Background Story 2

Space Crusade Back Story

Game Synopsis

In the year 6204, Humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction by a ruthless race of aliens from an unknown location in the Zeta Quadrant. All but a few of the Earth Alliance planets have fallen in a Coup D'Tat by insurgents placed covertly on each EA planet more then seventy years ago. In the passage of four days, more then two hundred trillion lives have been snuffed out. Of those few planets that did not fall victim to the attack is your Home world, Al' Cot. Though these planet's military were decimated by the Coup, the planets were not overthrown due to several miscalculations on the Aliens part. Your last orders from Headquarters on Earth, before it was destroyed, were to seek out the enemy Base Planet and decimate it at all costs.

Humanity is fated to fall, but the least you can do before then is to return the favor....

Prologue

Ever since the Sixth World War mankind has been entranced with space. It wasn’t, however, until the thirty fifth century that man made deep space travel possible with the invention of the first prototype Trans Galactic Space Drive. It was developed in Russia along with top physicists from Germany, the United States, Japan, and Great Britain. The total tab for this piece of engineering genius was very substantial, over fifty trillion pounds was the official quote. Unofficially it was rumored to be ten times that amount.

But in any case, mankind now possessed a tool for space travel. Now they needed a vessel that could with stand any kind of force that might be present in space. Try as they might, the physicists could not find the proper material. They tried titanium, one of the strongest metals on Earth, but it was too easily buckled in their test of a miniature warp drive. Then came a ray of hope from a habitation colony on Mars.

The colony, which had been founded several centuries back, was doing research on the different mineral deposits on the surface of Mars and had only just broken through the inner most layer of its crust. What they found shocked them; a material similar in composition to Steel, but several thousand times as durable as Titanium. They had yet to name this material but it was the perfect consistency to build a hyper-durable vessel out of. A sample of this was sent to the Russia Space Research facility where it underwent many tests. The material fared better then anyone had hoped, it had survived a warp drive test with barely any defection from its original form. So, they went about making it stronger; they melted it down, which was by no means an easy feat, and melted down Tungsten, Titanium, and Platinum, which were then combined. The resulting mixture, when hardened, became hundreds of times stronger then Diamonds. It was at this point that a particularly brilliant German physicist came up with a name for it; Draconic, a play back to the days of Dragons, which were said to have near impenetrable hides. And so, over the course of seventy years the very first deep space ship was created, tested, and eventually launched.

Since that time, nearly two hundred deep space vessels have been created. Then in the forty sixth century a breakthrough occurred. Scientists were able to synthetically make Draconic. This allowed for a huge production increase, and thus the United Federations Space Militia was born.

At first the UFSM was used to protect Earth from rouge asteroids large enough to cause global disasters, but then around three hundred years after its inception, Earth was visited by a group of Non-Terrans. They did not say what their race was called, only that they were traders. Before now they had avoided this sector because it was far too barbaric, no useful technology at all. But now that there were space ships made from a substance they could not identify, they were interested in this little blue planet.

They met with the World Minister of that decade and struck up a deal, forty million cubic meters of Draconic for a manufacturing process of a substance known to man as Lithium. A great power source that had been squandered hundreds of centuries back in the Second Nuclear World War. It was this transaction that propelled mankind into the age of space.

A century later humanity inhabited two percent of the planets in the galaxy and from this the Earth Alliance was birthed. Which brings us up the present, a galactic stage poised for war, waiting for the one side or the other to pull the trigger.

Chapter 1

Present Day

Our story starts on Astral Date 2.28.6060. The EA has grown into one of the largest and most powerful forces in the galaxy. Its military might is one of the greatest in the universe, empowered by over a quarter trillion ships. The EA now inhabits over ten percent of the galaxy and it is looking for more planets to inhabit. Mankind’s curiosity is still as persistent as ever, causing them to pursue relations with alien races despite the possible ramifications that these relations might have. The road to this point has been rocky. More then once there has been a war among the peoples of the Earth Alliance, more then once has blood been shed over ideals and what exactly the EA should stand for. But the entire Alliance was now in a time of prosperity under its newest Dictator, Supreme Admiral Terskanov. He was noted for his dashing appearance and his witty personality. He was of very sound judgment and had wisdom seldom found in even the oldest of scholars. He was a fierce believer in interstellar peace, he was willing and had done what ever was necessary to bring fighting parties together to peaceful ends.

He was an entrepreneur at heart and played the card very well. He secured many a deal with allied races for commodities and resources, even entire solar systems. He was herald as a street-smart ruler, listening to anyone that wanted him to hear him or her; he was loved by almost everyone. Though there were some pockets of resistance, but that was to be expected with an empire as large as the Alliance was. He had served in the military for thirteen years and was then promoted out of the military and into the Galactic Senate where he won respect from many. He then used that respect to launch himself higher, until he reached his ultimate goal; the Galactic Dictator. He wanted to end all of the petty bickering within the Alliance. Too many lives were wasted over resource rich planets or over more habitable solar systems and who got to live there. He stopped it all with a speech that was said to resonate within the entire Alliance. It was his acceptance speech as he took office,

“My fellow Alliance citizens. I take up this post with the greatest humility. I am humbled that you have chosen me for this greatest office of responsibility that we possess. I will not use my authority tyrannically, but instead only to make this Alliance as strong as possible. We are a small speck in this universe, but let’s not let that stop us from becoming the best that we can be,” he stopped at this point and looked a little tense at what he was about to announce, “From this point forward all militias are to be consolidated into the Earth Alliance Outer Space Military or E.A.O.S.M. I do this knowing that it will not be well received. But please understand, if each system has control over it’s own military, only more war and death will result as we vie for more habitable living conditions, or more resource competent worlds to colonize. This is not the direction we need to move in, we must consolidate; we must merge in order to be able to protect this entire Alliance. I am talking about universal coverage of every system in the Earth Alliance. Space defense stations, military outposts, orbital stations, planetary defenses the likes that have rarely been seen in this galaxy. Once we have protected ourselves from the universe then we can start exploring it again. I am from henceforth ending all exploration missions. Current missions will be completed, but no new missions will be given. We will collect precise coverage data from each system, and decide based on this data where ships need to be moved. We will then route materials to begin construction on space stations and defenses. In thirty years I plan to have ninety five percent of this Alliance guarded, the rest to follow within the next seven years. And in the last years of my office term I plan to start extensive exploration missions so that we may strength our political relations with other races. Within the next two hundred years we will make this Alliance the most respected group of planets this universe has ever seen.”

