USS Spitfire Chapter One

Welcome everyone to the first chapter of the crew of the Colonial Union Starship, USS SPITFIRE. Spitfire is a Intrepid Class Frigate, which is armed and fast for a small ship in a video game called, PULSAR: LOST COLONY. I have been playing this game quite regularly and I've become so interested in the game because of all the things you can do in the game, that I simply could not resist daydreaming of a crew desperately trying to combat a space infection, as well as combat other hostiles, either in space or on planet, while also trying their best to cope with each other.

These ships are literally not all that big, and literally only have enough room for a five person crew. So in game, this ship design has three turrets, the main turret with a missile launcher, and two smaller turrets, as all ships have a nuke launcher, just can only get them on the black market... No surprise, right?

But this story will incorporate some differences. The two turrets will have manual control and automation. If the automatic system say, were disabled by a computer virus or damaged, then they would need manual control in order to fire. Main gun, full manual control.

How about I just do a short ship tour in character instead? Haha.

The story begins at the Colonial Hub of Outpost 448, the large station sitting there in space, slightly at an angle as almost half the habitat section has been completely blown away. No one would really talk about it, all they would say is that it has been handled. So no one really asks about it anymore, nor do they see any progress of repairing and rebuilding the section at the moment. There's plenty of debris for them to salvage and restore a good portion of the habitat ring, but so far...it seems the Colonial Union are a little more busy with other issues. One regarding pirates, rogue ships, corrupted drones, hostile ancient vessels and stations in specific systems that almost all ships avoid, except for those that are gutsy to even try to take them on...but are never heard of again.

Lastly...there is something else going on out there in the galaxy...something no one can really explain just yet, except that whatever it is...it is spreading and they don't know how to stop it. We will get to that later at some point in the story but for right now...we focus our attention to one ship, one crew, just starting their careers on board this newly built vessel. And their Captain, just starting his career as a commanding officer as well. And it seems that the crew won't have a chance to get to know their Captain right away....

Two officers were steadily walking quickly through the promenade of the station, on their way to the teleport pad to transport over to the brand new Intrepid Class Colonial Frigate. One of them was the captain, Captain James Maxwell of the Colonial Union. He had been serving the Colonial Union for five years as the helm officer on board a Outrider class Research vessel, USS Tesla. Maxwell was just recently promoted to Captain after the incident with three raiders that attempted to disable and steal the Tesla. Marching beside him was Admiral Manchester, one of the few admiralty of the Colonial Union, and one of a very few on board the station. And they were very much in a hurry.

"You do understand the situation, Captain?"

"Yes, Admiral. It's not heard of for a Roland Class Heavy Cruiser to just crash onto a planet with no apparent reason." Said Captain Maxwell.

"Actually there was a reason, but it's something we've never encountered before." They both stepped onto the pad and the captain went ahead on selecting the destination and the energizer button.

Maxwell turned back around to face the admiral and just as he opened his mouth to respond, they both were dematerialized off the pad they are on and rematerialized on a similar pad but on the Spitfire. "I did not see that in the briefing summary." The Admiral waved a hand, leading the captain to the bridge, which is normally sealed off until the ship is handed to a commanding officer, which that hasn't happened yet.

They stepped into a circular bridge, with two very large wooden desks that rested just behind the captain's chair, tall at the six and seven o clock of the chair, where it drops into a shorter section at the nine and three o clock, continuing up to the eleven and one o clock, where it was completely wide open right down the middle to the pilot station. The station at the aft-starboard section of the bridge, which is south to the right, was the Engineering station. The big wooden desk on this side has three screens, one is where the engineer can control what systems can be on and off, generally anything they are not using it don't need can be turned off; second is power management, with a display for the Reactor stability and temperature. And the third had the jump drive screen, where the engineer can initiate the jump drive charging sequence, or if authorized and unlocked by the Captain, a Emergency Blind Jump. Something all Colonial Captains try very hard to avoid, as that can cause quite the havoc on the ship, plus not knowing where they will end up at. Two screens behind the engineer, along the wall of the bridge are the reactor coolant well as number of fuel capsules and distress beacon. Then one screen that almost every station, and almost every room on the ship has, is the ship status screen that will also show the selected vessel status screen right underneath it.

