Qi'ra sat in the chair of the bridge of The First Light. She watched as the blue-white of hyperspace swirled and sped around the ship's view window. Her mind was whirling, churning and whizzing with murderous, bloodthirsty thoughts of what she was going to do to Asmodeus. Sure, she did not know him personally, but he had interfered with her great plans. She would kill him, and she would enjoy it.
Within the hour, The First Light and the thirteen other ships of Crimson Dawn came out of hyperspace.
"Milady, we have entered the system near the Lagoon Nebula," Inu told her.
"Not too close to it, I hope?" Qi'ra asked, a slight edge to her voice. "We don't want to be detected."
"No, milady, we're on the edge of the system," Inu said.
"Good," said Qi'ra. "Begin our approach slowly and activate all scanners. We must find Asmodeus's ship."
"Yes, milady," said Inu with an obedient nod.
The First Light and their support ships began making their approach towards the gigantic, beautiful, orange and purple nebula. As they moved closer, Qi'ra couldn't help but feel a tiny prick of unease, but she shook the feelings away. She had a mission to complete. A rival to destroy.
Just then, Qi'ra remembered something. "Where is Finiren's ship?" she asked Inu. "He should be here."
"No sign of it, milady," Inu said after a moment. "Shall I send a signal?"
"No, I don't want to risk our enemy intercepting any transmissions. Continue the search," Qi'ra ordered.
"Yes, milady."
For over ten minutes, Qi'ra's fleet spread out and searched the system, scanning ever bit of space. But they saw and detected nothing at all. Eventually, they regrouped on the edge of the nebula.
"Has anyone detected anything?" Qi'ra asked Inu.
"No, milady," said Inu.
Qi'ra sat utterly still. Something was not right.
Then, quite suddenly, the scanners began beeping.
"Milady, we've detected a massive object near the nebula, about fifty kilometers away from our current position," Inu said.
"What is it?" asked Qi'ra immediately. "Is it a ship?"
Inu paused. "I… I don't think so, milady. I've never seen readings like these."
Qi'ra came over and inspected the readings herself. They were indeed massive, but unknown. How had they missed it earlier?
For a moment, Qi'ra hesitated, unsure of what to do. Finally, she spoke. "Approach the object cautiously," she ordered her men. "I want to see it for myself."
"Yes, milady," Inu nodded obediently.
The Crimson fleet began making their approach slowly.
Suddenly, the scanners began beeping more wildly.
"The object is moving towards us!" Inu cried.
"What? How?" Qi'ra asked, staring at the flaring readings. "Is it an asteroid?"
There was another pause, more protracted.
Finally, Inu stammered. "Milady, it's…it's…" he trailed off, pointing out the window.
Qi'ra looked out the window, and she froze. So did all of her men.
Silhouetted very clearly against the nebula, was a single, massive alien ship. It was like nothing Qi'ra and her men had never seen before. Its outward appearance was simple: a flattened, circular disk with two short, pointed blades at the front. Its thick, jet black hull had various small glowing green lights in strange patterns along its length. But it was the sheer size of the vessel that boggled the brains of Qi'ra and her henchmen most of all. It was simply, yet unthinkably CLOSSAL: many, many times larger than the largest Imperial Star Destroyer. It was the biggest ship they had ever seen.
Before Qi'ra or any of her men could recover from their shock, surprise and awe, something else happened. The front of the giant ship's underside began to move. Disturbingly like the mouth of a fanged vampire, it swiftly opened wider and wider to make a huge, black hole. And out of that hole emerged a monstrous cannon; twenty times larger than the biggest Turbolaser. From tip of that cannon, thirteen targeting laser lights beamed out at once, all pointed at Qi'ra's fleet.
Finally snapping out of her stupefied trance, Qi'ra sprang into action. "All ships raise shields!" She ordered.
Qi'ra had hardly spoken those words, when there was a blinding flash of green light as the giant ship's monstrous cannon fired.
Out of pure human reflex, Qi'ra and her minions shielded their eyes.
The First Light shook.
"Damage report!" Qi'ra demanded after the light and the vibrations had faded.
"Milady, there's no tactical damage to The First Light. They didn't hit us… but our fleet is… gone," Inu reported.
"What do you mean gone?!" Qi'ra asked incredulously. She looked out the window again and her eyes widened in their sockets as she saw the floating, scattered remains of her other thirteen ships. The five smaller ones were nothing but rubble. The main bodies of the eight larger vessels were mostly intact, but they were all now floating aimlessly in space: all of their bridges had been obliterated. Qi'ra realized, to her horror that the giant ship must have fired on all of the ships' bridges at once, destroying them all in one fell swoop.
"Get us out of here!" Qi'ra shouted at her pilots.
Just then The First Light shook again; this time so violently that Qi'ra and many of her men lost their footing and fell on their butts. The lights in the ship flickered.
Standing up quickly, Qi'ra saw that the giant ship was still moving swiftly towards The First Light… which was now moving towards IT!
"What's going on?!" Qi'ra demanded.
"We're caught in a tractor beam or something like that!" cried one of the pilots. "I think they're going to board us!"
Shaking away her shock and fear, Qi'ra pressed her com-link and yelled, "Everyone ready your weapons! Prepare for battle!"
"Yes, milady," they all nodded obediently.
While the others prepared for battle, Qi'ra and Inu looked up at the approaching alien ship. Even as they watched, its monstrous cannon fired another barrage of energy beams and annihilated what was left their fleet.
"How the hell did we miss a thing that big?!" Inu asked, pointing at the alien ship.
Qi'ra rolled her eyes. "Isn't it obvious? It has a cloaking device, or something like it at least. There's no other explanation."
Qi'ra's mind was racing. How had this happened? She remembered what Finiren had said: that the single ship Asmodeus had in this system was 'pretty big.' Finiren had obviously left out exactly how unthinkably big it was. I've been betrayed! Qi'ra thought angrily. If I get out of this, I will make Finiren pay!
As the giant alien ship got closer and closer, Qi'ra weighed her chances. She had over three dozen soldiers with her, all armed and dangerous. She herself had a pistol and a vibro-knife. She hoped that those minions and weapons, as well as her combat training under Dryden Vos and Lord Maul, gave her at least a small chance of escape…