- CHAPTER 14 -
- ISS Ogre, Deck 4, Cargo Bay 1 -
The ship was adrift, spinning slowly end for end in the darkness of space. Her running lights and warp engines were offline, and the Ogre was light only on one side at a time by the angry red sun deeper in system, turning her hull orange. There were great holes in the Nova class' hull, both from exterior attacks and interior secondary explosions. She was a dead ship, her warp core gone and her little remaining power from her few operational fusion reactors barely able to maintain life support. Inside the stricken vessel, Mirak and Lyran boarding parties scoured the ship, searching for valuable salvage and prisoners.
The Imperial officers and crew were being herded into the cargo bay by the armored Mirak and Lyran borders. It was one of the few places on the Ogre that could nearly hold them all. Many were injured, and the ships medical staff that were still in one piece were running ragged trying to help them. Fortunately for the medical personnel, there were very few injured left. Far to many of the Ogre's wounded had been to seriously injured for even the Empire's medical technology to save. Things like that happened when a starship was nearly gutted by modern weaponry.
- Deck 4, outside turboshaft 1 -
Captain Dorothy Chambers shuffled down the shattered and scorched corridor of what used to be her ship. The lighting was very low, here and there the crimson red alert lights were still flashing. Here and there blackened star shaped scorch marks centered around melted portions of bulkhead showed, signs of the desperate and ultimately futile attempts of her crew to repel the boarders. The fools, did they think that it mattered now? How long could one shattered destroyer hold out against the boarding parties seven cruisers could pump out? And the boarding parties were clad in full power armor, not the lightweight riot armor of her security personnel. The column of her surviving bridge officers trudged along in front of her. Guards flanked them, numbering at least double the amount of prisoners. From their armor design and weapons, they appeared to by Lyran marines. The surviving bridge crew had been bound, then shoved down the now gravity less turboshaft to other waiting boarders below. They were then forced to march to the main cargo bay were the Imperial personnel were being held till they could be transferred.
The sullen party trudged past a side hall. It ended in a mangled hole open to space. Fortunately the internal force fields were still operational on this deck, otherwise it would be virtually impossible to get them to the cargo bay. Dorothy slowed and looked down the hall that ended in space. Her quarters had been there. Now everything was gone. A disruptor rifle was shoved harshly into the small of her back, causing her to stumble and nearly fall. A series of muted hisses and growls were heard before the Lyran's external speaker spoke in synthesized standard English.
"Eyes front, keep moving!"
Dorothy bit back a harsh reply. She was a Captain no longer. She was no longer in command. She had become a prisoner, and prisoners that got out of line ended up dead. Gritting her teeth she limped back in line. The rest of the bridge crew didn't even turn to look at her. Dorothy's ankle had gotten twisted somewhere along the way, and she had a nasty gash on her forehead that made her woozy whenever she moved her head to fast.
"Damned kitties!" She muttered under her breath. Her captor's acute hearing picked it up, merely helped along by the power armor's artificial electronic ears, and she felt another not so gentle prod from his rifle. She stumbled to one knee, then got up and staggered into the line with the rest of the prisoners, this time keeping her insults unvoiced.
- ISS Ogre, Main Engineering -
The Lyran marine looked up from the display he had been studying. His suits sent receptors identified the new arrivals before he even turned towards them. Mirak! The fur on the back of his neck stood up straight under his armor and a half-formed growl started in his throat. The three Mirak marines were marching towards the back of engineering, ignoring the Lyrans in the compartment as if they weren't even there. The Lyran stepped into their path. As he did so, the other two Lyran boarders that had been scavenging the Imperial vessel's engineering section came to stand beside him.
"What do you want here Mirak! This section was taken by Lyran boarders. As such your kind has no claim here." Kaiten of the Red Claw Duchy growled at the advancing trio.
The middle Mirak, evidently the leader of the group, turned to his companions. The sound of hissing laughter gave way to his deep voiced words. "Look at this cub! He thinks that he can stand up to us!" All three Lyran's hissed and laid their ears back. Almost of their own volition, their claws half went into the gauntlet's receptacles. The Mirak marine turned back to the three Lyrans. "Out of our way little one." He said in a patronizing tone. "We are here on official Mirak business. There is no need for us to explain ourselves to the likes of you."
