In the somewhat distant future…2183, to be precise…the planet Earth has reached outwards, towards the stars, and found life waiting right on their doorstep. The human race was readily accepted into the intergalactic community, becoming part of the vast League of Planets, an expansive federation that comprised many major worlds. Both friendships and enemies were formed with other races, and one who made it all possible was the legendary human, Nue Kobayashi, captain of the L.E.S. Venture from 2235 to 2246. Kobayashi's highly successful years of command are the stuff of League legend, so much so that a second ship was commissioned, the Venture II. Kobayashi took the helm, but unfortunately passed away before his tour of duty was over. In the years running up to the two hundredth anniversary of Earth's acceptance into the League, a new starship, the Venture III, was commissioned. Under the command of Willis Hawthorn, it has carved itself into the legacy of the name Venture.


-2381, First Officer's quarters, L.E.S. Venture III-

Commander Genta Ryutaro paced the short distance between the walls in his quarters. He turned over a tiny red box in his hand again and again. The nerves had set in, and there seemed to be no way to quell them this time. He had been waiting for the perfect moment to propose, and this seemed as good a time as any.

The only trouble was knowing what to say. He had gone over a speech he had made up on the fly when he had a moment to himself. It probably wasn't going to do much good for him. He knew how much his lover's species valued words, and he wanted to find the right combination.

Just as he felt his nerves begin to settle down, the voice of his captain rang out through his quarters.

"You're needed on the bridge, commander."

Strangely, Genta breathed a little easier. "On my way." He said, stowing the box inside the pocket of his uniform. Perhaps whatever he was needed for would take his mind off the surprisingly scary prospect of proposing.

He left his quarters and made a beeline for the nearest elevator. As it closed, he saw crewmen stumbling out of their quarters, some of them trying to hurriedly fasten their uniforms up. Genta gave a short laugh as the elevator ascended to the bridge level. It was good to know that he wasn't the only one aboard the Venture who wasn't really paying attention to what was happening.

As the elevator door slid open, Genta made one last adjustment to his uniform's jacket, and stepped out onto the bridge of the League of Planets' flagship. Many of the senior officers were in their usual positions. The ship's tactical officer, Haneth Vek, a humanoid covered in grey scales, stood on a raised part of the bridge behind the captain's chair, which lay smack-bang in the middle. There were other raise parts of the bridge for many of the Venture's other important functions, including sensors and communications. The lower part of the bridge played host to the helm controls and the captain's chair, not to mention Genta's own seat.

"What's the issue?" Genta asked as he took his seat beside Captain Willis Hawthorn. In Genta's mind, Hawthorn was more than a worthy successor to the station of Venture's captain. He managed to balance kindness and compassion with conviction and dedication to his duty.

"We detected an unusual energy signature inside a gas cloud, and we're going to investigate." Hawthorn replied. "Helm, take us in."

"Aye, sir." The bald, yellow-skinned helmsman tapped his computer console a few times, and the dull hum of the Venture's engines grew slightly louder as the ship began to move forward, towards the gas cloud.

"There appears to be a high concentration of Muron gas in that cloud." Came the shrill voice of Jorge Magnussen, the diminutive human science officer.

"Go to yellow alert, then, and keep medical teams on standby." Genta suggested, just as Captain Hawthorn was about to open his mouth, presumably to give the same order. Muron gas was incredibly volatile, and just one stray photon burst could cause it to ignite and bring a quick end to the Venture's career.

"We're heading into the cloud." The helmsman said. "The energy signature's approximately forty thousand kilometres ahead."

"Raise shields." Hawthorn said, looking down at the arm of the captain's chair, and checking a status monitor. "Bring the gas cloud up on the main viewscreen."

At his command, the interior of the gas cloud appeared in front of them. Genta felt his mouth fall open in complete surprise. It was beautiful. Swirls of colour glanced briefly in front of the screen, and then vanished, only to be replaced by different colours and patterns. Genta couldn't help but feel enchanted by the wonderful view.

Unfortunately, his feeling of enchantment was cut off by the sensors console bleeping. The officer in charge of it checked the cause of the sound.

"The energy signature is closing in on us." She said, keeping a level head. "Thirty thousand kilometres…twenty thousand…I'm getting a clear reading." She tapped her console some more. "It's a vessel, and it's still closing." Her console bleeped again, and her silver eyes quickly shifted to it. "It's within visual range."

"On screen." Captain Hawthorn commanded, a sense of urgency in his tone of voice. As the image of the vessel sprung up on the main viewscreen, Hawthorn clapped a hand over his mouth, presumably to stop himself from swearing. Genta could only gaze at the approaching ship as it slowly tore through the gas as if it were a mere sheet of paper.

