Sweeps83
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Chapter 235: Planetary issues
🕑 Added 2025-09-07 15:49:38 +0000 UTC“I thought EMPs disabled a ship's reactor?” Joe asked.
“For ships without a neutron reactor, sure, however, for those with, it doesn’t do anything to the neutron reactor, and instead everything else connected to it, this makes it look like the neutron reactor has gone offline because no power is flowing through the conduits connected to it, and you aren't getting any sensor readings from it.”
“While this is all very interesting, do you think we can focus on the topic at hand, which is that the neutron reactor has most likely been destroyed, meaning that power is out all over the planet,” Susan commented.
“It might be even worse than that?” A TISF officer commented.
“How?” Rachel asked.
“If the EMP blast that hit us made it all the way to the surface and up into the atmosphere, any ships on approach to the planet might have been disabled and are now plummeting towards the planet if they haven't crashed into it already.”
“Who cares, it’s only those rich entitled snobs up on the surface anyway,” Jessie said dismisvly before looking at Joe and asking, “Do we still have that old power generator in the basement?”
“I think so,” Joe replied.
“Good, pull it out and try activating it. Seeing as it was not functioning at the time the EMP blast hit, it might still work.”
“I’ll go check it out,” Joe nodded before signalling for the two bouncers nearby to follow him back into Becky’s.
“Do you have any old communications equipment in that basement of yours by any chance?” Rachel asked.
“Afraid not, someone around here might have something, though. I will have my people spread out and look.” Jessie replied before calling over a nearby group of gang members and giving them orders.
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“Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt that report on solar activity in the Hades Galaxy to bring you breaking news just in,” Sinead Quintana suddenly said on the USNN holocast, attracting the attention of Adam and the others who had been talking in the living room of Lorelie’s mansion.
”USNN has just learnt that all communications with the planet Trillion in the Sandanar Galaxy have suddenly and for unexplained reasons been cut off.”
“Cut off?” Stacey said with surprise as she accessed her uniband.
“What we know so far, as reported by a USNN reporter on the planet, is that a TISF fleet suddenly arrived above Trillion, blockading the planet and claiming they were there to conduct a planetary audit, however, during communications with said reporter, the holocall suddenly went dead.
Repeated attempts to contact the reporter and anyone else on Trillion have since failed.
Why the Terrana suddenly decided to conduct a surprise audit of Trillion while blockading the planet, and why communications were cut off, remains a mystery.
USNN will continue to investigate this matter and bring you updates as soon as we have them.”
“She’s right, I can’t contact Susan or anyone else on Trillion,” Stacey said with concern.
“I’m sure they're all ok,” Lorelie said soothingly.
“Could the TISF have used a communications jamming ship like the Hepolisks did during the Siege of Fenix Nest?”
“Unlikely, jamming ships are normally only used against your enemies so that they can’t call for reinforcements,” Lady Erkath replied before asking, “Why would the Terrans suddenly decide to do a planetary audit on Trillion?”
“I’m not certain, but it may have something to do with what Stacey said to Empress Victoria back on Terrana Five,” Rowena said thoughtfully.
“Why don’t we ask them?” Tephe suggested.
“Ask who?” Erkath replied.
“The Terrans, I can message Becky right now and ask her, since she is part of the TISF and also related to the Terran Imperial family, she might know, right?” Tephe answered before using her uniband.
“I doubt she will be willing or able to give out such important information, dear,” Erkath said with a smile.
“Oh, I got a response,” Tephe said happily.
“Or maybe she will,” Erkath said with a forced smile.
“She says, my aunt got suspicious about Trillion after what that quarter brood bitch said, so an investigation was launched.”
“Damn slut,” Stacey cursed, making Lorelie giggle at the fact that these two still bickered.
“I figured it was that, anything about why no one can communicate with Trillion?” Rowena asked.
“Umm, oh here we go, she says that they just received a request for assistance from the capital ship sent to Trillion and that the Imperial Down plus other ships are en route because a massive EMP knocked out most of their ships and all electronic devices on the planet. It seems something happened to the neutron reactor.”
