It was believed these shadows were made up of anti-matter. But, since no one had ever actually struck one of these shadows, it wasn't known for sure. At any rate, with the transport's navigational array gone, they had no way to navigate around the shadows.
Major Harper, team leader, started to say something when he realized the circuit panel was directly over his head. He pointed to it, and Sgt. Major Sworddancer raised his sword from his seat across the aisle and cut into the panel. The ship buckled, and then reverted to realspace.
Out the front viewport was a very large blue and green mass. Alarm klaxons began to wail, the ship began to tumble, and several of the scientists screamed.
Harper started to get up from his seat to go to the pilot's console, but the inertial forces of the spinning pinned him in. The transport entered the atmosphere of the planet, the bucking and spinning becoming more pronounced.
The pilot applied thusters here and anti-grav drive there until one or both of them failed. The transport did right itself as it descended through cloud cover, but then its nose dipped sharply down. The pilot cursed as he applied retro-thrusters to get the nose back to positive pitch. The main console power had long since gone, as the tumble through the atmosphere had fused all of the main circuits. Somehow, by some miracle of chance, enough reserve power had been maintained by the landing gear's emergency batteries to allow the gear to drop into place and lock.
And then there was a great sound of the snapping of trees, and screeches and groans from resisting metal. The transport rotated 360 degrees before pitching sharply upwards and stopping with a sudden jolt.
The craft now sits on the steep bank of a wide riverbed. There is a very shallow stream moving lazily through the river bed that pools up in places along its route. The nose of the transport sits out of the water, while the aft section rests in a half-meter of water. To the North, the craft's flight path can be seen, as there are broken tree tops and scorched grass. To the West, directly in front of the craft, is a dense jungle of unusual foliage and plant life. To the East, across the riverbed, there is a less dense jungle, with the much taller trees. Following the river to the South leads to short grassy savannahs, with the appearance of black rock jutting out from a bend in the river. Looking towards the southern horizon, snow-covered peaks and an active volcanoe can be seen.
One item of interest is several hundred meters from the transport. There is a large, green, quadruped animal with a long, slender neck standing on the river bank. The animal has taken an interest in the people from the transport who are now standing on the river bank. However, the animal doesn't appear to be that much impressed by them, because it thrusts its head under the water and re-emerges with a mouthful of slimy, water plant that it chews lazily.
Those two Asix missiles were about to change all of that, though. One of them exploded just as the field encaser enveloped the ship, just as the vessel was beginning to slip from realspace into otherspace where it could travel faster than light. The resulting concussive blast from the missile knocked out the navigation sensor array. That wasn't a good thing. Not at all, because now the jump truly was blind. The ship had no destination. It was traveling at three times the lightspeed threshold, tumbling from a shock wave, and it had no idea where it was headed.
The pilot, a LT from the 2nd Division assigned to the SMF team, shouted and cursed as he banged on his flight console. "The fucking encaser control system is jammed! If we don't come out of otherspace right now we could hit a shadow and it'll be over!"
What he meant was the encaser, which is more properly called the dynamic field encaser, is a device that projects a field of stable particle flux atoms over the ship to protect it and its occupants from the space/time distortions caused by entering otherspace, had its circuits fused. In otherspace, where the laws of physical, or realspace, didn't exist, faster than light travel was possible. The only trouble was there were shadows of objects that existed in realspace. It was believed these shadows were made up of anti-matter. But, since no one had ever actually struck one of these shadows, it wasn't known for sure. At any rate, with the transport's navigational array gone, they had no way to navigate around the shadows.
Major Harper, team leader, started to say something when he realized the circuit panel was directly over his head. He pointed to it, and Sgt. Major Sworddancer raised his sword from his seat across the aisle and cut into the panel. The ship buckled, and then reverted to realspace.
Out the front viewport was a very large blue and green mass. Alarm klaxons began to wail, the ship began to tumble, and several of the scientists screamed.
Harper started to get up from his seat to go to the pilot's console, but the inertial forces of the spinning pinned him in. The transport entered the atmosphere of the planet, the bucking and spinning becoming more pronounced.
The pilot applied thusters here and anti-grav drive there until one or both of them failed. The transport did right itself as it descended through cloud cover, but then its nose dipped sharply down. The pilot cursed as he applied retro-thrusters to get the nose back to positive pitch. The main console power had long since gone, as the tumble through the atmosphere had fused all of the main circuits. Somehow, by some miracle of chance, enough reserve power had been maintained by the landing gear's emergency batteries to allow the gear to drop into place and lock.
And then there was a great sound of the snapping of trees, and screeches and groans from resisting metal. The transport rotated 360 degrees before pitching sharply upwards and stopping with a sudden jolt.
The craft now sits on the steep bank of a wide riverbed. There is a very shallow stream moving lazily through the river bed that pools up in places along its route. The nose of the transport sits out of the water, while the aft section rests in a half-meter of water. To the North, the craft's flight path can be seen, as there are broken tree tops and scorched grass. To the West, directly in front of the craft, is a dense jungle of unusual foliage and plant life. To the East, across the riverbed, there is a less dense jungle, with the much taller trees. Following the river to the South leads to short grassy savannahs, with the appearance of black rock jutting out from a bend in the river. Looking towards the southern horizon, snow-covered peaks and an active volcanoe can be seen.
One item of interest is several hundred meters from the transport. There is a large, green, quadruped animal with a long, slender neck standing on the river bank. The animal has taken an interest in the people from the transport who are now standing on the river bank. However, the animal doesn't appear to be that much impressed by them, because it thrusts its head under the water and re-emerges with a mouthful of slimy, water plant that it chews lazily.
