That could be at the top of the list for any officer - Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew. Of course that would seem to be opposite for the captains of the SEC. Remember that the SEC has the highest losses of the SDF - fully one-half of the ships commissioned are not expected to reach their de-commission date. Much of this can probably be attributed to over-enthusiastic crew who are willing to try anything and go anywhere.
-Excerpt from a lecture at the SDF Flag Officer's College on Shiva.
----
DocType: Non-Classified Sentient Species Datasheet
Subject: O-Eid (Humanoid, Amphibious)
Section: Overview
Authors: Various (See Attached)
DocStatus: In Progress (3805AFY)
Overview:
The O-Eid are an amphibious humanoid species that is currently isolated on one planet in the 74 Theta Arcturus system. Their civilization is currently at what has been deemed a 'pre-FTL' technology level though this has been degraded due to a recent conflict with another nearby pre-FTL civilization (See Related Documents). Contact with the O-Eid has been friendly and a diplomatic and scientific outpost has been established in their capital city.
Physical Overview:
O-Eid are interesting that they are both an amphibious and single-sex species with multiple distinct life-stages.
The average adult O-Eid is 1.6 meters tall with a slight build, scaly skin that ranges from a light green to a light blue in shade. To a human they all appear female though this is deceptive - all adults have four non-sexual feeding glands that are mammary analogs as well as a 'feminine' facial appearance. They also have two fins on their heads as well as a mass of thick scaled tendrils which resemble human hair at a distance.
Notably the O-Eid do not have ears nor ear sockets. These are replaced by a pair of tendrils which drape from the shoulder blades and serve as both aural sensory organs as well as a crude electric field sensor similar to those possessed by some species of Terran sharks and fish. These are also the primary erogenous zone and are used during sexual congress to transfer genetic material. The tendrils are long - nearly 1.9 meters on their own - and are prehensile with two pairs of tapering fins on the end.
As a sexual organ the tendrils are a particular taboo of the O-Eid. Other adults should not touch them in public and it is considered particularly dishonorable to specifically target them in any kind of conflict. One of the particular issues in their interstellar war was the taking of O-Eid tendrils as a trophy of war.
As previously mentioned the O-Eid go through three distinct life-stages. All O-Eid are born as helpless spawn that bear a certain resemblance to a Terran starfish. These spawnlings are generally born in large groups during the native 'spring' and are herded together as a 'school' by the elder O-Eid. For the next six to ten cycles these spawnlings appear to be non-sentient and spend all of their time eating and sleeping and growing.
During this time they are growing the rest of their adult body in a flexible tube that hangs down from the central mass. As the spawnling matures the ratio of mass changes - when it has hit the O-Eid adult norm the spawnling goes through a brief metamorphosis where it sheds the outer protective layer from it's developed form and apparently becomes sentient. Up until this point the spawnlings are treated as animals on the level of housepets. Some deaths from predators are expected and the average 'elder' is expected to only care for four to twelve spawnlings at a time.
Adult O-Eid are responsible for the day-to-day running of their society. Once they become sentient the O-Eid are incredibly fast learners, to a point. It seems that their ability to learn is greatly enhanced for the first four to six cycles but then drops dramatically to a near-human level. This seems to be a physical limitation - even using the advanced learning techniques available to the SDF the O-Eid have not been shown to learn beyond a certain level of progression.
Adult O-Eid are responsible for carrying spawnlings to birth but the elder O-Eid are actually responsible for carrying for and feeding the young as well as providing the source of genetic material. While they do not mate for life each elder has a 'stable' of four to six adults that it is in a relationship with. It prefers to keep one of these adults pregnant at all times - usually relationships end when the adult has given birth and wishes to switch partners. The elder is almost always responsible for raising it's genetic kin - usually only the death of the elder will change this.
Adult O-Eid become elders in a process roughly equivalent to human female menopause. When an adult has depleted it's supply of eggs a chemical change takes place that allows the O-Eid to feed spawnlings and transfer genetic material to adults during sexual congress. In the modern O-Eid society sex is not strictly for reproduction and is a more casual affair though it is still usually only happens between the members of the elder's 'school'. As is in most civilizations thus far encountered sex is used for pleasure and as a tool of physical and emotional manipulation. However since adult O-Eid cannot impregnate each other it generally has fewer consequences on a physical level though there are certain diseases that can be transmitted in this manner.
