Ship Specs- HKS Vinátta-Tactical Combat Carrier
Name: HMS (Hans Majestäs skip) Vináttu --His Majesty's ship, Friendship.
Name2: HKS (Hans/Hennes Konungs(son/dóttir) skip) Vináttu -- his/her King(son's/daughter's) ship, friendship
Class: Tactical Combat Carrier
Role: JAT (Jack of All Trades)
Atmo capable?: Yes.
((MD=Mass Driver))
((AM=Anti Matter))
Armament:
Front: four light interception turrets, four extended beam AM turrets, four needle class rail mounted extended AM turrets.
Rear: 4 light interception turrets, 4 medium battle turrets.
Top: 4 light interception turrets, 2 single barrel "siege" class turrets, 1 double barrel "siege" class turrets, 30 cruiser size missile tubes.
Bottom: 4 light interception turrets, 2 single barrel "siege" class turret, 30 missile tubes.
Battle Section Sides (each): 10 light interception turrets (MD or AM), 20 medium battle turrets (MD), 10 adjustably mounted heavy cannon (MD or AM).
Mid section sides (each): four medium MD turrets.
Engineering sides (each): 4 light interception turrets, 10 medium battle turrets,
Launch Rail Capacity(x4): four fighters, or 2 shuttles and or gunships (or 2 fighters and 1 shuttle or gunship)
Return Rail carrying capability: yes
Return Rail capacity (x2):2 fighters or one shuttle
Crew:
Bridge off.+alt. command crew: 15
Crew: 190
Marine officers+ sergeants: 5
Marines: 80
Deck listings:
(Top) 1->9 (bottom)
Deck one(command tower): viewing room
Deck two (command tower): squadron command or other
Deck three (command tower): Bridge, ready room
Deck four (command tower): bridge officer quarters, medical clinic, 2 secondary siege cannon access hatches.
Deck four (engineering section): Bridge off quarters, engineering.
Deck five (combat section): 20 turret mount compartments, 32 crew living compartments, 1 double size crew living compartment, medical bay, mess hall 1, Captain's quarters, commodore's quarters, armory, 11 marine compartments, armory, 2 shower compartments, primary siege cannon gunnery access hatch, 2 missile gunnery compartments (15 tubes each),
Deck five (engineering section): engineering compartments, rift core, engines
Deck six (combat section): 18 crew living compartments, 2 forward engineering compartments, Fighter wing engineering shop, 2 rail mounted needle class rail mounts and gunnery stations, top 2/3 of top flight deck.
Deck six (engineering section): 2 large storage compartments, 10 inverted medium turret gunnery compartments, 1 inverted secondary siege cannon access hatch.
Deck seven(combat section): bottom 1/3 of top hangar, top 1/3 of bottom hangar, 18 adjustable heavy cannon mount gunnery
compartments, fighter repair shop/part storage, 4 medium storage compartments
Deck eight (combat section): 26 crew living compartments, bottom 2/3 of bottom hangar, six fighter crew living compartments, 4 marine compartments, 2 armories, 3 marine officer quarters, 2 large storage compartments,
Deck nine (combat section): 20 inverted medium turret gunnery compartments, 2 mess halls, 28 crew living compartments, medical station, first officer living quarters, armory, 14 marine compartments, storage compartment, large storage compartment. Secondary siege cannon access hatch.
(Rough draft blueprints drawn, soon to be inserted)
Ch1-Life in the Navy can be Crazy
The Final Mission
By Vikinga Rainbowdóttir
Chapter 1- Life In The Navy Can Be Crazy
I, Commodore Skissera Alexandra Stelladóttir, paced the bridge for the fifth time. My pacing was short and painful. Other members of the ships's command crew went about their duties diverting me from my intended path constantly, and I had a uncomfortable gait, mostly caused by my cast covered left foot clanging along after me. The metal and leather boot weighed almost nothing but it was extremely clumsy, and made navigating my ship increasingly more frustrating as the day wore on.
"Damn bugs." I cursed silently before I glanced, not for the first time, back at the sword that laid across the chair in the middle of the room. The chair was the captain's chair of the Vinlandic Warship HKS Vinátta, my chair. The sword had no name, but was also mine. Looking at them reminded me again of how I came to command both this ship and squadron 47, of 1st fleet's 5th Flotilla, at the same time. The sword by itself served to remind me of my nation's officer retirement policies. A strange combination of thoughts for the average commodore, but I had lived in interesting times.