He paused at this point and took a deep calming breath, “I am not going to say that there will not be problems. That would be juvenile of me. We may even face our mortality before we can accomplish our goals. It is in the hands of the Creator what our fates will be, but we can help nudge this in the correct direction by our actions. I will lead us through whatever may come our way, for better or worse. I will praise you the people for our triumphs, and place blame only to myself for our failures. With your trust and respect and support, we will build a thriving community that will hopefully one day be a large part in every day intergalactic commerce.” And with that he changed almost every opinion in the Alliance to prosperity over greed.

It was almost too good to be true. It was exactly as he had said; the Earth Alliance was growing to be a major power in the galaxy. But with this upsurge also came it’s downsides. Many outer lying planets in the EA that were not as ideologically the same as Terskanov formed insurgency groups to try and usurp him. Several times they almost succeeded too. Terskanov was the plot of several assassination attempts by outside forces, but some how had managed to survive all of it, and his character only grew more magnanimous from it. And then, at the end of an era, the unthinkable happened.

A rouge militant group was able to penetrate into the EAOSM. They had enough operatives in place to perform a Coup de Tat and assassinated Terskanov and his family on a dreary autumn evening. It was a tragedy that broken the spirit of the EA. This is what led to the militarization of the EA. No more were they brokers of peace, the newly instated Dictator saw to that. His name was Kaikus Flander, a ruthless Admiral that had been discharged for slaying insubordinate soldiers. The now terrorist controlled senate had pushed him into power. He made swift changes, ordering the production of military vessels be increased by five hundred percent. He even designed some of the more deadly crafts himself, favoring weapon power over protection, but that did not matter, as the ships he designed were massive behemoths. He was the creator of the very first EAOSM Mothership. It was capable of fighting a small war all on it’s own. After his reign of terror many Dictators that followed him had the same ultra communist views as he did. Soon Terskanov’s vision for the EA dissolved and it be came one of the deadliest military forces in the galaxy.

That brings us to the present, Astral Date 8.10.6197, a year before the longest and deadliest war in the EA’s history would take place.

Chapter 2

The War

It was an average day aboard the EAOSM-Telsa. The Telsa was a battleship class ship designed for long-range scouting. They had received orders to penetrate into sector 9A8320-B to search for possible insurgents. So far a scouring search of ninety percent of the sector had turned up nothing. The Captain, Gillart Fortesque, was growing restless and unnerved that maybe they were on a goose chase. He turned around in his chair and asked the security officer, Corey Wilson, if he had picked up any unusual scans for what must have been the one-hundredth time.

“No Sir, nothing to report, scans are all clear, no abnormalities,” Wilson told him. Gillart sighed, seven weeks without anything to show for, his job would be on the line if he did not show some results. He had had the worst luck of the fleet. In over thirteen scout missions he had turned up nothing at all to show for them. He relieved Wilson and took over his post for a while; back at the Space Academy he had been top of his class when it came to space vessel operation, he had a certain nack for things that other students didn’t. He changed a few scanner modulation settings and set them on another full range scan. It took nine minutes to complete and turned up nothing but space dust. He posted a lieutenant at the post and retired for the evening. One of his favorite pass times while traveling the cosmos was reading. He liked old world literature like Shakespeare the best, but lately he became entranced by the life history of Aliexi Terskanov. He found his life very interesting, he had united the Alliance more efficiently then anyone before or since him, not that the Dictator’s that followed tried to unite, they were more into forced compliance; using fear to control. It was an effective method for a military takeover though. He looked over to the clock built into his desk; the display read two thirty am. He closed the book and retired for the night.

He awoke the next day and reported to the bridge. He asked for the status report from last night; no luck, nothing was caught on the scanners, another day wasted. He was sure now that his career was over. He asked the helmswoman, Alicia Faucet, if there was anything of interest in this sector. Alicia was fairly young for an officer, only being sixteen. As she turned around to reply Gillart got his first good look at her since she joined his crew. She had straight red hair that fell to her shoulders and a pretty face; stunningly green eyes.

“Nothing really that interesting, Sir. Though there is an unusual moon about thirty light years from here. According to the records it has a high level of proton storms that make the surface light up occasionally, it’s supposed to be breath taking,” she said in a mild voice. “Very well, let’s go see this planet. I am tired of searching for something that’s not here,” Gillart said ecstatically; glad to be doing something other then searching his life away. It took them several hours to reach the planet, but it was indeed breath taking. Gillart had the First Officer, Hans Vestor, kill all the lights except the emergency lights through out the ship so everyone could get a good view of the planet. Lights danced around its surface as if they were putting on a show for whoever was watching. He sat entranced by it, staring endlessly at its beauty. Then he noticed something unusual. The Proton Storms did not affect the polar north side of the planet.

