Taiidan Imperial Defense Headquarters
Taiidan Capital
1700 Hours
The Taiidan Emperor looked at the feeds, initially, he was optimistic about the outcome. But as the video continued on, his Defense Ministers gasped in horror and in fear. They had severely underestimated the unknowns' military strength. They seemed to be invulnerable, and out of the thousand Taiidan Warships that were launched, only fifteen survived. All of their crew reduced to babbling wrecks. The doors opened to allow a man clad in a hospital gown, with sensors attached to his forehead to monitor his brainwaves, he led by two men to a chair. The Emperor got up and walked over to him, knowing how to get answers from emotionally scarred people, he asked in a gentle manner
"What happened?"
"Dreadnought, destroyed!" he babbled "missile, ball of flame, alpha strike."
"How many ships?" The Emperor asked
"Seventeen! No backup." the man blurted out.
"How many were destroyed?"
"None!" the man shouted, his eyes darting around to the shadows on the wall.
The Emperor looked at the video screen again to see the Dreadnought being engulfed by a ball of fire, and the enemy launching a simultaneous alpha strike. He sat down and put his hand to his forehead.
"We call off the attacks. If seventeen ships could do that to thousands" he said "surely a hundred of those ships can smash us into the ground."
"We could capture one of their vessels and reverse-engineer their technology, which would give us an edge against the Hiigarians and could possibly overwhelm their defenses." one of the Emperor's advisers said.
"Then we do it. You will manage the project, and if it fails. We will give you to them." the Emperor said.
Denny's Diner, Commercial District
Coruscant
1620 Hours
The battle was over, blood, gore and the occasional body part was sprayed on the walls, the floor, what was left of the ceiling and even on the men and women who were in the battle. Men screamed in pain as medics extracted shrapnel and other sorts of debris from their bodies. There were pools of blood, both red and purple. Medics frantically rushed around, desperate to save as many lives as they can. Outside, the same scene was being repeated, only with the occasional piece of machinery signifying the site a Battle 'Mech or a Walker once stood.
Low Orbit over Coruscant
1622 Hours
The Shadow of the Day fired one of her main cannons. Tearing completely through a Super Star Destroyer, her shields, which are rated to withstand the power of the Sun being unable to compensate for the concentrated power of fifteen blue super-giants each antimatter beam cannon wielded, in their previous engagement, the cannons were set, per orders of Kazimir to only fifteen percent, as to avoid completely annihilating the Imperial Fleet. Another Super Star Destroyer fired her super laser at the Shadow of the Day, her shields flared but otherwise unharmed.
"Sir! Our ventral-center shield is down to five percent!" the DACON AI reported
"Dump excess power to that section, another hit like that and we're gone." The current captain of the ship said.
"Belay that!" Kazimir said, walking in.
"But sir! If they fire another beam, we'll be vaporized." he said while standing up "We might as well surrender."
"Stand down seaman!" Kazimir ordered "Have Strike Group Aleph-One separate from the fleet and flank the enemy. Then have the Repentance and the Rickenbacker join up with us. Then activate the Short Range jump units, we'll phase in behind them. That will allow us to strike at their engines."
The orders were carried out, the Dragon class Dreadnought Repentance fell into formation beside the Shadow of the Day, while the Napoleon class Battleship Rickenbacker flanked the Shadow of the Day. The three ships disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared behind the Imperial fleet. A Confederate Excalibur class Destroyer exploded in a flash of light, her antimatter reactors breached, a piece of debris slammed into an Imperial Star Destroyer, her shields shattered by a well aimed barrage of particle bolts. It bounced off her hull but left a large dent with a gash in the middle. Atmosphere streamed out of the gash before the blast doors could fully close. A particle bolt clipped the side of the tower, leaving a large gash with melted edges. A Sparrowhawk Class Interceptor rolled and wove through the turbolaser fire and launched an antimatter torpedo at the Star Destroyer, it slammed into the Star Destroyer, its hardened tip allowing it to penetrate into her armor to as much damage as possible. The tower blossomed into a dazzling explosion. Antimatter annihilating matter in a burst of energy. She listed, her control center completely vaporized by the torpedo. Her reactors overloaded and detonated, the weakened command deck torn away by the stresses put upon it by the explosion.
