The radio crackled to life.

"Ehrilich City here on Mercury Surface, confirm clear skies in sector 1."

"Titan City, currently got a beautiful view of Saturn's rings. All clear in sector 6."

"Roger this is Daimler Camp on Callisto, all clear here near Jupiter, nothing but empty space in Sector 5."

"Patrol Alpha 78, Sectors 7, 8, and 9 are all clear."

"Abraham Lincoln, Orbis class station over Earth, all clear in Sector 3."

The stations and vessels kept radioing all clear signs and clear radar pings. It had been 2 weeks since the devastation in the Guardas system. Utter carnage. A nuclear device had been set off in the Coriolis station and torn the place apart. Several of the expensive Capital docks had been damaged and the weary crews of the Farraguts in the area had been left terrified more than anything.

Admiral Vincent rubbed the bridge of his nose and took a long look out of the windows of the Pentagon. The age-old structure still served as the center of the Federal Navy. Even if the Federal Congress and business centers were on Mars, Earth was still the trusty center of protection for Humanity. Vincent stood up and walked out of the control room and out of the Pentagon. A light acidic rain fell on his shoulders. He looked up at the sky to see the grayish clouds. Pollution. It tore the planet some scars but never really lived up to the fears humanity had back in the 21st and 22nd centuries. Still it was uncomfortable enough to push the bureaucrats and business people away to Mars.

As he rounded a lap of the Pentagon he reflected on the past week. The propaganda machine was in full swing. Tensions had never been higher between the Federation and Empire, yet he knew that Imperial Leadership was just as stunned as the Federation. An attack like that was outside the capabilities or even audacity of the Empire. Sure, they would squibble over the minerals in the LPM 229 system…but wiping out Core Dynamics? No…that wasn't them.

A light breeze pushed some rain into Vincent's face. The light irritation from the high CO2 in the rain clinging to his skin.

His thoughts drifted to his friend and president of the Federation, Zachary Hudson. The great president had not been sleeping much in the past week. Delivering speech after speech, the 83 year old president had been on a roll, calling for bolstered security and asking every citizen to be wary for signs of attack. The president had personally called him, almost daily since the attack, hoping, demanding he find traces as to the attacker's origins. But Vincent was just empty handed. No one had seen a vessel go into the station…no one had even tracked anything even getting close to the station that hadn't been an authorized civilian target. It had to have been a long-planned terrorist strike. Probably sabotage that had placed the nuclear device in the station. That was the accepted answer for the moment. A full investigation was needed…but there was more.

That explanation still did not explain the unrelated attack on the Federal fleet in the Pleiadis sector. A small contingent of Federal ships was transporting an unknown artifact to an outpost in the region when they were ambushed by a series of unknown vessels. The local admiral had sent in 4 Farraguts to respond to their class 7 Mayday. Vincent at the time had believed it was an abuse by the commander of the contingent to call in such a high level mayday, but then had to eat his words when the responding admiral lost 2 of the Farraguts and then suffered high fighter losses at the expense of only a few unknown enemy vessels.

What bothered Vincent the most was the fact the attack on Guardas was only a few hours after the damaged Farraguts had jumped into the system for repairs. That wasn't coincidental. That was intentional he felt. But the reality was he had no idea how or even why the attack was done. The artifact that was being transported was unknown but it wasn't Thargoid or even Guardian. It was something else. Maybe that was this was about. Either way, he wanted to get to the bottom of the situation.

"SIR! We need you in the Command!" Came a call from the doors of the Pentagon. Vincent immediately was torn from his thoughts and pivoted towards the voice. "I'll be right there!" he called out. His older body ran nothing like the bodies of past humans. 80 was the new 40.

Dashing up the stairs, he composed himself as he walked into the command center.

"What do we have?"

An officer below him started calling out to the room at large. "Burnell station, small civilian outpost over Venus." A picture came up on the screen. "Was fine a few minutes ago until they reported a breach and weapons fire in the bridge. They've since returned to an all clear" Vincent furrowed his brow once more but felt a wave of relief come over him. "That's it? Could be a civil dispute sergeant."