Sadly, they were going to keep reminding me of these things until I sat down and really thought about them. Seeing as how I really couldn't afford this continuous distraction while on duty, maybe I could take that rest the doctor recommended a few hours ago..
Yeah, that sounded like a good idea right about now. I would still need to do some transfers first though.
I walked across the bridge, popped up the communicator panel, and opened up a line to my first officer using the Captain's channel.
"Yes Cap'n?" The man across the com greeted almost immediatly.
"Commander are you in any shape to take a watch?" I asked him tiredly.
"Aye, I am Cap'n." he answered.
"Please do so John, I'm going to take a extended rest."
"Aye aye Ma'am. Nice to see you taking your rest. Not to be disrespectful Sera, but I was just about to come up there with a tranq gun myself and make ye take one." John joked.
"Wouldn't expect any less for you John." And honestly, I didn't. John was the kind of worrisome Scotian idiot who would do that. It was part of, as he would say it, "charm".
Next I took the lift up to deck 2. A few more steps and I was at the Commodore's chair, also mine. Using the Commodore channel I called up the HMS Argos, more specifically, Captain Ramsey. He answered just as quickly if not sooner than John did. Odd.
"Yes Commodore." His stuffy male voice answered
"Captain Ramsey. I'm taking a extended rest in my quarters. Is your command deck ready to take over?" I asked
"The computers are ready to go Commodore" be replied. "Ohh and Skiss." He had just dropped his "formal voice" and switched to his natural Markslandian accent.
"Yes?" I replied a bit surprised at the change.
"Take all the rest you need." I physically facepalmed as realization struck. Two suspiciously eager officers ready to take over my duty work? My doctor was a quick worker indeed and a bastard.
Now to explain the singularly unique conversation I just had. As most people know, there isn't usually two command capable ships in a detached squadron. Yes, policy states that there be a command deck bearing ship with a squadron command rated officer ready on board for any unit larger than three, but usually the flag captain filled that roll when the commodore slept or was incapacitated. Which made it weird when, instead of promoting John or shipping me a new Flag Captain to take the ship, they slipped in a whole cruiser with the replacement escorts.
The navy was a crazy place to work sometimes.
With the transfers sent, I called up the third necessary person to check in with, my secretary. Coincidentally she, along with me and the two previous callers, made up the Ships's weekly poker game player.
"Yes your ladyship." A feminine voice answered. I let go of the button, groaned, and pressed it back down.
"Hilda won't you please sto-"
"no." She replied curtly. Damn fracking idiot secretary always hyping up the noble title stuff out of proportion. I swear she was more maid than secretary half the time. She had gotten aboard a month or so ago somehow, and her antics got old real fast.
The only reason I didn't boot her off my ship was because she seemed to have a masochistic love for red tape. Life with two command level hats had more paperwork than the sane could stomach, and she almost begged to take it off my hands. Who was I to say no?
But I really wasn't in the mood for that crap right at that moment.
"Fine. I'm taking a ER in my quarters, record that in the log." I told her just as curtly.
"But your La-" Then I curtly hung up on her.
With all of my duties done, I took the tube back down to deck 3, grabbed the sword, and jumped back in the lift to ride it down down to deck 5. Stepping out of the lift, my quarters were a short walk down to the hall to my left and then a sharp turn to the right. A few more steps and the door is on my left. The door slides away with a quick tap, and I toss the sword onto a convenient table top. I then undressed, bathed, and put on a comfy robe before confronting the sword and my past.
After a brief internal argument I decided to confront the better known of my two issues.
The story of how I came to occupy two positions in my own naval subunit, was a tense memory that had turned weird with time and later found evidence. A lot of my memories were like that. I don't know why this one seemed do important now, but it had constantly occupied my mind lately. I usually just think about my problems, but now that I had gotten off the bridge,-
*yawn*
-I could really feel how tired I had gotten. I decided to sleep on it.
I pop in a quick pill to induce lucid dreams before sliding between the mild blue sheets of my bed. It takes a bit to fall asleep, but eventually my tired eyes drag the rest of my body into unconciousness.
