Imperial Literature

Republican Warship Cavanta Bay
Type 3600 Frigate
Complement 358 officers and ratings

Four junior ratings almost flung themselves to either side of the dark, metallic passageway, still taking the time to stand to attention as Commander Marcus van der Mar paced urgently towards the Ops Room. The On Watch Principle Warfare Officer had ordered the ship to Action Stations – as Commanding Officer of the Cavanta Bay, van der Mar knew of no scheduled exercise or drills, which meant that Lieutenant Commander Ulrich and his team had found something potentially dangerous.
The Ops Room was a flurry of activity as van der Mar entered, ducking his head underneath the narrow opening of the airlock. The green lights of a dozen consoles flickered with inputs, causing shadows to dance along the dull metal walls behind their users. Ulrich sat at the On Watch PWO console, his fingers dancing across his input board as he scanned through a dozen different surveillance input modes on his main display monitor. Along the bulkhead to his left sat four compilators; ratings trained to collate, filter and interpret the various raw data feeds from the ship’s myriad of surveillance and detection devices. To the right were stationed the weapons control terminals; half a dozen stations from which the ship’s offensive capability could be managed.
“Sir,” Ulrich nodded, standing up as van der Mar walked over to him, “we’ve got two contacts on the sub-space scope, the other side of Beahdorah Prime.”
“Alliance subs?” van der Mar asked, swinging down into the CO’s command chair.
The Alliance, one of four human factions to have originated on earth, were particularly adept at using sub-space attack vessels for hit and run raids.
“Too big,” Ulrich replied, “far too big. We’re monitoring, but we’ve only got a forty per cent resolution at this range. The crafts’ dimensions don’t match anything on record. It’s definitely something new.”
“What sort of dimensions are we talking about?” van der Mar asked, sliding his own input board across his lap as a further six sailors arrived at the Ops Room main airlock to bolster the Duty Watch compliment.
“About twice the size of a dreadnaught, sir,” Ulrich replied hesitantly.
Van der Mar let out a breath. Twice the size of a Republican dreadnaught? Van der Mar had joined the Republican Navy straight from school at the tender age of eighteen, and in his sixteen years of service he had never encountered anything close to that size. Whatever was arriving through sub space on the other side of the planet the Cavanta Bay was orbiting was nearly two miles long. The two new arrivals were the largest ships ever detected. Van der Mar swore under his breath. Read the rest of this entry →