"Well there's more. Daedalus station over Mercury also picked up 67 contacts 98 light seconds away from the civilian station just before the weapons fire call."

Now blood was pumping through his veins once more. "Sixty seven contacts?" "Yes sir."

The radio roared to life once more.

"Columbus station, over Io here, Mother Earth? We have 100 plus contacts over here! Please advise!" Vincent looked at the schematic of the solar system. Two attacks on opposite ends of the system…

"Farragut Battle cruiser Andromeda here, picking up multiple contacts on radar. Assembling into battle formation with Sol Defense fleet group A. Largest target is 5000 m plus. Several other targets are pushing 4000 meters. They don't look like Imperials."

Admiral Vincent took a moment to assess the situation. "Discuss your situation more Andromeda, Vincent out." The commander on the vessel responded: "We picked up the contacts in front of us about a minute ago. We've been scanning them to intercept communications but its been a blackout on their end sir." Vincent looked at the commander on screen and noticed a spec growing bigger behind the commander's digital rendition of the forward view of the vessel. "Captain what's that?" The commander turned. "Shields u—"

Static suddenly engulfed the screen.

Vincent felt his stomach clench.

"MAYDAY MAYDAY This is FNS Centar, The Andromeda is just gone! Some massive kinetic hit, the whole vessel just disintegrated. Shots came from the fleet of contacts ahead of us. Contacts are hostile. Repeat Contacts are hostile, deploying fighters."

"FNS Damocles here." An image of a Farragut in formation with 25 other Farraguts in orbit near the Sun appeared. "Shields at maximum. Sol group B will warp in at Point Blank range towards contacts near Venus in 3…2…1…"

The vessel entered Witch Space and emerged point blank in the mix of vessels near Venus. Batteries and lasers opened up only for the vessel's exterior cameras to go dark a minute later.

A young woman from the command floor altered Vincent, tearing him from the tense screen. "Receiving signals from group B. FNS Damocles was just shattered. FNS Athenos and FNS Boxer are deploying fighters but also calculating jumps out of the fight." Vincent stood stupefied watching the screens a navy that had fought massive engagements with the Empire was now crumbling before an unknown foe. Soon it dawned on him the President needed to be evacuated. "Get me a clear line to Olympus City, NOW" A lieutenant saluted Vincent and made a call to Mars.

The video feeds from the Farraguts was utterly horrifying. Each one firing its batteries until suddenly going completely dark. At times the Vessels would take large pulverizing hits before suddenly disappearing. The enemy vessels carried heavy lateral firepower, but it seemed this fire was not even the brunt of their capabilities.

A sickening chorus of radio chatter began to fill the room. Various personnel were feeding military orders and support requests into the computers and vessels of the Sol defense fleet. Various screens went dark while others had vessels retreating to stations. Fires were on several of the vessels and clouds of fighters and vessels were emerging from others.

"Sir. It's the President." Admiral Vincent took the phone in his hand and breathed strenuously into the earpiece. "Mr. President, its time." A few seconds passed. "I'm not leaving Mars." Vincent knew he would be stubborn. "Sir, as your friend I don't want to leave either, as the Secretary of Defense however, it is not your decision anymore. Head to your vessel. Board Starship one and get to Nanomam."

A heavy grunt was audible on the other side as the Vincent could tell the President was getting out of bed. "I'm not going to leave our birthplace of humanity." Vincent just hung up. He turned to the Lieutenant, "Get Shadow President Felicia Winters to the Nanomam, and tell the SS to grab the president and put him aboard Starship one no matter what. The enemy may break through the orbital defenses but Nanoman can withstand a ground assault for years. He'll be safe there." The Lieutenant returned a crisp salute.

The radio chatter had gotten worse. Now almost half the screens of the Farraguts were dark, the other half were the remaining vessels floating in empty space, tending to battle injuries.