Kazimir watched the red, green and blue arrows disappear on the tactical screen. The blue arrows representing Coalition Forces, the red ones representing Imperial Forces and the green arrows representing the Republic's defense fleet. The red and green arrows disappeared at the fastest rate, an average of one per two seconds. While the Coalition's had an average of one per twenty seconds. The Shadow of the Day shook as proton torpedoes slammed into her shields. A lull in the battle allowed Kazimir to allow the AIs to take control of operations and command. He was confident in the belief that his bridge crew were some of the best men and women, and that they could guide the ship to victory even with their captain absent. He assessed the situation for a second, then stepped out of the door. He boarded the transit system and sat down, he pressed a button ordering it to stop when it reached the Officer's Quarters.
Kazimir maneuvered his 'mech around a corner, several transmissions streamed out of his communications system, the battle was over. He looked up and saw an Imperial fleet jump in
"Ah fuck!" he said to himself
He reached for the transmit button and pressed it
"This is Kazimir, calling for evac pronto. I need to get back to my ship."
His call was soon answered as a voice floated through the comm
"I'd be happy to help Kaz! ETA is one minute." a voice said
"Jozef! I thought you quit!" Kazimir said
"Well, after I quit the fighter business, I re-enlisted as a dropship pilot." Jozef explained
"Ah, well here I am now. Waiting for someone to take me up." Kazimir said, chuckling
"So Kaz. How's your sister, Laina?" Jozef asked as he brought his dropship down.
"Well, for a start. She's mastered fifteen different martial arts compared to the six she had mastered when we last met. Well we're still close, considering we are in the same ship and our quarters are right next to each other." Kazimir replied "So how's mom?" he asked
"She got well soon after I joined up for the Drop Corps, I got word about it and sent her a holo. I'm not sure if she got it though." Jozef said
"Good to hear that Jo!" Kaz said, smiling. The dropship settled down and Kazimir moved his 'mech into the cargo bay. Kazimir flipped a switch and the machine settled into a crouch. Then he pressed a button, electromagnetic pads underneath the titanic feet activated and secured the 'mech. Kazimir got down and patted it lovingly on the nose then entered the forward cabin.
Kazimir chucked to himself as he remembered the conversation that followed
Kazimir walked into the forward compartment and saw Jozef, he was almost as tall as Kazimir and had copper-gold hair. His eyes were two shades of blue, a sky blue outer iris and a stormy navy blue inner iris. They knocked their fists together then did a high-five. He also saw his other sister Alisha. She stood up and hugged her brother. She had straw colored hair with streaks of copper and gold, her irises were teal blue and silver. The siblings sat down beside each other.
"How's life Kaz?" Alisha asked
"It's been fine lately. Though we seem to be in a very deep hole full of shit right now. But on the bright side, we've made many allies." Kazimir answered "How about you?" he asked
"It's fine- oh shit. Look out!" she cried.
Kazimir stood up, ready to defend himself when he was knocked to the floor from the side. He grunted then pushed the person off him. He drew a stun prod and readied it, he figured his assailant was male. He turned the body around
"Jakob!" Kazimir exclaimed.
Jakob began chuckling as he stood up.
"Yeah, it's me. How's life Kaz?" he asked.
"It's been fine lately." he said, repeating his words from earlier.
"Ah, haven't seen you in a while, Kaz." he said
The dropship bucked then rolled. The two grabbing frantically at any handhold available.
"Shit!" both of them cursed at the same time.
Alisha was thrown around in her seat, but she stayed on it because of the harness.
"Sorry about that, I was trying to evade some enemy fire."Jozef apologized
The dropship righted itself after a few seconds of rolling.
"Apology accepted Jo. I'll go check my baby to see of she's alright." Kazimir said.
"What?" Jakob asked
"He means his 'mech. He takes a lot of time taking care of it." Alisha explained
"A 'mech! Sweet!" Jakob said. He jumped to his feet and ran into the cargo bay.
"Men and their machines." Alisha groaned.
