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A Stellar Beginning

Damn, don't you just hate it when you thought things are finally going right for you, fate throws you a curve ball out of nowhere and smacks you right on the noggin and reminds you that it has other plans for you, well, this is my story how fate tossed me into a place where I had to struggle for a place to belong and how it lead to both my true destiny and to my destined mates and family...

Here is where it all began...

The year is 2278; the place is Earth, capital of the Galactic Federation, a democratic union of over 30 major extraterrestrial races as well as several genetically engineered races and spread across a thousand light-years, boasting a mighty economy and military; we are the shining beacon of hope to many worlds still under the tyranny of rulers who dislike, or should it be hate, their comfortable world turned upside down. The Federation is also in the forefront of science and technology, constantly finding new things to improve our daily lives but of all the areas we could have chosen, we still, foolishly I might add, attempt to open the Pandora's box of time and interdimensional travel, many have tried and failed to open this most secret and dangerous store of knowledge, for with the full knowledge and power to alter and affect the past but without the wisdom to fully wield it, I fear that sooner or later, someone will take this awesome technology and use it for their own nefarious purposes. But I digress. My name is Nathan, Nathan Dragos L. Night, call sign: "Battle Dragon". I'm a human Colonel of the Federal Galactic Space Forces, previously assigned to its Special Operations division. For 30 long years, I have served the Federation with duty, honor and distinction; I have fought in 4 major wars and countless skirmishes and now assigned to the R&D division to help design, develop and bring online new ships, weapons and technologies to aid our forces in the frontline. Yeesh, talk about boring especially for an old warhorse like me but I have to admit I have a feeling that this assignment could prove interesting. Boy, was I right!

My current age is...well...let's just say that the troops consider 48 to be a ripe old age to still be in the service but never to my face because age doesn't seem to affect my fighting abilities because for one thing, being the one of two survivors of "Mars Research Facility-35", when...I'll save that for another time. Well, I can't exactly complain, this assignment is rather posh but I still prefer the fighting bridge of a warship; still, bringing new ships, weapons, and tech online isn't so bad, I maybe no longer on the front line but the new ships and equipment are part of me, my brain-children, the ripened fruit of the mind, body and soul that I dedicate into each new ship and equipment that I help to develop. Now those insane brainiacs are attempting to figure out a way for time travel and interdimensional travel, something which I fervently believe should be left alone but I'm overruled by the Federation Council so I had no choice but to follow orders; it doesn't mean though that I couldn't try and sabotage it in small but critical ways, still the project continued, we reached the stage that the whole package is ready for testing, now we need a test bed ship so they had me look for one but I already had one in mind, FGV Stellar Dragon, a decommissioned Aegis Battlestar-class starship that I served on for the first half of my career, from doolie Lt., fresh from the Academy to full-bird colonel and squadron commander as well as from Hazard Force trooper to Hazard Force commander.

Like the ship she was based on, the Stellar Dragon is a longtime veteran, one of the last of her class yet to be scraped because of her and their importance in history; however, GHQ has decided to permanently scrap her due to rising maintenance costs and upkeep, not wanting to see my old ship cut apart, I used my connections within GHQ to have the Stellar Dragon assigned to us as the testbed ship, as soon as we got her, we reverently and carefully took apart her internal systems and hardware as well as modifying her external frame and tonnage to better accommodate the new systems and equipment, replacing the old ones with new and improved variants as well as upgrading the areas which we have difficulty reaching or handling, due to the lack of proper shipyard facilities, like the engines and FTL drives with brand new parts as well as her weapons, shields and armor, giving the old girl a new lease of life as the brand new Stellar Dragon-class Heavy Battleship, new weapons on the old mounts but with enchanced traverse and elevation equipment, new missile launchers as well as torpedo launchers plus new and accurate anti-missile lasers and fragmentation cannons for defense as well as new decoy launchers, ECM and ECCM electronic warfare pods including brand new and powerful shield projectors and emitters with more effective energy dissipation systems that allows shield damage to be dispersed more rapidly but without negatively affecting the rest of the shield section and allows faster shield regeneration and recharging; the battle-worn but still solid armor plating covering her hull, we replaced them all with brand new armor of the same manufacture, as soon as the ship's revamping has been completed including expanding a section of the belly to allow a Thunder Hammer II-class Dropship, the FGV Shieldbearer, to dock as part of our contingent; our fighter complement is shipped in, including a squadron each of the new Cheetah-, Star Hunter- and Thunder-Mace-class starfighters, complemented by the slightly older Excaliber-X, Hellcat-XII, Longbow-V, Rattler-III, Vampire-II, Panther-III, and Devastator-IV class; also along for the test cruise, are four prototypes of the Star Phoenix-class starfighter-capship hybrids and about a dozen of revamped Comanche III and Apache VIIIE attack helicopters, equipped with the new Thunder Bow ladar array, why the eggheads want to bring those along is beyond me but I don't mind, of all the pilots with flight time in these old warbirds, I'm the only one with actual combat experience in them, these kids are too heavy handed with the controls, bunch of amateurs.