"Shields barely last against the heavy flak"
"Those missiles were nuclear!"
"Point defense can't keep up…"
"118th squandron needs rearmament"
"Battlegroup 5 needs immediate repairs…"
"Reinforcements are unavailable at this time, advise Winefred…."
"Missile bays are empty…"

Admiral Tanner, a tall composed man opened the doors to the Control Room. "Vincent, what is going on?!" Vincent glared at his former Subordinate let loose:

"What's going on, is that the Pilot's Federation hasn't been alerted to an attack on Federal Soil and the Civilian Reserves are still inactive! WHICH IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!" Tanner narrowed his eyes. "That bad?" came the almost sarcastic response. However as he stood jeering his eyes drifted to see the on-screen wreckage of the FNS Indomitable drifting next to the FNS Orion's exterior cameras.

He took a breath as he suddenly realized the gravity of the situation the color draining from his face. "I'll alert the Pilot's Federation. We'll invoke our diplomatic emergency right away." Vincent nodded as the man scurried out, the calm demeanor nowhere to be found… He turned his attention back to the battle unfolding.

Alex was abruptly awoken from his slumber, a familiar face looming over him: "Get up, we're being sortied!" A deep voice, still distinctly female tore at him with a sense of desperation. Still drowsy from the flight he took to get here, Alexander righted himself on the bunk of the rented room in the station. The white light of the micro LEDs shining way too bright for his liking.

"What do you mean sortied? We just got here from Colonia, I thought I told you I wasn't taking contracts for at least a day." Janice threw his helmet at him. "Diplomatic Emergency, Pilot's federation just declared all pilots in the area are under Federation Control."

Alex blinked. "I left the navy two years ago, what do you mean we're under their control?"

The room suddenly jerked to the right and Alex felt himself thrown to the wall of his room, the luggage and furnishings being strewn across the room. The lights suddenly flickered out and the almost silent hum of the flowing air stopped. In the darkness he heard Janice grunt and right herself up.

Panting, he spoke: "What…the hell…"

A few seconds of silence passed between the pilots before red emergency lighting took hold. A faint crackle on the stations PA system came into the otherwise still room.

"Rea-tor hit. Emergency *skss* Scramble fight- *skss* Life supp-"

The transmission then cut off. Alex felt around for his helmet and put it on, immediately lighting the emergency light it had installed. He shone it on Janice and helped her up.

"Bay 4, asap, get Jones."

"Right, he's already with the ship." Janice opened the door and emergency sirens split Alex's ears.

"Fucking hell…" Alex looked around and found his flight suit as he looked up at a worrisome crack in the room's ceiling.

"Boy what a hit." He murmured to himself and pulled the suit on. He then bolted out of the room and ran down the hall. Pilots were yelling and people were frantically screaming as station personnel darted down the halls. Alexander looked around the scene of panic and confusion. This wasn't right. This was an Ocellus Class station, around the freaking moon. IN SOL. This was not a scene that felt right at all. His stomach became knotted, and for the first time in years he felt a panic grip him. He ran down the hall and joined a swarm of pilots heading for the emergency tubes of the ring. He looked through the see-through ceiling at the main structure of the space station. The sight frightened him.

All the laser batteries were firing. The point defense was firing thick and heavy and one of the spokes of the ring was torn loose from the station floating in space, flickering lights. There were ships flying close to the structure but they were of an unknown design. The shields on the station were taking a beating as he could see the blue white light of impacts on the stations structure.

Alex darted for the emergency access tube and climbed the ladder, he could feel the gravity getting weaker as he left the spiraling ring, and he propelled himself faster and faster forward. Pilots around him were doing the same. There was an eerie silence surrounding the group. The silence being broken only by the emergency speakers and occasional groaning of metal.

Consistent metal grinding and occasional screeches.

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL. EMERGENCY. RED ALERT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

The robotic voice doing little to ease a growing panic inside Alex's stomach he just focused on the rungs in front of him, they were very much utilitarian and there was a smell entering his suit that was distinctly industrial. He couldn't imagine these emergency tubes had been used at all since the station's construction.

Weightlessness finally engulfed Alexander as he entered the main hub of the station. He thrusted himself towards the main bubble, grabbing handle bars and throwing himself forward.

He was now at the main sphere and began to float towards the corridors as he directed himself to bay 4. He felt the gravity taking hold again as he entered the shell of the structure. Just as he was regaining his footing however, another massive jerk launched the station sideways.

Suddenly the dreaded orange lights lit up in the hallway and he felt his suit automatically seal.