“Wilson, scan the poles of that planet will you,” Gillart said, Wilson gave a sort of jerk, as he was broken out of his daydream,

“Huh? Oh, yes, right away, Sir!” Gillart listened to the beeps carefully as the scanners combed over the poles, and his heart jumped when he heard the beeping become loud and fast.

“What is it Wilson?” He asked hurried. Wilson did not answer quickly, but when he did there was a little fear in his voice.

“Sir, I am detecting a ship down there, a gigantic one.”

“Put it up on the screen,” Gillart said quickly, intent on seeing what he had found. What he had found had him lost for words. Even on a ten times scanner image you could see the ship, it was massive, at least either hundred thousand kilometers in length. He swallowed hard and said to Wilson, “Get some images over to EAC, and get as close with the scanners as you can. Do you detect any power signatures?”

“No, Sir, its dead in the water. Scans estimate it to be at a depth of seventy thousand meters under the surface of the Northern Ocean. Estimated size…seven hundred and fifty kilometers in length, twenty seven thousand kilometers in width. Estimated firepower is through the roof, according to the scans and computer computations its theoretically hundreds of times stronger then the Mother Herald!”

At hearing this Gillart was stunned, “Stronger then our strongest Mothership?! What the hell is that thing?” A beeping startled all of the bridge staff.

“It’s a transmission from Dictator Herrison, Sir!” announced Vestor, “Priority class alpha nine.”

“Put it through a triple encrypted channel to the main viewer, make sure the data stream is scrambled, something this important we don’t want slipping out,” Gillart said quietly as Alicia worked on the security.

“Captain Fortesque, I hear you found something in the 9A8320-B sector?” said an elderly man. He was partially bald and had a strong looking face. His cold gray eyes stared right into Gillart’s.

"Ay, Sir. A massive ship, as you can undoubtedly see from the scanner images. We will send you the theoretical computer constrapulated data now. So far we have not detected any signs of power at all, it just appears to be either hidden or abandoned,” Gillart said nervously. He had never talked with the Galactic Dictator face to face; this was a very delicate time.

“Hmm, how unsettling. This thing is that powerful? What planet is it located on?” Herrison asked. Gillart looked all around the bridge before Alicia spoke up,

“It’s a Class N moon called Ryainith VII, it’s supposed to be a planet made entirely of water,” she answered curtly. Herrison looked interested. He thought for a short time then said,

“Very will, I am sending the Kering to your position. This would be a good time to test our latest weapon, the Apocalypse bomb. They said it’s supposed to destroy small to medium sized planets; this should be a good test run. It will also get us access to what ever this is. Prepare for their arrival in six days. Make sure no one, and I mean absolutely no one, gets near that before then. Those are your orders. If you complete this mission, you will all be bumped to our Spec Ops fleet.” As he finished the transmission ended. Gillart was shocked, a promotion that high just for guarding this thing for six days? He must think that it’s something of grave importance.

“Alright, you heard him, I want everyone to their stations and this ship fully staffed twenty four seven till the Kering gets here. I want all scanners at full capacity. If even as much as a rock moves out there I want to see it. We are locking down this entire quadrant,” Gillart shouted. Everyone moved at once issuing orders over the com system and sounding the Red Alert. Scanners were adjusted to one hundred sixty percent output and all weapons bays were loaded. Gillart was not going to budge an inch for anything, even a damned hostile Battleship.

The six days flew by with the constant scanner and ship reports that Gillart was roving over. On August twentieth around four pm, Gillart was hailed by Captain Hail of the Kering. They were ready to commence the testing of the bomb. Gillart was ordered seven astronomical units away. He had the scanners trained at maximum on the planet as the bomb exploded. It was horrific; the planet was split in half and slowly evaporated. What they saw was absolutely shocking. As the planet evaporated more and more of a super ship was coming into view, they had overly underestimated its size. The planet hard dwarfed both ships at a radius of five Au. This ship that was inside took up almost seventy percent of the room inside the planet; it was a behemoth. After the moon was gone they could all see the ship fully. Gillart was in total shock. He ordered a channel be opened to the Kering.

“Hail, what the hell is that thing?! It’s big enough to be a God damn warship,” Gillart exclaimed.

“I know Gill, I know, this is way beyond our technology. But you can bet your ass that the Old Man is going to be ecstatic. He has been looking for something to give us the ultimate edge over everyone, and here it is. Good Lord, this thing is massive, you could fit half the Spec Ops fleet in there.” Hail said in amazement.

“Sir, the Dictator is requesting a transmission,” Wilson said.

“Put him through, he has to see this, my God,” Gillart said.

“So, what did you find?” Herrison asked eagerly, he had a pipe in his mouth. Gillart issued Wilson to send the images. Herrison’s eyes widened and the pipe came flying from his mouth as he exclaimed, “Good God!” After he was over the initial shock everyone noticed the manic look in his eyes. “Right, I want you and the crew of the Kering to board that thing. Hail is in charge so follow his orders. I want you to get that thing operational and back to EAC as soon as possible!” The transmission was ended and everyone went to work.

“See, what did I tell ya, Heheheh,” chuckled Hail as he shook Gillart’s hand. They had been roommates back in their academy days; Hail was a better pilot then Gillart and got graduated early and got one of the best ships in the entire military. They searched for hours for the bridge. The ship was massive. It was full of strange technology they had never seen before. Wilson was the man of the hour when he found a teleporter that had a sign that read “To Bridge”. As the stepped into it they were whisked off by some invisible current at break neck speed through the bowls of the ship. They glimpsed the engine room and saw thirty massive warp drives and several power cores covered in dust. After what seemed to be forty minutes they arrived at the bridge. Control panels lined almost every inch of the room. Hail found the Captains chair and sat down in it. Almost immediately the ship came to life. Screens came on, lights switched on, they could heard the power cores coming back online with loud screeches as if they had been dormant for far too long and were running against rusted bearings. Dust and mold was raining down from the ceiling as the ship shuddered. Then it stopped, all systems were go. Life support, engines, weapons, propulsion systems were still warming up. Gillart inspected the weapons control panel and gasped.

