Stellaris Play & Learn
Chapter Fifty-Three - That's A Lot Of Ships!
"Oh CRAP!"
The First Thinker received a data package from the Fevallion System. Seems Mikab, and the crew of the ISS Yhlat the Savior, had found something on Fevallion Va.(1)
There seemed to be signs of activity, or something, of an ancient precursor civilization. Of course they were told to research the heck out of it.
Then Elemano and the ISS Lomatik the Butcher entered the Jezemei system. And their computer had a field day between mapping out the planets and trying to understand the nature of the wormhole.
Jezemei's star was a M Class. A red dwarf, one of the common stars in the universe, and a few world. None of the planets were worth trying to colonize. Not with all the UV light the red star was pouring out. But that wasn't the most important factor in the system. IT was the wormhole.
While the wormhole was a amazing phenomenon it was also very dangerous. It was unstable and anything that entered it would be turned into tiny pieces. And what if the second wormhole, the other end of the rift, was near a star or blackhole? Even if they could stabilize it there could be death on the other end.
Back at the Starbase in the Tenecca system the station Manager, and its crew, were testing out all the equipment. They knew that the next few work cycles would be important. Power grids would be pushed to their limits, computers would have their outputs checked, double checked, and triple checked. And the space food would be complained about.
They knew what would happen and were ready for anything. What they were not ready for was the alarms going off.
I don't mean the com systems soft beeping because of a incoming data package. Nor do I mean the computer alerting them to a fault in the hull with a anoyying voice. Not even a detector sensing a virus being released, somehow, into the air vents and forcing them all into their spacesuits.
No, this was the blinding flashing red lights and the loud sound of crackling. Alarms, the alarms that were designed to say "Wake up or we're ALL going to die!" were based on forest fires. As the Tandi had evoluted on a jungle planet an alarm that sounded like a fire and filled the chambers with angry red flashing light was enough to wake up any crew member and cause those who were already awake to shake in horror. It triggered their flight, flight, or flight response. Those who tried to fight forest fires rarely produced offspring.
This alarm, number 345B, was the alarm when there were a shit load of warships nearby.
The Manager and the crew checked and double checked their scanners, after calming down, and to their relief there were no enemy ships in system.
On the other hand in Braves' space there were whole fleets of warships. Seems the Starbase's sensors, when they went online and linked with the sensors of other Stations, were allowing the Assembly to peek into the alien's systems. And the picture wasn't good.
The Eptraban system was full of red. Each a Fleet or a Station.
And in the Obleon system....the Manager started to shake again. Horror filled it. There were Fleets, single Fleets, that the computers suggested had more firepower than the whole Tandi military.
And both of these alien systems had a Hyper-Lane link right to the Tenecca system.
On the other hand there was one benefit. It also showed the Fleet of Ancient Mining Drones in the Hauer system. There were only three units.
So some good news. And some VERY bad news. The information was sent to Nest right away. Heavily encoded, of course, but sent as quickly as the computers and crew could collect the data.
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1. Yhlat the Savior was a being out of myth who had died for the Tandi's sins.
