The UTR Cobalt Sky

This is a space for in-character events that do not occur within the line of duty and/or did not fit into the "Daily Life" section as it played out. Threads herein are meant to supplement character development and flesh out the setting elements, but are not necessary to understanding the plot or characters involved. These events are to be considered canon unless otherwise noted.
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Kokuten
Posts: 1258
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:06 pm

The UTR Cobalt Sky

Post by Kokuten »

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A venerable ship of 130 years, the UTR Cobalt Sky is a pluto-class missile boat. Nearly destroyed in a battle during the Rimworld rebellions, the Cobalt Sky was extensively rebuilt and overhauled for stealth after being found adrift 20 years ago. Painted black, covered in radar-absorbant materials, and with extra insulation around the generators, it has the same sensor signature as something around the size of a fighter, shuttle, or small asteroid. Her engines have been replaced with modern ones, and her Warp drive has been overclocked by their engineer, giving it an STL speed of .70c and a warp speed of 100ly/min. Her captain and crew are some of the Terran Navy's most effective, and definitely the most effective at stealth combat. The Cobalt Sky is currently the only ship used in stealth attack missions.

She is currently stationed for harassing shipping in the Drathonian home sector, and has been misidentified by their military as a pirate ship.

Type: Pluto-class
Age: 132 years
role: Stealth fast-attack
Speed:
-STL: .70c
-FTL: 100ly/min
Important crew:
-Captain: Seth Larai
-Engineer: Aerin Tatst
-Combat officer: Kail Tarrim
-Avatar: Sky
-Chef: Trey Penton
-Communications: Aurelia Braxis
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Kokuten
Posts: 1258
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:06 pm

Re: The UTR Cobalt Sky

Post by Kokuten »

It was morning on Terra. Though nobody officially lived there, and the planet could barely support life any more, all time on Terran ships was set to that planet's clock. Therefore, it was morning on the Cobalt Sky. The captain of the ship rubbed his eyes as he brough the ship out of idle mode, their slumber in the asteroid belt had once again been uneventful. Before him, a star chart popped up, notifying him of the changes in Drathonian shipping lanes the last 8 hours had produced. It appeared their hyperspace jump would be a couple minutes longer today, no biggie. The probes seemed to still be undiscovered, so that was a good thing. Seth ambled back to the wardroom and procured himself a cup of coffee, as Trey was not yet awake. None of them were, because Seth's clock was ten minutes faster than everyone else's. Sitting back in his remarkably comfortable heated chair, the captain leaned back and had the computer display the day's news from the Terran military. It appeared their efforts to gain another shipyards that could handle the production of Terra-class battlecruisers was going well. Which meant they would have to kill more cargo ships in the coming weeks to make up for the lizards' anger. More fun, The jet-haired man thought, sipping his coffee.

There was a hissing noise of a door opening, and in ambled Aerin, looking as if she had spent half the night building something, or having a party by herself, which the tiny woman was wont to do. currently, she was tugging a brush through her own black hair, the green tips so tangled you could barely tell the color was there. she sat in her chair and checked the reports Sky had filed on the ship's processes as the human crew slept. Speaking of sky, Where was the robotic avatar? Seth had not seen her today yet. Perhaps she was in engineering taking care of tube 37. The damn thing had been misfiring again, and it looked like she would need replacement, which meant a trip back to Terran space. Still, 59 working tubes was nothing to laugh at. The captain leaned back in his chair, taking in the morning shuffle as his crew readied themselves for another day playing pirate. Only ten more till their anti-ship missile compliment would run out. Then their month-long deployment would be over until they got more orders. Of course, they usually got new orders within a day or two of returning. this time would most likely be the same.

It was about Lunchtime on Terra, but these four Terrans and their ship's robotic Avatar would not be taking a break for a while. Poised about 300 lightyears away from Drathos, they sat at the current nav-point for Drathonian shipping. Since space was so full of hazards, most ships tended to need to make several jumps when wwithin a galazy to avoid being damaged while travelling faster than the speed of light, this meant Civillian ships and Military ships that weren't in combat mode, as neither had the shields to stop or mitigate a hit at that tremendous speed. So the Cobalt sky sat, floating among an ice ring on this planet, who's mas shadow was being used to more efficiently pull ships out of hyperspace. It had been three hours, and only two convoys had passed through. this close to the home system of Drathos, ships flew unescorted, and all had been short work, the remains of which floated lazily about space, and would eventually be sucked into the nameless planet's gravity, where everything would either burn up or crash into the ground to be destroyed. Three hours and only two convoys, The dark blue-haired combat specialist, Kail Tarrim thought, scratching her head in boredom as she played video games on her console. Everyone else was doing about the same thing, with the exception of Sky, whose baby blue hair and pale 'skin' shone like a beacon compared to the living crewmembers. She sat perfectly still, Eyes glazed over and pupils completely closed, all her power going to assisting the Cobalt Sky in her passive scans of the system.