Kazimir disembarked from the transit system and entered the hallway leading to the officer's quarters. He skipped his room and entered the Valhalla Officer's Canteen. It was small, only large enough to accommodate one hundred men on its seats. So far, only a tenth of its capacity was being used. Kazimir walked over to the bar and ordered a sandwich and a can of soda. The ship rumbled. No, growled as she unleashed another broadside assault at the pack of Imperial Star Destroyers. Kazimir looked outside a viewport. The Imperial warships were still maneuvering to face the trio of ships. Fifteen of them were listing as their engines were shot out. Dogfights and skirmishes were being fought here and there, sometimes the trails ending in fireballs. A Sparrowhawk flashed by dangerously close, it was being chased by two X-Wings and a TIE, point defense shot one of the X-Wings down, it spun into one of the particle cannons just as it fired, the pilot had no hope of surviving.
The Sparrowhawk veered and rolled, but could not shake its pursuers. Her shields failed, blaster bolts tore away one of the engines, smoke poured out of the craft and she veered into a launch bay as the doors opened, a flight of Turtledove Class Heavy Bombers rushed out of the bay, they spread out as they neared a Super Star Destroyer, her shields had already been taken down by some well placed PPC fire from a couple of Sparrowhawks, they launched their payloads of antimatter torpedoes as they neared the massive ship, fifty trails of smoke followed the launch, the torpedoes pierced her thick armor and detonated within the compartments, fifty smaller explosions followed, fireballs blossoming out as her armor and interior disintegrated upon contact with the antimatter, then she vanished in a flash of light as her reactor detonated.
The Shadow of the Day barrel rolled to allow the weapons on her starboard side to fire, three Star Destroyers exploded in bursts of flame and flashes of light, while a Super Star Destroyer was moderately damaged by the strike. She spun helplessly as her engines were destroyed, her bow slowly turned to face the Shadow of the Day, her super-laser charging. Kazimir felt the ship tilt, then turn upside-down as she maneuvered.
Confederate Shipyard: Vos Relativistika
Khan Asteroid Field
0100 Hours. November 17, 2792 PA (Post-Arrival)
Admiral Frederik O' Riley was looking outside the viewport of his personal yacht, he looked at the forty-three kilometer long warship that was undergoing construction in the void outside, she had been built to replace the missing Shadow of the Day, however, unlike the majority of Fleet Class Vessels, which were either Vanguards or Dreadnoughts, she was a Sovereign. One of the two in existence in the galaxy. She was based on the Akira Class Vanguard, only three had been built, but two remained, the Shadow of the Day missing. Her long, sleek hull was still only partially formed, three of her six engines in place, two of which had been mounted on triangular projections on her flanks. Another was being carefully slid into place while her reactor assembly was lowered into place, six Point-Singularity Reactors, each accompanied by two antimatter reactors, which had two fusion reactors to help jump start the reactor and to provide extra power. Instead of the toroid shape of UNSC, or modern day fusion reactors, she had spherical ones, they were micro stars.
Her four main Radiance Class Antimatter Beam Projectors were already mounted, each mounted upon wide angle, fast-tracking mounts, one facing forward, one facing to the rear and one per flank, mounted so that at best, three could fire. One of her two secondary Radiance Class Particle Projection Beams had also been mounted, both could fire a broadside, to the front and to the back, their mounts were slower tracking, but had a high turn angle and longer range, all of her weapons could either fire straight up or straight down. And instead of the normal Particle Sprayer emplacements mounted as point defense, she mounted Pyotr-Veleiyki Class Antimatter Interception beams, each could fire fifteen times before having to cool and regenerate its antimatter, the entire process taking only half a second. Her massive electromagnetic acceleration coils were already in place, they were used to provide the particle cannons with their ammunition, and if in an emergency, the front end could be irised open to provide a deadly emergency weapon, that weapon had been nicknamed "Hubnester's Sword". Hundreds of kilometers of Hubnesterium armor had been shipped from various refineries and mines all over the Confederacy and her allies, the most heavily armored places had almost a kilometer of the super-dense, super hard armor in place, the armor allowed her to ram a Battleship Class Vessel without suffering any damage, but the armor was also backed up with other active and passive systems, such as FROSCH Guns, LANCET Beams, Graviton-Repulsion emplacements and also AEGIS and normal deflector shielding. Another system allowed her to repair herself by using nanites that upon reaching their destination, use their payload of individual atoms to recreate the matter that is to be replicated.
O' Riley watched a frigate cruise by at a moderate speed, then he turned around and walked out of the compartment.
