Chapter 10

U.S.S. Intrepid.

2110

The giant colony ship Intrepid; over 10km long and 3km wide, it was the largest ship earth had ever produced. It had every advanced technology earth had, the crew of the ship numbered 2000, all hooked up to Golems in their stasis pods. The ships A.I. Monitored every system, watching as the crew of Golems moved about command and control, each having an assigned task for the launch of the ship. The colonist 20,000 colonist all stayed in stasis through the duration of the voyage, which would utilize a combination of hyper light speed travel as well as use of worm hole generators for the longest portion of the trip.

The ship was the first of its kind, designed not to set up one colony but the full infrastructure needed to inhabit an entire planet, it was equipped for every possible outcome. The compliment of marines equaled 1200, not including the number of colonist who had been assigned as a civilian police force. It had been argued that no colony should have such a high military presence, the detractors had been ignored, the ship was going to go farther into space then had ever been attempted, no one could say for sure what the ship would encounter.

The shake down trip from Earth to Mars had gone with out a hitch the voyage taking only moments using the new worm hole generators, the hyper light speed drives only intended to be used if something went wrong with the generators. The crew where all exited to be apart of the history making voyage, all knowing they would be going to start a new life on a new world.

Commander Chris Dorian sat at the helm, he had been hand picked by the Admiralty to command the ship, it was an honor he had earned from his distinguished service during the colonist revolution of 2102, he had served on the Battleship Independence through the entire course of violence of the 7 year war, coming out of it as a hero when he had prevented the colonist from detonating an anti-matter weapon at the martian ship yards, to this day there still sprouted minor rebellions in the colonies, but because of the devastation of the war none risked all out open war fare again, now humanity was trying to move beyond that.

He turned on the ships Intercom.

"Crew we are about to embark on a historic mission, together we will push humanity farther then we had ever hopped. Today we ensure the propagation of our species by expanding mans reach, we have soldiers, we have scientist, we have teachers, we have doctors, most importantly we have families, in short we have the future of mankind, you are all cream of humanities crop, be proud, today we make history"

He cut the com.

"Adam, prepare for worm hole generation." he said to the A.I.

The ships A.I. Began to power up the worm hole generators, everyone on the bridge felt the shudder as the ship began to generate the gravity field needed to create the worm hole.

"stellar cartography, lock in or course" He said as he nodded to the golem at the helm.

"Helm power up the sub light engines."

The ship began to move forward as the worm hole began to form.

"Worm hole formation at 80%" the helm officer said.

"Speed at .05%" the other helmsmen said.

"Worm Hole entrance in..." the first helmsmen said.

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

"6"

"5"

"Sir there is an error in the reactor core" the engineering officer said.

"Cut the sub light engines, all stop" The commander said.

"Sir all controls locked out" the helmsmen said alarm raising in his voice.

"Sir there has been an explosion in reactor 4, Worm hole is destabilizing, Sir I have been locked out of the system, there is an malicious virus present in my core " The A.I. Said.

The commander didn't have time to react as the ship entered the unstable worm hole, the hole ship was rocked from the entrance, for a minute the whole ship felt like it was going to fly apart, the light went out.

Several minutes later the ship exited the worm hole, the systems started to reboot one by one, the commander looked around at his crew.

"Report, what happened?" the commander looked to his helmsman.

"Unknown sir, sensors are coming online now, we are still at mars." the helmsman said.

"Communication send a report to the shipyard, tell them they have a saboteur, tell them we will be needing a barge to return back." The commander said.

The communication officer went to work.

"Sir, something is wrong, the wormhole is still open behind us." The science officer said.

The commander looked at his screens, sure enough they still had a reading.

"Sir I can't raise the shipyard." the communication officer said.

"Check for damage" the commander said.

"SIR Incoming" the tactical officer said.

"What? On screen!" the commander shouted.

The view screen came to life, showing highlighted targets rising from the martian surface, except it looked nothing like the Mars they knew, the surface was scorched black with plumes of smoke coming from several places on the surface.

"What the hell?" The commander said startled.

"Sir in coming vessels are unlike anything I have ever seen, and they are powering up their weapons." the tactical officer said.

The commander watched the screen.

"Arm all forward weapons release the safeties, activate the particle cannons." the commander said watching the screen.

"Sir we are getting radiological warnings on those ships, they have nukes." the helmsman said.

"Communications have they hailed us?" the Commander said.

"Negative sir no contact." The com officer said.

"Lock on to the first and fire a warning shot off its bow" the commander said.

He watched as the shot fired across the ships bow, the ship continued forward.

"Light um up." The commander said, watching as the ships got blown apart.

"sir we detected 200 separate launches taking place on the surface."