Suddenly, several blips appeared on the sensors, telltale signs of possible hyperspace-travelling vessels. All computers and screens reverted to their combat functions, and the crew tensed. Getting ready for a possible skirmish, Kail and Trey switched over to weapons view, Kail taking over the Missile controls, Trey utilising the Ion turret atop the vessel. Besides being a terrific cook, Trey was a crack shot, and the only person aboard the Cobalt Sky whom had defeated him in a shooting contest was Sky herself, mechanical limbs being a bit more stable than Trey's own human, fleshy ones. But as for now, Sky braced into her chair, docking with a computer connection to increase the transfer rate and therefore the ship's processing power. Seth readied the helm for action, warming up the generator and the engines to combat readiness. Aerin was running sensors at the moment, but at any second she could run to engineering to fix a problem if the ship took damage.

The amount of time the crew spent getting ready, if anyone cared to keep time, was 1.3 seconds, even the fabled Battle Hymn's bridge crew took longer to get ready, but that worked for them, as they generally had several hours of hyperspace travel to prepare. The Sky on the other hand, usually had between 15 seconds and a minute to get ready. Today was no exception, but still, the seconds on tactical alert ticked by slowly, everyone in the ship tensed as Seth eased the Cobalt Sky out from the Ice ring, doing a short boost to the floating debris. Almost as soon as Captain Larai ahut of boosters and thrusters, setting them at a lazy spin among the debris, the blips were confirmed as Hyperspace signatures, and twelve long fissures of light sprang into existance only 100 miles away from the floating pile of scraps, each fissure closed faster than it could be seen by the naked eye, followed by Twelve new blips. "Shit" Seth managed to utter.


It was evening On Terra. The Cobalt Sky lay Adrift, several figures could be seen on it's Hull wearing EVA suits and Wielding blowtorches, welding plates of scrap onto the hull. Without emergency repairs, the ship would break up if it attempted travelling through Hyperspace. Hyperspace. Basically the only option at the moment. The main Reaction Drives and Warp ports were mostly scrap, and many of the auxiliary Ion drives were missing. Luckily there were enough left to manuver for a jump, and the Drive drive was still intact, enough to get a good clip of 75 ly/min. Furiously, the repairs went on outside, with one figure left inside, staring at one of the few screens that hadn't broken during the battle. Obviously, Seth would have to put in for a new bridge when they got back, one with more room, volumetrics, and maybe even normal lighting. He leaned back in his command chair, a hearty 'clunk' ringing out as the broken mounts moved against themselves, and closed his eyes, Remembering the day, what was it? four hours ago? five? It had been so long with nothing able to tell time, and space was disorienting. hoepfully the scrap plating would be repaired soon, and they could leave.

***

It was About Noon on Terra, And the twelve streaks turned out to be Raptor-class frigates. Not the usual unarmored tankers. Shit. " FORWARD BATTERIES! FIRE AT WILL! ION CANNON, GIVE 'EM HELL! ENGINEERING REPORT TO STATIONS FOR DAMAGE CONTROL!" He yelled, somewhat needlessly, but it still got the point across. In a flurry of Activity, Aerin was out the door headed for her station, Trey was tracking targets and beginning to fire, the viewscreens already showing the Ion cannon's effect on Shielding, in the form of multicolored lightning streaking in a bubble-like formation around a ship. Missiles flew from the forward batteries, All twelve of them blasting off at just short of the speed of light, and an orange globe appeared on the shields of each Raptor, with the exception of the one that Trey had fired upon earlier, it's weakened shields providing no resistance against the projectile, which slammed straight into the hull, boring into it and exploding within, igniting the weapons store, and subsequently the powerplant. The ship immediately began to break up, followed by a large explosion, flinging debris on the two ships nearest it, weakening their shields just enough for the second salvo, fired from the port missile tubes, to impact upon the group's shields. Finally, all 59 working missile tubes had fired their payloads, and the automatic reloading mechanisms worked hard to cycle rounds, getting ready for another salvo.

It was then the first beams and shells began raining upon the Cobalt Sky. Luckily a small, difficult to track target, very few impacted upon it's shields. Seth vectored out of the way, boosting towards his enemies to a more optimum range and position. Underneath, the Raptors had less guns to bear. Trey Fired another Ion Bolt, razing through the shields of a second Raptor and shutting down the Bow, including the bridge. Cobalt Sky:2 Raptors: zero.