The three Lyrans growled deep in their throats, and the strong musk of anger began to permeate the air like a foul wind. "You stick your snout where it has no business being Mirak! Leave now and you may yet escape with your lives." The air was thick with musk now, so thick that it itched Kaiten's nose. Oh how he longed to lash out at the ancient enemies of his people. But his fealty to the Emperor made him resist his near instinctive impulses. He was an officer in the Lyran Star Empire Navy, and as such was responsible for executing the Emperor's wishes. And since the Emperor had decreed that all Blood Feuds between the Lyran and Mirak peoples on hold, Kaiten was forced to stay his hand. Once the Terran Empire was taken care of, there would be plenty of time to exact revenge.
"You will move out of our way Lyran, or it shall be you that feels our claws! Comply now or die!" The Mirak's voice was patronizing no longer. It was noticeably louder and angrier. As the Mirak spoke, he dropped into a crouch, tense and waiting for the chance to strike. His two compatriots followed suit. The synthetic claws on the ends of their gauntlets extended to their full, deadly length.
"If you don't leave now, it is you that shall die!" Kaiten and the other Lyran marines crouched as well, and the claws that they extended were every bit as good as those possessed by the Mirak. Part of him regretted that they were all in power armor. It would not allow him to see the Mirak's eyes when life left them. He was to far gone now for even his duty to the Emperor to reign in his bloodlust. All he could see was the latest incarnation a century old foe. Inside his battle helmet, his whiskers quivered, expressing their eagerness to scream and leap on the enemy. His rough tongue lapped over his black nose, trying to clear away some of the now oppressive anger musk. Kaiten wanted all his senses as acute as possible in the coming duel. But it was not to be. Even as he crouched, his com beeped. For a moment he ignored it. Then it beeped again, more insistently. At almost exactly the same time, the Mirak's com beeped as well. Both responded, training overcoming instinct, yet neither relaxing a muscle nor moving from their combat crouches.
"Kaiten here, what do you want!" His voice was gruff.
"This is the flagship, you are to return immediately. Long range sensors have detected another Imperial patrol. And if we can see them, they can see us."
"Understood, you may initiate transport at your convenience." Now Kaiten was annoyed. From the few snippets of Mirak he had overheard, the other three had just received similar commands. He stared at the armored figure, silted feline eyes narrowed in anger behind his armored helmet. "It would appear that we have no time to continue presently. But now this Mirak, we shall not forget this day!"
"Nor shall we little cub, nor shall we!" And then the transporter effect took both parties to their respective ships. Vengeance would have to wait.
- ISS Ogre, Cargo Bay 1 -
Dorothy was herded into the center of the room along with most of her senior officers by the Lyran guards. As she stood there, the disconcerting grip of a transporter gripped her. The familiar sights and smells of her ship were replaced by something utterly alien. The Lyran vessel's interior was much like its exterior. The bulkheads were made up of the same golden alloy and lighting was provided by yellowish green lights. The signage that she could see through the forcefield of her cell was done in blood red, knifelike alien script. Lyran marines lounged in the room beyond the cell. There was a quiet hum growing louder in volume, then it leveled off and nearly became lost in the background noise of an active starship.
Must have gone to warp Dorothy thought. The sound was very similar to what her ship had made when it jumped to FTL speeds. She slouched down against the wall of her cell, putting her injured leg out in front of her. Massaging the twisted ankle seemed to help it a bit, but the dull ache remained. Her hand ran across the now crusted over gash on her forehead. She winced when her fingers made contact but continued to explore the wound with her manacled hands. It wasn't that deep, or at least didn't seem so to her inexperienced touch. Already it was expanding to a pretty good-sized goose egg though. Her physical examination through, Dorothy's thoughts drifted towards her future. What exactly were the kitties planing on doing with her?
- Near the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, along the Gamma/Delta Quadrant border -
It had been nearly 90 years since the entire Interstellar Concordium had packed up everything that could move and traveled to the very fringe of the galaxy. After their stunning and disastrous defeat at the hands of the Terran Empire, the ISC had at first not known what to do. The various member species of the ISC had even begun to bicker among themselves as to the appropriate course of action to take. Some had nearly resorted to civil war before a solution was proposed.