The LED screens of the hallway bore an irritating and insidious message: "Hull Breach, Vacuum, Evacuate."

"Fucking hell." Alexander murmed to himself. The rush of air had been minimal, so the breach wasn't near him. He wondered if Janice or Jones were safe with the ship. This level of attack was not something he felt was normal or even possible. He grew up in Alpha Centauri, his aunt lived on Mars, there was no way he was going to let anyone touch his home sector.

The thing was though…he had no idea who they were going up against. Had the Empire thrown its entire fleet at Sol? Was it the Alliance? The ships he saw, whatever glimpses he got, certainly weren't standard military stuff. Maybe it was the Sirrus Corporation? But why would they want to attack Sol?

He couldn't figure it out. And it didn't matter, he was rushing now towards bay 4. The hall was all blaring Orange, clearly the main airlock had been blown open. He saw the platform markings to Bay 4 and he charged into it just to find the hangar completely empty. He looked at his air counter: 4:07 Remaining.

Four minutes to find his ship…where…where could it be?!

Suddenly 2 large spotlights rounded a corner and his familiar Gunship came into view, he could make out Jones on the center console. A hand gripped his shoulder and Alex turned immediately to see Janice panting in her suit. She tapped the side of her helmet. "Fucking hell, I barely made it out, I thought you were gone!"

Alexander just grabbed her hand arm and pulled her towards the ship. "COME ON!" He roared into the helmet. The boarding ramp was being lowered and he jumped onto it and pulled Janice on. The ship was sealed and his suit finally re-pressurized. "Get to the fighter bay." Janice nodded as she panted, gulping in air from the ship.

He felt the ship turn underneath him as he made it to the bridge. "Jones, My ship." Jones nodded and stood from the chair, immediately heading for the co-pilot's seat. Strapping in he turned the frequency to the flight control operations, hoping there was some normality to the procedure.

"Federal flight control, this is the Aeolus, requesting permission to take-"
A shrieking voice interrupted him:
"YOU HAVE YOUR CLEARANCE! GO GET OUT OF HERE! JUST SAVE OUR STATION!"

Alex's brow's furrowed at the panicky voice. Nonetheless he obeyed and started flying through the corridors. Normally the platforms would move parked ships around these corridors but given the lack of power, he had to fly manually. As he reached the main access corridor he switched frequencies to the general comms and was met with flurry of shouts and calls from frantic pilots.

"JESUS Watch the debris!"
"Who the hell attacked…"
"Enemy on my six…evasi- *skss*"
"Watch the blindspot!"
"FIRE! FIRE!"
"Mayday mayday, this is Windbreaker, Type 9, hull b- *skkss*"
"-deral flight control, weapons free! WEAPONS FREE!"
"This is a freaking civilian station…*skss* Why the hell…what the f…"

Indiscriminate sobbing tore the frequency at irregular intervals as Alexander finally emerged in his Gunship in the main hangar. He had to keep his jaw from dropping but failed miserably as he looked around. The lights in the hangar were flickering, those that remained anyway, and two massive gaping holes were torn on opposite ends of the Spherical hangar. Almost as if something had torn through one end of the sphere and then kept going to tear clean through the other end. There was debris floating throughout the access corridor and hundreds of ships were frantically darting out of the station. Some through the very holes that were torn into the superstructure.

"Jones you seeing this?"

"Holy…" Was the only response.

At this point Alexander began to let anger take control rather than reason. He maneuvered through the wreckage and flew out of one of the holes. Immediately he was met with a flurry of gunfire from a ship that was right there, apparently picking off exiting ships. Many vessels were unshielded cargo haulers that would take damage from the bullets incoming from the obviously fighter class ship, but this was no cargo hauler. Alexander pulled the trigger and his miniguns and beam lasers deployed. He burnt right through the fighter and the wreckage bounced harmlessly off his shields.

"Janice, get ready." Alex roared into the ship communications. An angry and hard mike click was the response.

As he got his bearings Alex assessed the situation. The station's fire rate was slowing down, at least from what he could tell. The energy in the weapon capacitors was probably running low. There were free floating chunks of the station soaring through space but also wreckage from ships and enemy vessels. Missiles were flying through the space and several enemy vessels were pummeling the stations rear structure with powerful kinetic shots. The reactor of the station, he then realized, wasn't even attached anymore.