“That's not good. Doesn’t that mean that Trillion has essentially been sent back to the Stone Age?” Adam asked.
“Stone Age?” Rowena asked curiously.
“Oh, it’s a saying, the Stone Age was an age in Earth's history before Electricity was invented.”
“Oh, right, well, in a sense you're right, though any tech that wasn’t active at the time will still function. The issue is power, if something happened to the neutron reactor, then the entire planet would be without power.”
“It explains why no one can contact anyone on the planet, though,” Erkath added.
“Oh, she sent another message,” Tephe suddenly said before reading it, “Ask Adam why his last stream was so short, I didn’t get enough Adam time.
PS, don’t read this out loud.”
“Oops, I guess I wasn’t supposed to read that bit,” Tephe said as she stuck out her tongue.
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“Admiral, the planet.” A bridge officer suddenly said while pointing at the viewscreen.
“What about it?” The admiral asked.
“The planet’s temperature has risen by five degrees in just the last hour, and it’s still rising.”
“What? Why is it rising so fast?” Another bridge officer asked.
“The weather control tech must have been taken offline by the EMP. Now that it’s gone, all the heat that is generated from a city world like Trillion is not being removed and is instead warming the planet up.”
“How hot is it likely to get?” The admiral asked.
“Difficult to say, ma’am, the first ever city world before weather control tech had to be abandoned because of the intense heat, however, most of Trillions' tech is currently offline, but it also doesn’t have any polar icecaps to help lower the temperature.
If the temperature keeps rising, we could start to witness planet-wide thunderstorms.”
“Do we have any weather controllers onboard?”
“No ma’am.”
"Of course, we don’t, contact the TISF ships that are coming to assist us and ask if any of them have one or if they can pick one up on the way.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
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“Is it me, or is it getting warmer?” Jessie asked as she fanned her t-shirt to try to cool herself down.
“The weather control tech probably went down because of the EMP or the lack of power,” Rachel commented.
“Isn’t that bad? I mean, Trillion is a city world.” Susan asked.
“Well, it’s certainly not good.”
As they were talking Becky’s suddenly had light appear in some of its windows before Joe carried a spotlight out the front door and put it down, attracting the attention of those nearby.
“We managed to get the generator working as well as find some lights that weren't affected by the EMP, since they were off, and some old ones in the basement,” Joe said as he walked over to the group.
“Nice work,” Jessie said in appreciation.
“While we can serve any drinks we have in bottles, we can’t serve any dispensed by machines or food, also we have no way of accepting credits,” Joe explained.
“Not like anyone could pay anyway, all their unibands are probably fried like ours,” Jessie replied.
“That’s true.”
“Well, at least we can give people nearby a place to relax with some lighting, what about water, though?”
“We’re ok for now since we have plenty in storage, however, getting more is going to be a problem since no food processors are working.”
“Food and drink are going to be a major issue if that isn’t rectified quickly. I doubt many people have much food lying around.” Susan commented.
“If we can get in contact with the TISF fleet in orbit, we can ask them to send down some food processors, which will stop people from dying from thirst or hunger until a new batch can be delivered,” Rachel suggested.
“My people are still looking for a communications device we can use,” Jessie responded before Susan suddenly pointed in the direction of the closest shaft that Spector had flown down previously and asked, “Hey, what’s that?”
As they all looked in the direction Susan pointed, they saw what appeared to be four lights descending from the level above before they started heading this way.
As they watched, the lights suddenly came close enough for them to make them out as marker lights of a TISF shuttle, which soon started to descend and land in an open area nearby.
As the entry ramp of the shuttle lowered, several TISF officers disembarked before making their way towards the group.
Comments
Crimson
Oh no they gonna literally boil those plannets huh
Sweeps83
Because of what Stacey said to Victoria when they met on Terrana Five. Remember, Victoria also said that Trillion has not really been mentioned in the Terran Council's planetary report, which made her suspicious.
Ozan Cicek
(Why would the Ferrans suddenly decide to do a planetary audit on Trillion?”) Ferrans-> Terrans