The crew is made up mostly of the original crew of the Stellar Dragon including me plus a complement of Marines (for a ship the size of the Stellar Dragon, its usually a battalion in size plus a company of heavy battlesuit infantry) in spiffing new battle armor but not as advanced as the battle suit I'm wearing under my uniform, acquired during the MRF 35 incident and a part of my personal arsenal ever since then, then there are the pilots and tech crews attached to the fighter squadrons as well as the scientists, engineers and techs attached to the TID (Temporal/Interdimensional Drive) project and a First Contact team, just in case. Along with our augmented Marine battalion detachment, we also got to test out the new Titan-VI and Masakari-V Assault Battlemechs as well as the fresh-of-the-production-line Arbalest-III, Cougar-VIII, Mad Cat III MK.V, and Tundra Wolf-V; Light, Medium, and Heavy class Battlemechs respectively, a complete battalion load including their pilots and techs as well as their infantry support battlion but what no one knows is that I have full and current certification on every vehicle in the GF armory, including Battlemechs and attack helicopters (the helicopter certification I earned when I was still under my grandfather's wing when he decided to train me in the fine art of flying attack helicopters). After three months of extensive reconstruction and modifications, the Stellar Dragon is ready for launch on her maiden voyage as the first of the Stellar Dragon class; a lot of big wigs and top brass came over to watch her commissioning as did many other ex-crew members, both retired and reassigned, who had served aboard her during her 38 year long service, as the senior still-in-active-service, I got the all the best perks including receiving her commissioning pennant and doing her christening but the really best part was personally taking her out of space dock and into open space, her engines purring and humming with power, after we...dumped the 'excess baggage' on Earth, I took command on the bridge and had the helmsman set course for the Chakas'tra system where we would pick up the last members of our crew, jump out to a remote system and begin testing the TID, though if you ask me, we are courting both disaster with a capital "D" and trouble with a capital "T"; in my book, a certified recipe for a class 1 catastrophe. Of course, the distance from Titan to Chakona being equal to three days at our cruising speed of warp 20, I gave the crew some leisure time and to finally have some time to relax before the big test, set at three and a half weeks time.

Our arrival into the Chakas'tra system was met with little fanfare, just the way I like but we did get quite a reception at CGS (Chakona Gateway Station) as the three heavy-duty military runabouts left the station, making their way to our rendezvous, bringing along with them, I found out later, news of my grandfather's passing and the contents of his will, passing on to me a sword named Andragos, or Flame of the Dragon, shaped similarly to Anduril from Return of the King, the sword's dragon engravings seemingly alive from the way the sword reflects the lights and according to the will, and in my grandpa's words, "Whenever you find life worth protecting or face evil and darkness, use these words of power to aid you, my grandson: "By right and by blood, Andragos, ancient blade of my forefathers, I call upon your power once again...awaken and aid me now to protect goodness and light and to smite evil and darkness...awaken now your ancient power!" There is a post-script at the bottom: "Nathan, Andragos can't be wielded against its rightful bearer and even when the blade is far from you, it will come to you when you call for it." And another one: "Nathan, if you find yourself in a situation where technology, strength and guile cannot win, speak these ancient words: "Ancient wisdom...ancient strength...ancient blood...ancient right...ancient light, hear my roar, awaken once again that which is sleeping within me, awaken my true soul, awaken spirit (you'll know what to say when the time comes, my boy, in the meantime, I'll keep you guessing. Cheers.)!" Typical of grandpa, always giving you enigmatic messages that you have to figure out yourself as you go along in life.

