Last bit of this story - I'll put up the report hopefully in the next few days along with some of the unique stuff from this system
System of the Four Rings
Petit Milan (Rose-class DropShip)
23rd August 3067While the Sao Christovao and a team of researchers remained at the Column of Winter, safely away from any debris which was moving around the system and with permission to further explore the vessel/station, the Petit Milan moved towards the Delta Ring. Captain Yasmin Khan had transferred onboard the ship as a curious passenger while Major Ryan Hintze and his crew brought the DropShip closer to the massive ring. “Major, message from the Column of Winter, we should hold position the ring is shifting its position.” The communication’s officer Richard Tucker said from his position he was in his forties, his head completely bald and he wore a red and grey jumpsuit.
“It’s doing what?” Hintze asked but he did not have to wait for an answer while the massive ring continued to rotate slowly, they assumed to provide the inhabitants with gravity, massive thrusters on the back side of the ring fired momentarily turning the ring in its position. “Wow” Hintze let out watching as the ring began to rotate “the power requirements alone for that…” he whispered.
“Why is it moving position? Won’t that affect its orbit?” Yasmin Khan asked from her observation seat already the crew of the Petit Milan were at work attempting to work out just that.
“Oh my God Major!” Amelia Leclerc exclaimed from the sensor station her New Avalonian accent unmistakable she was only in her twenties and beautiful with long dark hair, a slender but athletic frame and she wore a tight navy-blue jumpsuit. “In the centre of the ring there is a planetary core.” She said explaining her outburst “the sensors recorded a gravitational bump as we approached the ring, I thought it was due to the mass of the ring but in the centre, there is a planetary core which appears to have had all the planetary mass from around it knocked away and the core itself supercooled.” Unlike the JumpShip the DropShip relied on screens to relay the information instead of a holotank so around the control bridge there were several displays of the slowly rotating ring continuing to change its orbit revealing the core.
“That should be impossible” Hintze said glancing around the bridge landing on Yasmin Khan who looked as shocked as anyone one of the researchers arrived on the bridge.
“The asteroid belts…” Khan began before the researcher interrupted her with his deep booming voice.
“Major!” Dr Bryan Gordon said as he entered the Rose-class DropShip’s bridge, that was “Bryan with a y” as he told everyone he encountered for the first time “this system continues to astound us, we must board the ring!”
“Yes, Doctor I am aware but perhaps you are not aware of the complexities of matching a rings rotational speed while it is manoeuvring?” Hintze replied turning the question back on the man who often said he was the brains in the room. Bryan Gordon, Bryan with a y, was a barrel of a man with a greying dark mullet of a haircut, a pierced nose and ear with gold rings in both.
“Major, you and your very capable crew will accomplish that feat like the many other impossible manoeuvres they have accomplished previously I am very sure.” Gordon responded looking nervously around the room trying to gain some favour with the crew. “But you must understand we need to see what is inside that ring!”
“We will soon see inside the Ring, Doctor, but for now we must wait.”
“Retro-thrusters firing, she’s slowing her turn” Leclerc announced she said studying her readings “orbit remains stable. From what we’re reading it appears to have turned to avoid an incoming meteor shower.” She said continuing to look at the sensor readings
“Why would something so large be concerned with asteroids” Bryan Gordon scoffed “it could take hits from a million asteroid and you would barely scratch the surface.” He said confidently, from what they had read the rings were covered in thick Capital Grade armour the rings could indeed take many hits before being concerned.
“You don’t take a hit just because you can” Khan muttered under her breath but when no-one else spoke up she continued looking at the researcher “if a ship is in space for hundreds of years without the chance of maintenance it is common sense to avoid taking additional hits if you can, cumulative damage could be devastating over a period of time.”
“And the ring appears to have solar panels on its star facing side” Leclerc added
“SOLAR panels” Gordon responded emphasising the word showing his surprise and interest “surely it cannot be powered by sunlight?” he asked floating across the bridge to look at the sensor readings.