Galactic United Sovereign Nations (GUSN) Council Meeting: Gradus V
Gradus V, GUSN Assembly Station
0500 Hours
The New Eden, Republic of Coercia, Van Treiden Sovereign State, Independent Commonwealth of United Suns, Valkyr Sovereign Nation and the Vilusian Sovereign Empire representatives entered the massive assembly hall and sat down at their respective seats. A computerized voice chimed
"The meeting may now commence."
The New Eden representative stood up, cleared his throat and spoke
"The Confederacy of United Suns and her allies have been more active in the past few weeks, they have been moving more military assets around the galaxy, the Confederates have been building more naval vessels, and they are assigning a large amount of ships to 'patrol' an asteroid field. I believe that they are preparing for war."
The Independent Commonwealth representative then stood up and said
"Yes, they are building more vessels. But after their two defeats at Kalloran II and at the Kraken Singularity, in which they lost an entire fleet to the Technocracy, and the recent disappearance of their First Fleet, they may be rebuilding their forces-"
He was cut off by the Van Treiden representative
"But that does not explain why they are moving an unusually large amount of transports and warships to a certain asteroid field. They are planning something." she said "It seems that they are building another five fleets, not just replacing their losses. And now, their weapons technology is advancing by leaps and bounds! Soon, they may be able to build fucking frigates with the power to destroy a small moon!"
The Valkyr representative said
"I presume that they will be making a push into Technocracy territory, previous conflicts in their history have proved that assumption."
"But that does not explain this!" the Van Treiden representative stated, she pressed a button and a holo-projector came to life.
Five frigates, three Confederate, one Royal Aralonian and another MRA entered formation in front of a ring shaped structure, one neared the ring, several beams lanced out from the inside of the ring, the frigate neared the ring, then more joined the beams. A bright white light began to radiate from the center of the ring, then the image dissolved into a field of static.
"They are building another array of those galaxy-cleansing weapons! They are testing another one of them, and when they're done, they kill us all!"
Nova Beta Armeston
Perchance City, Capital State
1200 Hours. November 22, 2792 PA
"The two thousand, seven hundred, ninety-second Feast of Arrival is now being celebrated!" a news announcer shouted over the sound of a thousand people singing at the same time "As always, we begin with the Lighting of Prosperity."
The camera rotated to show a bright light rise over the peak of Mt. Prosperity, the light rose higher then emitted three rays, it glowed brighter and as the light rose, the rays began to match the profile of the mountain, various Forerunner glyphs and symbols flared to life on the surface of the mountain, then the light suddenly disappeared, leaving the the glyphs on the mountain, then they flared and disappeared. The massive ringworld structure orbiting Armeston eclipsed the local star, Verdant. The ring-shaped shadow covered the entire Peace Mountain Range and the valley leading to Perchance City while leaving the City herself in full sunlight. Fireworks positioned on hovering platforms above the slopes of the mountain launched into the air, then detonated. A large cargo hover with holographic signs on its flanks that read "O' Donnell Records" floated past the crowd before stopping in front of an O' Donnell Records store, presumably to unload its cargo, it gently touched down, then after a few seconds it exploded, showering the crowd with shrapnel, glass and shards of broken data crystals. Some were knocked to the floor by the shockwave that followed, people fell, shards of metal and glass embedded in their bodies, their wounds either fatal or minor. Some were dead before they reached the ground, and others were bleeding to death on the ubercrete pathway. The crowd panicked and stampeded, the fallen were crushed by the thousands of feet that led their owners to presumed safety. Then another, larger charge detonated, destroying the entire block and carving a small crater in the ground.
Two Hours Later
A group of SWAT, Bomb Disposal, Explosives Analysis and even Confederate Planetary Civilian Defense hover-trucks were clustered around the crater. Bomb Disposal teams examined the wreckage and the surrounding area for bomblets and other active munitions. An EA Team went into the crater to search for samples of the two charges and possibly their detonators. Lt. Max O' Brien was the explosives expert, Pvt. Shayne McHenderson was the tech expert, and Maj. Ryan O' Ferguson was the team leader.
Max found a broken piece of metal covered in a strange sky-blue powder it looked similar, and it was definitely something not made in the Confederacy, he activated his portable analysis station and placed the metal inside it, the station itself was a chemistry lab packed and compressed into a backpack sized casing, it also contained the hardware to support a 'dumb' AI, various probes and devices analyzed the sample. After a few seconds, the molecular structure of the explosive was displayed on the screen.
