The system of Benetnasch is a lethal star. That wanly lit region of space is the realm of merciless and scrupulous denizens and alien raiding parties in the West and Centre, where anarchy is a practical religion; broken by a chain of guardian wormholes in the East which are impossible to cross. There are a few civilized worlds just south of Alfirk itself; these are outposts of an unknown human faction, reportedly existing beyond the dark planets themselves.
The first attempts at colonization came in the exploration age of the USS. A small Protev frigate and 4 light escort vessels made star fall at Benetnasch, but were lost to the local Anator Skavun patrol ships. Years passed, and a second and much more powerful fleet was sent, using its superior firepower to cripple hapless raiding parties, and its size to stave off ambush in the new worlds lying ahead, although without support, they were easily defeated by an Anator Devastator. When the Fleet Admiral saw his opportunity, he made a desperate phase jump towards the Far East, his fleet never to be seen again by common society.
Lo’Anfantos is the gateway between the mid-Southern - Southern divide. It is an unsettled volcanic world, with an equally unsettled and disturbed society. It lacks the trade capabilities or stellar standing of the neighboring Lo’Van’Sanbre, but it was chosen as a viable defensive bastion for any ‘flash-invasions‘.
A distressed Commander Vater slumped over his PSIDAR console, mumbling about other crew members - the Captain had been missing for months; since his absence, his personal archive had been lost, which had held his DNA code, medical history, list of past conflicts. Even the search teams failed to pick up anything practical, such as a piece of DNA or his personal data card and security card. A gnawing silence moved in a few days ago to add to the confusion, stumbling upon mess halls and cabins, draining the place of temperature and life and filling it with an unbearable emptiness. The disease of eccentricity has spread through the crew who were left standing in the quiet darkness.
Commander Vater, 5” 10”, aged 23, was wearing the standard costume of a Lieutenant Commander of the Fereid Council Fleet. His tunic was colored a very dark toned blue, with chromium shoulder pads and a jade leather belt holding a modified laser pistol, readied at all times. His face was tall rather than wide, with green eyes valued by the people on Lo‘Anfantos, made that way by newfangled Colored Pigmentation Implantation (CPI). He had the look of an inexperienced cadet of the Fereid Royal Fleet Academy, but he was, in truth, a highly respectable fleet commander.
He’d slouched staring at the projected screen in front of his chair for 14 hours. He only had one eye visible, because the other one was too stressful to open. Instead of getting up and making a coffee, he simply wandered through the NavLogs and status reports, lost in a world of obsession over numeric code he repeatedly analyzed, checked and re-checked. ‘There must be not be a problem‘, he thought, chanting the words in his mind, criticising himself every time he made a mistake working with the computer.
After a total of 15 frazzling hours, the bridge door slipped open to show a thin female figure. She was wearing similar clothing to Vater, with the exception of a grey belt and no pistol, and she wore dark shades to hide her eyes. The commander instantly associated her with the engineering team due to the comms implants around the right side of her face; but since he didn’t know her, he just turned right back to his station.
The Fereid insignia was inscribed on the floor. She stood in the middle of it, stared blankly in front of her for a while, and then judged that it was appropriate to break the silence.
“The phase instigator is still dysfunctional, commander. I’m not expecting it to become functional again for a minimum of 64 days.”
“What about the emergency catalyst engine?”
“I’m still working on it… the damage we took from the missile fire was quite bad. Our main comms towers are offline, which means the Councillate is not going to back us up if we suffer catastrophic dam…”
“I know we’re on our own. I don’t need reminding.”
“Sir, it’s been five months. The attacks have stopped, and we need to leave. Our orders have probably expired by now.”
The commander stared at his colleague. He felt uncomfortable even with the lethal weapon at his side and started to get shifty. “I don’t even know you,” he declared. However, from this alert position, he fell back to calm thoughts and quickly restrained himself.
“Commander, I know you’re worrying about Celpher.”
“The captain is… absent. It’s not your place to ask. Go back to whatever the hell you were doing.”
The faithful crewmember obeyed his orders and left the room to work on the engines. The door slid closed again. Following shortly, the commander walked to the door access port and swiped his card through it, locking the door shut as the tracers turned blue. He then walked back to his console where he projected a new video file in front of him. The window showed a floating password entry grid, of which he entered his security number into. After a short ‘PASSWORD VALID’ message, the video began playing. It was titled ‘B-level classified ship log entry #82 - Cpt. Anarvic Nam Jeohn Celpher.’ It had been sent exclusively to the commander by the governing authority on Es’Kai’Farvat itself.
At first there was nothing but a static screen. The screen, however, cleared up after a while. Captain Celpher became visible - he was shorter than Vater, but did have an amazingly powerful voice, while wearing a black tunic and a very expensive jade belt inlaid with about three shards of compressed meteor dust. His deep 40-50 years appearance encompassed most of the screen, but the distinct military-industrial appearance of the background indicated he was on Vactalbie, a major military base, of which the star system surrounding it is actually a larger military super base.
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That's all I've written so far! Any ideas for characters, environments, themes etc. would be great.