It had been barely a week into my new position as captain of the strike groups flagship, my current ship. I had felt both giddy and worried about the power that had I had received, the HKS Vinátta. A almighty Tactical Combat Carrier, half battlecruiser half carrier, was at my command. It had the best of both worlds with two rail launch flight decks and a cruiser worth of weaponry and armor. It was the sleekest, most modern class of warship the fleet had ever seen at the time, And it still managed to fit enough rooms for sailors to bunk two each while still carrying a full compliment of marines. It was a maneuverable, big, compact, machine of war, and it was all mine.
I was of course, technically under the command of another, but the squadron was lucky enough to have gotten a commodore who didn't micromanage their captains. She had understood that she commanded the captains and not the ships. My ship was mine, and that was final.
Sadly, she didn't make much of a impact beyond that. As you may have noticed I couldn't even remember her name.
I stopped the dream for a moment and shuffled through my memory for a moment.
Her name was Cassandra. She had had two kids and a dog.
"Huh."
The dream starts back up again, and I see the view screen as my ship slowly follows the loop displayed in the holo. The whole 5th flotilla had been assigned to one of the outer planets of the Horizon system, while the 47th squadron had been given the "honor" of patrolling the most prestigious and dangerous route there was in possibly all of the settled multiverse. Haven had been and was the fastest growing industrial economy in all of the seven extradimensional planets that humanity had colonized. This made it a prized target for swarm's attacks.
I fast forward a bit to the important part.
It was our very first engagement, a whole swarm fleet had simultaneously rifted into orbit right in front of my ship. I barely got to blink before the medium escort and one of my ship's small escorts were blown away by thousands of ship piercing quills(2). By the time my eyes were opening back up a enemy boarding worm had ripped through all five of the command tower's shields, flooded the fleet command chamber with swarmlings, and killed the Commodore, but there was no pause after that. The shock of the attack passed, and I dove into action.
I didn't save the day with some ingenious maneuver or tactic, I did what every trained captain of the Royal StarNavy of Vinland was supposed to do. I grabbed your pistol out of its holster and took charge while gunning down swarmlings as they attempted to move down into the bridge. My first orders both maneuvered your ship into a facing dead center position and positioned the last surviving escort behind us. The next got them moving forward. The plan was simple, my ship was to knife it's way into the already arms length away enemy formation, wiping out enemy ships as they passed into its broadsides, while the turrets were focused on enemies above and below. The escort was to gun down the small enemy craft that made it past. It wasn't flashy or complicated in the least, and that's what made it work. In half a hour my ship and its escort wiped out an entire substrain of spacewyrms.
I was never quite sure how, but this apparently made me a hero back home. This was at the same time as a dozen other harder fought battles were won much more heroically by more deserving men and women. Men and women who received no reward. It was this injustice that drove me to accept all those subspace interviews with most of the major news networks. It had taken a bit of maneuvering, but within the week I managed to fill every newssite with tales about those brave officers and sailors. It felt satisfying, knowing I had gotten promotions for people who deserved it. Even if someone had slipped one in for me too.
My sleep ends slowly, with me drifting back into consciousness among the bright crimson pillows my head rested on. Once I feel confident enough to sit up I slide my feet off the bed to hang over the gray carpet of my room. At 4'3" my feet had to stretch to touch the floor from the bed.
Great, now that I'm thinking about stretching I can suddenly feel all of my muscles tensed into their sleeping positions.
I yawn loudly and stretch. The drug induced drool stains remind me that I went to sleep for a purpose besides rest.
Now that I think about it, that had to be the most boring lucid dream I had ever experienced. Usually memory related ones are all vivid and stuff, but that was more like a concise narration than any memory.
Freaky.
I look up at the clock and note that about eleven hours have passed. I review what I remember of the dream.
.
.
.
I couldn't find a single insight to what I had just dreamed. That could be a bad sign, but then again, those events had only occured two months ago. My mind could just need more time to process them.
Of course, that could be the sedative in the lucid dream pill talking.
I turned away from that thought physically and spot the blade now sitting on my dinning table. Just as it did on the bridge it reminds me of one thing.