"Hey guys! Over here!" Max called out.
"Yeah, we'll be there in a second." Ryan said, acting as the group.
"Wait! I think I found something, I think it's a piece of the detonator." Shayne said
"Let me see." Ryan asked
"Sure." Shayne said while handing it to him
The piece of the detonator was L-shaped and had a 1x1 inch projection on one end.
"There seems to be a loose piece." Max said, peering closer
Indeed, there was a loose piece; one-half of a centimeter was protruding from a slot in the square projection. Shayne tried to pull it out to the disagreement of the other members. It slid out easily and revealed that there was a transparent circle in the middle of it.
"It's a data crystal chip, so it can't be a detonator." Max said
"Not unless it's made in the Confederacy, we're the only ones that make these security detonators. And our bombers didn't know, because they're hidden." Shayne countered
"These Security Detonators store a log of its buyer, the time of activation and the time of detonation in a hidden data crystal chip. The chip is stored in a 1x1 inch projection on an L-shaped Hubnesterium plate." Shayne's instructor said.
"Wait, I'll go see check if my assumption is correct." Max said.
He walked over to the analysis station he said
"The bomb was made using Explosiva Demolishonika Experemantalia. It's Coercian, the powder's a typical by-product in Coercian explosives."
"Ah damn. It's almost an act of war." Ryan said.
Low Orbit over Coruscant
1700 Hours
"Damn!" Kazimir cursed
The ship groaned and rumbled as her shields took another hit from a super-laser. They flared out and dissipated as Kazimir ran to the bridge.
Kazimir ran through the opening doorway into the bridge. He stumbled and nearly fell as another super-laser hit and took down another section of her shields. Kazimir reached the command station, he sat down on the chair and ran his hands over the controls, he manually targeted the three available antimatter beam cannons then set them to full power, as in their previous engagements; he had them set to only ten percent power. He touched the red control on the holographic console in front of him, three white beams of fire lanced from their projectors and destroyed their targets, three Super Star Destroyers were vaporized and some of their escorts annihilated by the antimatter.
New Republic Cruiser "Restoration"
1705 Hours
Commander Richard Donaldson stared at the power readouts coming from their flagship. They were massive, even more than what the Death Star II could put out, at least twenty times. Three white beams lanced towards three Super Star Destroyers, he though their shields would hold, but instead, the beams cut through the ships like a white-hot monomolecular blade through butter. The ships exploded, leaving minute debris fields behind. He shivered at the sheer display of raw power; he wondered what kind of reactors could fuel those weapons.
Confederate Flagship 'Shadow of the Day': Bridge
Low Orbit over Coruscant
1710 Hours
"Sir, our frigates are almost down to zero. I recommend that we retreat back to Tanis Base to rebuild our forces." An officer suggested
"Then let's get it over with! NAVCOM, plot a course back to Tanis. And Katrina"
"Yes?" the AI asked as she materialized
"Warm up our jump drives and sync the fleet." Kazimir ordered
"Aye sir!" she disappeared.
A tense minute passed before blue whirlpools began to envelop the coalition's ships. As the fleet disappeared into the whirlpools, a super-laser struck the Shadow of the Day on her rear, collapsing the shield and ripping an engine off, she lurched as she disappeared into the whirlpool. Then the fleet disappeared in a flash of light.
New Republic Cruiser "Restoration"
1711.5 Hours
Richard sighed in relief as the fleet retreated, and the first real damage dealt to their 'super-capital' vessel. But what was more surprising was that it survived a super-laser blast, one that was supposed to destroy an entire planet, he shivered at the thought. He hoped that there were no ships bigger than that, but he was wrong.
Confederate Flagship 'Shadow of the Day': Bridge
Slipspace
2300 Hours
"Sir, the blast has thrown our jump drive out of alignment. We could be several galactic radii off-course. And without a reference point, we could be stranded in space for an indefinite amount of time!" Katrina reported.
"No we won't." Kazimir said, he knew that when Katrina said indefinite, she almost always meant 'forever' "We won't be stuck in nowhere forever Kat. We'll find a way."
"Sir" the DACON officer interrupted "the blast has destroyed the center engine and has blown several of our capacitors. We will be unable to fire our heavier weapons, our shields will be at quarter-strength and our jump range is reduced for the following jumps."
"Shit!" Kazimir cursed.
