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Knights of Terra Prologue part 4 of ?

The subspace transmitter had only 2 statements on it. "Message received. Heavy guns in route. KOT Grand Citital" Captain Ideas started at it dumbstruck. Who the hell to Kelly call?

"I pinged Earth, it got there, someone is coming, I told you Earth is coming..." Sam Kelly was babbling out in their own defense, before the captain cut them off. " This changes nothing, we don't know who that is and if they can even get here in time." The Captain would deal with whatever that is if she survives the death already at her doorstep.

Light-years away, on the edge of the Sol System, the Knights of Terra Ark ship New Jerusalem was preparing to make a sub-space jump, into a mostly blind fight. Knight-Captain Gias stood on the bridge, watching the progress of the rest of the fleet, and watching for messages. ARES could plot this jump in it's sleep. 2 messages popped up on screen. "Sub-space coordinates received. Dreadnought Fenrir on escort." And just after "Bring them home. KOT GC"

Gias smiled to himself. It no longer mattered what they were jumping into, this was gonna be fun. ARES pinged "Fleet prepared, on your command."

"Let's go get your sibling ARES, go for fleet sub-space jump."

New Eden was preparing to make its final stand. Any preparations that could be made had been. LIBRA had salvaged sensor data from the rest of the fleet into something usable. The very little amount of repairs that could be done had been. But feelings across the fleet were grim. People who kept gods were making peace or praying. The first mate was watching the Kroack fleet edge closer over the limited sensor data. "Cap they're almost in the system." Captain Ideas muttered a swear under her breath. " Notify the fleet to battle stations. Aim for their heavy gun when they get close. If we're going down, let's not make it easy."

"Their vanguard is entering the system, our front line is engaged already." Jess was praying to whoever might be listening, when LIBRA pinged. "Multiple sub-space jumps detected off Starboard side. Message incoming." "Let it through, I could cuse out a Kroack." Captain Ideas watched the video feed flicker to life, and was at a loss for words when it was a human on the other end. "New Eden, I am Knight-Captain Gias aboard the Knights of Terra Ark ship, New Jerusalem. Pull your people back and let us get to work."

Captain Ideas new plan: get her people behind her new friends and figure out what they want later. "Fleet full retreat into range of Eden's big guns. Do not fire on the unidentified fleet." Her bridge was staring at her. "That was an order. Now!" She barked.

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Knights of Terra prologue part 3 of ?

First Mate Jess Davis worked furiously, trying to help the AI LIBRA process and organize the fleet's sensor data into at least something remotely usable. LIBRA was doing its best on low power mode, only running at about 40% made everything feel very slow. Jess was writing codes to trying to bridge sensor data in half a dozen coding languages. If she just got it all into SQL+ then LIBRA could process it that much faster.

LIBRA pinged a message "The power surge likely came from engineering, the damage is in a wave out from that compartment."

Jess rolled her eyes "Thank you LIBRA but please focus on the sensor data, it doesn't matter where it came from right now, just making what we have work."

In 2 hours they were going to die. Jess had accepted this. But she was going to make damn sure to take as many of them down on the way down as she could. If this was New Eden's last stand, then so be it. But this was the Ark Class New Eden, one of the first Ark ships Sol built, and she would not go down quietly. So Jess Davis coded, and LIBRA processed, the fleet knowing the extinction is coming, and planning to go down swinging. There was no where to run and no help coming.

Captain Ides arrived at the door to the Sub-Space room right as the maintenance bot got the door open. Sam Kelly was leaning against the transmitter, which looked in surprisingly good condition. "Kelly I'm going to throw you out an air lock. Why the hell would you go against my orders, and screw us even harder. This might be treason for sabotage for all I know." Ides yelled across the room, getting louder as she got angrier. Sam looked triumphant "I did it, someone will answer, someone will come." They answered quietly, almost a whispered prayer as much as a defense.

"I really don't have time for this, you need to try to restore power, as far away from me as you can" Ides barked sharply. She was livid, no one answered from Sol, they never did, her parents wasted their lives trying to talk to Sol. vg had no such fantasy, but right now she needed her Chief Engineer, as angry as she was. She spun on her heel, she needed to get back to the bridge and see what she could do to fix this fuck up.

Right as Captain Ides went to walk out the door, the transmitter pinged. Someone had answered.

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KOT prologue pt 2 of ?

Captain Ides stood in the command room of the Ark Ship New Eden, being told by the numbers, that they were going to lose, and they were going to die.

The fleet around New Eden stood at 6 stations and 45 ships, with ancient weapons and scrap yard fixes fleet wide. There was a fleet coming, and they were in no shape to get far enough out of the way, nor able to win. The ships that could escape couldn't get far enough, fast enough to get away.

Head of engineering, Sam Kelly, burst through the command room door. "Captain, I think I have a solution" the hyper active redhead babbled out, bouncing on their heels. "I would love good news Kelly. Please give me good news."

