Wisps of blue poked through the all-consuming blackness, a hint of a docking ring. Dave realised he was looking at Curacao itself, growing steadily lighter with each passing moment. The dark matter was dissipating.
Within hours, the Cortez sun was once more streaming brilliantly through the Majestic's windows, and apart from a few stray patches of lingering dark, the system was clear as a bell.
Dave flipped on his holodeck to check reports from across Sirius. They were the same - the wave had passed, and Sirius was safe, though undoubtedly there would have been deaths. He was just glad he and the Majestic's crew weren't among them.
He flipped the PA on. "This is Dave Sanders. Well done, everyone, we've weathered this storm. Good thing we upgraded our armour, eh?"
A shuttle from Curacao was already approaching with much-needed supplies. Dave smiled. Well, back to business...
Jadaan sat in his office chair aboard the massive liner, the leviathan. Out the windows was naught but blackness. Three days it had been like this. Nothing to be seen, all sensors malfunctioning, no communications... There was enough food and water aboard the liner to last every soul aboard for at least a month, but that did little to comfort him or the VIPs aboard.
All business was on hold of course after the first full day, so everyone had done their best to occupy themselves. Some sat in the bar and drank, some played card or other games, some took bets on events such as how long this would last or who would crack first...Jadaan on the other hand could find no retreat from the peril before him. He simply sat in his office, alone, mulling things over in his mind. Same as he had done before in situations such as this.
Jarach' waited in his bomber. He had seen occurrences such as this before. Not for this long of course, but the process was the same, so the storm did not bother him. What did bother him was what would be there when the storm passed. Just before it had hit, he was on one of his mind-clearing 'vacations' through the Omicrons. Usually he just evaded the detection of anything out there, nomad or otherwise, but he didn't know what he'd do if it passed with a nomad battlecruiser sitting in front of him. Probably fight until his ship could take no more, then.... For the first time in a very very long time, he had no true plan of action.
Impatiently awaiting the passing of the storm in the hangar of the Freeport, Kri'en did his best not to do anything....stupid. He had to live with the locals for however long this storm lasted, so best not to start trouble. Problem was, both them and the storm put him on edge. At least he had purchased enough food and water when he first arrived that he wouldn't have to leave the hangar. This just left the nosy individuals and the worried pilots to deal with.
For the first time in her life, Aj'enel was truly scared. Through her life she had seen the worst sights anyone could see, and none of it had phased her, but this was different. At the time of the storm she had been passing through a jumphole. She knew what happened to someone traveling through a jumphole when it became unstable....and prayed that it hadn't...that she was still alive and this was just....she didn't know what. This was something she had no control over, nothing possible for her to do but wait.
Many systems were malfunctioning, so she did not know how long she had been....wherever this was, but she guessed it had been several days at least. Then she began to think of the junker she had been traveling with. Had he made it through the hole, or was he stuck in the same place as her...she hoped he wasn't.
Norfolk shipyard moor 16 Battlecruiser Ft. louisbourg====
the giant ship strained agenst her moorings,like a beast unwanting to be tied down,her engines dark her lights flickering as each wave impacted her hull plateing her sheilds haveing long failed from the brunt,it hit new york the hardest patterson sat in the CIC tracking the storm"damned dark matter,tearing this girl to shreads it sounds like---" he was cut off by an alerm a moor had been snapped he flipped an intercom" enginerring,talk to me ,why did number 4 let go!? another violent jerkl as two more near the bridge let go the louisbour gwas now dagerously close to hitting other docked cruisers and nearly smashed a gunboat that had seeked harbor along her beam he flipped another intercom" helm full port bow thrusters keep us straight and steady! all hands brace for possable impacts! within an instant the nose of the mighty Freedom class assault cruiser lit up her MOX reaction control duel output manovering/docking thrust plates roared to life blue flamele5ts erupting from all 20 on the port side of the bow sectionsbut it was to late,she colided with a damaged seige cruiser alerms and klaxons screamed he was throwen from his chair "DAMAGE REPORT! SOMEBODY GIVE ME A DAMN DAMAGE REPORT!" picking himself up the report came in minor damage to the hull plateing but the cruiser that the fortress hit was worese off her armor had been removed it impacted bare space frame snapping some iridum support trusswork ment for armor slabs a second alerm sounded one that al lmen of space feared the high piched shrill of a hull breach one of the struts ruptured the tri steel observation deck glass in jims observation lounge if they dident act fast the bridge would decompress,blast doors closed sealing off the CIC and main command deck but for the men in the lounge the blast sheilds that closed over the windows failed so slam shut on command so they struggled manually sealing them the alrms silenced jim sighed as doors unsealed and his xo walked in holding a cigar "well jimbo ,shes gonna get a helluva lot worse think the girl can take it?" jim patted a ful lwooden chair at Tactical 3 and replyrd"shes a tough old bird well be fine"
Holger was on his way to work, His unfinished breakfast sperad over the passenger seat. The television barely audible under the whistling sound of the engine fan.