“What is it?” Hail asked. Gillart replied slowly,

“This ship, it’s super advanced. Anti-Matter missiles? Plasma Warp injector coils? Hybrid Nuclear Lithium Dual Power Cores? It’s like straight out of a fantasy book.” Hail was impressed; this was a warship beyond all doubt.

“Well, let’s get this hunk of bolts moving, judging by the size, it isn’t going to go very fast.” Hail had his helmsman, Bert Yoslin, plot a course back to Earth Alliance Command at max speed. He was surprised when the engines kicked on, a massive jolt was felt and the ship rocketed forward. They were making good time, then several pings could be heard from the scanners. “What’s that?” Asked Hail. Gillart skidded to the console and start punching keys.

“Crap! Unidentified ships; Destroyer class. I see thirteen of them in all.” Hail’s face went grim and said,

“Open a channel.” Yoslin did so. Hail then said, “Unidentified ships, please leave the area. This is a EAOSM controlled vessel, we do not want any confrontations.” A video feed appeared on a screen in the fore section of the bridge. What inhabited it no one knew; it was a sentient, slug like in appearance. When it spoke it’s voice was grating.

“We are members of the Sliukan Royal Armada. We demand you abandon that ship and retreat at once!” Hail tensed, his instincts told him this was not going to lead anywhere good.

“And if we refuse?”

“We will board you and kill every last one of your crew and take all three ships from your puny Earth Alliance clutches,” the Sliukan general said coldly. Hail was sure he didn’t like the situation now. Herrison had said to deliver the ship no matter what, so it was unavoidable, they would have to do combat.

“Gill, Yoslin, get over to the weapons console and bring the systems online. I don’t want to do this but we have strict orders,” he said quietly. Gillart rushed over to the console and started pressing the buttons that would bring the missile systems online.

“Lars, turrets one through seven are active, all of the laser banks are coming online now,” he said to Hail. Yoslin was on the other console bringing up the ships targeting system. They had finished not a moment too soon as the Sliukan hailed them again.

“So, what is your answer human?” General Tsunak asked gratingly. Hail stared grimly back at the Sliukan then said calmly,

“Prepare yourselves, we will not hand this ship over so easily.” The Sliukan spat on the ground and ended the transmission. “Get the bloody shields up!” Hail issued to his lieutenant commander, Rog Jersal. Rog turned in his chair and said quickly,

“Sir, the shields are non-operational. The generator is shot.”

“Damn, probably because it was stuck in that planet for so long. Fine, divert what ever power you can to keeping structural integrity, those ships are coming around for their first pass, all hands brace for impact!” As the first of the Sliukan Skull Missiles hit the hull of the ship it groaned and shook. The lights flickered in the bridge as dust and rust fell from the ceiling. “Damage report?” Hail said with urgency. “No damage detected so far Sir,” Yoslin called back. The Sliukan’s launched another wave of missiles at them and this time there was a wicked crash that cause everyone to fall to the ground as alarms began to sound.

“The hell happened?” Hail said as he got off the floor. No one answered immediately. Gill stood up, slightly stunned. A pipe had fallen and hit him in the shoulders. He looked up dazed at the monitor in front of him.

“We took damage to our secondary warp drive Hail. Several plasma conduits through out the ship have exploded.” Hail gritted his teeth as he helped the rest of the crew back on their feet.

“Right, get a lock on those bastards, let’s see what exactly this beaut’ can do.”

“Missiles targeting, lock on’s in seven seconds!” Yoslin said. Hail counted it down. When he reached zero he yelled,

“Fire all!” There was a loud crash as the missiles fired, on the main view they all watched in amazement as at least thirty missiles took flight and headed directly for the Sliukan ships. It was over in a second, their entire force had been decimated. Only one ship was left after the missiles had impacted. It was severely damaged however. “Get tractor beams locked onto that ship, I want the crew of it back here alive. We’re takin’ em back to EAC with us,” Hail issued.

Gillart locked the tractor beam on the ship and pulled it within transporter range. He put up a class a containment field and beamed the Sliukan crew into it. He released the tractor beam not a moment too soon. The Sliukan ship’s core had breached and it has exploded. With the prisoners in custody Hail asked for a damage report. Several decks of the ship had been flooded with radiation. The missile barrage they had launched had ripped one of the launching mechanisms clean off the bay and it had crashed into one of the Reactor Cores. Several more decks were flooded with plasma. The secondary warp drives were damaged and would not operate and the impulse engines were shot. All in all they lost eighteen crewmen. It would take them several weeks to limp back to the EAC in this condition. They had found the brig and thrown the Sliukan into it. Hail made a formal report to Herrison. He was slightly angry that so much damage had been cause but he was also happy with the weapons output. He had ordered a Spec Op’s regiment to detail them as they made their way back to avoid further damage.

The Spec Ops team arrived several days later and they were all stunned at the size of the ship they were set to guard. The rest of the trip was uneventful, it seemed these Sliukan were rouge militants.

On the first day of the week before they would reach EAC the Dictator contacted them and told them that this day would become a National holiday for the EA. He also said he had received the reports from the scientists sent with the Spec Ops team to examine the ship. They had found an encoded archive in the ships mainframe. It took several days to crack but it held an amazing wealth of information. He was going to debrief everyone on their return. Hail and Gillart spent their time playing Subokin against each other, a kind of military strategy game that they used in the Academy to build up students' tactical awareness and methodology. Gillart was one of the best strategists of his year, second to only Hail so their games lasted a very long time. The current one they had been playing for several weeks.

