Prologue
Since the beginning of time and space, there has been the existence of Mana, the energy that makes up the power of magic in this very universe. One of the first civilizations to harness this power was Al-Hazard. Despite the fact that the knowledge of the civilization itself have been mostly lost to time itself, one civilization managed to use their technological, thaumaturgical, and scientific knowledge to create a powerful kingdom that had expanded beyond the borders of the lost planet of Belka. The Belkan's rapid advancements were what laid the foundations for many smaller magical civilizations to rise from the ashes of the Warring Ages and the Saint King Reunification War that followed.
However, not all civilizations followed the same path of advancement that the Belkans chose many ages ago. There were civilizations that managed to prosper without the use of magic and although their progress was slower they managed to reach the stars and build their own empires from scratch. Although, much like the Belkans and Al-Hazard before them they faded away from existence, the only traces of their civilizations were the technology, legends, and tales about their kind.
One known example would be the Progenitors who arrived at what is now referred to as Non-Administrated Galaxy M51 and with them the invention that was the Hyperspace Core...a device that allowed starships to enter the realm of Hyperspace and travel long interstellar distances in a short period of time. Much of the ruins and technology of their civilization remain throughout the Galaxy itself with some being discovered by younger races.
These young races of Non-Administrated Galaxy M51 would inherit the Galaxy.
The first ones to rise the Bentusi, who long had taken to living in the stars rather than having a Homeworld themselves. They were a wise and very peaceful race (Unless provoked of course) who were physically integrated into their own starships and eventually established the old trade routes that allowed other races to trade their resources for their technology. Of course, they also tried their best to keep peace and order in the galaxy as one of the founding members of the galactic council. As more and more civilizations came out of the woodwork many of them would join the council.
Among the many states that would join the council were two rival forces, the Taiidan Empire and the Hiigaran Empire, both of whom had a highly antagonistic relationship with each other and their conflict was one of the first matters to brought to the Galactic Council. In their arrogance and anger the Hiigarans sought to seek an advantage over their rivals and in the Great Wastelands they found it...a Hyperspace Core similar to the one on-board the Bentus, the Great Harborship Of The Bentusi.
Building a massive warship and an entire navy, they went forth and with a single jump into hyperspace, completely bypassed the defenses of the Taiidan Empire to their core worlds. The holocaust and war that would follow left the Taiidan in shambles, with their Homeworld and emperor gone it seemed that Hiigarans were victorious. Much to their displeasure, this war brought about the attention of the Galactic Council, who demanded that they turn over the Hyperspace Core for safe-keeping. They claimed that they were only willing to give up their core to the Bentusi as they trusted no one else. But when the Bentusi came met the Hiigaran Star Fleet, they were brought into a trap where the latter hoped to defeat the ancient space-traders and claim their hyperspace core for themselves. The tables were turned, as the Bentusi anticipated this on their part and sent out waves of warships and strikecraft in retaliation. Despite their bravery, the Hiigaran's massive starfleet was destroyed.
The council members thought that peace would return to the Galaxy and were satisfied with how the event turned out...Except for the remnants of the Taiidan Empire. Lead by the vengeful Taiidan Admiral Riesstiu I, the Taiidan Remnants gathered their fleets and went on a campaign of extermination...It was said that the Hiigarans became extinct.
Many millennia later the Time-Space Administrative Bureau emerged, it was an interdimensional security force made up of a union of several worlds who had advanced significantly since the fall of the Belkan Kingdoms. They would make sure that the use of magic wasn't used for warfare or conquest...and they would intervene when there were incidents involving Lost Logia, magical artifacts of the Ancient Belkan Civilization whose very powers could bring about unimaginable destruction.
Upon encountering civilizations that had developed interstellar travel without the use of magic they revealed their presence to these worlds. The number of civilizations that accepted their presence outweighed the xenophobic reactions that some civilizations carried towards them, especially since many of them formed large alliances that spanned throughout their respective territories. In exchange for allowing their autonomy and introducing them to magic, these civilizations would assist the TSAB when needed and establish inter-dimensional trade routes that would allow economies for multiple factions to flourish.