Drifting towards the moon the sickly chunk of the station was spiraling away, torn from the station by what he could only assume were the large cannons on the front of the vessels. He switched to a frequency he really had hoped to not touch again. Military encryption.

"Aeolus, reporting, Gun ship class. Locked and loaded." His calm voice a complete opposite of his inner panic. A commander blew out his eardrums. "FOCUS FIRE ON THAT DESTROYER! ITS TAKING A POUNDING! .67! TOP OF THE STATION!" Alex craned his neck and saw a vessel that drifting sickly through space, it was ejecting what he could only guess were escape pods but it still had side batteries firing.

He turned the nose of the ship towards is and pressed a button on his center console. "Janice, you're up." A solid clunk jolted the ship as the F63 condor separated from the Federal Gunship. He closed the distance to two kilometers and pulled the trigger.

Alongside several other vessels he pummeled the destroyer with 50 mm shells and lasers. The large plasma accelerator slung underneath the vessel fired a pinkish red pulse at the vessel and he grinned with satisfaction as it scorched through the hull and tore a hole in the vessel. He could see the puff of air as the vessel began decompressing. Other ships began to hail him.

"Aeolus, fall in formation. We have another target getting into firing position on the station, its big, 4000 meters at least!" called out a commander. Judging from the friendlies now appearing on his hud, Alexander guessed it came from one of the 50 or so corvettes in the area. His scanners were dotted with just hundreds of smaller vessels and fighters. A large group of them were flying towards the unknown contact. It was several thousand kilometers away, but it was big. Several other smaller vessels seemed to guard it as the group closed in. Radio chatter kept tugging at his mind and Alexander took a deep breath as his vessel closed the distance. Just like the Volungu wars…it was the intense action all over again.

"Whoo boy, its big!" A young excited voice tore above the boring chatter of the rest of the pilots.

He squinted at the still distance group of ships. His radar picked up several contacts, but they were faint ones. Their ETA was a few minutes. Suddenly it dawned on him what the contacts were.

"M-M-MINES!" He called out frantically on the frequency. The group immediately split as several fighters and pilots all took evasive maneuvers. "You got an advanced sensor array?" Called out a gruff voice as the group began to twist around the coordinates that Jones was calling out from the copilot seat.

"No…just experience from the Volungu wars. Empire laid similar fields out like that."

A younger voice stated the fear tugging at Alex, "Boy I haven't been in this combat ever…I'm not sure I'm going to get out this alive…" An older soothing voice came on the frequency. "Just relax pilot. The vessels are all about big guns, we can move through them. Just keep your head down and keep firing. This will all be over soon."

A panicked voice torn the comms apart though: "What do you mean it'll be over?! YEAH IT'LL BE OVER FOR US! THESE THINGS JUST CRACKED AN OCELLUS OPEN. A FREAKING OCELLUS! HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT HAPPEN. AN OCELLUS CLASS IS SUPPOSED TO CRACK THEM OPEN! WE'RE ALL GON-" the voice was interrupted by the earlier commander.

"SHUT THE HELL UP SOLDIER AND FALL IN LINE. You aren't doing anyone favors panicking like that. Stations have been destroyed before. That's not new. Big targets are vulnerable. Just keep your wits about you. We're closing in fast. Just focus!"

The comms went dead and once again Alex's vision narrowed on the battle group. Lights and flashes began emerging from the vessels. "Head's up." Called a pilot on the frequency. Alex flew through the hailstorm of fire, dodging shots and letting his shields absorb some. Janice came on frequency grunting at the volley. "Alex, it's a nightmare here, I don't know how long I can hold out." Alexander was now in weapon range himself and pulled the trigger. Vessels all around him opened up with beam lasers, railguns, multicannons and plasma shots. A couple of smaller 500 m vessels were chewed up by the intense volley of the 100 or so pilot ships. It didn't take long however for the ships to starting taking a toll on them. Intense fire engulfed the group as fighters descended on them from above. "Fighters coming in!" "Janice watch my back!" Alex yelled into the comms. He was met with a yell and a panicky voice. "I'm hit Alex, I'm losing air. I can't…I need t-" The computer suddenly beeped a morbid message. "Fighter destroyed, LOC"

Alex bit his tongue as he felt his chest grow cold. Jones roared behind him. "MOTHERFUCKERS!" He was firing from the turreted cannons atop the vessel and kept squeezing the trigger as he just grunted angry sobs on the comms.