The Veltressai had put their many lobed brains together and had come up with a workable solution. But although it was workable, it was also hard to swallow. They proposed that the ISC abandon everything they had worked so long and hard to create. If it had come from any other species but the highly respected Veltressai, it would have been dismissed out of hand. But because it DID come from the Veltressai, the Council of Five was forced to analyze their proposal. After much deliberation, the found that they had to agree with the Veltressai. After loosing most of their space fleet in the disastrous Pacification Campaign against the Terran Empire, it was the only viable option to save the ISC from the expected counterassault.
So it was that all 1500 settled worlds and over 60 sentient species packed up and moved everything they had lock stock and barrel to the galactic fringe. There, in secrecy, they rebuilt their infrastructure and set about making new ships to fight the Terran Empire and finally bring peace, order and good government to the peoples of the TE. The ISC may have lost the first battle, but they were damned well going to win the war.
- Interstellar Concordium Vessel Peace Envoy, on patrol near the edge of ISC space -
The amphibian Meskeen sat comfortably in his chair, the small fans that blew moisture rich air on him running nearly silently along with the regular background noise of a working starship. The patrol was going smoothly, there had been nothing abnormal on the sensors. He hadn't even been born when the Interstellar Concordium had launched its pacification campaign into what was known as the Terran Empire. Yet from almost the moment of his birth he had known that he was destined to help return the ISC to greatness. Well, perhaps from birth was a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. It was that drive that made him join the ISC Navy. The new patrol frigate that he captained was a true marvel of modern construction. It carried powerful phaser arrays, high-speed plasma torpedoes and the latest incarnation of the Plasmatic Pulsar Device.
The newest PPD was one of the longest ranged weapons known, capable of delivering intensely focused plasma energy pulses across previously unheard- of distances. While not as good at knife fight range, it was a truly fearsome weapon of war. And it also had an excellent new feature that previous incarnations never had. It was enveloping. Instead of the carrier wave concentrating on a narrow part of an enemy vessel, it could be widened to envelop the entire target. This allowed the plasma to strike not only the facing side of the vessel, but the flanks, top and bottom of it as well. Although it didn't do as much damage to the adjoining sides of the target as a direct blast would have, it was a valuable enhancement to an already deadly weapon.
The high-speed plasma torpedoes were a nice addition to the ISC's arsenal as well. Traveling faster than the TE's photon torpedoes, they delivered a powerful blow. And the plasma degradation problem of old style plasma torps had been fixed in the new type, allowing for the full charge to be delivered across the entire range of the weapon, which was only slightly less than the PPD's. It also mounted powerful shields and armor, enabling it to withstand the firepower of most normal cruisers. The systems that had been trial run in the Peace Envoy were now being modified for use in all refits and new ship construction. All in all, the Peace Envoy was a tough little ship. And her captain was itching for the chance to strike back at the enemy that had forced the ISC from its home space.
"Captain, I am detecting a disturbance in sector 9552. It is congruent with a subspace tunnel preparing to open into normal space." The Peace Envoy's science officer said, her green skin near blue with the light cast from her panel. Her typical Meskeen voice's high pitch and slightly nasal quality caused the rest of the bridge crew to focus on their instruments, searching for the first sign of the incoming vessels.
"We aren't expecting any company. I wonder whom it could be? Cloak the ship and go to yellow alert just to be safe. I want full passive scans of any ships that come out of that tunnel."
"Sir, judging from the size of the opening, it is going to be a large transit. Quite large in fact." As the Q'Nabbian engineer spoke, all attention was diverted to the main viewer.
Where there had been normal space moments before, a tear formed spilling the angry orange light of a subspace tunnel into normal space Just as the Peace Envoy cloaked, the first ships began to appear. They were small, beetle looking ships, but the came in a steady torrent.
"Look at the number of them!" The Peace Envoy's science officer said. "They blot out the very stars!"
And then the first of the bigger ships began to appear. They were similar enough in styling to the smaller ships that you could tell that they were built by the same species. But any similarity ended there. These ships were massive leviathans, easily the size of the ISC's biggest class, the Peacemaker. The captain looked down at his readouts. Unlike the smaller ships, those behemoths were well armed and armored. Where the smaller ships had only a single beam weapon, those ships mounted over 30, and they had torpedo emplacements as well. Their nacelles cast an eerie pinkish purple glow on their violet/silvery hulls.
"Contact High Command on the covert channel. They must be informed of this development!" The captain said. Then he turned back to the view screen. Steady as a metronome, the alien vessels continued to pour out of the subspace tunnel like a swarm of locusts.