Both the adult and elder O-Eid are fully amphibious though both seem to prefer to spend as much time as possible in the water. Their atmospheric requirements are roughly equal to human and they do not need any special environmental consideration. They breath through a set of gill-analogs on the shoulders that open when in atmosphere and close for water filtration when on land. Their vocal apparatus is unique in that it is fully capable of transmitting sound both underwater and on land and as with humans they use the same orifice to consume nutrients. All O-Eid are herbivores and have thus far had no adverse reaction to sample extra-terrestrial vegetation.
(Full Document)(Related Documents)(Authors)
74 Theta Arcturus C...
Captain Arakaki twitched a little in his sleep then slowly pulled his eyes open and looked around the room. It was a makeshift hospital; That much was certain from the mats on the floor and dozens of other sleeping and wounded figures laying on them. He closed his eyes for a moment and dredged his memory for whatever had come before coming up with only a brief flash of light and incredible pain as he had been thrown against something by a blast. Sitting up on his elbows he looked around and a nurse noticed and made her way over. She was one of the O-Eid - a good sign - but when she put a hand on his shoulder and spoke it was the tonal language of the species. He tried to activate his implanted translator but he got an error from his implanted cybernetics.
'Damn... Must have been damaged,' He thought and he just nodded at the nurse who indicated with a little pressure that he was to lay down. As he sunk back onto the thick mat he continued to look around the room. He couldn't determine who or what most of the other patients were but those nearest him were all O-Eid. Two wore the form-fitting camouflage fatigues he'd seen earlier while another wore what was likely civilian dress. He had been helping to set up the research station when the attack had come which explained the mix, but he was suddenly concerned at the absence of the other crew members who had been with him. He felt cut off without his cybernetic communications and tried to reboot them over and over mentally until a humanoid figure appeared in the rough oval doorway and called out to him in English.
"Captain Arakaki?..."
SDF-Snake in orbit of 74 Theta Arcturus C...
White energy plowed through armored hull and out again leaving behind a jet of debris and yet another torpedo-shaped craft tumbling through space. The Snake wheeled only slightly in response before cutting loose with another volley to destroy yet another of the oncoming craft in a brilliant explosion as it's warhead detonated. Not that it mattered much - there were literally hundreds of the small craft coming into the system at once.
There were just too many for the Snake to destroy by itself and that was ultimately the point. When the heavy explorer had first arrived in the system the only inhabited world had been under attack by a small flotilla of primitive spacecraft. Captain Arakaki had been swayed by the pleas of the natives but now he was on the planet with the ship's marine detachment fighting a desperate battle to hold off the attackers which left Commander Davis in command.
That first flotilla had easily been destroyed faced with the firepower of the superior Venture E-class warship but it was only a single ship and now the alien attackers had switched tactics. The concentration of firepower in one vessel was now to their advantage as they sent massive waves of smaller craft to attack the planet. Each was ultimately a simple inter-system missile with a moderate warhead and a detachable landing pod - simple and effective. Those that made it past the SDF warship launched their warhead and headed for the surface.
It was clear they were engaged in a war of extermination. The warheads were atomics, crude and dirty, and the troops that made it to the ground killed anyone they found until they were stopped. Already most of the major cities, underwater but close to the surface, were drifting ruins and those that survived were mostly thanks to the frantic efforts of the remaining planetary forces and the assistance of the two fighters the Snake carried.
Now the targets were the smaller cities and towns that dotted the bottom of the planet-wide ocean in inverted archipelagos. Captain Arakaki was doing what he could to wipe out the landing forces before they could inflict any damage, but even the advanced power armor and UHCVs could only do so much in their limited numbers. The O-Eid didn't have the manufacturing capability, or indeed the materials, to produce similar craft.
Thus the only option was a desperate cry for assistance from the main force of the SDF but that itself was unlikely. The Snake was far from home - on the opposite side of the Milky Way - and sending the fleet there would leave the SDF weakened at home for years potentially. Thus the ship and her crew were fighting a battle they were slowly losing.. ..and they knew it.
74 Theta Arcturus C...
While the attackers had a viable plan for obliterating and attacking the remaining cities on the surface, they seemed unused to the idea of attacking the underwater cities directly. While this allowed the O-Eid to defend them relatively easily there were still plenty of attacks on 'tidal' cities to deal with...
