Chapter 1

Sector Bismuth

Date M5267

Commander Edmund looked out into the inky black void staring at the massive object floating several thousand kilometers away. "Ensign Morris begin activation of the object" with a nod the ensign began activation procedures directly interfacing his console with the object. Lights began appearing across the unknown machine as ancient mechanisms moved for the first time in tens of millennia but before the machine could fully activate alarms began blaring as multiple contacts appeared on the Lidar. "we got seven Hotels bearing fifty C (C is used to represent the speed an object is traveling in relation to the speed of light it is number times light speed) no response to handshake protocols" The Navigation Officer said. Edmund looked unconcerned as he uttered the words that all Crewmen know and fear "All hands man your battlestations" Across the small Patrol Fleet bulkheads sealed and crew moved to there combat stations with cold practiced precision. The Pennetship began to turn to face this new threat. "Sir Hotels have opened fire" the combat operations technician said. Edmund licked his lips and said bring down the curtain. Across the skin of the ship the Iron Curtain CWIS began activating as Lidar began sending them target information barrels spinning up as the exact location every shot would hit was calculated in under a nanosecond thanks to the onboard Overseer Class AI. One CWIS opened fire for a tenth of a second spraying twenty eighty millimeter rocket assisted shells traveling at .50C. Inbound projectiles from the hostile vessel exploded over a thousand kilometers from the Pennetship. "Detecting one Destroyer class vessel one kilometer length two frigate class seven hundred meters in length and four heavy frigates four hundred meters in length" Edmund looked at the central screen as it focused on the enemy vessels. They were sleek and avian in appearance and while they were certainly meant for combat they looked fragile and ostentatious as what looked like decorational wings jutted from its sides in an attempt to make it seem predatory. "Fire the Main Battery" He said. Seconds later the six dual barreled three hundred sixty millimeter rail cannons began moving targeting information directly sent to each gun as millions of calculations were completed in seconds to figure out the proper placement for each slug and then in complete silence unnerving in its absoluteness the batteries fired Rail after Rail launched at .1C twelve in total each for heading for a target the size of a pinhead on the enemy ships. As seconds ticked by the crew of the unknown ships didn't realize they living on borrowed time to sure of there superiority they didn't have any time for surprise when every single ship in their fleet erased from existence as each rail hit the skin of their ship and was instantly converted into pure energy on impact consuming all of them in the blink of an eye.