The members of the Galactic Council, including the Taiidan Empire and the Bentusi Exchange were among those who accepted the TSAB's presence (Although it should be noted that the Bentusi declined the TSAB's offer to introduce them to magic.). However, in year 60 of the modern Mid-Childan Calendar the peace and order of the Whirlpool Galaxy will tested once again...
In the Northern areas of the Administrated World No. 1 Mid-Childa, lay the Grand Cathedral of the Saint Church. This religious organization's doctrines were built around the last Saint King of the Ancient Belkan Civilization; Olivie Sagebrecht. They had gained a number of adherents over the years, especially on worlds where the Modern Belka magic system was prevalent such as Administrated World #84: Siba.
However, night had begun to fall over the planet with the bright full moon surrounded by thousands of stars. In the bedroom of one Sister Carim Gracia, she finished her nightly prayers before slipping into bed and turning out the light. She closed her eyes and shortly afterwards she fell asleep.
From the inky blackness the shape of a brown planet covered in sand emerged in her line of sight before it zoomed in through the atmosphere and clouds until it reached the surface, where she saw a six-wheeled rover climb over a dusty hill...to meet the remains of an ancient starship partially buried under the sands. There was a flash of light before she saw a large almost crescent-shaped starship slowly fly out of the scaffolding that was its drydock.
If my voice could move the sails,
There was a blur in her vision as she saw the ship emerge from a rectangular rift that lead to hyperspace, once again orbiting the desert world that now had a massive burnt scar covering the entirety of its northern poles while the scaffold was destroyed, its components floating aimlessly in space. She thought she heard the sound of a women crying.
Of our ships to war,
Another flash showing the large capital ship encountering the brown curved form of a Bentusi Trade Ship as its back end faced the starship with a yellow glow. "We are the Bentusi...and we welcome you among space-faring cultures..."
I could spin the grand-est tales,
She saw the crescent shaped ship and several smaller frigates and strike craft battling an onslaught of white pod-shaped fighters that were launched from a capital ship shaped like a needle. They were struggling to fight their enemies but they seemed to be gaining the upper-hand, as several larger pod-shaped vessels were being mowed down by corvettes.
That would steer us from your shore.
She saw another flash of light as the forces she watched moments ago engaged in combat with...Taiidan Ships?! What were they doing fighting the Taiidan? The Taiidan were a peaceful civilization, weren't they? However, she caught a spectral glimpse of that desert world facing an orbital bombardment with starships that bore the familiar crimson and gold stripes of the Empire.
I'd pull us so far a-way until the days forced hate to stray from beau-ti-ful hearts...
The battle faded from existence, the voice of that same women echoed in her mind, "No one is left...Kharak is Burning..." and then another male one spoke shortly afterwards, "Hiigara, our home."
The day we lay our wea-pons down,
She was somewhere else now, she saw pyramidal and tetrahedral starships with triangular patters etched on them with a purple glow fly through the void of space attacking...A Commonwealth sector! An argon discoverer scout fighter hastily dodged a purple cutting beam that sliced through an unfortunate Teladi Vulture cargo craft before three Split Dragon corvettes flew down in formation and fired missiles that blew through several of those vessels.
And find our way to com-mon ground,
She saw a large argon fleet fighting alongside another unidentified fleet with white capital ships and smaller shuttle-craft armed with unusual plasma weapons chased after their unseen foes.
To make a-mends for all those slain,
She saw the explosion of the Estia, a starship that was lost during an incident with the infamous book of darkness.
To end the pain...
And then she saw the silhouette of a girl around her age with a small glimpse of blonde hair as she was whipped from behind by a tall feminine figure with malevolent purple eyes shimmered with a spark of something that chilled her to the core.
Drifting a-way from who we are...
She saw the same girl, holding a scythe-like magical device that glowed yellow and crackled with electricity arcing about, illuminating her red eyes and her dark-colored cloak and barrier jacket. She wasn't alone though there was another girl, this one holding a magical staff with one jewel glowing with a pink light, the features of the girl were obscured by shadows but she could see...that she was a brunette with brown hair tied in small pigtails, cobalt-colored eyes, and a white barrier jacket. And then there was another girl, once again her appearance was partially hidden but one could make out her vivid blue eyes, hair that was a darker shade of brown, the shape of a book or tome in her right hand and a staff with a cross-shaped sigil in her other.