Another of the alien gunpods whipped out from behind a building and tossed off a spiraling volley of unguided rockets at the O-Eid soldiers and lone SDF marine that had responded to this attack. Energy crackled and rockets detonated as the marine's power armor brought down as many as it could with it's own point defense, but several still landed and exploded. Shrapnel ricocheted around and through the cover the defenders were using and there was an ugly scream that ended in a quiet gurgle.
One of the defenders leaned out and attempted to get a lock on the flier with a shoulder-launched missile but the craft ducked back into cover while another came out to spray the area with gunfire from the machine gun mounted under the cockpit. This time it got a lock and there was a whoosh of white smoke and a deafening crack as the missile detonated right in front of the gunpod. It's rotors shredded it pinwheeled into the ground to land on the cockpit with a crump.
The other gunpod turned and ran, whipping away through the spire-like buildings as the defenders moved out of cover and gave chase. Several rushed over to the downed gunpod and began to pull it apart and the marine stayed with these to watch in case the other pod came back. The pilot was dead, crushed in the crash, but they pulled him out anyway. To prevent, or at least slow, the O-Eid from just killing every captured or wounded attacker they were offering a bounty on any alien. Dead or alive though alive was worth more. The dead would be studied and the live ones were put into camps and interrogated for whatever they could get.
Scaled hands produced tools and began to remove the weapons and intact systems from the pods as well. Weapons were harder and harder to come by and the O-Eid troops were armed with a motley assortment of their own weapons, those of the attacking alien, and occasionally an SDF weapon from the armory on the Snake. The attackers clearly had an exponentially larger manufacturing base and the O-Eid now had several craft specially designed to incorporate common salvaged components.
----
In the end there had been little his one ship could have done to stave off the inevitable. It was too much, too fast, and too determined. Aramaki had made the decision to try to evacuate everyone possible when the attacking aliens - parasites really - had destroyed one of his two fighters. It didn't seem like a lot but the damage was clear from the numbers. More missiles were getting through, more cities were being destroyed by atomic fire, and the survivors were losing more and more of their capacity to resist.
They had fought a holding action for as long as they could and now it was time for a fighting withdrawal. What limited production capacity the O-Ied had was shifted to building ships - primitive by nearly any standard - that would serve as life rafts for whoever they could get off the planet. Instead of weapons they built Black Knight FTL drives. Rugged and simple they were also highly inaccurate and Aramaki knew that every ship fitted with one had a one in eight chance of just disappearing the first time it was activated. Better than the one in one odds they had of dying here though.
SDF-Snake in orbit of 74 Theta Arcturus C...
Captain Aramaki wound his way between the small knots of refugees that littered the corridors of the Snake as he made his way from the main docking bay at the aft of the ship towards the bridge that was nestled in the core. Behind him was the matriarch of the O-Ied, which apparently wasn't really pronounced the way it was written, but figuring out the best way to write their name down in english hadn't been a priority for anyone in the past month. She had been the last of their race to flee the planet and it had taken some serious arguing on the part of Aramaki and their central guiding body to get her to leave.
There were still millions left unfortunately. Since the decision to evacuate had been made there had been a mad dash to build the motley fleet of ships that now spread out below the Snake's protective position in orbit but they hadn't even come close nor reasonably could they. The single explorer-cum-warship had to protect the unarmed transports and the unarmed transports had to be near the largest center of population in order to speed evacuation.
The remaining smaller cities had built and contributed what they could, but with their cover gone those cities on the opposite side of the world had slowly fallen and a trickle of refugees with their last belongings on their back had slowly swam into the Capital. There they had certainly found a welcome and work to occupy their time. Outlying buildings were torn down and brave teams of salvager's ventured into what was now hostile territory to gather materials.
As soon as one component was built it was lifted into orbit and hurriedly put together with others to join the motley fleet. No two ships were alike aside from three points - all were unarmed, all mounted the long transmission spines of a long-antique Black Knight jump drive, and all had the whirlpool flag of their people proudly painted somewhere on their hull.
The Black Knight drives... Now there was something Aramaki was worried about. There had been many reasons they had been replaced but one was reliability. Even with the high standards of Triumvirate manufacturers they were still just plain unreliable due to the method they used. They could just not work at all, come out radically off-course, or rarely, not come out at all. And that was with high manufacturing standards. With the limited manufacturing available to the natives the normal one-in-one-thousand chance of having a problem was now something more like one-in-eight. One in eight, and spread out below the Snake were forty three ships. Not exactly the best odds for the last hundred and sixty-thousand-odd surviving members of a sentient species.
