USC Nomad: Tour of Tomorrow Part Two

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A spaceship passing in front of a red planet

U.S.C. NOMAD – Tour of Tomorrow – Phase Two

Welcome back, now to enlighten you to Phase Two.

Being hidden for three months, approximately one mile within one of the larger asteroids of the asteroid field named Little Big Horn, Delmar Signa Galaxy, the relentless hours of repair work are nearly over; Nomad is now up to 76% battle-worthy and is in a position to head back to Earth for the major repairs she much needs. Captain Novak would not have tried the run for home below 75%, he might take chances knowing a particular situation, but after the battle and ensuing catastrophic events that followed, no way would he put his ship and the lives of his crew at stake if the ship was any less space-worthy.

Now the helmsman begins to manoeuvre Nomad along the cavern, all the crew are on full alert and at their respective stations, not knowing what awaits them after they clear the asteroid field. Captain Novak passes an order to the communications officer, that, once out of the asteroid, send immediately a request for escort vessels to Federation Command, saying nothing but suffering damage and co-ordinations. Clear of the field and 'pointing' for home, the helmsman reports that they can only reach a maximum LD 38, if they push for more, the ship's reactors will overload and fuse out (fusing out would mean irreparable damage).

Five minutes into the run for home and no sign of any Pellingg ships around, good news as such, Capt'n Novak assumed that they must have sustained serious damage as well and returned to Pellon 3. Alas, the next information he received wasn't so good, the communications officer reported that he had sent the request out on every frequency and had double checked the system, but he could not hear any response from any Federation post or ship; all he was receiving on all channels was static. 'Captain!' He followed up with: 'I've notified engineering to carry out a full diagnostics on ship's communication, shall I send a log buoy away as backup?' 'Carry on' said the Capt'n, 'and notify me as soon as diagnostic is completed'. – 'Aye sir!'.

Clicking on the ship's intercom, the Captain ordered that Damon be launched and conduct a sweep of the area around and ahead of Nomad and act as escort until they reach Earth. Most of the ship's weapon system was working, but to ensure that if another fight started before they reached base, four of the Rondar Beams and eight of the Phased Infusion guns were taken off-line, as they would have also overtaxed the ship's power reactors.

Damon launched and instantly the bridge fell silent, as the communications officer reported that after the diagnostic check the radio system and sub space antennae were at 100% efficiency, and that they could not pick up any form of radio communication whatsoever – it seemed as if no one was out there; he was still receiving telemetry from the log buoy, but that also reported no contact on any channels. Captain Novak calmly signalled him to keep trying.

Things could be going from bad to worse, the scanner control lead Ensign asked the Captain to come over to the console and expressed his concern as to the 'picture' of the universe, as scanners showed a different panorama to that in the ship's star charts. Novak, again calmly, instructed him to monitor and record all scanner results and said jokingly 'as long as we're heading in the right direction for Michelle's café...' (a favourite haunt for off-duty personnel)

Unknown to anyone on Earth One, as they have always been under the impression that dimension jumps, the 'other' dimensions would be in the self and same universal configuration of all the star systems, and as communications with any other personnel who have jumped across isn't possible, it now looks as if this isn't the fact, as Nomad, not knowing they've 'leapt' across, are to discover once they reach Earth, 'they're Earth'.

After a while, the Damon's Commander contacted Nomad and asked to speak to the Captain in private, so this was transferred to his bridge quarters. They reported no contact with any vessel within maximum scanner range, but also reported the same as the ship's scanner ensign. They were instructed to continue 'sweeping' the area and stay on full alert.

From his bridge quarters, Novak called all bridge officers and those off duty to attend the bridge TA room (Tactical Attack); this is really just a conference room, but everyone thinks it sounds better, as they are usually in there discussing tactics of some kind. The consensus of the meeting was to carry on and literally find Earth, as although the 'universe' looked different, they felt they were heading in the right direction for Earth. Main concern was the lack of radio contact, this was most baffling. To only get the static of the universe's background noise was a worrying problem, as everything in communications was OK and operating at optimum ranges.

So it was agreed to carry on as normal and play it by the proverbial ear until they reach Earth in about six or seven weeks, give or take.

Moving back to Earth One! All the data from the science vessel had now been correlated and the resulting outcome all pointed to Nomad being thrown into subspace or another dimension by a rift formed when the three Pellingg crafts simultaneously imploded; the sub space scenario was the lesser of the two, as there are no recorded instances of sub space rifts being detected within Federation space, leaving dimensional 'travel' the 99% odds on outcome of Nomad's disappearance. Now unknown, except to those at the very top of the Federation Command, micro sub space contact IS possible with the other Earth dimensions, but it has a drawback in that it can only be made when two Earths are in the same position as each other in their relative dimension, allowing contact for a few hours once per year as they 'pass' over each other.

Now you might think this can't happen, as each Earth is orbiting in the same direction and therefore they can't pass each other, but, as Nomad has discovered, the universe looks different to the ship's star charts. So, in the other dimensions, some of the Solar Systems are in the opposite orbit directions and orbital speeds differ as well. This fact has still to be uncovered by the crew of Nomad.

As U.S.C Nomad, Earth one, is officially designated as Missing in Action and the search called off, Central Command will attempt to find her within the other Earth Zones when contact allows. The media of the time were give an official press release, that due to the sensitive nature of the Pellingg and the loss of three of their ships on the outer rim of Federation Space, no further reports will be made for security reasons.