Back to business, CGS relayed to us and mostly to me via my mini-datapad, some messages from my chakat friends and lovers about a get-together party after the mission, which I had to give a rain check on due to the certifiably long debriefings, especially for classified operations, as well as the usual military communiqués plus an extra large shipment of supplies for the rest of the crew and personnel as sort of good luck gift. I thank them over the comm and had the helmsman plot a new course out of the system, our destination of course is several weeks away so I decided to keep the pace a bit more leisurely but, at the same time, we get there with two days to spare, just the way I like, plus the fact that the entire project is under military purview means that I have full authority to "go/no go" the tests unless convinced otherwise. In the meantime, I mingled among the crew, personally assessing their strengths and weaknesses, some weren't too happy about it, as they had some rather poor experiences with commanding officers (the kind that doesn't endear themselves to the worker bees) but not the older crewmen, especially the ones who served with me, they know that I actively care for the troops under my command, it's something that's become second nature to me and it keeps the crew working that an efficiency level that's comfortable for everyone; the chakat, taur, and morph members were no trouble as far as I could see as well as expect, not to mention that three of them are the children of two very good chakat friends as well as several other close relatives and family of old crewmates amongst them, I especially miss the hugs and cuddling that is the norm with chakats, what I would really miss, though, are the words of wisdom I would get from gramps regarding how to go through life but he did leave me plenty during my growing years so you could safely say that it was he who truly forged me into the person I am today. The three weeks passed us by with the suddenness of lightning, during that time I thoroughly drill the crew with every possible scenario including several concocted by the old hands and me, the kind that test the key mental capabilities and physical characteristics necessary for combat, we were pleasantly surprised that a good number passed the test with flying colors but they still had to be truly tested in the Darwinian crucible of combat; I also drill the flight crews and pilots in high speed combat landing, emergency scrambling and massed magnum launch but the real clincher is the last second landing, something the old heads and I feel is very important during going-to-lightspeed countdown, many pilots complain loudly about the stress of such landing but I could see in their eyes that they are completely enjoying the challenge of such a difficult landing, especially the Star Phoenix crews, whose larger ships made all the more difficult to correctly time correction maneuvers but after personally demonstrating that it could be done, especially when I got the ship in when the flight deck arms are already halfway sealed, the crews and techs practically went crazy, I found crews, busy as beavers, working to optimize the maneuvering drives and flight control response times down to the point that one Star Phoenix could almost turn on a dime, especially when they got feedback from me and my crew chief, since we've been fighting and crewing together longer than they've been born and the fact that we both have hard-earned skills that the youngsters are envious about.

While all this was happening I spend my free time well as I discover Andragos' sentience and what it was capable of...more often than not, I find myself on an uninhabited planet several light-years from the ship, while there I learned from it all the secrets it had taught my grandfather, including the secret of the crystals attached to its hilt and thought-speech as well as how to rapidly transform into my elemental dragon-forms and how to use elemental magic while in either form. I have to admit; I never realized how heavy the burden grandpa had to bear over the years keeping the blade and its power secret so that no one could misuse its power but now I felt that the sword is ready to be revealed to the universe and to finally wield it against those who represent the darkness and evil of the universe...

Little did I know how prophetic that was...