Alex had no response, he just fired. He kept the power distributor on weapons and shields, deploying precharged shield banks every time they got low. But he was rapidly running out of ammo. His multicannons would soon be dry…the Plasma accelerator only had a dozen more shots and his shield banks would soon be totally dry. The vessels in the enemy battle group seemed to all be fine however. Some had hull damage and others were clearly suffering damage but it wasn't enough. Fighters, corvettes, assault ships and the Eagles and Vultures of the ragtag group of Federal and Private Pilot federation pilots were all being picked off. The enemy fighters and volley of point defense fire from the larger vessels were too much. He had to pull out. But he couldn't. Not yet.

He owed Janice that much. As he rounded the rear of the main carrier, he saw a familiar cloud erupt into space. He wanted to smile but he couldn't bring himself to.

Out of the cloud emerged a large red and black ship. FNS Resolution was emblazed one the large angular bow of the ship.

"FUCK YEAH A FARRAGUT!" Roared a pilot. "ABOUT FUCKING TIME!" Yelled another. Immediately a flurry of lasers and missiles shot out from the Vessel towards the carrier. The impacts on the shields were substantial and a light smile touched his face. Alex couldn't quite recall the last time he was this relieved in combat. Surely the Farragut would bring some order to the battle.

However, two massive cannons on rear of the Main center enemy ship opened up. They began firing rapid shells at the Farragut. They weren't normal cannon shells, these were massive, incredibly fast volleys. Alex watched in horror as the Farragut's hull was torn apart. The shields rapidly failed and the vessel was torn in two from the volley. Another cloud emerged and another…clearly a fleet of Farraguts was warping in. But they had no idea of the danger they were in.

"Someone! Anyone! The cannons! The rear of the ship! T-Take em out!" He frantically yelled. Gone was the confident bounty hunter pilot, sitting in the commander's chair was not Alex, but his old self from the Volungu wars. He was petrified. Farraguts were supposed to win battles, not die. He couldn't contain the shock and fear. He was going to die. He knew it.

A few fighters and a corvette focused some fire on a turret that was pummeling the Farragut. Alex turned to fire at it. He emptied his Multi cannons and missiles. He just pulled the trigger. The turret turned surprisingly quick and Alex soon realized it was targeting him. He only muttered a last "oh" as the turret fired a shell at him.

It was too fast to do anything. Shock and fear overran Alex's senses. He turned the stick down but it was just pointless.

The shell seemingly instantly was already in front of him.

The shields failed.

The shot disintegrated the Gunship instantly.

Victoria flung herself down the shaft of the ship.

"Prep for immediate jump to Io. Repeat. Prep for immediate jump to Io." The captain's voice was unusually strained.

She pulled herself around a corner as another Navy crew member grabbed the handle bars near her. "So Io huh?" Victoria looked up to see her friend Daniel. "Wonder what boring patrol we're gonna being doing now?" Daniel continued as Victoria dove into her turret. Every jump meant that the crew had to be ready to fire upon exiting witch space. She grabbed the rungs around the seat and settled herself into the turret. Donning her Comms headset she spoke to Daniel. "I dunno, probably some stupid solar electronic interference and some civvies think its an enemy jammer." She heard a chuckle on the other end.

Daniel's cheery voice responded. "Yeah, that's probably it. And President Hudson just wants to stroke the big ol shaft of the Navy and so we are sent out to 'Project power and confidence in the federation!'" Victoria couldn't hold back laughter at Daniel's imitation of the President. "Boy, I dunno what I'm gonna do when I get to go on Leave later this month Daniel, I'm going to miss your charm." Daniel's voice turned to an excessively confident tone: "Well of course you're gonna miss me, I'm just all the charm you need in your life honey." Victoria just rolled her eyes and looked at her visual scanner into space. Two other Farraguts were undocking from the shipyards and aligning themselves with the Warspite.