Still it couldn't be helped. The aggressors seemed to want to make sure it was zero surviving members and while the scientists aboard hadn't figured out why exactly, it was Aramaki's mission to make sure they didn't succeed.
He took his seat and the matriarch took hers as well. It was a ceremonial chair and now that it was out of the water for the first time in hundreds of years it smelled like rotting fish and moldy seaweed which meant the bridge smelled like rotting fish and moldy seaweed as well. Her assistants gathered around her, standing and in some cases sitting at her feet and he waited until they were settled before beginning.
"Fleet status?"
"All ships report ready..." By radio was unspoken but it was yet another thing to worry about. They had no problem with radio, but many of the crews were barely trained with the most competent put in charge of operating the jump drives. If there was a problem it might not be reported until it was too late.
Keeping the worry off his face he turned to the matriarch and nodded. "That's good. All ship, initiate course alpha and increase speed to full."
"Yes Sir."
In the three dimensional display of the main holo-sphere the tiny green arrows representing the individual ships of the fleet began to move as they broke orbit at various speeds depending on the reaction speeds of their maneuvering thrusters and their crews. This had the effect of breaking up the small cluster of ships into a long trailing fleet as well as signaling their intentions to the encircling aggressor fleet. While he had timed their departure for the safety zone between waves there were still enemy ships out there and the red arrows that represented their ships began maneuvering as well.
"Double check that all ships have their jump drives pre-programmed. All ships are to jump as soon as they reach safe distance."
"Aye aye. Orders relayed..."
There was nothing to do now but wait for the last ship to leave orbit and follow it. At the front of the ragtag fleet was the remaining fighter that the Snake had carried. Piloted remotely, it was there to destroy any ships that tried to get in front of the fleet and prevent them from reaching a safe distance. The Black Knight drives needed a gravitationally stable area or they wouldn't work or if they did they would arrive far off course. Even the relatively small alien attack ships could interfere but not if they were floating scrap.
And for the city below there was now only waiting as well. The Snake would defend it as long as it could but it would need to leave as well. Those who had to stay behind were even now building what defenses they could and taking shelter in deep bunkers but their survival was unlikely. Even if they survived the initial bombardment... There was nothing Aramaki could do. His ship was crammed with survivors as well. The fighter would double back but if the attackers went for the Capital before it arrived they could annihilate the entire city with a few well-placed bombs.
"The first ship has reached the jump point Captain... Incoming message from the captain... 'Good fishing'."
The main screen switched to a fore-view of the jump ship and everyone on the bridge watched as energy crackled along the transmission spines as the glow faded from the primitive fusion torches that had pushed it this far. Space rippled around it and it was gone. There were cheers from the matriarchs assistant's and smiles from the SDF crew members but Aramaki knew there were many more to go and so it continued. Second, third, forth, fifth... Then it happened. Two in a row failed to jump.
"Order them to move to one side and recharge for another attempt. All ships are to continue moving up to the jump point. If any others fail to jump move them off and give them the same instructions."
Another problem. Black Knight drives took an inordinately long amount of time to charge up for a jump, far longer than the Tesseract drive on the Snake took to recharge from a jump of the same distance. It was more time that the ships were vulnerable and while engineering felt it had a backup plan it was risky and would only work with two or three ships. If one was stuck it could try to run but they only carried a few days worth of supplies. Maybe a week if they stretched it. Barely enough for the torches to get them out of the system and it was years to the next habitable star.
Fortunately the next ship jumped out just fine, and then they were on a roll for the next twenty two ships. That was the three. Fortunately the only three, at least as far as Aramaki knew. It was possible that ships had disappeared, exploded as soon as they came out, or any number of nightmare scenarios, but at least there were only these three remained. Now it was time for the last part of Aramaki's plan. The part he hadn't bothered to mention until now for a variety of reasons.
"Helm, bring us to fifty kilometers of the remaining ship. Send the fighter back to protect the Capital and bring us about to face the planet..."
This last part was risky. It would leave the Snake without it's most powerful offensive weapons but it would buy those remaining a bit more time and it would hopefully make the attackers think twice about trying to follow them.
