A Thousand Suns - Beyond Sol (Chapter 01)

[Seathal]

... Continues from... http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=233670

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The Sun shone directly in front of the small ship making the hull plating glow clean white in the dark space. The pilot got blinded for a second before the automatic brightness compensators of the cockpit's windows corrected the excess of light with a light buzz. He closed his eyes and blinked before opening them again as he sighted what he was searching for: the accelerator that lead to the new Terran outpost in this side of the Asteroid Belt, just a tiny silhouette against the bright star.

- T.O.A to Asteroid Belt in 60 seconds, Captain.

He nodded at the computer's notice, activated the manual controls and smoothly aligned the ship with the accelerator.

- Thanks Sam, check systems and prepare for the acceleration.

That was already done, the on-board computer remained quiet as she considered unecessary to remark it was her standard protocol. The powerful impulsators of the trans-orbital accelerator glowed with crackling energy as the USC fighter contacted the energy screen literally shooting the ship at near-light speed to its destination. A short while after the ship was deaccelerated by the destination TOA making the pilot's body press against the strong safety straps that held him to his seat, his face making a funny expression of displeasure.

- Pffft... No matter how many times I use these, I'm never gonna get used to them.

- Asteroid Belt: Returning to preset course, Captain. - Sam informed.

The white ship moved away from the accelerator and set course to the Orbital Defence Station on the other side of the sector. The captain checked out of his cockpit windows and saw nothing but fields of asteroids surrounding him, the Sun was now on his back and he could see the atonishing deployment of asteroid formations in front of him. The indicators showed some more contacts within scanner range, mostly freighters minding their own business, a couple of shuttles and a military patrol that was heading his way. Now he could see them with his bare eye approaching him at high speed, he pushed his visor down and zoomed in the incoming ships, the characters blinked as they showed the decreasing separation in kilometers and the seconds to contact. He could distinguish the silver hulls and characteristic designs of the ATF ships as his visor identified them as four interceptor-class ships.

The comunications channel opened showing a mid-aged man with unfriendly expression:

- Pilot of the USC-N71FS Scimitar, this is ATF patrol AB-881, please identify yourself.

The captain stared at the comms window looking mildly puzzled:

- Here N71FS, I'm Captain Jake Farnham. General Major Rai Ishiyama requested my presence at this sector's Defence Station...

- Ah, right sir, we were waiting for you. Your meeting at the ODS has been cancelled, instead we have orders to escort you to the Patrol Base under ATF jurisdiction.

- My orders are to meet Ishiyam...

- I've already heard you sir. - Interrupted the ATF pilot - You'll meet him there. We're transmitting the aproximation vectors to your on-board computer and cleared the route for you.

- Roger that then... Have a nice day.

Farnham decided not to argue and closed the comms panel seeing that patrol leader was obviously pissed off for having to do all this boring duties and escort him, a simple USC pilot, to the Patrol Base, with all that action going on lately in the outter sectors. He ordered Sam to follow the vectors they were given and checked in the gravidar how the ATF interceptors positioned themselves behind him in escorting formation matching his ships' speed and course.

He opened the logs display and checked yet again the message from his former superior, Rei Ishiyama, requesting his presence in the Asteroid Belt for a mission proposal. Not much more was said in the message he recieved from him when he was in a rest period between patrols in the OPB in Pluto. He knew that Ishiyama was a high-grade official but he couldn't believe he got released temporary from his duties to be able to assist to that meeting; the old man must have good friends in charge. He was instructed under his command for four years, Ishiyama and his father were close friends, after he died, Ishiyama carried on with Jake's training, making sure his father would be proud of him if he was still alive, by no means making things easier for the young Farnham, but on the contrary. Still Jake had good memories of him, and realized he hadn't seen him since he got graduated and joined the USC officer ranks, except a brief salutation when they met in that busy corridor of the Saturn Research Station right in the middle of the confusion of Solar System Incident more than two months ago, when Farnham's squadron got ordered to escort a Scabbard with important material for investigation.

Jake heard the soft beep of the comms display showing up again:

- This is the Asteroid Belt Patrol Base flight control. Your ID is confirmed and you've been authorized to dock at docking bay F. Welcome aboard.

