(02.20.2019) The Crew of the salvaging frigate Kelheim is moving through the Tau systems, eager to find an asteroid field full of ore that would pay for the weeks they've spent there without earning a single credit.
(02.25.2019) The first part of a big puzzle was found. Dust of aluminum ore has been detected, an uncommon find within the Tau-systems. The crew has picked up a track and put their original mission aside for now.
(03.02.2019) Ambushed by an unknown fleet, the Kelheim received heavy damage and the future of the crew is uncertain.
SF-Kelheim:
Crew
Captain: Laura Richter
Vice Captain: N/A
High ranking mechanics: Finn Bergmann, Henry Ziegler, Alissia Sotelo (Nickname: Alice)
High ranking weapon specialists: Gary Harper (Nickname: Bombshell), 'Siamese twins' : Faith, Grace
Churchman: Matthias Rodt
The posts in this thread are subject to change, depending on the current progress of the story aswell as my formating "skills".
"11953, 11954, 1195-" Henry was minding his usual business and wrote down the number of asteroids that had already been scanned this week, clearly not the most entertaining task but someone had to do it.
"For the sake of everyone on this bridge, can you please shut the hell up?!" Graces' voice was throbbing with annoyance.
He looked up at her, a grin formed on his face and he continued counting the asteroids, whispering this time to not lose count.
"Why are we still here?" she continued to ask, a lot less annoyed this time.
Grace looked towards the big screen, showing the ships' scanners field of view. Chrystalized water, nothing else to be found.
Suddenly the main door of the bridge opened. Frau Richter, the captain of this salvaging frigate walked into the bridge. During this moment of silence, the radars' peeping sound was the only noticable disturbance.
"Take it easy, my friends." Frau Richter began to talk to the whole crew on the bridge as she moved towards her seat. "We may be in the middle of nowhere, but atleast any ore we might come across belongs to us. No taxes to be paid, all we have to do is grab an asteroid and bring it to our refinery." with this sentence the sat down in her chair.
The crew looked at each other for moment before they focused on their work again, silent this time.
"But...Kapitän Richter, we are in this field of nothing since more than two weeks! If there was something, we would have found it by now." Grace still had obvious doubts in their entire mission, she seemingly wasn't the only one questioning the chance of success of this expedition.
"I'll remind you of this once we come across an asteroid full of gold ore." The Kapitän answered quickly, leaving no room for interpretation. "Are the radar repairs done already? That big asteroid last week knocked off several antenna."
Henry, one of the leading mechanists on board quickly puts away his drink to answer the question. "Not yet, but we're almost done! For now..." he pauses, thinking about a good answer that would not anger the Kapitän. "...for now, we are as blind as one of these rocks." Knowing that this wouldn't be an appreciated answer he quickly turned to break eye contact with her.
Kapitän Richter sighed and rolled her eyes. After such a long time in space without any source of income whatsoever it would only be a matter of time until she wouldn't be able to pay her crew anymore. Countless little asteroids smashed against the shield of the salvaging frigate, luckily without causing it to give up like the crew does during these rough times.
"Bear with me." ,she held a necklace with a golden handmade clock in it in her hand just to realise how slow time was passing today.
Everyone looked towards her, different thoughts in their heads but noone dared to openly question their Kapitän, not after the countless times she had risked her position to save them.
"Aye Kapitän." The same answer from anyone. Although delayed paychecks are unusual within the mining business, everyone knew that once they found the jackpot, everyone would receive a fair amount of it that would outweigh the losses they had to take.
Another two days have passed since the crew entered the Tau 31 Ice Crystal Field via the jumphole from Tau-44. The mood onboard wasn't good, as they have recently encountered a group of independent raiders. Their leader demanded 25 million credits to spare their lives, a sum which the crew couldn't even remotely put up. Soon the group ran out of patience and began to mindlessly fire torpedos at the Helheim, missing it only by inches. They put up quite a fight, but in the end the point defense batteries managed to take care of the pesky invaders.
"Kapitän, Kapitän!" Henry shouted out of nowhere, his deep voice disturbed the silence like thunder the night. "The scanner is picking up ore dust on these asteroids!" Frau Richter turned her head towards him, the amazement in her eyes was indescribable. "What ore? How much? Full stop immediatly!"
Tension on the bridge began to raise, everyone was hoping for the big find that would change their lives forever. A untouched ore deposit of high value that is unknown to the big mining companies. The Euphoria was gone pretty quickly when the Kapitän took a look at the screen to find the answers to her questions herself. Instead of the long awaited ore deposit, all they found was some mineral dust adhering to the christalized water.
Instead of giving up, Faith ordered to analize the dust. She didn't have to wait long to get a result, the dust matched a sample of Aluminum ore they had extracted during their mining operations in Rheinland space.
The Kapitän quickly ordered to change the course to follow the trail of ore dust through the asteroid field. "Full energy on the shields!", she screamed and not a second later the sound of asteroids colliding with the Kelheim echoed throughout the interior of the ship. For now the shields would keep them save on their scavenger hunt, but for how long?
The silence on board was unbearable, nobody dared to disturb the Kapitäns train of thought with just a single word. On their way they continued to analize the samples of the Aluminum Dust, the result was disconcerning: Someone brought it here, but there was not a single sign for any Rheinland ships within this sector. While Faith and Grace had been staring at the screen for hours, not wanting to miss any traces, all but Miss. Richter and them decided to sleep for a while and regain their strength. The crew soon had half of the system searched through, without noticeable progress.
Suddenly the attack alarm started and the ship got under heavy fire. "Where did that come from?!", shouted Kapitän Richter and looked in the direction of the twins. They stared at each other helplessly and created a 3D view of the ship infront of them, the bombardment came directly from the right side, but the radar could not spot any ships there. Without any clue of who attacked them, Mr. Ziegler initiated evasive action and forced the ship to make a quick turn to escape the enemy fire, in vain, because shortly thereafter more large-caliber projectiles hit the ship and destroyed one of Kelheim's auxiliary drives.
Even Matthias Rodt, the ship's priest ran onto the bridge with a book in his hand. Believing that the wrath of God would rain down on the ship, he stared at the radar like the rest.
Suddenly the first contact - a second - a third - five! - No! Ten! The number of signatures grew exponentially until the heavily-armed transport faced an overwhelming hostile superiority. "They came out of nowhere!", Faith said incredulously. With a lack of an engine, they would not get very far, so the Kapitän had to make a hard decision: Should they start an impossible escape attempt with only 75% drive power or reverse, fight and possibly die quickly but honorably? She wished that she had more time to think about it.
Considering all possible outlets, she decided: "Hard port! We fight our way out!" A second of silence, even the enemy guns seemed to be silent for a moment, everyone aboard knew that any other decision would be even more fatal. Laura strapped herself in, Faith and Grace activated all the guns that were still operational - Finn, Henry and Alice ran down to the engine room, only Matthias stood there, the wooden cross of his necklace in his trembling hands. Only on their way back, through the windows of the bridge, they realized what had been waiting for them in ambush: countless orbital cannons, mounted on the backs of the asteroids.
The fire of the guns resembled a scream, the Kehlheim shook and rattled, but she didn't break. The enemy fighters seemed surprised by this tactic, even on their first attack flight they took the pilots under heavy fire and crippled some of the fighters. They were about to break through the wall of snubcrafts when suddenly a gigantic signature appeared on the radar. It seemed to be right infront of them, but there was nothing. Their hearts stood still, when out of nowhere a colossal rose from the void. This was the end of it, a barrier of projectiles, many larger than the ships they had attacked, directly hit the hull of the armored transport and suddenly - silence.