"The jump-field is destabilizing, we are dropping out of slipspace in three." An officer stated.
Almost at once, the random, yet orderly threadlike patterns of slipspace began to unravel. The ebbing tide of energy receded and dissipated, and then in a flash of light, the entire fleet came out of slipspace.
Nova Beta Armeston
Low Orbit
2305 Hours. January 26, 2793 PA
Armeston, reeling from the recent terror attacks had tightened security and another fleet posted as guard. Civilian space traffic was limited to no personal spacecraft, a maximum of one hundred civilian transports and three hundred cargo transporters, minor riots had broken out at the news but were quickly pacified by the reasons why. More defense stations had been built and relocated to defend the planet, shields had been erected over cities and towns, while the three asteroid belts in the system had been strip-mined to supply the new orbital shipyard in orbit around Hope, the third natural satellite of Armeston. Three hundred thousand miles away, several hundred slipspace ruptures began to form.
Hiigarian Patrol Fleet; Ion Beam Frigate "Without Prior Warning"
Near Garden of Kadesh
2300 Hours
Petty Officer Kiara Soban yawned as she patrolled the hallways of the frigate; the soft thrumming of her drives filled her ears while the warm, humid air irritated his lungs. She shone her flashlight down the corridor, not expecting anything. Something crossed her field of view, and in a split second,she drew and readied his handgun. She applied the final pound of pressure on the firing stud and a single report echoed throughout the hallway, she shone his flashlight to the impact point. There was a small rat-sized creature lying on the floor, it was a skith, a native to Hiigaria. She wondered how one might have gotten aboard, and then she remembered her roommate, Joanna from the UNSC, she had bought one while they were aboard Tanis Base, and it had gotten out of its cage a day ago.
"I'm going to have to tell her about this." She said to herself "Damn, I think I should end my shift."
As she neared the door, a panel flickered to life, it glowed an angry red. She placed her hand on it and the panel glowed green as the door slid open with a whirr. She winced as she made the transition from dimly-lit corridors to brightly lit hallways; a few people were up, either ending their shifts or starting them. She walked to her room and as she laid her hand on the security lock the ship groaned, as if in pain.
"What on Kharak?" she thought
Her query was immediately answered
"All personnel please report to your battle stations. We are at combat alert Alpha." The ship's captain announced.
Doors immediately flew open as men and women rushed out of their rooms, the lights dimmed and turned red. The ship rumbled as her drives spooled up, Kiara felt the ship tilt as the frigate maneuvered. Kiara ran to the armory and hurriedly entered the keycode on her locker, she grabbed an assault rifle, a sidearm and several clips of ammunition, and then she ran into the ready room, where she hurriedly stepped into her armor. The silver faceplate glowed faintly as the armor powered up. The armor, having been provided by the Confederacy was powered armor, which included shields, strength and reaction time enhancements and even an integrated weapon, which fired small white-hot spikes of a strange silver metal at supersonic speeds.
"It's like MJOLNIR for normal humans." A UNSC engineer commented.
The armor finished the power up sequence, Kiara ripped an umbilical off with her armored fingers and blurred out of the room, she placed holstered the sidearm and placed the assault rifle on her back, the magnetic plates held it in place. She took her place in front of a closed bulkhead.
"Ready! Five, Four, Three, Two… Open the bulkhead! One!" A sergeant shouted.
The bulkhead doors slid open, and a hundred things spilled out of it, they died easily and even took a few of their comrades with them. But for every one killed, a dozen replaced it, a dozen jumped onto her and burst on her shields. A marine fell as the grotesque tentacle things swarmed him. If he was screaming, she didn't hear it over the roar of gunfire. Seconds later, something burst from the mount of tentacles and flesh. She stared in horror at it, it was the same marine that fell mere seconds before, but his skin was green and his head bent back at an odd angle, a tentacle burst from his arm, it was a half-inch thick and over a meter long.
"Peter! Are you alright?" she asked, her voice almost inaudible over the gunfire
"Or was it Victor?" she thought "Those Confederates all look alike!"
The marine did not answer, and instead he raised the tentacle and whipped Kiara with it. Her shields flared and crackled as the tentacle hit her in the shoulder, she fell back slightly and the former marine emptied a clip into her shields, hundreds of the small skittering creatures were swarming around her feet. It was a literal flood. Her shields fell and alarms began blaring into her ears. Then a stabbing pain hit her back, she fell and more of the small creatures swarmed around her, she felt pain everywhere but it hurt the most on her back, and she felt another presence enter her mind. Then all went black as the pain increased.
