Terran Alliance: The Odyssey

Chapter 7- A New World

Chapter 7- A New World

(May 23, 2025)

The stars of the Unknown Regions twinkle brightly as they decorate the blackness of space. As they twinkle brightly, some of them are blotted out as the massive hull of the TAS Hood moves through space, continuing on its journey through the Unknown Regions.

On the bridge, Admiral Pellaeon is currently studying a star map, going back over what the Hood has mapped of the Unknown Regions, trying to figure out their next move. He knows he only has a limited amount of time left before they end up in another desperate situation.

It's been over 2 years since the Hood left Zallin behind to try and find the way back to known space. Unfortunately, with only the most basic maps of the galaxy left, finding a way home was not at all simple.

The problem also came with the issue of not having maps of the regions, meaning hyperspace travel was extremely dangerous. For that reason, Pellaeon had decided on a new tactic. Instead of trying to make long journeys through hyperspace, the Hood resorted to multiple, super quick hyperspace jumps, with each jump lasting less than a minute. Each jump would be in a direction carefully planned out that according to extensive sight surveying was relatively clear. After each jump, the ship's astronomers and technicians would map out the surrounding areas. They also frequently had a fighter capable of hyperspace stay behind in order to measure how far they had travelled, with the fighter catching up with them later.

Using these tactics, the Hood's crew had slowly managed to start building a map of the Unknown Regions. Of course, they could not yet compare it to general maps of the Andromeda Galaxy due to the fact that they had not yet come across any known planets in the Unknown Regions.

Over the last two years, the Hood had been trying to map out what they could of the Unknown Regions while trying to find a way home. While they failed in the second part, they had managed to map out a decent part of the Unknown Regions. In addition, they had also twice discovered a planet that carried the necessary materials to refuel the hyperdrive and replenish their food stocks. Neither had been inhabited by sentient life, which made the resources in question easier to acquire.

However, the Hood was now in a difficult situation. Her hyperdrive is almost out of fuel, and estimates showed it was unlikely, given the distance involved, for the ship to make it back to the nearest mapped planet with the resources needed to refuel the hyperdrive. They had discovered a planet a short time ago that they thought would have the resources they would need, but their assumption had proved wrong. Now, the ship has a limited amount of time to find a planet that can either provide the fuel they need for the hyperdrive, or where they can survive for the foreseeable future.

Pellaeon is a relative expert at mathematics, and is currently using the map laid out before him, with a marker to represent the Hood's location, to try and calculate the distance to any inhabitable planets. So far, as far as his calculations show, only one inhabitable planet is within range. However, it's right on the fringes of the Hood's fuel range, and there's questions among some of the officers as to how well it could actually sustain the ship and its crew. In addition, it would deplete the ship's remaining hypermatter fuel and leave it stranded there permanently. Pellaeon's preference would be to find a planet they could make it to with some fuel left over, just in case.

So far, he's been frustrated in his goals. He's even proposed a few planets much closer to them, but officers have assured him that those planets could not support the crew. So, he's still trying to find a habitable planet that they could maybe make it to with some fuel left while the astronomers aboard are trying to find a new planet with their surveillance equipment that might be able to support the crew.