Prologue

The Behemoth-class Battle-cruiser soared over the verdant green forests of the colony world, Bountiful certainly had been aptly named. The planet was a free colony outside Confederacy control, but regular patrols were made to ensure the human inhabitants safety. The Commodore of the cruiser stared out a porthole at the lush world, not worried about any sort of disturbance. Bountiful was a peaceful world, out side the turbulent Confederacy politics. The hush sound of the bridge crew working was the only noise in the Command Room. Outside the window birds could be seen flying in the clear sky

Completely peaceful

Suddenly the quiet was broken by the sound of a worker calling out "Sir we have a contact on our radar."

The Commodore waved his hand dismissively, "Probably just a flock of birds."

"Have to be a damn big flock to show on radar, I think you better have a look."

The Commodore rolled his eyes, irritated at being drawn from his relaxing view. He walked over and glared at the screen "What the..." There were several green dots converging on the cruiser from behind as well as the flank. More worrying however was that more were appearing. "Can we identify?"

"I'll try" the radar operator said. He donned a pair of headphones and activated the sonar system. Sonar had been considered outdated technology with the onset of satellite imaging, but it's usefulness of quickly identifying hostiles had saved many commanders from a humiliating defeat against an enemy they were unprepared for. The ship's speakers emitted a sonic ping, read the echoes, and displayed what it saw on the screen. The Commodore selected the advancing dots and set the computer to identify.

He turned to the radar tech, "Well?"

The tech twisted a knob, taking a listen to the dots. His eyes widened as the audio feed came through "uhhhhh, I don't know sir!"

The Commodore took the headphones and placed them over his own ears. Through the gauze speakers came a noise like a thundering rhythm in a cave. It took the Commodore a minute to realize the rhythm was a heartbeat.

The computer finished it's work. The dots were indeed flocks, but not of birds. A sonar representation of the thing appeared. It looked like some sort of tube with dragon wings attached to it. A chart with various stats on the thing showed up along side the picture. It revealed that the things were flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet.

"30,000? There at the same height as us!" The radar tech said, his eyes widening further.

"Scramble the Wraiths!" The Commodore yelled. "If their hostile we won't be able to fight them all off with just the cruiser's weapons!". He glanced at the radar screen, the dots were even closer, and still coming.

The wraiths, seagull shaped air-combat units, flew from the hanger in the belly of the cruiser. They buzzed around the capital ship like bees protecting their hive. Minutes passed before a voice came in over the radio. "I got something, coming over the horizon on all sides." An ominous dark cloud appeared, growing steady larger as the things neared.

"Get in close and cloak, see if you can get us a visual"

"Will do, Commander." The pilot replied and set off. As he got close to the could he activated his on-board cloaking and vanished from the visual spectrum. "It's more than just the tube-things, sir. Looks like a crab and a jellyfish got it on, then started flying." He took a picture and transmitted it back to the ship. On the monitor appeared something nightmares are made of.

The jelly-crab was a hunched over mound of chitin, the head glared out the front with glowing yellow eyes scanning the skies ahead. A long proboscis dangled down from the head, just above the hanging claws and feeler tentacles. The dragon-tubes swarmed around it, each one with two mouths, one at each end. At the top was a toothed maw set below two sets of three eyes, at the bottom was a tooth-lees chasm with a thick tongue protruding from it.

"Mother Mercy what are they...." came a whisper on the now-dead silent deck as everyone stared at the image on screen.

"Sir, sir! Their surrounding me!" the pilot yelled over the radio, shattering the hypnotized silence.

"Get out of there!" the Commodore screamed.

The wraith whirled around and put the pedal to the metal back towards the battle-cruiser. "How can they see me while I'm cloaked?!". A group of the dragon-tubes and a jelly-crab broke from the main swarm and pursued the hapless pilot. The three closest tubes bent their lower halves back, then snapped them forward launching strange little bat-things coated in green bile from their lower mouths. The strange projectiles zeroed in on the aircraft and bit into the neosteel fuselage. "I'm hit! I'm hit!" the pilot yelled struggling to control the damaged plane. The back of the wraith had been so weakened that the second volley tore through the back and into the pilot. There came an agonized scream over the radio as the acid-coated creatures cut through the pilot. With his spine severed, unable to operate the controls, the wraith plummeted into the forest trailing thick smoke.

The swarm had been advancing the entire time and were now within firing range. "Prepare the laser batteries!" The Commodore screamed, "Burn them from the sky! Wraiths, blow them to bits!". The battle-cruiser turned to face the swarm and opened fire. Lasers burned across the sky and into the advancing aliens. As the ship came about the gigantic laser cannon on the front warmed up and launched a massive burst of laser fire, burning five of the dragon tubes from the air. The wraiths opened fire with their missiles, raining alien parts on the forest. "Yamato Gun ready!" There came a deafening whirring as the ships most powerful weapon charged. "Aim!" a targeting computer selected a spot in the center of the swarm where the most damage from the explosion would take place. "FIRE!!!".

From the bowels of the ship a nuclear warhead was detonated, the explosion contained in the spinning magnetic field of the gun barrel. The entire ship was pushed back from the force of re-coil as the condensed nuclear explosion tore the sky apart in front of it. The burning shot entered the swarm and detonated with frighting force, hundreds of the aliens died in seconds.
But it was too little too late, the swarm surrounded the human ships and opened fire. As the two sides traded blows a disturbing fact of the alien weapons came into play, the projectiles bounced from one target to another! Trails of smoke showed where aircraft fell to their doom. Vespene fuel set fire to the forest, burning the lush trees to black skeletons.

Soon all the wraiths had been downed and the aliens concentrated fire on the cruiser. Red warning light flashed everywhere. The ear piercing sound of rending metal filled the ship. An engine was hit, exploding and sending thick smoke through the halls. The Commodore tried furiously to keep his ship sky born, but they began losing altitude. The burning forests of Bountiful filled the viewpoints, growing rapidly larger.

Then everything went black