- ISS Ogre, Deck 4, Cargo Bay 1 -
The ship was adrift, spinning slowly end for end in the darkness of space. Her running lights and warp engines were offline, and the Ogre was light only on one side at a time by the angry red sun deeper in system, turning her hull orange. There were great holes in the Nova class' hull, both from exterior attacks and interior secondary explosions. She was a dead ship, her warp core gone and her little remaining power from her few operational fusion reactors barely able to maintain life support. Inside the stricken vessel, Mirak and Lyran boarding parties scoured the ship, searching for valuable salvage and prisoners.
The Imperial officers and crew were being herded into the cargo bay by the armored Mirak and Lyran borders. It was one of the few places on the Ogre that could nearly hold them all. Many were injured, and the ships medical staff that were still in one piece were running ragged trying to help them. Fortunately for the medical personnel, there were very few injured left. Far to many of the Ogre's wounded had been to seriously injured for even the Empire's medical technology to save. Things like that happened when a starship was nearly gutted by modern weaponry.
- Deck 4, outside turboshaft 1 -
Captain Dorothy Chambers shuffled down the shattered and scorched corridor of what used to be her ship. The lighting was very low, here and there the crimson red alert lights were still flashing. Here and there blackened star shaped scorch marks centered around melted portions of bulkhead showed, signs of the desperate and ultimately futile attempts of her crew to repel the boarders. The fools, did they think that it mattered now? How long could one shattered destroyer hold out against the boarding parties seven cruisers could pump out? And the boarding parties were clad in full power armor, not the lightweight riot armor of her security personnel. The column of her surviving bridge officers trudged along in front of her. Guards flanked them, numbering at least double the amount of prisoners. From their armor design and weapons, they appeared to by Lyran marines. The surviving bridge crew had been bound, then shoved down the now gravity less turboshaft to other waiting boarders below. They were then forced to march to the main cargo bay were the Imperial personnel were being held till they could be transferred.
The sullen party trudged past a side hall. It ended in a mangled hole open to space. Fortunately the internal force fields were still operational on this deck, otherwise it would be virtually impossible to get them to the cargo bay. Dorothy slowed and looked down the hall that ended in space. Her quarters had been there. Now everything was gone. A disruptor rifle was shoved harshly into the small of her back, causing her to stumble and nearly fall. A series of muted hisses and growls were heard before the Lyran's external speaker spoke in synthesized standard English.
"Eyes front, keep moving!"
Dorothy bit back a harsh reply. She was a Captain no longer. She was no longer in command. She had become a prisoner, and prisoners that got out of line ended up dead. Gritting her teeth she limped back in line. The rest of the bridge crew didn't even turn to look at her. Dorothy's ankle had gotten twisted somewhere along the way, and she had a nasty gash on her forehead that made her woozy whenever she moved her head to fast.
"Damned kitties!" She muttered under her breath. Her captor's acute hearing picked it up, merely helped along by the power armor's artificial electronic ears, and she felt another not so gentle prod from his rifle. She stumbled to one knee, then got up and staggered into the line with the rest of the prisoners, this time keeping her insults unvoiced.
- ISS Ogre, Main Engineering -
The Lyran marine looked up from the display he had been studying. His suits sent receptors identified the new arrivals before he even turned towards them. Mirak! The fur on the back of his neck stood up straight under his armor and a half-formed growl started in his throat. The three Mirak marines were marching towards the back of engineering, ignoring the Lyrans in the compartment as if they weren't even there. The Lyran stepped into their path. As he did so, the other two Lyran boarders that had been scavenging the Imperial vessel's engineering section came to stand beside him.
"What do you want here Mirak! This section was taken by Lyran boarders. As such your kind has no claim here." Kaiten of the Red Claw Duchy growled at the advancing trio.
The middle Mirak, evidently the leader of the group, turned to his companions. The sound of hissing laughter gave way to his deep voiced words. "Look at this cub! He thinks that he can stand up to us!" All three Lyran's hissed and laid their ears back. Almost of their own volition, their claws half went into the gauntlet's receptacles. The Mirak marine turned back to the three Lyrans. "Out of our way little one." He said in a patronizing tone. "We are here on official Mirak business. There is no need for us to explain ourselves to the likes of you."