The vessel in question was gigantic. According to a tactical scan of the ship, it was two thousand kilometres in length and seven hundred kilometres in height. It easily dwarfed the Venture, which was only four hundred kilometres long. Immediately, Genta felt somewhat small and insignificant compared to the might of that vessel. It was shaped strangely, too. It looked like some kind of mechanical shark, with a tail-like appendage at the aft of the ship, and what seemed to be a giant mechanical maw of teeth at the fore. Further scans of the craft revealed that it outgunned the Venture. Its armament, according to Vek's scans, included fifty eight photon burst cannons, eighty six plasma beam weapons, forty nine torpedo bays, and a series of unidentified weapons on either side of the ship.

"It's a warship of some kind." Hawthorn said slowly, studying the vessel intently.

"How could a warship hide this close to the League's borders without being detected?" Genta asked.

"I don't know." Hawthorn replied. The ship loomed out of the gas cloud and cast a shadow over the Venture, and Genta could see that the "maw" of the ship, so to speak, was lined with plasma cannons. If the crew of that giant ship decided to bring their armaments to bear on the Venture, it would be a safe bet to say that one of the most famous ships in the League fleet would be finished.

"We're being hailed." The Venture's insectoid communications officer said.

"Put it on screen." Hawthorn commanded. The image of the ship vanished, to be replaced with the scowling face of an unknown life-form. It had faint yellow skin, save for some black markings running from the top of the scalp down to the bridge of its nose. A large head of what appeared to be horns jutted out from its forehead, presumably to make it seem much more threatening. In addition, it wore a visor that covered its eyes. However, the crew of the Venture didn't need to see its eyes to know that it was giving them a scathing look.

"You are League of Planets." It said slowly, presumably not breaking eye contact. It was hard to tell when it wore a visor. "We are the Nishian flagship Maloth."

A murmur of discontent ran through the bridge. The League of Planets was aware that the Nishian Dominion was one of the bigger fishes in the galaxy. With more than a thousand star systems to its name, it controlled a vast region of space, and commanded one of the mightiest fighting forces ever recorded. The League had never gone toe-to-toe with them, opting instead for a non-aggression pact. According the latest intelligence reports, however, it was believed that the Nishians had gone to war with another empire. With the sudden appearance of their flagship on the League border, one could only assume that the war had ended, but not in the Nishians' favour.

Captain Hawthorn put on his most determined expression, and stared at the Nishian confidently. "I am Captain Willis Hawthorn of the League starship Venture."

"The Venture." The Nishian captain repeated. "We didn't realise there were any League ships in this sector."

"We detected your ship's energy signature coming from this gas cloud, and were curious." Hawthorn elaborated. "What brings you so close to the border?"

There was something of an uncomfortable pause as the Nishian turned his head to the left and gave a curt nod to another crewman, before returning his attention to Captain Hawthorn. "We're carrying the Masked Lords to a conference on Empiria-9."

That remark made Genta a little more curious. The Masked Lords of the Nishian Dominion were perhaps the most enigmatic creatures known to the League. They operated from the shadows, controlling the actions of the Nishians from the highest tower on Nishan. To be in their presence was a great honour for a Nishian. Yet Genta couldn't help but wonder what such esteemed figures as the Masked Lords were doing in a gas cloud on the border of League space, especially when the Empiria system was in the opposite direction.

"Captain!" The gravelly tone of security chief Vexas Tathor came over the internal communications channel. "We've detected intruders on deck 16! They're heading for engineering!"

Hawthorn looked surprised, and so did Genta, who quickly checked on the status of their shields. They were still up, so how had the intruders managed to get aboard the Venture?

"Get a security team down there!" Genta commanded, rising from his chair. "I'll meet with them!" He noted that Hawthorn didn't tell him to be careful as he entered the elevator and, with a verbal command, descended to the engineering level. He drummed his fingers impatiently on his leg, and silently willed the elevator to go faster. The elevator seemed to read his thoughts, as the door opened and he strode out onto the empty engineering section. It seemed that the engineering staff had taken the time to evacuate. Genta could hear the firing of photon pistols coming from one of the many hallways that criss-crossed the Venture, as well as the militaristic growling of Chief Tathor.

"Report!" Genta said as he approached the security group from behind. He watched armoured and uniformed security officer firing bolts of photonic energy at a pair of creatures that he had never seen before. One appeared to be avian in nature, as it sported dark grey feathers and a lethal-looking beak, while the other looked like a bear. The interesting thing about both of them was that they appeared to be sporting cybernetic enhancements. It seemed sparse on both of them, just a minor ocular implant and some plating over their upper body. Not only that, but they seemed to be resisting the photon pistols.