“No…” Leclerc answered glancing over her shoulder at the Doctor who was now floating over her shoulder looking at her readings. “We are receiving readings from more than one hundred fusion plants dotted around the structure, there may be more, it appears the solar panels simply act to supplement the fusion power maybe to conserve fuel or allow the fusion reactors to run at a lower power output.” She said tapping some controls.
“Impressive” Gordon said watching her tap the controls for a moment Khan wondered if he was impressed with Leclerc or with the readings but thankfully Hintze interrupted her thoughts.
“Helm, if the ring has stabilized move us in on the docking collar match rotation.” He said they had heard from the Column of Winter that despite the age-old rule of never trying to dock with a moving object that this procedure would be perfectly safe with the Rings due to some automated systems built into the ring all the DropShip had to do was get close to the Ring’s docking pad and be orientated the correct way for a planetary landing.
The Petit Milan approached the ring at 0.5 Gravity of acceleration Gordon found himself drawn from his floating position to the deck of the vessel still holding onto Leclerc’s chair. As it closed on the Ring thrusters on the top and bottom of the ship on different sides of the vessel fired turning the ship’s orientation so the rear of the ship was faced towards the ring.
“Cut main thrust, extend landing feet” Hintze ordered, he did not like the idea but apparently this was the best way to dock with the Rings without catastrophically damaging the vessels involved. He had not asked Captain Hansell exactly how they knew that but had taken their word for it. With the DropShip’s landing legs extended the thrusters on the side of the ship facing away from the direction of travel now acting to keep the ship’s pace up.
From the Ring six harpoons fired at the bottom of the DropShip each of them impacting with the DropShip. “Helm, thrusters to continue to fire to keep our orientation only, do not fight the wires” Hintz said continuing to monitor the situation as the Petit Milan was slowly reeled in towards the Ring’s rotating surface “impressive” he whispered off to the side Khan smiled seeing he was impressed with what he was seeing, Khan herself felt the same way as she had since arriving in the system, everything in this system was overwhelming. There was a mechanical thump as the Petit Milan came into contact with Ring’s surface touching the landing pad interlocking clamps extended locking onto the DropShip securing it to the deck.
“And we’re down Cap’tn, thrusters offline” Ewen Bremner the helmsman said he had mousy blond hair and wore a maroon and white striped shirt with brown dungarees over the top. “Sir, we’re moving again” he said glancing at Hintze, the entire DropPad was moving lowering inside the massive ring once the Petit Milan was fully inside the ring pressure doors closed sealing the surface once more.
“Who built this thing?” Khan wondered out loud she realised sitting the microgravity had gone and she was feeling the force of a standard 1G in gravity.
“This is incredible!” Bryan Gordon nearly shouted in the middle of the bridge.
“Alright people, we’ve got some mysteries to work out” Hintze said “we’re going to play this smart, no showing all our cards in one move so team one will take a pair of Chevaliers and a pair of Pintos nothing too scary but nothing to show exactly what we’ve got in our pockets. I am going to sit observation seat” he said looking around the bridge finding Yasmin Khan “Captain, you are welcome to join us.” Yasmin nodded her agreement and the crew began to move around the DropShip’s bridge.
“Major, I’d like to be part of the advanced party…” Gordon almost pleaded looking over towards Hintze
“Not this time Doc, there is a clear chance we’re going into a combat situation, you and your team are staying on the boat until I get a lay of the land.”
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Sometime later the four vehicles along with two squads of infantry troopers had exited the DropShip into a huge bay with a roof which just cleared the top of the Rose-class DropShip. Standing in the bay as the crew offloaded the two VTOLs Captain Yasmin Khan looked up at the roof thinking that beyond it there was the outside surface of the ring and the vacuum of space.