He reached for the volume dial and knocked over a ham-paste roll,, the hot gooey filling splattering onto his seat. Holger took the manual control wheel and pulled over, he got out and started to clean up the mess. However, his attention was caught by another thing, he looked up at the sky and saw a swirling aurora of light high up in the Ionosphere.
" sh***ps a** vised to ref**" [i]
Holger pressed the auto-tune button
[i] as the storm greatly reduces sensor efficiancy and can severely damage small ships, 4 ships have been reported missing in the Munich system . the RFP are issuing hefty fines for anyone trying to go into space, for theyre own safety. Health officials warn not to work outside for long periods of time without proper zinc-based sunscreen as the Ultraviolet levevels are extremely high. Scientists belieive..."
he sat in his car and looked out of the windscreen, the aurora moving around the sky like wings of light hurt his eyes, he could not even see Norlingen, he took his P.A.D* out of his pocket, he dialled HQ and put it to his ear
"****mm****z***fff*"
Static, he stood up out of his car and walked towards an emergancy phone, he picked up the phone and pressed the police button
"This is the Wiesbaden police, state your name, location and problem"
"zis is RFP watchmann Holger Schmidtt, can you please transferr me to the Wiesbaden RFP port?" "The Kommander ordered all RFP pilots take the day off, Space is too dangerous at dze moment and atmospheric partols are covered"
"Auf wiedersehen" "auf wiedersehen'
He put the phone down and got into his car with a small smile on his face, set "home" onto the car's computer, turned around and sped off.
*Personal Assistance Device (when a mobile phone has so many features it's generaly a assistance device)
=============moor 16 norfolk shipyards 3 days later======
jim rarly smoked but he had a pack of ciggerets with him for such instances and by the time the dark matter had passed he was down to two of the cancrous sticks from about 15 all hand roled his ship had weathered the storm but not before 3 more hull breaches 1 of which made a nice gash nearly stem to stern off port from being locked agenst the seige cruiser identified as the Northhampton lucky it was just the first layer of her quaddrupal multi iridum-berylium alloy with a capitol grade 6 rateing stacked slab Ablative armor with 16 wounded personell and 2 dead from explosions in the engine room the seige cruiser was worse off then the ft louisbourg but not by much her main keel was bent in 6 places from being dug into the louisbourgs armor he could see fires and sadly men drifting,without EVA suits about 10 or so it was truely a bad accedent but beyond his control nor norfolks the docking moors simply buckled under the stress from the plasma waves that the dark matter moved throughalong with the mass of the mamoth multi million metric ton Ft Louisbourg and the northhamton "tied up" via gravemetric teatrhers and good old fastioned steel cableing attached to the ft louie herself jim sighed lighting his 14th ciggy" well tomas we made it bu may god have mercy on those 22 men and women and any others this demonic storm claimed dare i say even in blessing ,the order,xenos rhineland and any other firends or allys of liberty"
The Darkness is spreading,the stars are'nt visible from my Quarters.Silence...everywhere.Im Losing my Mind,how more will I remain Calm?Rouges makin their escape from the North Field.Red Alert has been sounded,nobody to leave the Room.I hear only whispers of Authorized Personel in the Halls.