"At first we were naïve and overly trusting of those around us. But soon we learned the harsh truth, and in turn we too taught them of their faults." – Lord Admiral Synar Azurio of the First Fleet five years after the initial contact at the asteroid belt known as 'Innocence Ended'.
"Humans… a race of hairless bipedal apes. They seemed nothing more than children. Of course these were no ordinary children. Engineers, builders, designers, architects of grand and massive works. A race in a solar system with no other neighbors and plenty of resources within reach. That was the reason we had come to their system. We wanted those resources for our own uses. Unfortunately we failed to realize that you simply cannot take an engineer's tools and expect to get away unharmed." – Grand Marshall Reknat Ku'Month of the Forty-Third Imperial Wing two days after the siege of the final Imperial stronghold 'Ascent of Light'.
Our corporate fleet was mining in a recently discovered asteroid belt on the back side of Pluto's elliptical orbit. By fleet I mean four mining barges, a mobile compression and refining rig, two destroyers, three frigates and my pride and joy the cruiser which I commanded 'SD – Terra Domina". Ironic for the name of a spaceship in my opinion, but I delighted in the irony of it. Now you might be asking why we had such a fleet mining with gun ships instead of just barges. Back in those days humanity was a splintered thing. We had space stations, colonies on Mars and even a lunar colony. Piracy was not uncommon and it was the job of our gun ships to ensure that no one had any bright ideas about attacking the mining barges. It was just an uneventful day of mining and salvaging. Right up until a large glowing tear began to form 100AU from our location. And form that gaping tear emerged one of the most hideous ships I had ever seen. It looked like an insect with it's dark black hull and tendril like appendages. I had no idea how accurate that description was until after it happened…
To be continued in chapter 2