The cargo bay which reminded Yasmin of any space station or WarShip cargo bay that she had ever been in or seen a video of but one that was in a state of full gravity. Almost as she looked around and thought “where to next” several lights around the bay activated lighting a path away from the Petit Milan and towards what looked like a massive elevator which could probably move the entire cargo hold of their DropShip in one go. “I guess we’re being invited aboard” Hintze said looking at Yasmin Khan who nodded “let’s move it out people!”
The four vehicles were quickly moved onto the elevator around which several lights went from green, to orange and then to red before the door began to close. “Alright people make sure the breaks are on, secure the vehicles to the deck and move your asses away from the vehicles. We’ve all seen the videos this is going to be a bit of a trip.” Hintze warned all of them knew what could happen as the elevator moved. Around them the crews attached the vehicles to the deck with a series of straps tying them down and then everyone backed off.
From the videos provided by the Column of Winter they had seen that one when the elevator moved it sometimes caused accidents due to the changes in gravity caused by the movement. As the platform moved upwards the surface under their feet began to tilt and turn as the elevator rotated through a one hundred-and-eighty degrees. Captain Yasmin Khan leaned to the right to counter the rotation, she saw the others on the elevator doing the same and did not feel too silly, there was a moment that passed when microgravity filled the bay and each of them began to lift off the deck the vehicles strained against their straps but held firm. In the videos of the first transit the vehicles had not been tied down and had landed on troopers causing horrific injuries and damage to the craft. After the moments of microgravity passed, they were brought back to the deck and the elevator continued to rise until it stopped. The lighting around the elevator changed from red to orange and then green again before the doors opened revealing another cargo bay.
“Move out people, keep focused on what’s going on.” Hintze ordered the two eight-wheeled Chevaliers were first to move forwards with Hintze standing at the observation hatch on one of the turreted thirty-five-ton vehicles. Behind them the infantry troopers escorted the two Pinto VTOLs with Yasmin Khan joining them, she had chosen to join the crew of one of the VTOLs so believing she’d see more of the Ring from the air.
They moved forward to a large doorway which showed bright “sunlight” created by the artificial environment. Yasmin Khan stepped out of the dark bay and felt like one of those Star League Defence Force troopers all those years before a sense of complete awe. The elevator bay had been set into the side of a hillside, no doubt to hide the mechanisms used to support it, below the bay extended kilometre after kilometre of bright green rolling hills, brown and green outcroppings of trees and winding perfectly blue rivers.
From information they had gained from the Column of Winter the closest Basecamp of the United Ring Alliance was three kilometres from the exit of the elevator the two Chevaliers moved forwards with the two Pintos escorting hovering one hundred metres above the two vehicles. They moved over the ground quickly the terrain solid under the vehicle’s tires allowing good progress. In the lead Pinto Yasmin could see the Ring curve away in the distance just showing how alien the environment was, even the sides of the ring were covered by mountainous environments.
“Sir, we have incoming contacts four contacts fast moving hovercraft western flank.” One of the Chevalier tankers reported looking at Major Hintze.
“Nothing aggressive let the sensors do their job, we don’t want to appear threatening for any reason, warn the VTOLs” he ordered watching the screens.
Above Yasmin Khan could see the four hovercrafts rapidly approaching their vehicles while each of the Petit Milan’s vehicles weighed in between thirty and thirty-five tons none of the purple painted craft looked like they were more than ten tons in weight. “Khan to Hintze, they are changing formation into a strafing one, we’re breaking high and right for a better look.” Yasmin said pulling on the Pinto’s controls while she had been a JumpShip Captain for several years her first love had been flying a helicopter. The two aircraft pulled away and to a higher altitude as the four hovercrafts came in firing. From her higher position she could see that while being painted purple the vehicles were very low to the ground, held up by powerful fans and ‘with a sub-nosed front along with two distinct control panel “wings” which were closer to the ground and appeared to have their own directional fans. At the rear a fully armoured pilot/rider controlled the craft in a hunched over position their head obscured by the nosecone of the vehicle. As the four craft approached, they strafed to the side and opened fire on the two Chevaliers from all four craft streams of what looked like pulse laser fire against the two wheeled tanks. They then continued moving heading in the opposite direction to the Chevalier’s course in a typical fade-and-run attack.
