Gate Translation

"What the hell is going on in there!?"

After responding to the appearance of a ship of heretics, Lua was bewildered when her glorious god arrived, but now she was just confused when her flagship had its weapons locked down.

Ordering her helm to ram the heretics when they were visible again got Lua's flagship completely bricked, clearly, the one above didn't want her to kill the heretics, but the reason escaped her.

[PROTOCOL #77891 NOW ACTIVE. INQUISITOR #0000150231 PROMOTION CONFIRMED, NEW STATUS: AUDITOR #0000000091.]

"WHAT!? CLEAR THE BRIDGE!"

"B-"

"I SAID CLEAR THE FUCKING BRIDGE!"

Responding to her second in command by cutting off his right arm as she screamed in anger, Lua finally got her wish as the command bridge was cleared out before she contacted her superior.

"All-farther! That piece of trash traitor just-"

[I know! The one above has made their decision, don't you dare to interfere with it!]

While the all-father harshly scolded his subordinate for questioning the decision of their god, he was also bewildered by the decision of their largely absent god which had allowed him and his faction to run wild without restrictions for the last 600 years.

(Our god is siding with that traitor? And why even appoint a new Auditor after so long?... It doesn't matter, as long as I remain in control everything will be fine.)

By promoting a 'traitor to of the faith', the all-father feared it could lead to increased scrutiny of his previous misdeeds.

Without religion as an excuse, he would undoubtedly lose all the power he had worked so hard to amass.

ANALISIS COMPLETE, HYPOPOSYS PROVED; PRESENCE OF CONTACT DELTA CONFIRMED. MONITOR ATTACHED TO DELTA, COMMENCING DETAILED STUDY OF SAMPLE.

Having its theory proved correct, the Eden god confirmed traces of something much more ancient than itself and started analysing it in way closer detail. The reason it even considered negotiation with mortals was because of the encrypted signal it received. Using a rolling block encryption without equal, the Eden god's comm codes weren't supposed to be accessible to anyone, while it might be possible to retroactively crack some comm authentication codes about a century after they had been broadcast and voided, Mike had somehow used a code which hadn't even been broadcasted yet.

The code Mike used wouldn't be active for a few more years.

-

"Okay, here we go… River?"

Somehow being let go from the Eden Theocracy, Mike didn't wait for them to change their mind, therefore he decided to speed up preparations for departure.

"Translation speed achieved. Go."

Having strapped in and already depressurised the entire craft, River was also tracking the gate and reported they had matched speed with it.

"Jessica?"

"Integrity good, shields precharged to custom wave function and showing no irregularities."

"No issues with static either, we're good for gateway translation."

Knowing the procedure already and also not wanting to stay behind any more than absolutely necessary, Dan didn't wait and pressed for Mike to get on with it.

"Righty. Punching in now, prepare for some light turbulence as we are shot violently across dimensions."

"Wait what!?"

"Here we goooo!~"

Screaming like a certain plumber cracked out of his mind, Mike punched the afterburner as the gate came into orbit. Catching up to the gate as it came around, the Wyrm clenched the landing and entered the gateway as it passed. Inside the gateway, everything seemed to disappear and appear at the same time, forget the streaking flashes of light common in normal FTL travel, gate translation was something far stranger to witness. Travelling thousands of light years a second, the Wyrm left the gateway after only a few seconds, but that wasn't the last of it.

"Dan, stabilise those shields!"

"Rog' I'm already on it!"

Travelling through a gateway made the Wyrm's shields absorb a shitton of charged particles which treated to bring it down, luckily the shields held and Mike and the others didn't get irradiated but dropping a shield near a black hole would be equally life-altering, if not to say life ending.

"I got it, now get us out of here!"

"FTL drive ready, go for blind jump!"

"Jumping!"

Hitting the throttle again, Mike quickly reentered FTL as he stressed the faster-than-light drive to the limit for about 30 seconds before engaging the emergency drive disengage.

"Well, that kinda sucked, but at least we're no longer being chased by vampire cultists…"

Bringing out the Wyrm's auxiliary radiator, Mike started to inspect the Wyrm's critical systems for anomalies.