The three Lyrans growled deep in their throats, and the strong musk of anger began to permeate the air like a foul wind. "You stick your snout where it has no business being Mirak! Leave now and you may yet escape with your lives." The air was thick with musk now, so thick that it itched Kaiten's nose. Oh how he longed to lash out at the ancient enemies of his people. But his fealty to the Emperor made him resist his near instinctive impulses. He was an officer in the Lyran Star Empire Navy, and as such was responsible for executing the Emperor's wishes. And since the Emperor had decreed that all Blood Feuds between the Lyran and Mirak peoples on hold, Kaiten was forced to stay his hand. Once the Terran Empire was taken care of, there would be plenty of time to exact revenge.
"You will move out of our way Lyran, or it shall be you that feels our claws! Comply now or die!" The Mirak's voice was patronizing no longer. It was noticeably louder and angrier. As the Mirak spoke, he dropped into a crouch, tense and waiting for the chance to strike. His two compatriots followed suit. The synthetic claws on the ends of their gauntlets extended to their full, deadly length.
"If you don't leave now, it is you that shall die!" Kaiten and the other Lyran marines crouched as well, and the claws that they extended were every bit as good as those possessed by the Mirak. Part of him regretted that they were all in power armor. It would not allow him to see the Mirak's eyes when life left them. He was to far gone now for even his duty to the Emperor to reign in his bloodlust. All he could see was the latest incarnation a century old foe. Inside his battle helmet, his whiskers quivered, expressing their eagerness to scream and leap on the enemy. His rough tongue lapped over his black nose, trying to clear away some of the now oppressive anger musk. Kaiten wanted all his senses as acute as possible in the coming duel. But it was not to be. Even as he crouched, his com beeped. For a moment he ignored it. Then it beeped again, more insistently. At almost exactly the same time, the Mirak's com beeped as well. Both responded, training overcoming instinct, yet neither relaxing a muscle nor moving from their combat crouches.
"Kaiten here, what do you want!" His voice was gruff.
"This is the flagship, you are to return immediately. Long range sensors have detected another Imperial patrol. And if we can see them, they can see us."
"Understood, you may initiate transport at your convenience." Now Kaiten was annoyed. From the few snippets of Mirak he had overheard, the other three had just received similar commands. He stared at the armored figure, silted feline eyes narrowed in anger behind his armored helmet. "It would appear that we have no time to continue presently. But now this Mirak, we shall not forget this day!"
"Nor shall we little cub, nor shall we!" And then the transporter effect took both parties to their respective ships. Vengeance would have to wait.
- ISS Ogre, Cargo Bay 1 -
Dorothy was herded into the center of the room along with most of her senior officers by the Lyran guards. As she stood there, the disconcerting grip of a transporter gripped her. The familiar sights and smells of her ship were replaced by something utterly alien. The Lyran vessel's interior was much like its exterior. The bulkheads were made up of the same golden alloy and lighting was provided by yellowish green lights. The signage that she could see through the forcefield of her cell was done in blood red, knifelike alien script. Lyran marines lounged in the room beyond the cell. There was a quiet hum growing louder in volume, then it leveled off and nearly became lost in the background noise of an active starship.
Must have gone to warp Dorothy thought. The sound was very similar to what her ship had made when it jumped to FTL speeds. She slouched down against the wall of her cell, putting her injured leg out in front of her. Massaging the twisted ankle seemed to help it a bit, but the dull ache remained. Her hand ran across the now crusted over gash on her forehead. She winced when her fingers made contact but continued to explore the wound with her manacled hands. It wasn't that deep, or at least didn't seem so to her inexperienced touch. Already it was expanding to a pretty good-sized goose egg though. Her physical examination through, Dorothy's thoughts drifted towards her future. What exactly were the kitties planing on doing with her?
- Near the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, along the Gamma/Delta Quadrant border -
It had been nearly 90 years since the entire Interstellar Concordium had packed up everything that could move and traveled to the very fringe of the galaxy. After their stunning and disastrous defeat at the hands of the Terran Empire, the ISC had at first not known what to do. The various member species of the ISC had even begun to bicker among themselves as to the appropriate course of action to take. Some had nearly resorted to civil war before a solution was proposed.
