This chapter is the work of one of my readers on AlternateHistory forum. While the chapter is fairly short (over 2500 words), it is quite amusing to read. It simply shows what happens elsewhere in the sphere of Terran Federation, and simply further the terrible outcome of the filthy xe... I mean the alien invaders.

Kudos for him :)

Location:
TFSV Safir
Asgard System
Terran Federation

Time:
January 30, 2200 (Terran calendar)
14h20 (Earth time)

Cai Lu smiled as she stood with her feet firmly planted into the polished metal bulkhead of her ship, and proud new flagship for the Terran space fleet, the TSS Safir.

"Tactical, where is the target now?"

"One hundred thousand kilometers and closing, Captain."

"What do you think Reed? We came out here to test the accuracy of the big guns, this could be a good distance," Lu asked, crossing her arms behind her back.

Commander Reed, a no nonsense officer who she had never seen smile, flatly stated, "Recommended engagement range is fifty thousand kilometers."

She cocked her head to the side and grinned, "At fifty the computers will guarantee a hit. We are supposed to be testing the weapons, not just sitting on our hands while MATT does all the work for us."

MATT was the name affectionately given to the multi-matrix AI that ran the Safir's systems. A collection of the latest Mk. XVI of second-generation AI systems running together, they formed the backbone of the ships electronic warfare systems as well as monitored the ship's internal systems and external sensors. When helm plotted a course, MATT calculated the fuel consumption and burn duration. If something was within a million kilometers of the ship, it tracked its location and velocity relative to the ship. And if something needed to be shot down, MATT could aim the weapons and fire on it.

It wasn't wrong to say that the ship was largely autonomous. The crew of the Safir existed more to maintain the ship and ensure the mechanical components worked as intended, but Lu always considered that the natural way of any vessel. Even a ship on the blue oceans of Earth during the Age of Discovery wasn't so much as sailed by the crew, they just made sure the ship didn't sink while it carried them across the ocean.

The Safir wasn't a ship of discovery however, it was a predator built for war.

Work on what would eventually become the Camelot-Class of Terran battleships began as a study in early 2188 at the direction of the Admiralty Board. The original plans were for an expanded Normandy, carrying an additional twelve guns, but as the blocky design typical of most Terran vessels took shape the Admiralty quickly shelved the design and decided to start from scratch.

After she had seen the proposed design, she was glad they had. It literally looked like a brick with a bunch of small barrels poking out from the front.

Instead another design, pursued by the Division of Construction and Repair and dubbed a "cruiser-killer," was selected by the Admiralty and had the concept modified to fit their needs. Beginning in late 2188 the group drew up plans for ships with nine 406mm guns, and a hull centered on a central weapon that was capable of traveling two hundred light years between refuels. The plan they all agreed on fulfilled all the requirements the Admiralty were looking for, but the team believed more could be done if the ship was going to be this large; with a mass greater than all other Terran battleships, its armor thick enough to protect it against anything smaller than the heavy cruisers.

Three improved plans were designed and submitted by the beginning of 2189. An increase in armor, an additional twenty 127mm Mark 12 guns in a secondary battery, eighty 40mm CIWS weapon systems for anti-missile protection, thirty-two ports designed to fire the latest W90 variable yield missiles, bays that carry three Mars One "Comet" shuttles and fifteen of the latest autonomous fighters.

This was on top of the primary nine 406mm Mark 7 rail guns.

The design was also the first to carry the new "EM Cannon" system, accelerating a single 6.1m long and .30m diameter tungsten projectile to a speed of 17,000km/s. The system needed to house this weapon became the central core of the new ship, forcing the builders to design everything around it.

All told, when the Safir was completed and commissioned in 2198, the ship came to 861m in length and looked nothing like the traditional warship in the fleet. Instead of a box, the overall shape was more refined. Granted, it still looked a bit boxy, but in profile the vessel was largely sword shaped. A long bow that held the main gun and housed the crew stretched ahead of itself, with two blocky nacelles that hung out to side and angled downward. The "hilt" housed the four powerful power plants that provided energy to the ship and the nearby engines.

At the top of the craft was a large turret that held the Mark 7s, but placed directly below that was the heavily armored bridge that monitored and controlled the ship. It was also designed to act as Command and Control in a fleet.