The return trip had taken a while three months longer then anticipated due to the damage to the propulsion system. The ship was made out of a strong material, but it was too weak to stop impacts such as the Skull Missiles of the Sliukan, which prior to hitting the hull use rocket thrusters to add over seventy thousand pounds of thrust to the missile, causing it to slam as deep as possible before exploding. As they approached the EAC HQ the Spec Ops team signed off and returned about their regular duties. A docking tunnel had been extended out from the station so that they could hard dock to it. Hail nudged it ever so slightly with the thrusters. He almost had it and then he tapped the control a little too aggressively. The ship skidded sideways against the tunnel and caused some minor damage.

“Whoops… Heheheh,” Hail whispered nervously. He realigned it and preformed the dock. AS they opened the door a rush of sound came through the tunnel. People were backed around the opposite end screaming and yelling in joy and triumph. Hail and Gillart and their crews were the people of the day. They were ushered through a veritable tidal wave of hands and faces to several black limos that were waiting outside of the station dock. They were driven to an estate about thirty minutes away. When they arrived, giant gold gates opened in admittance. As they drove down the over-kept driveway they could see a large white and cream building looming just ahead. Hail recognized it at once; it was the Office of the Dictator. The cars pulled around a fountain and stopped at a series of steps leading up to the front door. They were let out and led up to the building. Gillart was about to knock when the front doors opened wide and Herrison stood before them.

“Welcome friends. Come inside, we have much to discuss. But first we must have some tea! Gregory! Show our guests to the tea hall please, I will be there shortly, I must finish up a meeting with the delegates from Tsvuor about that weapons trade agreement.” He said promptly.

“As you wish, Sire,” said an aging man probably around his late seventies. He led the group to a small; compared to the rest of the manor, room just off the main hall. It was well lit from the many gold encrusted windows that lined the white walls. A large crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room over a long oak table. On the wall directly opposite the door was the Earth Alliance crest and pictures of previous Dictators lined the walls. Everyone took a seat and looked around at the grandness. Several of the officers were interested in the paintings on the walls, examining past Dictators with a critical eye. Hail and Gillart sat opposite each other and exchanged anxious glances when the Dictator entered the room followed by Gregory who was pushing a large tea trolley. Once everyone had their tea and was comfortable, Herrison continued.

“As you know, you found a massive discovery inside of that moon. We have a group of scientists board your ship when the Spec Ops division arrived. They scoured the ships database until they found an archive hidden away in the mainframe of the computer core. They sent it back to us and we worked for days to decrypt it; it was fairly sophisticated. But that’s besides the point, what this archive contained was all of the data that was contained on that ships computer at some point in time, presumably before it was abandoned or crashed. What really happened to it we don’t now; there is no mention of any thing of the sort in the document.” He stopped for a second as he glanced down at the data chart he had in front of him.

“From what we can tell, this ship is the most advanced piece of technology anywhere in the universe. We might be able to reverse engineer it for mass production. If we can, there’s nothing to stop us. According to this data in front of me, what you saw from that battle was only a portion of its true power. We found certain command codes that are supposed to cause something to happen with the ship. We aren’t exactly sure what though, but its some kind of transformation process. This ship might be even bigger then it is now. My people are busy studying the codes and re-fabricating them for use with our systems so we can input them remotely.” He paused again.

“Now, from what we could gather from the archive there are most likely eight other ships like this one somewhere in the galaxy. A race called the Kazahth. This was their Mothership; we think that the codes cause the ship to morph into its true form, a vessel capable of housing an entire civilization. Granted, the Kazahth were not a very large race, it wouldn’t hold the entirety of the Earth Alliance, but it would hold a good portion. We also know that it was heavily armed to protect their race. According to the data the class name of the ships of this type are Titans.” There was another pause as he skimmed through the notes in front of him.

“We found very detailed schematics for the ship and we believe that we can rebuild the majority of it with Draconic. This is going to take a very long time, but once it is done, it will be the EAOSM Flagship. This time tomorrow we will see what kind of ship it really is.” He stopped yet again and put the data chart down and rubbed his face. He let out a long sigh then said cautiously,

“We interrogated the Sliukan prisoners you brought back. Before they died we got a lot of useful information out of them. The Sliukan are preparing for a war with us. According to their sources, we staged an assassination of seven of their High Delegates, and another eight of their top researchers and stole schematics to top secret Sliukan stealth vessels. Which of course are all false, but they probably wont listen to reason. This could turn bad, and fast. I have been trading information with several trader races and have picked up snatches of information here and there about these aliens. Their empire is said to encompass over seven thousand systems, maybe around nine hundred trillion planets. It’s huge. Though they don’t have access to Draconic so their ships are not as structurally stable as ours, their weapons technology is above par. If a full out war ensues, there’s going to be heavy casualties on both sides. That’s all I have to report, you are all dismissed,” he announced as he got up to leave. Everyone sat in silence for a while; absorbing all the information they had just heard. Gillart was the first to break it.

“So, this is what all the importance was about. Imagine a ship that could hold an entire civilization. Who ever these Kazahth were, I bet they would look at us, and call us newborn primitives, ha.” Hail looked over at him in amusement and said,

“Damn straight. This is way over theoretical technology. It’s going to take a hell of a long time to reverse engineer it. Right now I am more worried about he Sliukan, this could become a major problem. Well let’s wait and see. Only time will tell.”