"Tactical, bring all tubes online. Establish a VDA around the planet, all ordinance, configuration at your discretion, set it to 'Very Aggressive'."
"Yes Sir!"
In the bowels of the ship bays of torpedos began to spin as the hatches on the forward tubes iris'ed open. Volley after volley left the tubes, flung into space by the accelerator rails as to conserve their own propulsion for when they were called to attack incoming ships. Soon the bays were empty and as they spun down the tactical officer worked to initialize the VDA.
"All set Captain. This will give 'em hell."
"Excellent. Order the remaining ships to clump together. Helm, put us between them. Say your goodbyes..."
Beside him the matriarch nodded and quietly spoke to one of her assistants who went over to a console and touched the controls. A pre-recorded message of mourning and loss went out to her remaining people and she sat back in her seat, head down, as the Snake maneuvered into position for it's own jump.
"Everyone close enough?"
"Ten seconds..."
The seconds ticked by and the ships now surrounding the Snake drifted closer and closer. Then it, and they, were gone.
SDF-Snake, Location Unknown...
The Snake emerged into real-space to find a scene of chaos and confusion barely less muddled than the one it had just left. Ships were everywhere and there was a trail of debris right through the middle of the fleet. One of the ships had apparently emerged from it's jump too close to another and collided. Poor training and sub-standard equipment had struck again. Fortunately their relative velocities had been apparently close enough that both ships were still marginally intact aside from the long tears down their hulls and the missing spines on one. Missing jump spines. Which meant that ship was immobilized.
There were some gasps from the Matriarch's advisers but Aramaki ignored them as he looked around the bridge. Clearly they realized that those tears meant that there were now hundreds, perhaps thousands, fewer of their people to continue their species.
"Contact all ships and get them on the same relative heading. Get the bridge crews of the damaged vessels into conference so we can figure out what happened... Helm? Get us closer to those two ships. We'll get engineering crews out there to patch up the damage and recover what we can. Science? What do we have?"
Technically he knew what they had. Little to nothing. But he wanted to get it into the open so everyone knew what they were looking at. With a jump radius of thirty lightyears they didn't have many choices for targets and they couldn't chose anything with an obviously habitable world. That's where the aggressors might have come from.
"Not a lot Captain. Binary star system, three gas giants, nothing in the habitable band. Sizable Kuiper-belt though. Lots of loose comets around. I suggest we find a nice large icy ball and head there. We will need water first."
And food, but that was in larger supply than water. Hopefully they would find someplace to get food before their supplies ran out.
"A comet would also supply reaction mass. Some of the ships need to refuel already..."
Aramaki nodded, "Ok. Find us a good one and point the fleet there. I also want frequent and intensive sensor sweeps just in case we have any unwelcome visitors."
"Aye Sir."
"We need to find someplace to go long-term though. Food will be an issue in less than a week..."
"Captain Aramaki," The Matriarch spoke, "We must also find a place to lay our young. Many of the adults will be pregnant and we cannot afford to lose a generation of our people if it can be avoided."
"Which narrows down our choices. We need to start looking for a habitable planet within two jumps of our current location that has sizable bodies of water and non-hostile plant life..."
"Captain," One of the science officers interupted, "I have another possible solution. I've been checking our comm relay network..."
The Snake, like all SEC explorers, carried a supply of communications and surveillance buoys that they placed in orbit around every planet they surveyed. This extended the reach of the Triumvirate's communications and surveillance networks. Unfortunately the Snake was extremely far from home and the rest of the network but this didn't mean they hadn't been laying the buoys.
"...and it looks like a ship entered one of our previously surveyed systems two months ago and stuck around. The buoy didn't initiate contact, but passive sensor data shows significant mass as well as drive and power plant emissions that roughly match TRIAD specifications. Old TRIAD specifications. I recommend we initiate contact and see what help they can be."
"How far away are they?"
"Forty nine lightyears... Two jumps."
"All right. Contact them. Very general though. They could be pirates or worse."
"Yes Sir, general request for assistance..."
The message was very general and broadcast from a nearby buoy on general radio frequencies with no voice overlay or encryption.
Vessel Matching Mass and Energy Output Specifications:
SDF-Snake requests general operations and registry information regarding possible assistance to be rendered to SDF fleet operations. Please respond with personnel capacity and available facilities.
