Old Friends, Part 3: Orion's Story, part 1

Orion sat down on a chair in the Maru's mess, and began to tell Dylan and Rommie off the fall, "After the Battle of the Witchhead Nebula, all remaining High Guard ship's where ordered to scatter. I was with the Northwest Passage and the Emissary of the Commonwealth, both Glorious Heritage class Cruisers like Andromeda. We were trying to get to Tarn- Vedra, but we were ambushed by a Nietzschean battle group. I was carrying refugees, so North and Emma held off the Nietzscheans while I made it to Slipstream. They where both destroyed."

Dylan interrupted, "North and Emma?" Rommie nodded, tears beginning to form in her eyes "The AI's of the Northwest Passage and the Emissary of the Commonwealth: they where my brother and sister." Orion nodded, "They fought well, but they where badly damaged and out-numbered. I wanted to stay and help them, but the Admiral ordered me to run. I tried to make Tarn-Vedra, but by then it was already cut-off from slipstream." Orion stood and began to pace the room, "My captain at the time, Reflections on Infinity, decided to take the refugees to a Perseid colony in the Triangulum Galaxy."

Orion stoped pacing and stood in the bridge hatchway, "Things where bad back then: Nietzschean and Magog raids ravaged what was left of the Commonwealth. Opportunists and Pirates started attacking worlds that had known only peace in thousands of years. It was at that time that the Balance of Judgment started to go mad: His original crew where all dead, killed by the Magog, but he was able to convince crewmembers from other ship's to join him. When he started attacking innocent ship's, the Seat of Power, last of the Glories Heritage class Cruisers, she tried to stop him. But she was in no condition to fight, and he killed her without mercy."

TBC