To the aft-port section, is the science station, where it also has three screens, and two screens on the otherwise, along the wall. One of the desk screens shows the viruses sent or received. Second screen shows various signatures the ship emits, as well as shield settings, then search option and list of programs to select. Third screen shows what the ship's sensors picks up, with the option to initiate an EM scan, select a target and scan for lifeforms, and components. One of the wall screens is the ship status screens, and the other is the communications screen.

The Captain has four screens, two that show up when communications with another vessel is initiated. The other two are to his two o clock, on the shorter section of the wooden desk. One is the nuke device status display, where the captain can load a nuke, but the Weapons officer at the weapons bay has to prep it for launch. Then the weapons officer in the weapons bay or the captain on the bridge can launch the nuke from the display. The other one is the missile status display, what type of missile, damage, speed, and what it is targeting. Such as engines, weapons, science or life support. Science power node contains Shields, programs, sensors, etc. So taking that out would really affect the vessel.

The two screens that appear starting from the ceiling, nearly to the deck of the bridge, and are huge for everyone to see, the left screen is the messages that was received and sent displayed in text, while the right screen displays suggestions that the captain can use or ignore and use his own, as well as play the audio or ship to ship visual transmission. The pilot only has two screens. The ship status screen to his right and the helm settings to his left to display systems he needs to align the ship to in order for the jump drive to work properly, or how the ships thrusters and engines should react on the controls. In the center, of course, but no screen, are the helm controls. This is of course a general description of the bridge, and there's really not that many screenshots to find on Google unfortunately.

Once the door was closed behind Maxwell, the Admiral pulled out an holorecoder, stepped down to the command deck of the bridge and inserted the recorder into a slot in the armrest of the command chair. Then two screens appeared just above in front of the chair. Left one displayed everything in text, the right had an audio recording. "You know that our starships were designed to automatically eject a storage buoy upon a catastrophic, ship-wide system failure?"

Maxwell nodded his head, something all Captains learned in command school, in case there ships sustain too much damage to engage the emergency blind jump, that would essentially destroy the ship as well, thus engaging the EBJ would of been futile. "Yes, sir." Remembering a verbal response is more respected and required than a gesture or head nod for that matter.

"Left screen is displaying the last log entry by the Captain of the USS Concord, the Roland cruiser. And the right is the audio of him attempting to make such log." The Admiral said before hitting the play button.

"Captain's Log, supplemental. After we just arrived in the system one-three-eight-two, my science officer conducted a routine EM signature sweep and discovered an unknown bio-organic signature on the other side of the third planet. We just begun our investigation after having approached the planet, and so far sensors are coming up with very little information, but of course, we are not as heavily equipped in sensory and scientific equipment as a research vessel, and - *a large crash and the red alert klaxon went off in the background.* Report!!"

"Sublight engines just went offline! Helm is no longer responding!"

"Shields are registering impacts from all directions, down to eighty percent and continues to drop! The damage is registering physical and I'm switching to static shields, but they're not going to last from the number of impacts we are receiving."

"Sir! In front of us!"

"My God... What the hell is that thing?!"

"I don't know, gentlemen, but we are getting the hell out of here. Bridge to Engineering. Rex! Is the jump drive charged yet?!" It had become standard procedure to immediately initiate jump drive preperations so that the jump drive was charged and ready in case of an emergency, this way they can avoid using the emergency blind jump command.

A male, yet robotic voice answered. "Jump drive is ready on your command, Captain."

"Helm, are we facing a system, any system?"

"Yes, sir! Neutral though, and no idea what's there."

"We will just have to deal with it, hopefully better than here. Jump, chief!"

"Engaging jump drive... Error... Drive is not responding but it is continuing to charge."

"Captain, the sensors are picking up something obstructing the drive system. It's...sensors can't make of it, sir."