Retirement. Vinlandic retirement policy ensured that all highly decorated members of its military forces received tokens of the royal family's' appreciation and esteem. Giving swords was such a common practice that they even had a color code. Green was given to those who were being offered positions in planned colonies, blue ones went to the future diplomats to one of the millions of species humanity was allied with to fight the swarm, gold ones were given to future members if the royal guard, and black ones were to be given to publicly liked personnel who had received informal demands of resignation for some reason or another.
Red was a color only the sword of the Lord Admiral of the entire Vinlandic military carried. He/she was the only immortal human known to exist in their dimensional set, and had been the beacon of hope when extinction seemed imminent.
The sword before me was red with black decoration. The decoration on all the swords were black or white, and they didn't mean anything. The decoration traveled along the center of the blade and seemed to be one long dragon with the dragon's tail at the pommel and its head right before the tip of the blade.
The sword had come with a set of reinforcement and replacement escorts I had requested plus extra, and a note.
Total communications blackout across all ships of your strikegroup. Another strikegroup will assume your patrol. Return to third planet of system. Await further orders.'
I had already completed the provided instructions a week ago, with surprisingly little complaint from the crew. Now I just waited.
And waited.
And waited.
*sigh*
At least the view was nice.
(Medium escort and two corvettes over Horizon 3's mining sector)
Even if I wasn't looking through a actual window.
*yawn*
It's a shame lucid dream pills don't actually give you much rest. It looks like more sleep was in order.
<-------->
"Beep" Who's trying to wake me up?
"goaway"
"Beep" insistent bugger whoever it is"
"Goaway"
"BEEP" For Thorsake,
"SHUT UP!"
"Beep" I'm gonna kill whoever is there!
"AAAARGGHHH what part of Extended rest wasssssss... Ohhhh-." holyshititwashim/herrighthereatmydoor! "-hhhhhello, come on in."
"Thanks?" she?... She said as she strolled in. The immortal prince/princess of the entire Vinlandic Interspatial Starkingdom just strolled into my room...
HOLY SHIT! The one person literally every human in the whole of humanity has had a crush on at one point in their life was in my room.
Everyone has their fantasy about the... (For sake of being understood let's just describe her by her current gender) the princess, male or female, straight or gay. Literally once every decade the Princess changes genders, age, and appearances. (She tried to never look the same way twice) She changed personalities every three hundred years, and after two thousand years, she had been close to everyone's perfect mate at least once probably. I really liked her current form though. Those blue eyes and luxurious long red hair made me... Fidget.
Just seeing her caused a very personal fantasy of mine to flash into my mind. (No I have no intention if describing it.) It blew my mind. I had lived almost a tenth of the way into the average human's lifecycle, and she could still make me squee like a little 2% old fangirl.
"Hello?" Ohh no! I just totally zoned out who might be the closest thing anyone has ever come to being a living god.
"Sorry! Sorry. I just" Que awkward cough. "zoned out." The Princess flashed a knowing smile, and I could feel my brain just melting under the heat of my blush.
"It's alright. Now, I'm sure you're curious why I'm here, and why you weren't alerted when I came aboard." She was right about the former, but I hadn't even thought about the later. "Commodore, let me answer the second question first." I was dying with curiosity, but who is going to say no to the princess?!
"Okay."
"To be honest, I kinda wanted to troll you." That was trolling?... I didn't mind that in the least. She should troll me more often. Still to be honest-
"You nearly gave me a heart attack." My little comment drew out a laugh from both of us...
I just laughed with the princess! I just... I could just...
*Squee!*
"Now for that first question." Question? Ohh yeah, that question! The 'what the fuck is going on' question. "Commodore you have two options here. You can take this blue pill and learn the whole truth, but it will be trapped in your subconscious, or you can take the red pill which candy coated chocolate and I will give you the redacted version."
"The blue pill." I was always more of a sour candy person myself. I took the pill out of her hand and popped it down my throat dry.
"Now show me." what?!
"What?!"
"This is a matter greater than national safety. Show me that you have swallowed the pill." I opened my mouth for her to see, and before I could react she had her hands holding my mouth open and pulling around my tongue. It was one of the weirdest things I have ever felt, but damn her hands were soft! "Good you swallowed." She let go and sat back down.
"That was just..." What does someone say to that?