R&R was at the top of the list for the newly formed crew of the EAOSM Spec Ops ship Eclipse. Hail and Gillart shared a joint captaincy. They had both been promoted to commodore after they had returned from their last mission. Gillart spent is time sleeping on a beach on some remote island in the Caribbean, while Hail was spending lot’s of time at the academy’s space flight simulator. The rest of the crew were scattered across Earth. Two days passed and they were all summoned to the Space Station for the transformation viewing. Everything was ready; the transform codes had been rewritten to run through the stations computers. Once everyone was assembled on the Fore-Bridge the operation commenced. Since the ship had been powered down to allow for maintenance teams to work on the major problem areas from the Sliukan attack it had to be restarted. It was the first time Hail had seen it power up from an external view.

At first just the running lights sprang up around the ship. Then, slowly, compartment lights flickered on. Eventually whole blocks sprang to life with light until the whole ship was now getting power.

“Ready to begin, Sir” one of the men at the large console at the head of the bridge announced to Herrison. He nodded and the execute key was pressed. It was a waiting game at this point, would the codes work, or would they fail due to the modifications.

Minutes dragged by like hours as everyone waited for something to happen, then suddenly Hail noticed something and shouted,

“Hey, the ship is splitting! It’s slow, but you can still see it!” Others were murmuring in agreement while some still did not see it. But a few minutes later no one was in doubt that something was happening. Which a sudden burst of energy, the ship was split straight down the middle, It was expanding on runners to twice its previous size. Once this stopped the half grew together. The ship was building sections itself, connecting the separated halves together again. A real-time schematic of the ship showed that new pathways and power cores were being built at high speeds. New Weapons bays and laser banks were also seen being build. The ships main drive was improved and there were far more warp cores then before. In a blistering fifteen minutes of activity it was over, the transformation was completed. They were not looking at the true form of the Mothership of the Kazahth a massive ship wider then the Earth. Then there was a yell of shock. Hail looked around and saw that it came from the man sitting at the schematics console.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. The man answered shakily,

“I-I just noticed a large amount of Draconic being pulled in to the ship by its tractor beam. When this happened half of the ships hull became denser!”

“What?!” shouted Herrison, “Are you saying the ship is acting on it’s own?!”

“Sorry, sorry. We should have mentioned it sooner,” said a middle-aged scientist who was part of the team responsible for rewriting the transformation codes.

“Told us what?!” spat Herrison.

“Told you that we figured out exactly how the code works and ways that we can use it to automate the ship into performing maintenance on itself. We programmed it to take two large shipments of Draconic and fuse it into its superstructures. It’s going to keep doing that until every part of it has been rebuilt with Draconic.” Herrison had a stupefied look on his face, and then he said,

“Really? Good God, this technology is so far out of our grasp. That single computer could run the entire Earth Alliance. WAIT! You said it was going to repair itself with one more shipment of Draconic? Perfect, just in time, we are going to need that ship very soon.” Just as he had finished a woman sitting at a coms station said,

“Sir, reports just in from sectors eight, nine, thirty, thirty two, twenty nine, and seventeen. They have all been attacked by some unknown militant group, but based on descriptions I’d say regiments of Sliukan warships.” Everything went silent. Hail knew it was bound to happen. A deadly war was now underway; one that would last eight years and end in tragedy.

Chapter 3

Battle at New Liyra

It had been several days since the transformation test run. The Titan was half way done with its maintenance but it would take several years for then to repair it back to full capacity, some of the warp drivers were severely damaged and the leaking power core had shut down permanently. This core provided power to the weapons systems. With out it, it was just a target only capable of ferrying massive amounts of ships to battles. Herrison was busy with the Sliukan advancement into EA space. They were attempting an aggressive take over. Thirty sectors had fallen under their control so far and there was furious fighting going on in another ten. Casualties were high on both sides, but the Sliukan were crashing through the EA defenses as if they were not there. Their Skull Missiles were deadly to anything not strong enough to block their penetrating power. Herrison was taking a key interest of protecting New Liyra, a very important EA strong hold. It was the second biggest ship manufacturing plant in EA space and the Sliukan were attempting to get to it to destroy it. It would be a crushing loss to the EA if they succeeded as 25% of the ships processed came from that hub. Within the hour reports had reached them that New Liyra was under attack. Herrison made his decision and called an emergency meeting of all militant officers present at Earth. Over five hundred people were crammed into the War Room of EAC as Herrison dolled out orders.

“I want the Caprica, Yomoto, and Gilmesh to reinforce the front lines at Juntin Sector. Warsong, Telsa, and Kering, go to the Relo Sector and reinforce the reserve divisions there, take some medical ships. I want the Helios, Avenger, Basher, Xanin, Ceals, Hammer, and Eclipse to proceed to New Liyra at top speed. This system must not fall,” Herrison, said this last order with emphasis on every syllable, “All other ships are to report to the sectors surrounding New Liyra and reinforce the defense lines there. Those are your orders, move out!”

As the captains and first officers filled out of the room, Gillart and Hail caught up with the new captains of their old ships.

“You keep those ships together mates, we don’t want our babies damaged. They might not be ours anymore, but were still sentimental,” Hail laughed as he slapped Captain Grant on the back.

“You guys just keep your gluts attached to your backs, I hear that Liyra is a veritable death zone, good luck to you and your crews,” Grant said slyly. Hail got their entire crew together and they boarded the Eclipse for the second time. It was a mid-range Spec Ops ship. Its hull was made out of enhanced Draconic and it also had a secondary hull made from a material developed in the 19th century, which was greatly improved in the 26th century, which made the ship less detectable to scanners. Hail issued the orders and they left port a hour later. Traveling at warp 13 they arrived at New Liyra within two hours. When they got there everyone was put into a state of shock; the entire sector was littered with scrap.