"Dammit. Chief, Rex, can you shut the drive down?"

"Negative, Captain. The drive is not responding to commands. It is beginning to overload."

Suddenly a loud explosion was heard in the background, and that is where the audio cuts off.

"That's all we got. The people back at the station have hypothesised that, if a jump drive goes critical, it'll explode. Now the drive is nothing like the reactor, so the explosion is not massive, but it's enough to cause other internal explosions... Overloading power conduits, which provide power to other systems. So they believe that when this happened, that is where the log was cut off, and the buoy launched. Any more information on the ship, is unknown to us. That is where we need you, Captain. You, your ship, and your crew. To go to system one-three-eight-two, conduct massive EM sensor sweep of the organic thing they found, avoid it at all costs, and find out if the crew of the Roland survived."

Maxwell frowned, "Where does it say in the buoy that the ship crashed on the surface of the planet?"

"The USS Concord was just fitted with the latest emergency data storage buoy's. The ones that can keep a lock on the ship's transponder, and pick up the ship's black box emergency signal, thus transmitting it on a high band Colonial emergency frequency."

"Which is why we know she crash landed on the planet surface. Just don't know the exact condition of the crew?" Maxwell asked.

"The black box says that, everything on the ship is dead. The reactor is gone. Almost nothing worth salvaging or restoring. But as for the crew...yes, we have no clue on what their condition is. Need you to find them, Captain, and if alive...bring them home." The Admiral ejected the recorder from the armrest of the chair and began to head for the door. "Oh, and Captain. This is a top priority mission. Whatever it is that caused the Concord's demise, we need to know, in case it is something that we all need to worry about. So whatever happens along the way to that star system, which probably will...since it will take several jumps to get there with the standard jump drive Intrepids carry, ignore them. I don't care if you encounter pirates, rogues, or pissed off Wolden-Dorf Corporation, or gun-ho Alliance of Gentlemen.... Just forget them and get to that Roland immediately."

"Understood, sir." Maxwell clasped his hands behind his back.

"Oh, almost forgot. Computer. Transfer all command codes and functions to Captain James Maxwell. Authorization Manchester Alpha-One-One-Five-Omega."

A computerized female voice spoke. "Authorization accepted. The Commanding Officer is now Captain James Maxwell." Immediately after that, the ship came to life. The engines began to purr into a low growl. Holo-display screens appeared on all over the bridge, and the rest of the lights came on with a loud click, like industrial lights in a warehouse or factory.

"Ship is now yours, Captain. Make the Colonial Union proud." Said the Admiral before stepping out of the bridge through the only door there was.

Suddenly his crew came running into the bridge in their issued bed garments, all staring at Maxwell. Not at all a good start, but the hand off of a ship to a captain was a day early. "We just saw the Admiral leave." Said the Engineer, who Maxwell remembers to be Lieutenant Commander George Jackson.

He read all their profiles a week ago when he was told he be commanding the new Intrepid Class Frigate, Spitfire, and who else that would be assigned to it. Science officer Lieutenant Amanda Paris, Weapons officer Lieutenant David Sanders, and finally the Pilot, Helm officer Ensign Harry Peterson.

"I know that this is quite unexpected and throws a hamper in everyone's last day of time off, but we have an extremely important mission, straight from the admiralty." He paused to let that sink in so they know that the Admiral they saw was not here for show and tell. Maxwell began to proceed. "The USS Concord, Roland class vessel, has crashed onto the surface of the third planet in system one-three-eight-two. It was investigating an unknown phenomenon in space when it was attacked and disabled. Our mission is to investigate the crash, find survivors if there are any, and find out what exactly they encountered. This may mean the very safety, security and survival of everyone in the galaxy."

Maxwell paused a bit longer to let the information sink in before resuming once more. "That means, gentlemen, to get dressed, report to your stations and conduct battle drills every single step of the way to the Concord's crash site. Understood?" Maxwell raised his voice for a brief second to get their attention, since they still seemed out of it. Who the heck are these people? Not exactly what their brochures described them....