Just then the A.I. Came back on line.

"Sir we need to get away from this planet now." the A.I. Said.

The commander raised an eyebrow at the A.I. But nodded.

"You heard Adam, power up the Hyper Light engines, micro jump to the Oort cloud, full speed"

The Golems braced themselves as the ship turned and activated the engines, during the 3 hour flight every system was double checked, the commander got a Quarry from the A.I. For a private conversation.

He activated the link.

// "Yes adam?"

// "Sir I believe I know what has happened."

// "Enlighten me Adam."

// "Sir as you know that 20 years ago Worm Hole use had been baned, the reason given that it was unsafe for ships to use"

// "yes but the new engines fixed that, right Adam?"

// "Sir that wasn't the entire story, there is the slight chance that worm hole generation could go wrong, in the past there was one incident where the worm hole punched through to an alternate reality, I believe this is the case."

The A.I. Unlocked the classified files for the commander.

// "how do we get back Adam."

// " Sir I suggest we wake the Scientist we have on board."

// "Do it Adam."

U.S.S. Intrepid.

2111

The ship rocked from the impact of several nuclear devices hitting its hull, the ships fighters swarmed across space, taking out the enemy drones. Two of the enemies battleship had already fallen victim the the Intrepids M.A.C. Cannons, still more exited the worm hole, the enemies battleships 1km long in length where slow moving and under armed. What they lacked in strength they made up in numbers, as soon as they cleared the worm hole they launched there fighters.

"Recall the fighter" The Commander ordered. "Unlock the safety on the antimatter missiles, target the moon base"

The Commander watched as 5 more battleships exited the worm hole.

"Full retreat, get us back to base, Launch one missile"

The Intrepid backed up into its entry wormhole that lead back to base as the last fighter landed, the commander watched as the missile streaked toward earths moon, the flash whited out the view screen, it faded as they traveled through wormhole. The destruction of the moon would reek havoc on the enemy, they had been mining the moon for materials, the damage the debris would rain on Earth was also a bonus.

The mission had been to disrupt the enemies operation on earth, to distract them into having to re-position their fleet, for the past month they had been doing recon missions to Earth, making strafing runs on the fleet stationed there, trying to make the enemy think their goal was to recapture earth.

It had been 6 months since the Colony ship Intrepid had arrived in the new dimension, they had established a base of operation in the Oort Cloud, the scientist had been working day and night on how to return home, they had fought several skirmishes with this new enemy.

They had found that the entire solar system was invaded by them, the most disturbing thing was they found human colonies on the moons of jupiter that had been destroyed. So it wasn't that they had went to a world where these aliens had arose on earth, but one where they had invaded and destroyed the human race, and even worse they had detected enemy signals in almost every direction they pointed their radio telescopes, this whole universe was under the enemy control.

Several hours later the commander sat in a meeting with the head scientist and the A.I., it was about what the scientist had concluded.

"So you see sir the energy surge that occurred caused the tear in realities, but thats not all of it sir, right now that rip is still around mars." The scientist said.

"Sir the latest intel reports the enemy is preparing an expeditionary fleet, they have built a structure around the tear above Mars, I can only surmise they are attempting an invasion onto our home dimension." Adam the A.I. Said.

The commander rubbed his temples.

"Sir as we know our technology is superior to theirs, but theirs is cheep and plentiful, as our skirmishes have taught us they have no problem with throwing themselves at the enemy in endless waves." Adam continued.

"With out warning they could easily destroy the martian base, as well as the fleet there before the other side could marshal a counter attack." Adam finished.

"Our attacks on Earth have caused them to move the fleet, are cloaked probes we sent to Mars show they have not yet activated the device around the tear" The scientist said.

The commander nodded.

"We could set off an antimatter charge in the event horizon, the resulting energy would cause the worm hole to collapse into a black hole. It would destroy the solar system and all the enemy forces nearby, we would need to send a task force to secure the device around the black hole, we could jump in after they do, once they activate the device we could go through and setting off the antimatter charge as we enter the worm hole, in theory we should be able to make it home with out being destroyed, if we time it right." the Scientist said.

"In theory?" The commander raised his eyebrow.

"Yes sir, from what we understand it should work." The scientist said.

The commander nodded.

"No matter, our survival is second to the goal of destroying that worm hole." The commander said.

"Adam prepare everything in our arsenal, activate every Golem we have, we have to do this as soon as possible."

In orbit above Mars.

The stealth recon transport Falcon moved through the enemy fleet, 20 combat golems waited inside, they had learned that ships not carrying humans slipped under the enemies notice. The ships pilot guided it through the lines of ships toward the device in orbit, where they had first come to this dimension.