A new chapter for The Serpent’s Garden!
~
“Nonetheless, I would like to hear them,” the hierarch continued. His voice, as always, was smooth and mellow. “As the cardinal overseer noted, we are all aware that everyone is working from an incomplete understanding of the situation. The exchange of information is always beneficial to the correction of flawed or inappropriate patterns of thinking… or as a reminder to all about where each of us is coming from and a check on biases or a fresh viewpoint.”
The prelate glanced at Radiant Endeavour’s own hierarch and then Iljta-Risan. The cardinal overseer gave an affirming half-bob of his head to proceed. “Although its technology appears to lag behind our own,” Uljak-Nasien noted, “I believe Implacable Agent of Retribution poses a higher individual risk than the Meer-Ulson carronade vessels the Hegemony has faced.”
That caused another ripple and a clear divide in response between the assembled hierarchs. Aile-Losos, Yntos-Pret and Nanil-Wanlei appeared to have reached similar conclusions, while Ulle-Taned, Essam-Thut and Ojan-Nal seemed dubious. Ekar-Fhell maintained his thoughtful demeanour, showing no sign of what he was thinking.
“Can you expand on that?”
“Of course, hierarch. First and foremost, ton for ton, Trespasser appears to be more heavily armed than a comparable carronade vessel. Its hull configuration makes that difficult to confirm, but from the observations we have made,” Radiant Endeavour’s Tactical officer keyed several commands onto his terminal. The large holo-plate in the ceiling activated, creating a slowly rotating image of Implacable Agent of Retribution in the gap between the table’s wings. Script and wireframe schematics overlaid the interstellar unit, indicating the plotted locations of concealed weapon mounts. “If this is even partially accurate, that means that our guest may be the most heavily armed unit the Hegemony has ever encountered. A ‘flying armoury’, if one wishes to be evocative.
“Secondly,” the image focused on the wider hexagonal ‘crossguard’ portion of the hull. “Our readings suggest an unknown, but immensely energetic power source. Most conservative estimates,” he tilted his head in respectful acknowledgement towards Akis-Cawvin, “place its capabilities within the same order of magnitude as our own conversion cores.”
“And unconservative?” Yntos-Pret asked.
“Significantly higher. Either this interstellar unit has an extremely inefficient power grid, or it needs that level of energy generation for something. I’m not prepared to guess what that could be, but my division believes it may be related to those prow structures and some as-yet unseen capabilities.
“Furthermore,” synth adjusted the view as the Tactical prelate continued, focusing on the exposed external missile racks and launch tubes. “We see a notable reliance on ranged weapons, closer to early-war Meer-Ulson designs, though its missiles are heavier than those normally carried by sakers and several launchers mount weapons larger than carronade-scale warheads. This presents us with the same two interpretations: either they are using size to overcome technological shortcomings, or-”
“-or their capability should not be underestimated,” Nanil-Wanlei concluded. Thoughtful Repudiation of Intent was the closest unit to Radiant Endeavour, giving her a small enough lag to pre-empt the prelate’s conclusion.
~
My patreon / subscribestar / twitter
Proximal Flame's Fiction 