"Yes, sir!" They responded in unison.

"Then let's go people! We need to be out of space dock, jump drive prepped and ready to go like ten minutes ago! Let's move!" Maxwell barked his orders and the four of them scrambled to get through the one and only door out of the bridge. It took some negotiating between the four but they got through. Maxwell sighed heavily, "Not a good start at all. But suppose can't blame them. Didn't expect to be summoned by an admiral and thrusted into command a day early...."

Ten minutes would go by, and two of the four other officers joined him on the bridge. Maxwell assumed that Commander Jackson assumed his position in Main Engineering and Lieutenant Sanders at the Weapons Bay, where the stations to all ship's weapons existed, including the automated weapon system. Just to be sure though, Maxwell took his place at the center of the bridge, right in his seat and pressed the intercomm button. "Chief. Weapons. Are you two in place?"

"Yes, sir." They said in unison.

"Good. Let's begin with the departure procedures."

Commander Jackson began to blurt out status updates. "Reactor core is at full strength and stability is at one hundred percent. Reactor temperature holding at two hundred and thirty two degrees fereignheight. Jump drive is spooling up, now receiving it's first jump coordinates...locking in...and charging. Main thrusters, maneuvering thrusters, inertia thrusters and reverse thrusters are all online."

Next, Lieutenant Sanders. "Main cannon is fully charged and ready. Missile launcher is loaded and ready. Both burst cannons are charged and ready. Automatic firing system is online, first initial diagnostics are in the green."

Then Lieutenant Paris. "Shields are at one hundred percent. Communication systems, both short and long range are operating at standard efficiency. All programs are charged and ready. Sensors are online, first diagnostic check is clear. Picking up the Outpost, dock station, repair depot, automated trade station, and various ships of all different sizes and nations. I am now requesting authorization to launch."

Finally, Ensign Peterson. "Helm controls are online. Diagnostics are in the green. Simulations indicate all thrusters and engines are responding to helm control at one hundred percent. Also, the new jump drive throttle that was installed, simulations indicate it is also functioning and the jump drive is responding to it." Henry spun his seat around to look at Maxwell. "We are ready to go on your order, Captain."

It was actually about dam time that they installed a jump drive throttle to the helm station. It is more of a lever that all the helm has to do is push up to engage the jump drive, and pull back to reset and prep the drive for another jump. Normally, the Chief Engineer was responsible for initiating jump prep, and engaging the jump drive, but Colonial Union Command has finally realized that the Helm would benefit with the ability to engage the drive, in case the Engineer was busy on repairs or incapacited.

"We have received a green light on launch, Captain." Said Amanda Paris, which made Henry spin his chair back around, facing his station, on anticipation of a command from Maxwell.

Maxwell smiled, seeing that the crew was more than ready than he had previously thought. "Alright, gentlemen. Let's get underway. Helm, take us out at one quarter thrust. Then align us up with the first coordinated system just at the edge of our jump drive's range, and engage as soon as you have it..

"Aye, sir." Henry acknowledged before tapping some buttons and started pushing one of the levers forward. Soon the ship began to move forward, it's main engines in the rear coming to life, pushing the ship forward and slowly out of the wings or cage of the space dock. As soon as the ship was clear, smaller thrusters along side of the ship, underneath and ontop of, began to fire. Only a few in various sections were lit, as the ship was rotated and turned towards the first system it was to jump to. Opposite thrusters soon fired to slow its momentum and keep it stable with its alignment.

"Ready to jump, in three. Two. One."

"Punch it!" Maxwell ordered with a grin.

Henry grabbed the larger looking lever, and shoved it all the way forward, engaging the jump drive in the process, as well as giving the inertia dampners time to prepare for the jolt. In a split second from when the drive engaged, the ship disappeared from Outpost 44's space zone, and was thrown into hyperspace. Or at least, something of the sort, as all sorts of color and stars streaked by the main view port at the front of the bridge. Untrained crew could get nauseas from all the colors streaking by, but over time they would get used to it.