"River, can you check nonessentials?"

"Roger."

While Mike continued working, he struck up a conversation with Dan.

"So, what now Dan?"

"I'm sorry what?"

"We got you out of the Eden Theocracy as promised, what do you want to do now?"

Bringing up an agreement which Dan had almost forgotten, Mike presented him with a way out, if he wanted to part ways he could do any time he wanted.

"Hmm… I guess I'll stay on for the next hundred years."

"Okay, that works for me, welcome onboard."

Extending a hand, Mike welcomed Dan onboard as a crewmate.

"Thanks, it's good to be here."

Shaking hands with Mike, Dan felt a sense of comradery he hadn't felt since he was excommunicated from the Eden Inquisition.

"Welcome onboard, newbie, remember to treat your superiors with respect."

Also welcoming Dan, Jessica was far more smug about it as her ears stood high and proud.

"Sure, as long as you remember to respect your elders. It wouldn't do you any good to be that careless when you're still wet behind the ears."

Responding in kind to Jessica, Dan also put on a large smile as he started bickering with his senior crewmate.

"Well, we can't all be as old as you grandpa."

"That's rich coming from a twep like you."

"Hold your tongue fucking bloodsucker."

"Why would I ever listen to a-"

"System checks complete, we're good to go."

Seeing as Jessica and Dan would be occupied for a while, River reported back to Mike so they could get underway.

"Yeah likewise, let's get to a star where we can refuel, your ship."

"My ship, punching it."

With Mike also reporting no issues, he gave River permission to get underway as she transitioned the Wyrm to supercruise.

"Hmm, we have a yellow, main sequence star at just 3.4 light years."

"Okay, let's go for that one then. Go for jump?"

"Affirmative, committing for jump."

As River increased the throttle and committed the nav computer for the jump to FTL everything seemed fine until it wasn't.

"WHA!-"

Suddenly warnings filled both River's and Mike's terminals as the Wyrm's FTL drive suddenly sounded like it had inhaled a kilo of sand, although Mike had just checked it for errors, there was clearly something wrong with the drive.

"DISENGAGE!"

"DISENGAGING FTL DRIVE! EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN!"

With training taking over as the errors increased, River followed Mike's directions and hit the FTL emergency disengage, making the Wyrm exit hypercuise as it spun out of control.

"Jessica, start a timer! Dan prepare for wide beam transmission using comm protocol AZAD-225! Sweep from 50 to 150 Ghz!"

"Roger!"

"Vilco! Hot mike in 10 seconds!"

With Jessica and Dan following Mike's commands, River brought the Wyrm back under control before addressing Mike.

"What's going on!?"

"We're under attack, my ship!"

"Your ship!"

Taking control of the Wyrm, Mike brought the ship up to speed as Dan reported back.

"Hot microphone in 2!"

"Roger."

Clearing his throat as he changed language, Mike glanced at the timer Jessica had started before he began.

"Attention, attention, this is political first contact envoy designation GCV-43. Cease fire, I repeat cease fire!"

Not getting a chance to say more as the Wyrm's communication was jammed, Mike looked at the timer again as he calculated the time it took for the jamming to hit.

"12 seconds! Hostile contact at approximately 12 light seconds!"

"What's going on?"

As the only one not realising exactly what was going on yet, River asked as she depressurised the Wyrm and set the reactor to maximum output.

"We're in the wrong galaxy! The gate sent us home but to Jessica's home instead!"

Abruptly cutting the throttle and violently pulling the stick, Mike disengaged the G limit and turned the Wyrm around almost 180 degrees before he relit the afterburner. Due to Mike's almost instinctive reflexes, the Wrym barely avoided a large calibre railgun dart which barely scraped its shields as it passed by about a fifth of the speed of light.

"Shit, we're being painted! River!"

"Rog' chaff, flares! Come around again!"

Responding to River's prompt, Mike disengaged the G limiter and the automatic flight control system as he cut the throttle again and spun the Wyrm as River started releasing radar and laser-reflecting chaff.