“Jesus…” was all that Gillart could manage to say; he was lost for words. Hail regained his composure and ordered them to proceed to the factory. AS they approached they were relieved to see it was even still there. Around thirty Sliukan ships were advancing on it in the distance. They received a audio only transmission from the lead command ship, the Lion.

“Eclipse eh? Good, you the only one here? Or just the first?” asked Captain Nert. This question caught Hail off guard; they had left after the rest of the fleet assigned to come here. His heart was pounding as he responded,

“No one else has arrived besides us?”

“Nope, we were just about to send a transmission asking where our reinforcements were,” Nert said, a slight uneasiness in his voice.

“Sir, we left after an armada of four hundred ships was ordered to this quadrant, you’re saying that none of the sectors reported any reinforcements?” Hail said weakly.

“Other sectors? Where have you been, there are no other sectors, the Sliukan sent a army through here not more then 5 hours ago that completely wiped out almost every sector surrounding us.”

“Sir, there’s a distress signal coming through from somewhere between Earth and out current position, its exact origin can’t be pinpointed,” Yoslin announced.

“Put it through, now!” Hail issued. It was audio only, he had Yoslin patch it through to the Lion as well. It was from one of the Spec Ops ships in the fleet assigned to Liyra.

“This is a distress call from the Xen, we are under attack by an unknown Sliukan vessel. I repeat we ar….” Then there was nothing but static.

“Sir, there is an image encoded in the signal! I will put up on the main view screen,” Wilson said quickly as he punched buttons. It came up on screen for the Lion as well and Gillart summed up what all three captains were thinking,

“What in God’s name is that?!” They were looking at an image of a massive ship. It was covered in spike like protrusions and green disruptor charges were flying from it in every direction. Nert whispered something and Hail told him to speak up.

“It’s the Sliukan flagship, the Viserater. That’s the bastard that took out half the sectors surrounding us, it was leading a fleet of one thousand ships. God help those poor bastards, they as good as dead. Well Hail, let’s get moving, we have a Factory to protect you know.” Hail agreed and ordered the Eclipse into the fray. Missiles and lasers were shooting in every direction; Hail took manual flight control of the Eclipse and was guiding them expertly around ordering missiles and laser batteries every so often. Their shields were down to twenty percent when they too a nasty hit from a Skull Missile into one of their port engines. Gillart only just managed to shut it down before it overloaded. Hail was furious; he ordered a full out assault on any enemy ships in a surrounding radius of seventeen kilometers. Explosions lit up the area like fire flies as the Sliukan ships were destroyed. After several furious hours of fighting tooth and nail the Sliukan retreated, almost eighty percent of their force was destroyed. Across the EAOSM still left there was celebrating. They had won the sector back for now. Hail contacted the factory and told them to put as many automated vessels as they had into operation for extra guard. He also ordered a communication be sent to EAC to report the situation. HE also asked for a direct connection to Herrison’s office. Gillart was preset to hear Hail’s report.

“Sir, we took hefty losses, and the armada that was sent never made it here. The Sliukan intercepted them and they were completely wiped out. We have automated vessels helping us guard Liyra for now, but if they come back through with a force of that magnitude again, this place is finished.” Herrison looked unnerved.

“We just got reports that Relo and Juntin have been completely overtaken by the Sliukan. None of out forces survived. Screw Liyra for now, they can fend for themselves, I want you back here with the Lion. WE have reports that the enemy is preparing a direct assault on Earth.” At hearing this Hail stood up and said,

“They are going for the throat? Damn, what about the Mirage?”

“The titan is almost combat ready. We are working as hard as possible to reroute power from a different core to the weapons systems, but we might not make it. But if we do, there’s no chance they will win. But just in case I want both you and the Lion back here ASAP. Got that?” Herrison said, a fire shown in his eyes.

“Ay Sir!” Hail saluted. He contacted the Lion and sent a transmission to Liyra telling them to hold out for as long as possible, but if it looked like they were going to be overtaken, set the auto destruct and get the hell out. They arrived back at Earth within a few hours. No Sliukan were to be seen. Hail saw a line of ships going into the Titan, undoubtedly full of engineers attempting to get the weapons system back on line. The Eclipse and the Lion docked at the station and were immediately summoned to the bridge.

“Hail, Gillart, Nert, good timing, we just received word from outpost 56-AV42T that the Sliukan army is approaching, I have them on full alert. They should be here in three hours; we will have the titan operational by then. I want you on it. Hail, Gillart, since you have operated it before, you are in charge. Nert, follow their orders,” Herrison said from his perch. The captains nodded and went to collect their crews. They were on the first express shuttle to the titan they could find. When they arrived the engineering team had just finished. Gillart was amazed at how much the ship had changed. The bridge was now three times as big and had two captains’ chairs. As they both sat down the bridge began to come into operation. Yoslin, Wilson, and Nert were all ordered to the weapons station while Alicia, Karin, and Gray were set to shield operations. Various other crew members were assigned to posts. Hail ordered the Mirage to be moved to face the direction where the Sliukan would be arriving. There was beeping as they saw space beginning to distort.

“Sir, multiple spatial anomalies detected two hundred thousand kilometers ahead of us!” Leroy Sect, Nert’s first officer, announced. Then they could see the wormholes open and the Sliukan force starting to emerge. Hundreds upon hundreds of ships were poring out from seven wormholes. Then they say the Viserater materialize behind all of them. Hail gulped audibly as they were hailed. When they accept the transmission a Sliukan Admiral appeared on the screen. He was ancient looking; he was also clad in battle armor made from what looked to be silver. As he spoke his voice crackled with pneumonia,

“We, the Grand Royal Armada of the Sliukan Empire hereby decree that this space now belongs to us. All resistance will be met with swift death!”