Has fate let us go too far?
She found herself in a metallic chamber, where the silhouette of a bald women was levitated by a metallic ring kept upright by a mechanical arm and wires embedded into her limbs and skull. The rest of the chamber was covered with displays of star charts, diagnostic feeds, and 3D shapes of asteroids and starships.
Drifting a-way from who we are...
In front of a window where one could see an overview of the planet Mid-Childa and her moons, she could see several teenage boys and girls observing the sight with their backs facing her, several Taiidan strikecraft bearing silver and crimson stripes flew by.
Has fate let us go too far?
Then once again everything faded to black.
If I were strong enough inside,
She saw the surface of Mid-Childa's moon overlooking the planet as a large shadow started to cover the barren surface.
To put my pride a-side,
She saw a flicker of another women's face before something else blinked into existence instead.
I'd retract this pointed finger,
She saw a bright glare that was quickly obscured by the shape of- No, it couldn't be! The Saint's Cradle?! The Belkan Battleship of legend was said to be lost! However, it wasn't alone as she saw several starships trailing behind it, including Thraddash Torches, Ilwrath Avengers, a Taiidan Carrier and its escorts, Yaki Pirate Strikecraft, and a handful of red Mantis Mercenary vessels. They weren't going to attack Mid-Childa, were they? Were they?
With my blame for those who've died.
A quick flash of several more individuals interrupted her musings.
I'll never find peace of mind for all that I've...left be-hind...
She was in someone's quarters, she saw a women on her bed deep in meditation, her eyes shut as in deep in thought...or prayer. Before a light illuminated her face, showing that her yellow eyes were now open and her short purple hair blocking out a side of her face.
I've let my self...be-come con-fined,
Another flash, from behind her view multiple smaller starships ranging from Vagyr Strikecraft to Federation Cruisers to Argon M3, M4, and M5-class fighters to several starships she didn't recognize began assaulting a group of Time-Space Administration Bureau vessels and their escorts over a Terran planet, although they wore gold, red, and orange colors and gunmetal black, instead of the standard purple, blue, and silver that were seen on most TSAB vessels. She saw a TSAB L-Class vessel taking heavy damage from beam-like plasma weapons that were being fired by Vagyr strikecraft, the TSAB vessels behind it began to retaliate with various magical attacks, green and blue beams lighting up the void as they cut through the federation cruisers that fired their artillery beams in one final move of retaliation.
Mis-a-ligned...my mind is blind,
Several other ships emerged from hyperspace and flashes from a jump device or FTL Drive, the largest one being a large blue and white carriers with fighters and corvettes streaming out followed by a white battleship with smaller shuttle-shaped escort fighters opening fire with blue oval-shaped plasma rounds darting forwards, a handful of TSAB vessels came in behind them with standard colors that contrasted with the unusual marks of the opposing vessels. One of the opposing TSAB vessels fired a large magical beam that destroyed an unidentifiable vessel that was silver with glowing blue lights and knife-like protrusions.
With hate and fear I've been en-twined,
Three smaller navy-blue starships with three orb-shaped engines attached to globular bodies and lance-like protrusions at the front darted past a now destroyed TSAB vessel while plasma, mass driver rounds, ion beams, anti-matter, and magical blasts flew through the void. These three vessels homed in on their target and fired small rounds of plasma at an intimidating dark black ship firing black bladed discs at a broken Taiidan carrier, but one of the disks cut through one of the smaller ships that burst into bright flames that lingered for a few moments forward.
Now de-fined...
From inside the hangar of another vessel, a male figure stared out into space watching as several silver bladed craft drifted towards an unknown destination trailed by a wing-shaped craft with crystalline view ports in the cockpit and back of the vessels as small drones orbited them, of course they were dwarved by a large cylindrical starship with a giant red glowing ring at its front as it was escorted by...Xenon?! But the Xenon usually killed anyone who drifted into their territory including humans and species from other administrated territories!
Drifting a-way from who we are...
She saw a small squadron of older-looking strikecraft activating their jump devices with several large flashes, she saw the glimpse of one of the pilots. It was the same purple-haired women whom she saw earlier.