Carriers replaced the battleship on the oceans of Earth as air combat grew more effective. But space saw the return of the iron giants.

Lu couldn't believe it when she had been given command of it. Everyone in the fleet knew about the ship, it wasn't a secret stealth ship or some kind of experimental vessel. This was intended from the beginning to be a statement of the fleets growing power, what nations on earth used to call "showing the flag."

The list of candidates to command the Safir was a closely guarded secret. You had no idea you were even in the running, and the Admiralty liked it that way. It wasn't until she had taken her previous vessel into dock for a schedule refit that they dropped the news on her six months ago. It had been six months already, six months she was cut off from her friends and family. But it was coming to a close now...

She smiled to herself at the memory, still not believing this was real but happy nonetheless.

"Let's target the drone and see what the guns can do. Helm, align the ship with Tactical's firing solution."

The Safir moved beneath her feat. Captain Lu could feel the vessel shifting as a small amount of power was drained from gravity systems and the main weapon cycled into a ready state. It wasn't the fastest weapon, far from it. The main gun took three minutes to warm up from a cold sleep, and at its recommended fastest the ship could only fire a round every sixty seconds, but it sure packed one hell of a bunch. It was widely thought that the only thing strong enough to stop a round fired from it was whatever poor planet happened to be on the other side of the target. That was why each shell had a small tactical explosive placed inside, designed to destroy the shell thirty minutes after being fired. Having an insanely heavy shell travelling at insanely high velocity in an environment with no resistance power was a terrible idea.

It would slow down the object of course, Newtonian laws ensured that, but at least it would turn a single potentially planet killing weapon into several million harmless pieces.

As the bow of the massive ship aligned with its target, the tactical officer called out, "Thirty seconds until weapons fire."

"Ship is in position," Helm replied.

"Twenty seconds."

MATT picked this moment to finally speak up, the artificial intelligence's synthesized voice coming through loud and clear across the Bridge's speaker system. "Captain Lu, there is an emergency transmission being forwarded to you from Admiral Anderson.

Lu cursed quietly under her breath, and immediately ordered, "Abort firing sequence. MATT, I'll take the message in my office."

This was unexpected. Her orders had been made clear to her only a few days ago; head to Terra Nova and familiarize herself with the ship, test its weapons, and then in three Sol days to link up with the Second Fleet for wargames. It would have to be something important to change weeks of carefully coordinated planning.

She walked into the little office off to the side of the Bridge, the door closing behind her with a soft hiss. Almost as soon as the door shut the Captain could hear security protocols engaging as the doors sealed and all other electronics in the room shut off.

A little panicked, Lu asked, "MATT, what is going on?"

MATT said nothing, instead a blue light projected from a transmitter in the ceiling and coalesced into the form of Admiral Anderson standing before her. The large dark man looked younger than his years would suggest, medical technology keeping him spry and health longer than nature might have intended, but she could still make out the lines of stress on his face and salting of his hair through the nearly perfect hologram.

Most homes had a set up like this, used for watching sporting events or educational programs, but it was largely used for face-to-face communications. The quantum entanglement system had all of its quirks worked out decades ago, and had become the standard method for communication across all of Terran space. The fact that the system was impossible to intercept or tap had been a valuable reason for this rapid roll out, especially among the military, but just because the communications themselves couldn't be directly monitored didn't prevent third parties from planting bugs or other devices in place to eavesdrop, which was why the Safir included an independent security system that disabled all other electronic devices in the room when active, including the AI.

Captain Lu snapped a salute at the Admiral, trying her best to not look as surprised as she felt. This had to be very important for them to go this far.

"At ease, Captain."

As she relaxed the Admiral opened, "I apologize for just dropping in on you like this. I know you were in the middle of something."

"It's all right," Lu assured Anderson. "We were only getting started."

"If you would turn your attention to the data now appearing on your screens," Anderson began as the various consoles embedded in the walls of the room were activated, "you will find a summary of events happening at the colony of Shanxi."

Lu walked over to the nearest screen, read a few lines and audibly gasped. "We've made first contact? Actual aliens?"

Anderson simply nodded and said, "Keep reading."