"These things appeared in one of the storage rooms." Chief Tathor replied, adjusting his own photon pistol. "They attacked a few of the crewmen and then came down here."

"Are the crewmen getting medical attention?" Genta asked, picking up a photon pistol himself.

"They were taken to sickbay." Tathor said. "Set your pistols to the beam setting, and fire at will."

Genta took the words to heed, and took aim at the bird creature. A thin stream of photonic energy lanced out of the end of the pistol, and collided with the creature. It didn't seem to have much effect, not even with the additional firepower of Tathor's weapon. It wasn't until the other security team members fired on the creature that it seemed to have an effect. The creature stopped dead in its tracks, and fell to the floor. Getting the idea, the crewmen turned their weapons on the bear creature and fired. It seemed to have the same effect, and the bear cyborg fell to the floor.

"What are these things?" Genta wondered aloud, kneeling down next to the bird cyborg.

"Dead, I would hope." Tathor replied. Just then, the entire ship rocked violently, throwing Genta against the wall as if he were a ragdoll. The back of his head hurt madly, and his vision became blurred.

"Ryutaro to bridge, report." Genta said groggily as he stumbled to his feet.

"The Nishian ship opened fire on us!" Hawthorn shouted over the glaring of the alarm. "Our shields are down, and we have hull breaches on multiple decks! I need you back on the bridge!"

"I'm on my way!" Genta clumsily strode back down the hallway, throug engineering and into the elevator. As it rose to the bridge, Genta shook his head, if only to regain clarity of vision. The door opened and he returned to his chair. He noticed that Captain Hawthorn was gripping the arms of the captain's seat and looking grim.

"Try hailing them." Genta suggested.

"Already did. They're not responding." Hawthorn replied. "Erect force fields around the hull breaches and seal off the affected sections!"

Genta felt the Venture rock even more as the Nishian vessel fired a constant stream of plasma blasts at it.

"We're not going to be able to hold out much longer!" Genta declared as the bridge rocked. "We have to abandon ship!"

Hawthorn was about to protest, but he hesitated, and then seemed to resign himself to the idea. He tapped a button on the arm of the chair, and addressed every corner of the ship.

"All hands, this is the captain. Make your way to the escape pods and abandon ship. I repeat, abandon ship. Program the pods for a course of 1:3:8, mark 6, and we'll rendezvous in orbit of Riddick-5. There's a League outpost there, and we can signal the nearest ship to collect us. I repeat, head to the escape pods and abandon ship."

As soon as he stopped talking, the bridge crew began to move towards the elevator, until only the helm, Hawthorn and Genta remained, though the helm soon left.

"You should go, Genta!" Hawthorn said, turning to his first officer.

"I'm not leaving without you, sir!" Genta replied as another barrage of plasma rocked the Venture.

"The captain has to go down with the ship!"

"With all due respect, Willis, this is no time for a poetic gesture!" Genta grabbed Hawthorn's arm and had to force the captain out of the seat and drag him to the elevator. At first, Hawthorn resisted, but he soon went along with the idea of getting off the ship alive. The elevator opened on deck 12, where the escape pods were located. Genta and Hawthorn were barely out of the elevator, when thick metal tubes burst through the walls and rammed into the opposite wall.

"The bulkheads are destabilising!" Hawthorn realised. "Back in the elevator! We'll go to the shuttle bay!"


As the escape pods detached from the Venture, and a lone shuttlecraft launched into the void, the Nishian flagship Maloth began its final assault, firing supercharged plasma at the smaller ship. It was obliterated instantly, going up in a fantastic plume of flames.

The deed was done, and the six Masked Lords of Nishan convened in a darkened room.

"It is done. Venture is no more." One of them said.

"This act was in violation of the non-aggression pact with the League of Planets." Another interjected. "They will want an explanation."

"They cannot know of our cause." A third one responded. "Our work is too important."

"They have revealed a weakness in the Augments." Said a fourth. "We must alert all who utilise them."

"Rejoice, Lords." A fifth Masked Lord spoke. "We have averted the future that will never be. We will remain in power forever."


Admiral Nikolas Polyokov's eyes passed over the final message from the Venture. It detailed the location of the surviving crew, and a request for aid. He was quick to authorise a rescue mission to Riddick-5, and he had just received word that the mission was successful. He wasn't looking forward to the debriefing.

Yet, it would have to wait, there was another matter he needed to see to.

"Computer, access the file on the Fleet Driver, authorisation Polyokov 3 Delta 21." He said, addressing his desk's inbuilt computer. It responded with an affirmative noise, and a detailed schematic of an unusual machine.