The Veltressai had put their many lobed brains together and had come up with a workable solution. But although it was workable, it was also hard to swallow. They proposed that the ISC abandon everything they had worked so long and hard to create. If it had come from any other species but the highly respected Veltressai, it would have been dismissed out of hand. But because it DID come from the Veltressai, the Council of Five was forced to analyze their proposal. After much deliberation, the found that they had to agree with the Veltressai. After loosing most of their space fleet in the disastrous Pacification Campaign against the Terran Empire, it was the only viable option to save the ISC from the expected counterassault.
So it was that all 1500 settled worlds and over 60 sentient species packed up and moved everything they had lock stock and barrel to the galactic fringe. There, in secrecy, they rebuilt their infrastructure and set about making new ships to fight the Terran Empire and finally bring peace, order and good government to the peoples of the TE. The ISC may have lost the first battle, but they were damned well going to win the war.
- Interstellar Concordium Vessel Peace Envoy, on patrol near the edge of ISC space -
The amphibian Meskeen sat comfortably in his chair, the small fans that blew moisture rich air on him running nearly silently along with the regular background noise of a working starship. The patrol was going smoothly, there had been nothing abnormal on the sensors. He hadn't even been born when the Interstellar Concordium had launched its pacification campaign into what was known as the Terran Empire. Yet from almost the moment of his birth he had known that he was destined to help return the ISC to greatness. Well, perhaps from birth was a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. It was that drive that made him join the ISC Navy. The new patrol frigate that he captained was a true marvel of modern construction. It carried powerful phaser arrays, high-speed plasma torpedoes and the latest incarnation of the Plasmatic Pulsar Device.
The newest PPD was one of the longest ranged weapons known, capable of delivering intensely focused plasma energy pulses across previously unheard- of distances. While not as good at knife fight range, it was a truly fearsome weapon of war. And it also had an excellent new feature that previous incarnations never had. It was enveloping. Instead of the carrier wave concentrating on a narrow part of an enemy vessel, it could be widened to envelop the entire target. This allowed the plasma to strike not only the facing side of the vessel, but the flanks, top and bottom of it as well. Although it didn't do as much damage to the adjoining sides of the target as a direct blast would have, it was a valuable enhancement to an already deadly weapon.
The high-speed plasma torpedoes were a nice addition to the ISC's arsenal as well. Traveling faster than the TE's photon torpedoes, they delivered a powerful blow. And the plasma degradation problem of old style plasma torps had been fixed in the new type, allowing for the full charge to be delivered across the entire range of the weapon, which was only slightly less than the PPD's. It also mounted powerful shields and armor, enabling it to withstand the firepower of most normal cruisers. The systems that had been trial run in the Peace Envoy were now being modified for use in all refits and new ship construction. All in all, the Peace Envoy was a tough little ship. And her captain was itching for the chance to strike back at the enemy that had forced the ISC from its home space.
"Captain, I am detecting a disturbance in sector 9552. It is congruent with a subspace tunnel preparing to open into normal space." The Peace Envoy's science officer said, her green skin near blue with the light cast from her panel. Her typical Meskeen voice's high pitch and slightly nasal quality caused the rest of the bridge crew to focus on their instruments, searching for the first sign of the incoming vessels.
"We aren't expecting any company. I wonder whom it could be? Cloak the ship and go to yellow alert just to be safe. I want full passive scans of any ships that come out of that tunnel."
"Sir, judging from the size of the opening, it is going to be a large transit. Quite large in fact." As the Q'Nabbian engineer spoke, all attention was diverted to the main viewer.
Where there had been normal space moments before, a tear formed spilling the angry orange light of a subspace tunnel into normal space Just as the Peace Envoy cloaked, the first ships began to appear. They were small, beetle looking ships, but the came in a steady torrent.
"Look at the number of them!" The Peace Envoy's science officer said. "They blot out the very stars!"
And then the first of the bigger ships began to appear. They were similar enough in styling to the smaller ships that you could tell that they were built by the same species. But any similarity ended there. These ships were massive leviathans, easily the size of the ISC's biggest class, the Peacemaker. The captain looked down at his readouts. Unlike the smaller ships, those behemoths were well armed and armored. Where the smaller ships had only a single beam weapon, those ships mounted over 30, and they had torpedo emplacements as well. Their nacelles cast an eerie pinkish purple glow on their violet/silvery hulls.
"Contact High Command on the covert channel. They must be informed of this development!" The captain said. Then he turned back to the view screen. Steady as a metronome, the alien vessels continued to pour out of the subspace tunnel like a swarm of locusts.