Her eyes continued to soak up the information, smiling at First Contact, laughing at how the aliens – Quarians – were similar to us and not at the same time. She was fascinated at how they were nomadic, living their lives among the stars in an always moving fleet.

Then she got to Second Contact. The frowned at the second aliens – Turians – tried to order humanity around. Grew angry at the bastards shooting down several human vessels. Proud of humanity valiantly making the invaders bleed for every meter of space they advanced. And then grew irate at the Turian capture of the orbital station and invasion of the planet.

"I hate them already," Lu said.

"According to our reports, the Quarians don't have a home world anymore, but operate from a number of vessels of varying size. From what we gather, they took a massive risk opening that relay because it is against intergalactic law. Law passed and enforced by three races, one of which followed them to our doorstep and launched what they consider a "punitive" assault," Anderson stated.

After a small pause he added, "All of the others species share a form of technology that appears to be completely unique to our own. Not necessarily better than our own, but different. The largest advantage they seem to have over us is their FTL drives can reach slightly higher speeds than our own.

Lu's eyes never left the screen and the information scrolling across it. "Intercepted communications indicate that the Turians believe the Quarians uplifted us? Is that a thing?"

"It's a long story, but apparently one of those three races did it a long time ago and they fear someone else doing it after what happened," Anderson shrugged. "Regardless of the reason for their attack, we can't allow them to continue this assault."

The Captain nodded more to herself than anyone else, "Just tell me my orders."

Anderson frowned, "I can see you are roaring to go, and I'm right there with you, but this is a First Contact situation that needs to be handled carefully."

She could feel her nose flare at the words not spoken. The politicians were holding the military's hands on this one, and were likely watching carefully. Nobody wanted to be held responsible for escalating what might be contained to a small incident into a total war.

"If our fleet suddenly appears on top of them, we could be perceived as a threat and cause the Turians to hold the planet and its people hostage. This is a rescue mission as much as anything, and those people on the surface are our top priority," Anderson stated.

Lu locked eyes with the Admiral as he continued, "You will met up with 64th Task Force of 2nd Fleet, who will then accompany you to the borders of the Zhusanjiao System to join up with the local force. Then I want the Safir to go in first to attempt to draw them out."

Uncertainty flashed briefly across Lu's face. She quickly squared her shoulders, accepting the Admiral's challenge. "How best might we do that?" she asked.

"I'm sure you'll think of something, Captain." Anderson grinned, his grin just got wider and more vicious. She should be worried if she was his enemy... "More details are available in the file I just sent you. And remember Captain, nothing is too crazy for us humans."

Lu crossed her arms and grinned back. Ever since the Terran Federation was formed and started fielding ships, the military had been preparing for something like this. "First Contact" was one of several possible military situations that was studied in the Academy, and traditionally a mission like this would be handled by one of the fleets smaller, less threatening ships so as to not provoke a hostile response.

It was always believed that First Contact would be a range, between long distance probes or at best between small craft that were out exploring. The likely hood of a violent encounter on this scale was considered so small that the Academy didn't give it serious consideration. Her instructor once said, "In the event of a physical First Contact, we shall either be so far above the aliens that they would see us as Gods, or we would be so far below them that we would be like ants. Either way, there would be nothing we could do."

The idea of a hostile First Contact against aliens that shared parity was thought impossible.

"Very well, Admiral," Lu said. "I'll need an hour to confer with my crew before we depart."

Anderson frowned, but not at her. To Lu, it looked as if he was listening to someone speaking in his ear, and he wasn't happy about it. When he finally spoke, it sounded forced. "Captain, I am to remind you that this is a classified mission."

Lu nodded, but said, "I understand, but respectfully to whomever is listening, this won't stay classified for long. It's too big. Too important."

"This should be interesting," Anderson smiled.

"I assume we'll be monitored, and kept apprised of changing circumstances," Lu asked the Admiral.

The Admiral nodded. "Just in case. Captain Lu, do us proud."

With a sharp nod the image departed, leaving her in darkness for two seconds before power to everything was restored. A blinking icon of "new message" was seen on the holo screen. It was the report sent by the Admiral. Skimming through it, she mused:

"Well, this is going to be an interesting briefing."