CHAPTER ONE

Sublieutenant Mitchell E. Romzek stepped out onto the deck of his ship, the USS Troughton. He noted it was a fairly chilly morning. It was a two-month lull in the decades long war with the Confederacy of Socialist Countries. He looked out into the sea of clouds of the Aegean airspace. His ship was doing a long reconnaissance mission over the territory that was called the Contested Zone. He hadn't seen a friendly ship in days and they had radio silence so he could not communicate with his mother and father. He was the ship's Third Officer so he was in charge of the Radar system. Suddenly a head poked out of the staircase and said "Sir, there is something funny on the Radar, can you come take a look?"

"I'll take a look," Romzek replied.

Romzek turned and walked down the stairs into the dimly lit hallway of the ship, it was only lighted by dim bulbs and open doors. He walked into the Radar room and looked at the view screen. There was indeed a very large blip on it.

"What do you think it is Sir?"

"I don't know ensign, it could be anything."

"Could it be a Tecumseh-class Dreadnought?"

"No it's much too big to be a Tecumseh-class."

"Well the question is, is it friendly?"

As if in answer to the ensign's question, a shot rang out. The ensign ran to the window to see what was happening.

"NO!"

Suddenly the wall exploded and a huge dust cloud came out and shrapnel riddled Romzek. The ship automatically went to red alert, bathing the room in eerie red light and blaring alarms. When the dust cleared, the ensign was gone. Romzek ran to the bridge and too his position. He yelled to the captain: "What the hell was that?"

"It appears to be a super dreadnought of some kind!"

"Sublieutenant," the captain said to Romzek, "Go send a distress call!"

Romzek ran through the hallway but then they took another hit and Romzek had splinters go through him. He limped into the communications room and moved the dead body of the communications officer off the communications panel. He hit the button for distress call and gasped: "This is the USS Troughton requesting immediate assistance, we have been attacked and are crippled, and do not engage the dreadnought." Romzek having finished his message, slumped over and lost consciousness.

THERE YA HAD IT CHAPTER ONE AND I AM ALSO REMOVING MY REQUEST FOR CHARS BUT I STILL NEED SHIPS SO BYE!