Chapter One
Year 82 of the Wraith War
The vast darkness of space swept around the small Lantian Destroyer and seemed to stretch onto the infinite. Its hull was tattered with the blast marks of previous battles and several areas were damaged badly exposing those sections to the extreme vaccum of space. The Nona was smaller then the traditional warships that were used on the frontline, it carried a crew of nearly a hundred Lantians. The Nona cruised along at sublight speed from the heavy battle damage.
First Officer Galeb Krinson stepped into the brightly illuminated engine room of the Nona, the twenty five engineers on board worked frantically to assess the damage done to their ship. Galeb walked over to the Chief Engineer Brant Osirin who layed on his back below working on a conduit with clear crystals and circuits running through it. His white shirt was stained black with all the ash and burnt metal that was scattered across the white floor. Large chunks of metal were scattered across the area and several conduits were charred black.
"Whats the damage?"
Brant pushed himself out from under the conduit and looked up at his superior officer. The young man had dark brown hair and his face was also stained black by the charred metal. Galeb held out his hand and helped the man to his feet, he got up and let out a loud sigh. "Our generator is completely depleted and were running on our batteries."
Galebs face turned grim as he considered the problems with losing their generator. Without it they couldn't take on more then one Wraith ship before their shields were drained and they had to withdraw. "I'm sorry, but we had to engage those Hive ships. We couldn't let them take Galinishi without a fight."
Brant pushed his sweaty hair out of his eyes and looked around the bright white room with black scorch marks scattered across it. His gaze rested on a blood stain on the floor, it was smeared and dried from sitting for so long. "We lost a few people down here, but we think we can give you hyperdrive in less then an hour. We should have our shields restored partly by then too."
"What about our energy weapons and drone launchers?"
"We lost two forward energy weapons, but the other two are still good. Our four rear weapons are still good, but we spent atleast eighty percent of our drones taking out those three Hive ships," he reported pressing several buttons on the console the conduit was connected to. It beeped loudly and gave out a spark.
"We'll return to Atlantis once our hyperdrive is fixed, but try to get those shields working again. I don't want them giving out on us again."
Brant nodded and tried to work the console again, he grumbled loudly when it blinked off and stopped working. Galeb turned and walked out of the engine room, he walked down a bright white corridor thinking to himself as he walked. His right hand rested on his sidearm as he passed several sparking consoles that had pools of blood below them.
He frowned as he thought about the battle the Nona had just barely escaped, they had gone up against seven Hive ships and there escorts. There was a total of eighteen Wraith warships that were attacking the generator manufacturing planet of Galinishi. They had been able to get a generator and connect it to the Nonas power grid moments before the battle had begun. Thanks to the orange glowing device they had been able to defeat three Hive ships and five escorts before they lost the generators power. Within seconds their shields had been overloaded and their hull had been pounded by the ruthless creatures. In the first few hits, consoles had exploded and people were killed by the flying debris. A large peice of flaming debris had been shot out of a workstation and it had hit their Captain in the head killing him within seconds.
After the Captain was gone, Galeb had ordered the ship to open a Hyperspace portal and for them to run as far as they could from the Wraith. The Wraith ships had tried to pursue them but were easily out run by their intergalatic hyperdrive. They had just lost the Wraith when it gave out, their batteries were badly drained and needed recharging. A frown crossed his lips as he walked past a window and saw the debris floating in space from their ship. Another battle lost, he thought to himself.
Since the war had begun over eighty years ago, the Wraith had won victory after victory. The only thing that gave his side, the Lantians, an advantage was their technical superiority over the Wraith. The Wraith kept winning because they travelled together and always fought in numbers instead of one on one combat. With their superior numbers they could just charge forward and overwhelmed the Lantian ships. They had been doing this strategy for eighty years now, millions had died because of them. Not just Lantians but humans and countless other alien species who had been living in this galaxy.
The war was going badly and every Lantain knew it. The Wraith were overwhelming every outpost they had and now only a few dozen still existed. The Wraith now controlled seven eighths of the entire galaxy, soon they would find the cordinates of Atlantis if they didn't find a better way to fight them.
Galeb walked down the scorched hallway and towards the bridge.