Has fate let us go too far?
She saw the yellow-eyed purple-haired close her eyes as a flicker of the same women wearing an armored purple jumpsuit...or catsuit began slashing through buildings with blades on her arms and legs, the soles of her feet having devices that acted as boosters or engines that allowed her to fly.
Drifting a-way from who we are...
A quick blur that obscured the view of another confrontation came to her mind. However, afterwards she saw the cradle again as it was bombarding the surface of the planet as its escorts assisted it, but then from hyperspace Turanic Raider, Taiidan, TSAB, and those mosquito-like corvettes began opening fire on the Cradle and its escorts, taking two of them down in several explosive bursts.
Has fate let us go too far?
Over Mid-Childa, a massive fleet of those golden TSAB vessels and a larger one that almost resembled the cradle in some aspects slowly flew towards Mid-Childa, but then another massive fleet emerged with so many hyperspace and jumps being made. Taiidan, Vagyr, Turanic, Federation, Engi, Zoltan, Rock, Mantis, Argon, Boron, Teladi, Split, Paranid, Xenon, Yehat, Arilou, Syreen, Shofixti, and TSAB vessels along with many more she had never even seen before emerged before the two fleets collided.
DRIFTING A-WAY FROM WHO WE ARE,
Strikecraft darted about, barrages from magical and non-magical weapons flew past ships, collided with some, destroyed others, missed a handful of them. It was pure utter chaos!
HAS FATE LET US GO TOO FAR?!
She saw a large pink beam of energy come from a mage in a spacesuit standing atop a variation of that crescent-shaped vessel she saw near the beginning of this dream burn through multiple of the opposing vessels with explosions and fire filling the orbit of Mid.
DRIFTING A-WAY FROM WHO WE ARE,
She saw missiles, rockets, and torpedoes flying towards the imitation of the cradle, striking their target but also taking down several other ships in the process.
HAS FATE LET US GO TOO FAR?!
She saw one of the missiles pass by her vision before another bright pink beam darted towards her and-
Sister Carim awoke with a gasp, panting several times as she tried to regain her composure. That was the most intense prediction she had in her dreams that she knew of! She had to tell the knights of this very church about this vision, she took one glimpse out the window of her room to see the stars in the night sky...she knew that in the future those very skies would be the front seat to what may be an interstellar war unlike anything she's ever seen but she prayed that she was wrong. She hoped for everyone's sake that she was wrong.
Welcome to the end of the prologue, how tough are ya?
Sorry, I just had to drop that Spongebob reference. Anyway, this will be the first in what may be multiple crossovers between Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Homeworld, Star Control, FTL: Faster Than Light, and the X-Universe games. When I wrote the previous iteration of Ships To War I thought it would be okay but to me it seemed like it was going down the path of a Gary Stu story so I decided to scrap it and start from scratch. However, I did decide to keep the title because it is based of the song of the same name by Ray Koefoed and THYX (Which was the inspiration for this story). Now this fic takes place BEFORE the events of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha so she along with Fate, Hayate, Yuuno, and others won't appear in this fic although they might be mentioned once or twice in the epilogue of this story (I haven't thought that far ahead yet but it is a thought.). Lindy Harlaown will probably be one of the main protagonists in this story along with Karan S'jet, however other characters will be added to this story as it moves forward. BE AWARE though that updates will be infrequent due to the fact I'm already trying to finish one of my other multi-chapter stories as well as dealing with various things IRL. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the prologue of this story!
Cheers,
-VentXekart
EDIT 2/20/2016:
Fixed some minor grammatical errors and sentences missing words/content.
EDIT 4/26/2016:
Noticed a few errors that I missed the last time, they've been corrected.
Also, I forgot to mention that 'Administrated World #84: Siba' was a major location in TwoZeroTwo's fics "Raze The Stray" and "Raise The Dawn". I thought I'd give him a little bit of a shout out for his works by adding a reference to them in this story.
One last thing: I'm slowly working on Chapter 1 and I'm hoping to have it up here soon.
EDIT 10/24/2016:
I did some more minor edits, and I also tried to add the rhythm of the lyrics from the original song to this prologue.