"I think I can get the old sub-space transmitter to work, and if we can get a transmission out..." They trailed off, the Captain already rolling her eyes.

"We could what Kelly? Get told no, and that we're on our own at FTL speeds? Anyone close enough to help has already been asked and said no."

"The sub-space transmitter can reach Sol, it can reach home." They mumbled with hope and awe.

"Sol has been dark for 200 years, not a pip since they lost the war and abandoned the rest of us. Do you really think that some random SOS, from across the verse, they'll suddenly CARE?" Captain Ides was exhausted and hopeless, she needed news and help, not some fantasy of a miracle savior.

Kelly was inching their way out of the room. "Sorry Captain, I'll let you know if I figure out anything else, sorry." They backed out of the room, before running back to the engineering center, a plan already spinning itself together. They wouldn't need to power it until it was put all the way back together, and after Sam found Sol's sub-space coordinates. They would only get one shot, the captain would be pissed, because that power will have to pull from somewhere, but they could worry about it later, they had 5 hours to rebuild the fleet's salvation.

3 hours till the Kroack fleet arrives, and Captain Ides is drinking her 8th cup of coffee in as many hours, walking lines in the floor of the command room. She has ran out of things to do, waiting on her extinction and watching hopeless repairs and preparations.

"Jess, wake me in an hour, I doubt much will change much."

Captain Ides woke up with a jolt, something just set off the emergency power in 70% of the ship. Something was very wrong with her ship, and at the worst possible time. She checked her wrist com. They had less than 2 hours to contact, and now they were in a dangerous spot, without the attack on its way. "Jess, report. What the hell just happened?"

"Something triggered a massive power surge to Engineering. The ship defaulted everything to low lights, and pulled power from all non essentials. Unfortunately it looks like the power surge blew out about 2/3 of the sensor array. All of the long range and most of our short range is gone." First Mate Jess rattled off, looking bleak.

Captain Idea was wide awake now as she thought of what could've possibly done this. The entire Ark would know if they blew a generator, just losing one wouldn't drop that much power. Her mind raced through section after section of the ship. Until she hit engineering. Sam wouldn't disobey a direct order, not right now of all times. Right?

"Jess notify the rest of the fleet we need them to direct comm their senors, all of them. I know it'll be a lot of data, try to run it through LIBRA. If we still have the power. I need to go to engineering" Idea grabbed her coffee cup and quickly exited the room. " If I'm right, I'm going to eject that red head out of the nearest air lock" she darkly thought to herself

Sam Kelly, Chief Engineer, sat in the floor of the Sub-Space room. They blew out everything in the room, including the door locks. But the maintenance bot was working on the door, so they just had to wait. They got the transmitter put together faster than any time they read through on the exo-net. Sol's cords were buried in the archive but still not a challenge. But if the Captain was right, and no one answers, or not fast enough, they were all going to die. Sam laughed to themselves. Even if they didn't do anything, everyone was going to die.

They stood up to stretch their legs, and await their fate. Death or salvation, they knew that they had done everything in their power to save their home.

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Knights of Terra prologue pt 1 of ?

Following the fall of the UEG during the war with the council, humanity was left shattered, spread across dozens of systems, no longer a united front, but dozens of groups, fighting amongst themselves and the nearest neighbors.

For 200 years, no one has heard anything out of Sol, and human settlements have become ripe picking for pirates and war parties alike. A handful of inner systems stand in an uneasy alliance out of necessity more than any fond feelings.

On the edge of human space, far from the council or the inner systems, the Kroack lay siege to a handful of mining stations, coming for plunder and slaves.

One of the last remaining Ark ships from Terra, the New Eden, stood at the center, a last bastion of Sol and a time with humans still had a place to call home. But it was a losing fight, a war of attrition the sole system couldn't keep up with against an empire.

Abroad New Eden, Captain Ides got shaken awake by her first mate. "Jess, th is better be fucking important, I've been asleep less than 2 hours" Ides snarled at the young man.

"Captain, we're tracking a massive Kroack war fleet making a straight line to us"

"How long until they reach us?" She ran her hand through her hair, trying to wake herself up.

"12 hours" First mate Davis replied, reluctantly.

"12 hours? Why did you wake up me for a raid in 12 hours?" She barked, already ready to go back to sleep.

"This isn't a raid, boss. We've tracked at least 4 carriers and 6 battleships on escort. They aren't coming for a flight, that's a fleet on its way to war "

Captain Ides swore, and rubbed her eyes. The fleet couldn't have won this flight when she took over the Eden, and they've lost so much since then.

"First Mate, get me updated numbers from everyone. Wake Kelly and get them on what it would take to move the fleet, within 6 hours" "The whole fleet?" "YES, THE WHOLE DAMN FLEET"

Captain Ides got to the command deck still in a foul mood, only mitigated by her logistics officer meeting her with coffee on the long walk.