"Shut up, we've got to wait a sec for the pill to kick in." Kick in? It wasn't just a memoryyyyy- wow, this was better than... I honestly couldn't remember any recreational drug that felt anywhere near this crazy. Then again, I never tried any of the hard stuff, just the safe legal stuff. You know, marijuana. "Ahh, I can see the pill has already started working. Now, you do realize that you are on a ship whose crew have no outside relations, familial, marital, or sexual?" I guesss I had kinda figured that out a month and a half ago. I nodded. "what you may not have realized is that the same goes for every ship in your squadron." That is like... So meta... "I want you to know that we have been grooming every single last member of your crew for mission and one mission only." This was just...
"Whooaaa..."
"Indeed. Now, the mission you are about to embark on is one of the most important in probably all of Vinlandic history."
"Really?"
"Yes really." He he, the Princess had a pretty voice. "Now what do you know of magic?" Did she just say-
"Magic?" I asked dumbly.
"Yes magic." Whooaa. "We have found dimension with a world full of ponies with magic."
"That sounds really girly."
"Shut up."
"Okay." The Princess sighed. She had a pretty sigh.
"Here is your mission. Your squadron along with a ship or two of civilian volunteers is to be stranded in that dimension right next to that world by a series of fake tests." This doesn't sound good. "You are to befriend, intermarry, and found a new home on that planet full of magical ponies. The magic these ponies wield is so powerful, their sun and moon both orbit them, and we believe it can greatly contribute to the survival of us and thousands of other races suffering under the swarm." Again-
"Whooaa."
"After about ten years we will 'find' you and establish these ponies as allies. If something goes wrong before then, say the Swarm finds you, there is a button hidden in your back up chair in storage. Understood?" I-I...
"Not really."
"You're high as fuck, that's to be expected." Woooww.
"He he. The Princess said fuck." I giggled.
"I'm two-thousand years old, I can say whatever the Hel I want!" I nodded apologetically. The princess had really nice skin for a bimillenian. "Okay, now that you know the mission there are a few things I need to confirm... Nod if you can still understand me." I nodded. "Okay, are you bisexual? Nod yes or no." The Princess was trustworthy, I could tell her anything!
I nodded. "Good. Do you have any phobia or biases against interspecies couples if both consent?" The Princess was being silly now. Vinland was a multispecies nation and there were dozens of half breeds across all 7systems of the 5 dimensions.
"Love is love." My mom told me that when I had asked about that sort of thing. I loved my mom. She was dead though. The Princess smiled at me.
"Do you have any personal objections to having consensual interspecies sex."
"No." My head started hurting. I hope the Princess would hurry up.
"Don't worry, this is the final question." Yay! "Do you have any barf bags?"
"There is a old style trashcan by the door, but why?"
"Here." The Princess shoved the metal basket into my hands.
"But-"
Snap.
<->
I was sitting in my second favorite chair. It was high quality synthetic leather, better than real leather too. The Princess was across from me in my favorite chair. It was zero grav with synth leather.
She had asked me something about pills? I had picked... Red?
Why did the candy covered chocolate taste like barf? For Freya's sake, why didn't I pick the blue pill?! I.. I had planned to, but then the Princess said something. Didn't she?
The Princess was saying something. Shit, I had zoned out again!
"You okay there?"
"Yeah yeah, just zoned out again." I said sheepishly. The Princess put her hand on my shoulder comfortingly.
"Now, you know about the testing we are doing to try and triple the dimensions jumped during a interperceptive rift, right?" I... Did? I think I had heard about that somewhere. I nodded. "We just finished testing it, and the navy has assigned your squadron to escort the first colonial ships utilizing this technology through the rift to the other side." Why didn't the-
Wow what a honor! "We believe their might be wyrms already in the upper interspace this will pass through." Wyrms? Shit...
"How many?" I asked.
"Relatively few. They are probably just now discovering it." As disturbing as it was to hear that the swarm was close behind us in rifting, I wasn't surprised.
"I think we can handle that easy."
"I'll be seeing you again soon then."
<->
Celestia walked down the pleasant streets of Cloudsdale watching all the clouds go by. Cloud watching became easier when ever single little thing was made of cloud. That cloud look like a bench? That's probably why that Pegasus is sitting on it. That one look like a fountain? It even has water flowing out of it. If you see one looking like a pony, it's probably because somepony carved it into that shape.