Now we have arrived to where Nomad has reached Earth, only to discover – and with bewilderment – that Earth is totally devoid of humanoid lifeforms, no buildings, no civilisations of any kind, absolutely nothing to say that any species has occupied Earth at any time. Parked in geo-stationary orbit at the moon site, or where IT should have been, the Captain announced over the intercom for all personnel to remain calm and carry on with their respective duties; he then contacted the Marine Commanders to convene in the TA room on the bridge in one hour. Commander Vharr, who is the Commander of Damon this tour (who also is 3rd Officer on Nomad), has been instructed to conduct a grid survey of the Solar System for anything that might help explain the situation.

Meeting with the Marine Officers, they were to take all detachments and do a full reconnoitre of Earth for well! Anything....

Three days later, Captain Novak called all the ship's crew to attention over the intercom:

'To all ship's personnel! After all the viable information we have been able to attain has been scrutinised, the conclusion to our situation is that: After the battle with the Pellingg in the Indian Territory, the following explosion hurtled us through some form of rift in subspace and we now find ourselves in an alternative dimension to Earth as we know it: Earth One. We can only conclude that as no lifeforms have been found on our journey here, we are in a dimension of an unknown number, as Earth One was in the process of Earth-jumping settlers to Earth 6 as we started our tour of duty. At the moment, we have no means of returning to our own zone and contact is also impossible. Seeing that there is nothing on this Earth, we will build temporary accommodation, and after a period of leave, it will be put to each and everyone on a free choice whether they want to stay here and start a new colonisation of this Earth, or continue on Nomad and conduct science and knowledge research within this universe, so that collected data can be of benefit to Earth settlers should they reach here.

I conclude with that whatever ship's personnel decide, it has been my privilege and honour to serve and to fight alongside you. This will be entered in ship's log and countersigned by 2nd Officer Commander Lamina.

That is all....

U.S.C. NOMAD – Tour of Tomorrow + Phase Two
Information Log

United Solar Cruiser Nomad: Vixen class solar cruiser

Weapon System: Main Armament of 6 Rondar Beam Cannon

Secondary = 16 Phased Infusion Gun

Captain: Jason Novak

2nd Officer: Commander Lamina

3rd Officer: Commander Vharr

Ship's crew: 300 personnel

Marines: 8 detachments of 50 men and women = 400 personnel

R.A.P. U.S.I Damon: United Solar Interceptor – a 20 man crew Rapid Attack and Pursuit vessel, armed with 2 Rondar Beam Cannon and 4 Pigs, see below.

4 x 50 personnel troop carriers – each armed with 3 P.I.G.'s; and three smaller 10-man-size interplanetary shuttle craft, unarmed

United Solar Federation of Planets: A union of mutual agreements, protection and trade

Rondar Beam Cannon: Pulsed beams of laser light incorporating black light (a technology which is so secret, that few have knowledge of its existence – rumours of antimatter use are mere speculation) at which each pulse is at a different frequency, has no known shield defences. To all intense and purposes it's just one hell of a powerful laser

Phased Infusion Gun: P.I.G. This secondary weapon is the Ship's more commonly used form of defence/attack and its structure is made from a type of plasma and forms of converted energy mass, which has a hefty kick to it and will disable most defence shields and weapon arrays in a short space of time. Cruisers are usually armed with 12

Decoy Loop Torpedo: Fired to look like a record of ship's log being sent out, which, once out of scanner range, loops back to attack the rear of an attacking vessel, giving the impression of another United Solar Vessel arriving.

Scanner Console: This was manned by two bridge officers at all times, one a lead Ensign in main charge.

Log Buoy: A small probe ejected by a craft in distress; acts similar to a 'black box recorder', circa 20th Century

Large Dimensional Shift Array: Basically, it looks like a massive long tube of scaffolding, except it's about one mile wide (diameter) and three miles long. Travel between dimensions had been discovered about 150 years ago, many attempts were made but not perfected until about 15 years ago. Now a fleet of Star Ships can enter the array and be transported to another dimension (same place same time – i.e. Earth 1 and Earth 2 etc), one-way-only, as the array took over 20 years to build.

Earth: For aliens' information – the planet we humans live on (including non-human species (and that includes some humans as well)).

Inertia Buffers: A network of units within the Ship's structure that cancel the effect of Inertia, that stop objects being thrown about when rapid acceleration/deceleration begins.

A Galaxy known as Delmar Signa, more commonly known as the Indian Territory, this was because of a immensely huge circling asteroid field (approximately nine million miles in diameter) with one large asteroid – Little Big Horn (about half the size of Earth's moon) at its near outer edge.

Captive asteroids: In sectors that had planets orbiting suns but could not sustain any possible life, large asteroids were towed in to orbit and became outposts along with more often than not how you would say, a form of transport café, where traders and repair shops plied their businesses. Where legitimate and black markets were prevalent.

Lahtraiser Wax: A delicacy added to very expensive food recipes of the Heenertson race (humanoid species).

Vengosian Tea: A Vengos fermentation, highly sought after and a highly alcoholic beverage with possible hallucinogenic side effects, many races have banned it, including Earth.

Pellinggs: A bipedal race of scavengers with no loyalties to anyone, including each other within their planetary system

Pellon 3: A 3-star solar system, consisting of 14 inhabited planets, each having various amounts of moons. Supporting many colonies throughout the system

Pell class fighter: 120 'man' crew, armed with eight Phased Disruption CannonS. Has the capacity to inflict substantial damage. On its own not a main threat to Nomad's shields

Eppe class Destroyer: 320 'man' crew, armed with four Dual-Phased Plasma Howitzers and 12 Phased Disruption CannonS. Sustained fire would seriously damage Nomad.

To give an idea as to the speeds of the various spacecraft within the Federation Zone, this scale will give a rough guide.

Light Speed divided by 100: LD= light division

Nomad's speed = LD 70

Damon's speed = LD 60

Pellingg Fighters' speed = LD 52

Pellingg Destroyers' speed = LD 47

Most Federation ships' speeds vary between LD 30 and 50

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