Daniel was still rambling about the president when someone else called on the frequency. "Whoa hell…is that the Trander and Thanatos?" Silence took over the comms. A voice of the gunnery commander broke the silence. "Switching to local fleet channel, receiver only, over." There was static before a silence gripped the radio channel.

"Commander Radtz of the FNS Warspite here. All crew prepare for immediate Weapons engagement when exiting Witch Space. Hostiles are confirmed."

"Roger Commander Radtz, Commander Loric here of the FNS Trander. Responding with you to Distress call class 9 over."

"Commander Isotar of the FNS Thanatos. Also responding to distress call. Intelligence here says Columbus station is under heavy assault, attacker craft type unknown over."

"Roger that," Radtz began. "Federation has declared a diplomatic emergency, we are allied with all Pilot Federation's private commanders in the vicinity. Do not fire on anything but unknown ship designs."

"Thanatos Copies."

"Trander, roger that Radtz."

There was a static before the radio switched over to the normal frequency. The gunnery commander came online. "Maintain radio silence."

Victoria heard some gulps and hard swallows on the frequency. Immediately she steadied herself and breathed out slowly. She felt gently tossed to the side of her seat as the ship began to powerup for a jump. She closed her eyes and felt the ship lurch forward. After a few seconds she felt the ship jostle backwards as it exited witch space. She opened her eyes and saw the visuals on her scanner.

Space ship fragments everywhere.

Farragut pieces, Hull armor she didn't recognize, and the ring structure of the Ocellus class station that used to be here.

It was sickening. The Thanatos cruised a couple hundred kilometers off their port side and was turning perpendicular to the Warspite. The Trander was flying just next to them but a few kilometers behind. Victoria breathed out tension she didn't realize she had. She flipped the safety off on her beam batteries. She wasn't point defense so she wasn't coordinating with a computer system.

Victoria wanted to feel safe within her control center deep in the hull of the Farragut…but the wreckage around her was anything but comforting. She kept her eyes trained on the space in front of her, looking for mines or vessels. She couldn't see anything. Suddenly a large circle of light grew just to the side of the Thanatos. She broke radio silence.

"HOSTILE ENERGY! READY TO FIRE!" The frequency awoke with other gunnery crews yelling attack coordinates and power levels. She saw the Thanatos open heavy firepower onto the energy that had opened up.

A large vessel torn through the open energy portal with incredible speed and power. The vessel tore right through the middle of the 2000 meter long Thanatos and split the vessel in two. She was petrified as she saw the puff of gas escaping from the interior of the vessel. The Warspite and Trander opened up all their batteries on the vessel. The enemy ship had a tremendous amount of shielding power however as it almost seemed to taunt them as it shrugged off the enormous firepower of two Farraguts, turning slowly to face the Trander.

Blast after blast, she barely noticed the fighters launching or the points of energy lighting up at the bow of the vessel as it was now in orientation against the Trander. She could only focus on the sick white lettering that lined the side of the vessel.

INFINITY

She wanted to carve up the metal on the ship and set it ablaze. Her beams seemed to finally be causing some shield damage, she swore she was doing damage. She had to. It couldn't be this strong! It was impossible for a vessel to have this much power!

Then the enemy vessel seemed to release literal anger and fury as its bow let loose a twin volley of what had to be pure energy.

The Trander was vaporized almost instantly.

One second there was a vessel. A proud mighty Farragut cruiser, emptying volley after volley of firepower into the enemy warship. The next there was almost no evidence that there even was a vessel. The wreckage of the Thanatos was still there. She could see the emergency lights, the ship was broken, split in half, but it was there!

The Trander though…the Trander was gone. Just as if it never existed.

Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder and Victoria was torn from her thoughts and shock. It was Daniel. Why wasn't he in his battery! Why wasn't he firing on this enemy from hell?! His mouth moved but all she wanted was to be angry at him. He slapped her face with an intentional anger and finally Victoria came to her senses and her auditory senses brought her out of the trance like state she was in.