Some of the fleet had been infested by the Flood, and were now attempting to do the same to the rest. Several quantum waveforms manifested only kilometers away. A Hiigarian carrier and her escorts emerged from the non-Newtonian, non-Einsteinian realm of physics the quantum waveforms provided a portal to. However, the ships were not crewed and piloted by humans. But rather, the nanites and bio-organic circuitry that makes up the Beast. Detecting the Flood, it began launching infection beams at some of the infested frigates, but instead of the nanites tearing apart the sickly yellow-green flesh that was once human, Forerunner, Sangheili, or Unggoy. The Flood infestation retaliated, integrating the nanites into its design, and infecting the bio-organic circuitry that manifested from the still-struggling crew, or its forms.
Mass Driver rounds were being exchanged, explosions blossomed as missiles and shells slammed into the hulls of the two fleets. Both Beast and Flood controlled Strike-Craft rolled and weaved around streams of fire, either adding to the firestorm or being engulfed by it.
A human-piloted Hiigarian Multi-Gun Corvette shook as it was peppered with shells coming from a Flood controlled Scout, its guns locked onto the infested strike-craft and pounded it with large-caliber rounds, the shells entered the craft and exploded, tearing the scout apart. As the corvette sought another target, a Beast-infected Hive-Frigate fired its cannons at the craft, then launched its swarmers. The Corvette dove out of the shells' path as its guns tracked their own targets. Streams of fire erupted from the cannons and tore into the swarm. Explosions flashed to life as the swarmers exploded, large holes in their fragile hulls.
Armeston Sphere of Influence
Three Hundred Thousand Miles from Armeston
2309 Hours. January 26, 2793 PA
The First Fleet dropped out of the field, scarred and injured by the battle over Coruscant. The Shadow of the Day was the most damaged, pitted and holed by the super-lasers, some of her massive capacitor banks burnt out as her shields struggled to dissipate the massive amounts of energy delivered by Imperial and Republic weapons. Kazimir ran a hand through his hair, a habit of his since childhood. Then he touched the glyph marked 'Hail', in its place, several options appeared. He touched the one marked 'nearest friendly ID'. The Command Screen displayed a Cruise Liner on the lower left hand corner of the communications display. Kazimir enlarged the communications display and touched the 'confirm' button. The main display flared to life, displaying a neatly kept bridge. Under the main display, was bar which read
"Captain Shayla O' Riley, Khar' Tan Trans-Solar Cruise Co."
Kazimir coughed to get her attention
"Who the hell is hailing me now?" she asked, the anger in her voice evident as she turned around
As she turned to face the screen, her eyes widened in shock.
"Mister President!" she said in shock "What happened to the fleet?"
"We'll save that for later," Kazimir said "the jump knocked our long range comm arrays out. So could I kindly use yours to hail the Capital?"
"Yes sir!" Shayla said.
The image on the display changed to another one, this time the inside of the Conference Room in the Capital Building. A meeting was taking place, debating whether or not to continue the search of the President. Several congressmen and women stood up as the screen flashed to life.
"Hello." Kazimir said
The room erupted into a madhouse of laughter and cheers. The now-obsolete papers were thrown into the air as a substitute for confetti.
"Thanks guys!" Kazimir said, smiling "Now let's get down to business."
The room settled down into a silence, waiting expectantly for Kazimir's next words.
"Okay, so the First Fleet, including me. Was transported by either some Technocracy weapon, a malfunction in our jump drives or a natural wormhole that was expanded by either the energy coming from our weapons or by some other means." He said "I'll tell you the rest later, when I get updated."
Three Days Later
"...and a day ago, Perchance was bombed, thousands died in the explosions. I am sorry to tell you about this Laina, but some of your friends have died in the blast."
Kazimir blinked at the news, Perchance was his hometown. The news was too much for him to handle. He closed his eyes and laid his head on the table, allowing everything to sink in. His sisters, Laina and Alisha looked on the verge of tears. Both of their eyes were bloodshot, and Alisha was sniffing. They had also heard the news of the deaths of their friends during the bombing.