"Jessica, inventory! Dan, run the sensors and prepare for counter-jamming, they're going to paint us with an illumination radar next!"

"Roger, 94 railgun rounds left, 6 KEM, 2 HEAT and a single active decoy!"

"Ready for E-war!"

Shifting acceleration by cutting one of the Wyrm's main drives, Mike successfully avoided another railgun round as he retasked Jessica and River.

"Jessica on weps, standby for targets! River, reconfigure our remaining drones for E-war together with Dan! After that I need you to start looking for holes in the jamming, we need to reestablish contact with the ship firing on us or escape out of their FTL control field!"

"Rog!"

"On weps, standing by for targets!"

Knowing how her people operated as a former ensign gunner, Jessica prepared to use the Wyrm's munitions for counterfire.

"Dan!"

"Already optimising our drone deployment pattern, focus on piloting!"

With a dependable, first-class crew at his side like this, Mike felt like he could overcome everything.

But as if fate felt Mike's mounting hubris, it decided to play a trick on him.

"Here comes the first wave of missiles, semi-active homing like you predicted, 55 contacts on scope!"

Spotting a close grouping of missiles in the scopes rapidly closing in on the Wyrm from the rear, River released more chaff as she updated Mike on the situation.

"Jessica prep HEAT missiles for point detonation, cold launch!"

Noticing how closely grouped the incoming missiles were, Mike immediately tasked Jessica to prepare countermeasures.

"2 tubes ready for cold launch, point det set!"

"Launch!"

"Payload released!"

As the Wyrm dumped yet more chaff, Jessica mixed in a pair of missiles tipped with high-explosive shaped-charge warheads. Remaining inactive, the 2 cold launched missiles weren't detected until they came within range of the closing ordinance where they detonated in their path, spraying out a hail of shrapnel.

"Splash 45 contacts! 10 remain, closing fast!"

"Roger, Jessica paint targets and standby!"

"Targets painted! Guns ready and charged!"

At Jessica's acknowledgement, Mike immediately cut the thrust of the Wyrm's main drives and rotated into a spin, bringing the Wyrm's forward-mounted railguns on target in the pass.

"Splash 4, 6 left!"

"Standby!"

Having relit the engines, Mike needed a bit of time to bring the Wyrm up to speed again before he could give Jessica another pass. In that time before Mike got the Wyrm back up to speed, the 6 remaining missiles continued to close in on their target.

"Shit! Jess' use rails and KEMs!"

"Roger, hot launch ready! additional targets painted!"

Launching a pair of kinetic energy missiles to intercept the missiles she couldn't get with another pass of the railguns, Jessica painted the remaining 4 targets as she waited for Mike to come around again.

"Standby, coming ar- SHIT!"

Just as Mike was about to cut the throttle and spin around again, all the hairs on his neck stood on end as he jerked the stick to the side and split the throttle.

But it was just a split second too late. As the Wyrm violently shifted to the side another railgun dart came in, gracing the Wyrm's shields and fragmenting before overloading the shields which instantly failed. Completing the spin to take out the rest of the missiles with the railguns, Mike didn't have to ask for a damage report as River started updating him.

"We're hit! Fuel lines #2 and #3 are leaking, reactor venting cooling and primary drive 2 is out!"

"Shit!"

Reconfiguring the Wyrm's manoeuvring thrusters to work together with the still operational main drives, Mike regained some level of manoeuvrability, but not enough to avoid another missile swarm like the last one.

"Reactor is redlining! We have to scramble it!"

"I can't break their jamming, we're still in the blind!"

Seeing the writing on the wall, Mike made a decision he swore he wouldn't fall back on ever again.

"... FUCK!... Abandon ship."

"What!?"

Immediately met with River's protest, Mike raised his voice far louder than he had meant to.

"ABANDON THE FUCKING SHIP! GET OUT NOW!"

Overwriting the controls, Mike scuttled the Wyrm's reactor as he activated the ejection sequence. According to Mike's judgement, the Wyrm was dead, staying behind would only be suicide.