"VICTORIA GET TO YOUR ESCAPE POD. THE EVACUATION ORDER WAS GIVEN. ARE YOU LISTENING?!"

Victoria looked at him and could only murmur a faint "what?"

"WE WERE HIT BY A MASSIVE NUCLEAR MISSILE! DIDN'T YOU FEEL IT?! THEY HAVE FRIGATES GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND FOLLOW ME!"

She took another look at the vessel. She realized her system said it was on low power, 11 ships were emptying volley of fire into the vessel and it was then when she realized Daniel was right. Immediately she launched herself out of her protected battery and followed Daniel through the vessel. There was groaning of metal and sparks everywhere. It was almost entirely deserted.

"Did everyone leave?" She asked. "Yes." Was the curt response.

"Victoria, I couldn't leave you here. I've been trying to get in your battery for the last few minutes. I had to cut the power to your battery to get you out."

She was silent as they reached the pods. "GO!" Daniel yelled as he grabbed a pod and was launched out of the vessel. Victoria climbed into the pod, holding back a tear and then pressed the button to seal the pod. She then endured a full 9 Gs of acceleration as the pod launched her out of the vessel. She looked at the Farragut beneath her.

She saw a few automated batteries still firing but otherwise the vessel was a shell of its former self.

Burning and broken.

Shattered.

The Emblem of the Federation.

The President sat. He sat hostage. Well almost, he was aboard his Narwhale class escort vessel, en route to Starship One in orbit above Mars. He felt empty, leaving Sol in its time of most crisis. But he had little say in the decision to leave. His security detail had escorted him, beating into him the message that he was the face of the Federation and he had to survive to inspire the Galactic Government forward. There was no time for consultation…for negotiation…it was kill or be killed; and right now, it was heavily leaning towards the latter.

The Vessel was rapidly leaving the atmosphere and for the first time President Hudson looked out at the planet, the redish tint in its soil, the majestic quality of it human achievement. It was the heart of Federation soil along with Earth…and he was abandoning it in the darkest hour.

As he kept staring out the vessel he was aboard was suddenly jerked around and almost halted. Spinning around he felt thrown to the side of the room and stared through a window up at space, he could barely make out a Farragut cruiser, under heavy fire from several smaller ships.

"What the hell is going on?!" He roared in anger and agitation.

An aide burst into the room, "Sir, something just pinned us. We have to evacuate."

Hudson stared blankly at him and drew his side arm. "Alright where?" There was a loud set of gunfire in the room from which the aide came in. Hudson aimed at the door. "Where's Maria?" He growled at the aide. The aide also had his handgun drawn. "She was in the communication room." He quipped.

The door opened and out came three Federal marines with rifles along with the first lady. "Sir." Spoke the commander. "We've been boarded. The vessel came out of thin space, it must have jumped us at the last second."

"I thought that precision was impossible." The Federal Marine just nodded. "I think that's the least of our problems sir. Get ready."

Hudson steadied his aim as Maria got behind the desk at the back of the room. The Marines all aimed at the door along with the aide. There was palpable silence. "Well, at least I won't be running away." Hudson spoke. The marines with him chuckled nervously as they aimed at the door.

As if on cue the door burst open and the group emptied their magazines into whatever was on the other side. Round after round, Plasma bolt after plasma bolt. But then there was a response of fire and down went the three marines and the aide. Hudson kept firing. But then his pistol clicked empty and he was forced to face his adversary.

A large man encased in green armor with a gold tinted visor emerged with a rifle slung over his back. His armor didn't even appear to be marked by the fire of the group.

He silently extended a pair of military grade handcuffs and gestured to the first lady who was visibility panicked.

"Cortana. Hail the Infinity. I have the contact."

A/N: Hey there all, this was really just intended as a fun piece. Just a piece I wrote for a friend about a year ago. It was after a long debate about the UNSC capabilities and the Federation from Elite Dangerous. Though Elite lost this hypothetical battle, I just thought it was so much fun to write.

HOWEVER. After much demand, I'm going to be continuing this story. Think, a fully fleshed out storyline, interactions between Elite and Halo characters and lots of combat and adventure. Strap in. Its going to be a good ride.