Seera Tel System.

Right after the transmission to Fleet Command.

The klaxon was blaring. Lt. Hughes sat at her station on the bridge. She was monitoring the sensor data and trying to figure out the identity of these crafts. Scans indicated that they were about the size of a corvette class ship. It also picked up life signs, but they were strange. They were faint.

"Anything more on the analysis?" Captain Jok queried. "I still cannot identify the ship's make or origin. Scans show life signs, but they are weak." Lt. Hughes responded. "Still no response to communication" the comm. officer, Lieutenant Jin reported. He had been sending out a request for identification since the crafts had been detected.

"The crafts are coming in fast!" exclaimed the tactical officer, Lieutenant Garth. "Sir," Lt. Hughes began. "One of the crafts is heading directly for us." The captain had a look of concern on his face. "What about the others?" he asked. "Each is locking onto one of the other frigates," Lt. Hughes answered. "That behavior is similar to that of a missile" Garth observed. Hughes almost rolled her eyes at that. He always has to state the obvious, she thought. Garth looked towards the captain and asked "Orders, sir?"

"Open fire!" the captain responded. Lt. Garth relayed the command to the turret crews.

The whirr of the ship's turrets hummed through the hull as they adjusted their target lock on one of the crafts, the one coming towards their ship. The hull gave a small lurch as the turrets fired a volley. The shells flew through space as a small glowing blur. They were only visible for a brief moment before they hit the target dead on. The unknown ship stopped its movement towards them and began to spin out of control as it exploded.

"Got him, sir!" the tactical officer shouted. A smile had formed on his face.

"What about the others?" the captain inquired.

Garth looked back at his display. The smile on his face quickly turned into a frown. "The Firelance frigates cannot get a lock. They are moving too fast."

"Get our guns on them" the captain ordered.

"Not enough time for the turrets to lock on" the tactical officer responded.

The bridge crew watched helplessly as the remaining crafts charged toward the ion frigates. The ion frigates tried to position to fire, but the craft's maneuvers were too fast. They kept flying toward the Firelance frigates and rammed right into them. The missiles hit the helpless frigates, but the explosion was less than what everyone expected. The impact caused an eerie explosion of red light. But the explosion did not do much damage.

On Firelance Frigate 2-3-8

The impact rocked the entire ship. The lights flickered slightly, but soon they returned to normal. But before anyone could let out a relieved breath, an alarm went off.

The bio-hazard alarm had gone off. "Report" Captain Qual ordered. "Contamination present in the lower decks, around the missile impact," the engineering officer reported from her station. "They have been sealed off." "Have a team in atmospheric suits prepare to inspect the…" the captain began, but was cut off by the comm. officer. "Captain, there is an emergency transmission from outside the contaminated area."

The screen was changed to show outside one of the airlocks. There were two crewmen there. One of them was looking into the camera, while the other was watching the airlock. "Captain, whatever the hell it is, the seal isn't holding it." Behind him they could see that the emergency airlock was changing. There was a red organic growth quickly developing on it. The other crewman tried to shoot at the stuff, but it would just regenerate and continued to spread at an increasing rate. "I don't think there is anything we can do to stop it sir," the first crewman said. In the background, his comrade had begun to back away from the airlock. "Crewmen, get out of there!" the captain ordered. The crewman nodded and cut the transmission. "Captain," the comm. officer began. "Similar reports are coming in from all sections." The engineering officer looked at her station in shock. "It is confirmed, sir. The hazard is spreading and the containment procedures are having no effect."