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Difference between revisions of "Free Fleet"
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The [[Der'em]] were a brilliant, but not powerful race, and had long relied on the fact that they provoked nobody and sought no one else's territory and resources, along with their cloaking technology, which was among the finest known, to protect them. | The [[Der'em]] were a brilliant, but not powerful race, and had long relied on the fact that they provoked nobody and sought no one else's territory and resources, along with their cloaking technology, which was among the finest known, to protect them. | ||
However, it wouldn't save them from the sheer might of Commander [[Mezer Juul]]'s hammer. The Fleet smashed into the [[Der'em]]'s [[Ventosian]] home system | However, it wouldn't save them from the sheer might of Commander [[Mezer Juul]]'s hammer. The Fleet smashed into the [[Der'em]]'s [[Ventosian]] home system and the Der'em could do naught but delay the inevitable. | ||
In a last-ditch attempt to save their civilization, they launched a small fleet guarding an off-world research station carrying an untested prototype of their greatest cloaking achievement yet - technology that would cloak an entire planet - and opened a one-way [[wormhole]], channeling as much energy as they could direct at it. | In a last-ditch attempt to save their civilization, they launched a small fleet guarding an off-world research station carrying an untested prototype of their greatest cloaking achievement yet - technology that would cloak an entire planet - and opened a one-way [[wormhole]], channeling as much energy as they could direct at it. | ||
Due to the fundamental nature of [[wormhole]]s, a one-way wormhole is much more difficult to precisely target. Also, the energy cost to create a temporary wormhole increases faster than linearly with distance, though not exponentially. As a result, there's a rough optimum distance that [[skipdrives]] on [[starships]] use to create their one-way wormholes and instead of skipping across huge distances they skip repeatedly across short ones, at a much reduced energy cost. | |||
In this case | In this case, the Der'em had no choice but to escape immediately, and so, knowing that where they'd end was fairly unpredictable, they opened a massive one-way wormhole and sent their small fleet through it, hoping that they'd find survival at wherever fate took them and that the Free Fleet would be unable to follow. | ||
They made it safely through, but the larger the wormhole, the longer it takes to close, and the Free Fleet was able to arrive and deploy a wormhole stabilizer before it closed, leaving the way open for them to pursue the Der'em | They made it safely through, but the larger the wormhole, the longer it takes to close, and the Free Fleet was able to arrive and deploy a wormhole stabilizer before it closed, leaving the way open for them to pursue the Der'em. | ||
The Fleet pursued, destroying every Human colony they encountered on the way in-system towards [[Earth]], and when the [[Der'em]] caused [[Earth]] to disappear, they continued their destruction, sparing only the prisoners on a penal mining colony on [[Callisto]], one of [[Jupiter]]'s moons. | The Fleet pursued, destroying every Human colony they encountered on the way in-system towards [[Earth]], and when the [[Der'em]] caused [[Earth]] to disappear, they continued their destruction, sparing only the prisoners on a penal mining colony on [[Callisto]], one of [[Jupiter]]'s moons. | ||