Celestia was walking towards a very special meeting. She was giving herself plenty of time to get there, and the day looked too nice to just fly past it all. The walking paths were comfortable and soft, moist air and hot sun kept the body at just the right temperature, and there were dozens of other ponies just as happy as you to reinforce the mood.
Though, these ponies seemed even happier than the day would allow for. Celestia was delighted to see their joyous faces, but they piqued her interest nonetheless.
Celestia examined her surroundings carefully. She had found out long ago that, in order for her to get a straight and honest answer sans the groveling, her best bet was to ask the most distracted pony around. It took a little bit, but Celestia eventually found a pony that would work.
The poor colt had his nose so far in a book that Celestia was sure he was getting snot all over it. He was a small thing with a beige coat and brown mane. Just the kind to scare easy. She had to approach her quarry cautiously so as to not scare him away.
"Hello there." She asked in the voice she had found to get the right amount of attention most of the time.
"Yes?" The colt asked distractedly barely giving Celestia a glance. Gotcha!
"Do you know why everyone is so happy little colt?" She asked very gently. She held her breath so to not chance him being scared off.
"No offense Princess Celestia, but you were always more of a unicorn than a Pegasus with your throne up in Canterlot and all that. With the newwww.... " He looked back up. so close! "Pincess Celestia?!? I'm so sorry it didn't register in my mind that it was you! Please don't send me to the moon!" Yeah he had broke. Celestia knew she probably shouldn't use her authority on a foal like this, but she was so curious now!
"Silence!" Ohh no! The poor little colt was shaking itself apart now. Celestia lost her nerve just looking at his scared little face. She hated frightening little ponies like this.
She gave him a big wing hug and he was somewhat able to regain his composure. Time to try that again.
"Now my precious little pony. Would you please tell me what you were going to say before your little... Moment?" The colt opened his mouth all wide eyed and fearful. Celestia had to put her hoof up before he started saying what she knew he was going to say. "I will be very disappointed if you lie to me, but if you are truthful I promise I won't punish you." The poor dear nodded all confused and adorable like.
"A-as I was s-saying before princess. Everypony kinda associated you and Twilight more with unicorns than Pegasi, and Cadence, while she might have been born a Pegasus, really seems to connect more with Earthponies, but we Pegasi never had a Princess we felt understood us. with Rainbow Dash everypony knows she is a really pegasusy Pegasus. It's nice knowing there is a princess that really understands you." Well... When she picks a pony, Celestia picks a pony! it seems she just picked the only little genius on the street.
"Honey, how would you like to meet Princess Rainbow personally?" The colt's precious little jaw dropped like lead. "I'll take that as a yes then. Is your mom or dad nearby so we can ask them?" The little colt pointed to somepony behind Celestia.
Turning around Celestia spotted a mare on the other side of the flightway. The poor thing was shaking in her hooves. Celestia softly waved the distraught mother over with a hoof. It took a second but the request registered and the mare approached.
"Y-yo-your highness! May I say what an honor it is that you have graced us with your pres-presence." Celestia wrapped her wing around the poor mare and gave her a hug as well.
"Really, I should be honored to have met such a smart little pony like your son here. He has been such a polite and helpful little darling, and I was wondering if you and him would like to meet my dear daughter, Princess Aurora?" The mare loosened up considerably as Celestia informed the mother of her son's perfect behavior.
"Your highness, we would be honored to meet your daughter!"
"So it is settled the. Let's go!" Celestia passed the colt to his mother and together they flew over to the restaurant she and Rainbow Dash, had planned on meeting. It was a small upscale fast food joint that Rainbow Dash apparently loved with a passion.
Rainbow Dash was there... early.
Celestia reminded herself that her daughter had really changed. She should have accepted it by now, but on the inside she would always see that impatient little filly asking her to not take too looking visiting or asking for mommy in her sleep. It had been a lot like Twilight early on, but it was "Princess" or "teacher" instead of mommy.
Rainbow Dash was with the filly named Scootaloo. They looked so happy together. Rainbow Dash had really taken to motherhood with a passion, and Celestia could see the two of them having a great time in the restaurant.
Life was great.