Farnham confirmed as the auto-pilot slowly steered following the aproximation coordinates into the giantic station. The high number of contacts in the grav caught his attention; streams of freighters flying between stations, at least twenty fighter squads patrolling the sector, four heavy transport ships heading for the system's docks and... a huge ATF fleet of at least a carrier and 4 frigattes and a big number of fightercraft heading south for the jumpgate. What's with all the movement? What was the ATF going to do in unknown territory? He decided it was better not to know and turned his sight towards the huge docking gate getting closer and closer everytime. His ships' engines turned off as the station magnetic fields took coomand of it and drove it into the outter hangars making it land smoothly on a platform which, in turn, started to descend underground to the depths of the station. The cockpit got dark all of a sudden with the occasional flash of red of the elevator's warning lights. The elevator hole got sealed as the platform descended and Farnham heard the loud noise of the air rushing into the chamber from below.

The platform finally reached the inner hangars. Jake took a glance below him at the large hangar space, extending below him with dozens, if not hundreds, of platforms like the one he was descending from distributed along both sides of the habitacle. Some of the platforms were descending or ascending with spacecraft, some of them were on stand-by and some others were occupied by a wide variety of Terran ships: small shuttles, freighters, fighters, interceptors, scout-ships... 30 meters below him a legion of mechanics, pilots, engineers and other personeel were hurrying around doing their duties. Farnham admired all the busy ants as his platform brought both him and his ship to the ground with a loud clack of the grappling clamps that secured the platform in its final position.

- Docking procedures completed - Sam informed.

Jake wondered where the hell he was supposed to go now as he pulled the door's safeguard against him and to the side and let the door open up with an hydraulic hiss. It would be funny if he had to ask for directions into this crowd of busy people... He jumped off his ship as a small group of engineers hurried to check the Scimitar. He realized a small welcome comitée stood ten meters away. He felt horribly uncomfy; at least two of them were ATF guys given their dark grey uniform, and the others with white and blue USC outfits; all standing immaculately, staring right at his poor, dirty, ruffled-up being, slightly curved up from being so long into his fighter. He tried to tighten his body up and pretend some formality blushing slightly. The elder of them all walked towards him and he sighed quietly in relief as he recognized the familiar figure. The others, about his age; three men and a women, stood behind looking curiously at him. Ishiyama offered his right hand with a smile on his face.

- Captain Farnham!

- Major General... - He nodded at him and both shook hands friendly.

- Come with me, Jake, there's so much we need to talk about.

[KillingMonkey]

Hmmm... Nice.... There's some hidden talent in you Seathal... A good piece of work indeed... I'm kinda curious... Are you making this story in Spanish too? I'd like to see it in it's raw form (the language of the writer)... That's if you're making it... I don't wanna press you or anything, amigo... Gracias...
Almost forgot- Salud! (Should be like Cheers!)

[Seathal]

Hmmm... Nice.... There's some hidden talent in you Seathal... A good piece of work indeed... I'm kinda curious... Are you making this story in Spanish too? I'd like to see it in it's raw form (the language of the writer)... That's if you're making it... I don't wanna press you or anything, amigo... Gracias...
Almost forgot- Salud! (Should be like Cheers!)

Hm yes I could done it a bit better given I'm spanish and I know the language better But I'm writing it directly in English and kinda "imporvising" (not the plot but the minor events that happen).

I've made translations of long storybooks before so it wouldn't be bad at all.

Thanks for the positive rating ^^ and for reading! Maybe now it's too slow; but I prefer to get a nice introduction first and then go for the action.

Anyways... everyone please feel free to critisize and correct if necessary!

PS: KillingMonkey, you got it right. It literally means "Health" but the concept translation in English would be "Cheers" as you said.

[KillingMonkey]

Bien... Hmmm.... Starting up slow is a good thing in your case... Bringing up the atmosphere and universe of the.... Universe... That's a good thing when writing a long, novel/chronicle type of 'book'... You should think of the settings, characters' backgrounds, events backgrounds (why [input someone here] does [input mischief here] and what are the consequences to all third parties).... No fan-fic novel/chronicle feels good without such stuff... Don't mind the small events.... Integrate them into the big picture...
Here's a tip:
Before even starting to write something think of the main character and all the surrounding characters (supporting-main characters)... Think of their heritage, how they came to that post (if they are military) and construct their basic background history. After you do this think of the plot and how it can intertwine with the main characters' history...
Basically think of the story before and even behind your story.... When you have that figured then making your story will become much easier and you wouldn't have to pull the minor event out of your... culo, sort of say...
I, for instance, have now suspended work on my 'Journal' and am working on the background and stories behind Vectra and John (Andrew).... Something I should have done already and had to the most part...