Ten versus one. A minute ago it was twelve versus one. Another salvo of anti-ship missiles found their way out of the missile tubes on the Cobalt Sky, arcing 'up' towards the ten Drathonian ships, as the Ion cannon spat out another blast of energy, mitigating the shields on a third Raptor class. But it seemed it was all too little, too late. The Ventral guns on the Raptors opened fire at close range, this time their aim was spot-on, and the Plutanovicz shield system was quickly overloaded, energy giving feedback and Solid munitions transferring it's physical impact to the generator tower, Radar-absorbant panels began falling off just in time for the shields to abruptly fizzle out. Titanium alloy armor suddenly groaned and creaked, overheating and buckling all over the place. Syill, there was nothing to be done, and the Sky continued the fight.

The volley had been successful, three more had been knocked out of the fight, making the total be 7 to 1. But the Cobalt Sky was showing wear. Several large gashes rent through the hull, including a large hole that bored it's way through the port side, making most of those tubes useless. The shields flickered on and off, trying valiantly to protect the ship that they had been designed for. But it was too much. The Ion cannon continued it's work, miraculously unmolested thusfar. The raptors now worked on spreading out and manuevering around the small missile-boat, making it harder to concentrate fire without leaving one area open.

Another salvo, less missiles, but less targets. Two had been missing shields due to Trey's handiwork, and went down in gouts of flame and debris. But the battle was not won. One of the remaining five enemies got behind the sky and began Mercilessly pouring fire into the engine cluster, and a large explosion racked the Cobalt Sky, signalling that main Propulsion was gone. Unable to move any longer, the Pluto-class simply did what it could, plugged out missiles. Only 25 of the sixty could be fired now, but it still was deadly, with five going towards each ship, their defensive gunners couldn't stop everything. Another Drathonian ship was hulked. Four to one.


It was close now, too close to call. The crew of the Sky were certain they would go out with a bang, it was only a matter of time before accellerated particles from one of the Remaining Raptor desroyers' main cannons pieced the hull and detonated the energon drive, a feat that was likely to kill all five of the ships in the skirmish. But! But they still had a chance. the compliment of missiles on the Cobalt sky was not yet depleted, and the shields on the remaining Drathonian ships were destroyed, visual sensors showed the strain on the projectors, a few were even alight with gouts of flame, their mounts having pulled free, puncturing the hull and igniting the oxygenated air within. So, with a great weight to her hand, Kail Tarrim typed in one final fire order for all remaining missile tubes, the self-guided projectiles correcting their courses as they became divided evenly between the four destroyers. And that was it. Each boxy starship suddenly erupted into bits, balls of flame, heat, and destruction burning through hull plating, buckling the material and causing massive hull breaches, gouts of flame lashed out and were suddenly extinguished as their ignition source, oxygen, dissappeared.

And so, There was the Sky, Floating, almost gone, pierced through all decks, but still alive. The crew began emergency repairs almost immediately, lamely limping their stricken vessel around the debris field to scavenge useful armor plating to weld onto the torn and melted hull, making the ship rigid enough to make an FTL jump back to.. to where? a subspace communication suddenly beeped on the comms, ordering the Sky to Saratar. Saratar? why there of all places? wasn't it controlled by the lizards? but hey, it had a drydocks and was closer than Altres or even Waypoint. perhaps they were to aid an invasion fleet. Repairs were ordered to doubletime. They may be in bad shape, but they could still fight. Seth knew Terran ships were scarce, so he would not argue with orders. Donning an EVA suit of his own, the young captain walked out onto the hull to help his crew with repairs.

After four more hours of struggling, working, and occasionally hiding from Drathonian Patrols, the Cobalt Sky was deemed "warp-worthy" by Aerin, and the crew returned to the heavily damaged interior. The last hour had been particularly nerve-wracking, as a Drathonian scavenger ship dropped in-system and began picking at the wreckage field. Luckily, it's bays had filled before it got to the Sky's end of the field, and it had left. Work continued at double pace, as it could potentially drop back into the system for another go at any moment.

Making some quick repairs to the bridge, the Cobalt Sky powered up, with Sky entering the Nav coordinates into the ship's computer, as most of the screens had broken and couldn't be used. After a few long minutes, the warp drive engaged, sending the ship streaking through space faster than light, straight towards Saratar. All hands waited patiently, occasional creaks and groans as the ship passed near gravity wells were unwelcome reminders that the old tub could disintegrate at any moment, But, somehow, the ship held together. After several more hours of wearying travel, the Sky dropped out of hyperspace right at the Edge of Saratar's gravity well, broadcasting Passcodes as well as a distress beacon, the stress of dropping directly into a gravity well had fractured several of the quick fixes, and Atmosphere was venting from the thankfully non inhabited areas of the ship.

Quickly, various smaller ships and a larger one arrived, 'grabbing' the Cobalt Sky with tractor beams and pulling it towards the safety of the Saratar Drydocks. As the small grouping of ships moved through system, Sky relayed sensor information, translating it into simpler terms for the benefit of the crew. The avatar described how the area was clear of any and all enemy ships, how there were not one, not two, but three battlegroups nearby. There was very little wreckage, most of it having already been salvaged, and what little was left was itself being taken care of. All in all, it was calm, aside from the frantic movement of ships around the site. Soon, the Cobalt sky was brought next to the Hymn, Dwarfed by the flagship of the Terran Armada.