“Green light on defence fire” Hintze ordered which was all Khan needed the two Pintos turned together tracking the path of the ground vehicles both Pintos opened up with their under nose forward firing long range missile launchers. Some of the missiles impacted on two of the vehicles damaging them and causing small explosions on the ground the two craft moved in quickly finishing off their targets with their medium lasers before continuing on they returned to their previous altitude. As the Pintos pulled away the two Chevaliers opened fire with their turreted lasers the red beams momentarily connected the Chevaliers, who were quickly moving away from their targets, to their target the large bore lasers cut through the remaining two vehicles like their armour was butter with both swiftly exploding in balls of fire moments later.
The four vehicles travelled another kilometre before encountering and alien looking angular bunker made up entirely of ferro-crete with a large spire in the centre. Beside the structure were a pair of all-terrain vehicles flanking what looked like an unarmed APC all of which were no bigger than the two hovercraft they had previously encountered. These vehicles looked far more conventional than the hovercraft looking more live oversized jeeps which were painted green. Two of the vehicles large mounted guns at the back while the APC had space for an entire squad of infantry. “Unidentified vehicles this is Sergeant Jack Simpson of the United Ring Alliance please identify.”
“This is Major Ryan Hintze of the Explorer Corps; the Column of Winter should have announced our arrival?” Hintze communicated as the four vehicles continued to close on their position.
“Affirmative, we were made aware but not of the size of your party. Hold position we’re involved in an extraction mission…” before he could say more there was a huge explosion from the structure with the two doors flying clear in the smoke and fire. Half a dozen figures ran from the structure all of them dressed in combat fatigues and armed with hand weapons all of them ran towards the three vehicles.
As the retreating figures boarded the APC behind them moving far slower from the facility was a single figure dressed fully in what appeared to be green and black painted battle armour. The trooper was armed with a large assault weapon which they fired into the facility as several more figures began to charge out. Of this newest group there appeared to be no uniformity in what they were wearing, how they were armed or in what tactics they were using this new group fired wildly as the long battle armoured trooper and the vehicles were targeted. The battle armoured trooper stood their ground firing as bullets flew in on them several of the bullets appeared to be deflected away from the suite by some sort of energy shield. Behind the trooper both vehicles opened fire with their mounted machine guns filling the space with weapons fire cutting down nearly a dozen people in a matter of minutes. The battle armoured trooper finished off the engagement by firing several grenades from a launcher slung under the barrel of its rifle into the facility blowing up the entrance caving it in.
The three vehicles then led the Explorer Corps vehicles towards their facility. There they found a huge sprawling military facility at the gate there was a Griffin BattleMech and an unknown of BattleMech which had one arm with multiple ballistic weapons and a missile launcher, their sensors suggested it was powered by a fuel cell instead of a fusion reactor. The main doors opened allowing the all-terrain vehicles and the two explorer corps vehicles to enter while the Pintos flew over the walls.
Inside they found training ground for infantry, vehicles and Mechs which could have been taken straight out of a Star League Defence Force manual. The two Pintos landed on landing fields and Captain Yasmin Khan dismounted joining Major Ryan Hintze beside one of the parked Chevaliers he was looking at some of the scoring caused on the side of the vehicle by the attack. “Major, everyone alright?” She enquired
“No harm, Captain” Hintze replied looking over the damage “the sensors detected mostly heat damage from the attacks, some sort of directed plasma.” He explained “you see that trooper?” He asked quietly Yasmin simply nodded as a group from the base approached them.
“I’m Colonel Malcolm Keens, welcome to Delta Ring.” The lead figure said he was dressed in a grey military uniform with the Star League’s Cameron Star on the left breast along with several campaign ribbons. Behind him stood one of the battle armoured troopers now this close they could appreciate the size of the individual their face completely obscured by a mirrored silver visor.