The scientists, on the other hand, or at least some of them, hate my ready-for-war attitude, believing that no one is foolish enough to attack the Galactic Federation, not at the peak of its power but most of them understand that often the price of freedom is constant and eternal vigilance, such decisions are best left to those who have seen and faced the horrors of war and survived; they acknowledge my long combat experience, noting that despite surviving four major wars, my mind is oddly unscarred as if my mind has compartmentalized itself to prevent the negative effects of warfare from severely affecting me as if I easily thrive on warfare or I seem to have a mental strength unlike anything they have seen before. Along the way, several ships caught up with us as escorts from Earth and Chakona, it seem GHQ got a little worried about us being unescorted so they sent 14 ships to escort us: one fleet carrier, the FGV Essex, with full fighter load; two Escort Carriers of the Bengal-V class, Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima also fully loaded; four Sovereign IV class starships, Enterprise-G, Warhound II, Fire Star and Frostblade; four Panther III class light cruisers with a Marine-heavy crew, Pensacola, Falklands, Saber and Goliath, and four Bright Lance class heavy destroyers, Phoenix, Shockwave, Thunder and Katana, not a bad mix of ships if you ask me; then three more last-second additions arrived, I couldn't believe my eyes! It's the Battlestars Leo and Olympiad; Stellar Dragon's other remaining sister ships yet to be scrapped, with complete fighter load, I guess that they wanted the last two remaining Battlestars and the Battlestar-conversion to complete one last mission together, out of respect for their long years of service to the Federation but it seems that they were given a slight overhaul to allow them to work better for this mission but strangely I couldn't shake the feeling that I'm going to be relying those Battlestars real soon; but the old hands and I felt that with them nearby, the test is going to be a success and trailing behind them is one of the new Northstar-class starships, the FGV Polaris, a brand new ship design just coming into production within the Federation though not as powerful as the Stellar Dragon in terms of sheer firepower, it has the unique ability to split into three sections and fight as if there were three ships instead. We reach the remote Eredenn system, a binary star system, two days ahead of schedule with no mishaps aside from dodging a meteor shower with seconds to spare, after extensive recon and scouting of the system, we deploy sensor sats and drones as we bring the TID online, I had the fleet spread out at a distance of 5000 klicks from the Stellar Dragon as the TID came up to full power, I had the scientists tentatively set our target destination to two years in the future but little did we know that fate had other plans. As the TID spooled up to create the transit sphere, fate intervened by the collapse of the system's red giant into a black hole, the nova that preceded it had unknowingly damaged our time-space targeting matrix and had severely overloaded our energy dampeners and protectors, setting the stage for a complete TID meltdown but we didn't know that until after the jump, by then it was too late...

As the crew hurriedly prepares to initiated the time jump, the expanding sphere of destructive stellar energy from the novaing sun struck; the time sphere took the brunt of it but it seemed that it held up to the nova blast but down at engineering, sparks and light smoke are emitted by several panels, but no one notices in their haste to reach their jump stations; the head scientist nervously keys in the last sequence of buttons and sets the timer, not noticing the TID status board nearby, indicating severe damage to the temporal targeting matrix and runs to his crash seat and straps in, praying like he never prayed before; Nathan sits on his command chair resolute and firm as the final countdown begins, heart and mind as calm as the eve of the storm, the sword Andragos, shining unnoticed with quiet power, resting on his lap as if waiting patiently to be unleashed...

The time sphere began to shift in color as the final pre-jump stage ran its course, then it begins to contract, slowly at first then faster and faster until nothing can be seen that a battle fleet once cruised here but a flash of unbearable light...

But none of us expected what we would find at the end of the tunnel...

To be continued...

I'm using a spin-off of the Chakat Universe by Bernard Doove with a hybridized mix technology from Battlestar Galactica, Wing Commander,Star Wars, Star Trek, Andromeda, Battletech and several old TV series that helped inspire my story work.

This is my first time to 'publish' my work in a public forum so please speak freely about my work.

Oops! I forgot to mention that the LOTR: Return of the King also inspire this storyline.