Pushed into the bay of the Saratar drydocks, the Sky was 'gently' dropped on the ground before the containment field went up, allowing the insides of the Sky to stabilize. Soon a team of Terran Engineers and workers swarmed the ship, as a team of medics entered the bay, waiting for some sort of entrance to open up. Seth had Sky communicate with the base, telling them the only access was the airlock on the dorsal surface, and soon a maintenence walkway was extended, and the Terran medical crew hurried up to it, boarding the ship and looking after the crew, all of whom declined medical help, but were forced into it by a somewhat comandeering Medical officer, and were brought to the nearest functioning med bay (the one on the Cobalt Sky having been destroyed in the battle) Which just happened to be the main Medical bay in the Battle Hymn.

Midday on Terra, The Cobalt Sky's repairs finally finished. With a new crewmember on board, the ship nudged itself away from the station, gingerly, as if afraid the repairs might fall off, but they held firm. The Sky looked sharp, after having nearly half of its systems repaired, refurbished or replaced, it had gotten a new set of armor and a fresh coating of it's stealth materials, which gave the ship a light sheen, from the almost smooth surface. Floating away from the dock, the captain signalled his new communications officer to do her job, getting them permission to leave, exit vectors, and finally, heavily encoded, their newest assignment, from High command itself.

Aurelia sat in her position at the side of the bridge, sitting in front of a large communications interface that she was generally ignoring in favor of her com sleeve. The girl seemed to be eerily skilled at typing with one hand, as messages were quickly relayed and received. She turned her chair to look at the captain. "Cleared for egress, bearing 0-0-62. Communication from High Command is decrypting, and can be accessed on your private channel, Captain." She sighed a bit at the ease with which the work was done; compared to planetary troop coordination, running communications for a single ship required the same mental capacity as staring out a window. She supposed the only reason she had been assigned to the position was to ensure the job was done with speed and precision. But considering the fact that the Sky was a solo operator, Aurelia suspected she'd be spending a lot of time staring out a window. She looked on as the helmsman eased the Sky gracefully out of the docking bay.

"Thank you, Aurellia" Seth replied, somewhat Dryly, checking the coordinates and orders. They were to check on some suspected movement to the south of the galaxy, a place that had not been ventured into for a while. Reports on enemy numbers were minimal at best, and since it was close to what little Terran Territory remained, it might be wise to know. Seth moved the ship along, practiced hands moving the bulk of the Modified Pluto class Missile boat with suprising agility. After a quick boost to STL cruising speed, the helm indicated that they had left Saratar's gravity well, and that FTL travel was now possible. "Allright, everyone. Brace for transition to Hyperspace. Let's see how well they repaired the old girl" the captain announced, brushing his long black bangs from his face and typing in some coordinates, gearing the ship for the jump. he called engineering momentarily to check on something 'How does it look Aerin?" he asked, getting the response "Everything is running perfectly sir. Seems we got a new FTL drive, same class as the ones used in the Terras, though ours is obviously smaller" "Yes yes, what do you think it will push us at?" "At least 100 a minute, Sir" "that much? Very good. Let's get underway" And with that, The ship Blinked out of existance.

Seth sat back in his chair, turning to the New girl. 'So, do you know why they put you here, Aurellia?' he asked, blankly.

Aurelia blushed at the question, not knowing the answer herself. "Umm... because you need a high grade communications and ops coordinator on a ship that maintains radio silence with fewer than 100 people to coordinate? Enlighten me, sir. Why exactly am I here?" She came to the realization as the words sprung from her mouth. She had to raise an eyebrow exceptionally high in befuddlement.

"Apparently I'm too much of a loose cannon" Seth told her, with a bemused smile on his face. 'I'm too dangerous, too careless with my ship, when it is they who order me into the most dangerous part of the galaxy, to play pirate all by my lonesome." he chuckled a little bit "So, they've set you here to make sure we check in properly, and that we aren't too dangerous. Right now they're sending us on a cakewalk to make sure you can do your job before they send us on another suicide run" The bemused smile remained, but Seth's face hardened. perhaps he was somewhat of a loose cannon, but he was careful enough to keep his ship and his crew alive, even when any other commander would lose everything.

Aurelia giggled at the Captain's words. "Hah. If that's the case, then I have to laugh at their choice in babysitter. I must admit, I've always wanted to live a pirate's life," she said, wiggling her index finger in a hook and closing one eye, "Yarr!" She quickly broke off, having trouble containing her laughter. She felt a bit giddy in the much less formal atmosphere, with a much more human CO (literally).
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