“Oh I don’t think so, your Sliminess,” Hail said to the Admiral. Gillart chuckled slightly, but thought that Hail’s candor was slightly uncalled for. They were facing and ENTIRE armada after all.

“Insolence! Prepare to be utterly destroyed. All ships attack!” The Sliukan ordered. Hail cut the transmission and said,

Alright gents and ladies; it’s time to test this ship out. Don’t worry about the Skull Missiles; they shouldn’t be able to penetrate the hull now, its eighteen feet thick Enhanced Draconic. I want as many missile and laser locks as possible before the first volley, fire when they have covered half the distance to us, then fire at will after that, let’s blast them to smithereens. Right, steady, get those locks up pronto! Good, now steady, Nert, keep that hand from shaking; hit that button too soon and its over! Ok, just a bit longer, hold, hold, almost… Alright fire all!” Hail shouted. Nert and Gillart hammered the launch buttons for every weapons system. In a furious roar hundreds of missiles launched and thousands of lasers ignited. As they watched the barrage slam into the Sliukan army the entire front line exploded in a massive explosion. “FIRE AT WILL!!” Hail roared. Wilson, Nert, and Gillart were busy hammering buttons when they lit up, indicating that the weapons system was reloaded and locked on. “Shields, get the output up to two hundred percent, here they come!”

Sliukan battle ships charged at the Mirage and let loose a barrage of Skull Missiles. Hundreds of them flew at the titan, but as they hit the shields they exploded, they could not penetrate the reinforced shielded Draconic. Gillart could see the Viserater coming in for an attack and issued a warning to Hail,

“If they launch all of their disruptors at us I don’t think the shields will hold!”

“Probably not. Alright, Gillart, Wilson, Nert, lock all weapons on that damned ship, blow it out of the sky!” Just before they could attack the disruptors tore out from the Viserater and slammed into the Mirage. The shields failed and the hull was beginning to buckle from the pounding. Disruptors used massive amounts of plasma accelerated to warp speeds to tear through hulls. The Enhanced Draconic was only just holding under the attack. Once they fired the weapons the Viserater vanished from the scanner. Not because it was destroyed though, the weapons had not reached it yet.

“Damn it, this is one of those Cloak ships I bet. Gillart get over to the scanners, get those modulations changed. You were the one that created the Cloak Wave theory; you know how to detect it. Get moving soldier!” Hail yelled, Gillart jumped up and rushed to take Alicia’s position. He fervently was bent over the console changing settings. Finally he got it and they could barely make out the shape of the Viserater not more then a few hundred meters from the Mirage. It was going to ram them. “Propulsion, full thrusters and reverse engines!” It worked they were pulling away. “Now! Fire the weapons systems at –124859, 21947, 882941. Do it!” Hail yelled himself hoarse as he leaped up from his chair. Nert and Wilson punched in the coordinates and launched systems. The attack was too fast for the Viserater to avoid; it exploded like Hell fire, debris flying in all directions. At this sight, what was left of the Sliukan fleet retreated in desperation. They had won. Hail slumped back down looking completely exhausted. A few minutes later one of the consoles was beeping madly. Hail sat forward eying it carefully.

“Sir, the engines and power cores are over heating. Coolant levels are very low in reactors one through nine. Recommend we shut down immediately,” said Wilson. Hail sighed and said,

“Are there any enemy signatures still, Nert?”

“Nay, Sir. No enemy contact anywhere on the board,” Nert reported back. He gave Wilson the okay and sat back in his chair.

“Put a transmission through to Herrison Gillart,” once it was done he said, “Enemies eliminated, Sir. We took some damage, apparently a coolant line ruptured and our power cores were over heating, we had to shut down. Requesting ferries to reposition the Mirage for repairs.” Herrison looked at him for a second and said,

“Son, for you, sure. Also, on the record, let it be known that today Commodore’s Osle Hail and Gillart Fortesque are here by promoted to Admiral. That was some fine flying out there Hail, I would not expect less, and Fortesque, very nice job with the cloak detection. What I heard about both of you was correct. You are both truly one of a kind officers.”

So, after this battle, losses on both sides were heavy. The Mirage took a full month to repair and the fleet was diminished but being rebuilt. The annals of time would mark this battle one of the fiercest waged in the Eight Year War. Time flowed onward, battles were fought, some were lost and others were won. Year upon year of death and destruction for eight years, and then something happened that made the war a mute point. It was the day that the EA’s back was shattered.

Chapter 4

Fractal

Astral date AC6204.12.20 is where we now resume, eight years and four months after the start of the Eight Years War. A captain by the name of Hilos aboard the EAOSM Gallant, who is headed back for home, unknowingly is about to witness the end of an age.

All was quite this night. Hilos had just been in a battle against a small group of Sliukan vessels for control of a key Sliukan system. The EA needed to control this system to launch a raid deeper into Sliukan space; it was in the perfect area to do so. Dictator Herrison had ordered two divisions of the Spec Ops fleet to attack the Sliukan territories from different sides while a third would attack up the center in a deadly three pronged pincer attack designed to overwhelm any Sliukan forces in the surrounding twelve sectors. The plan had succeeded and there was minimal loses to the EA fleets. The Gallant had taken some damage, however, and had to put into a spaceport soon for repairs.

Hilos opened up his captain’s log and proceeded to write an entry,

“Astral date ac6204.12.20, after a successful mission, we are headed back to Earth for repairs. We took a Skull to the aft of the ship. Our hull blocked most of the impact but one of the Nacelles was caught in the blast and damaged. Feed back from this caused several ship malfunctions as well. Shields are at half capacity, life support failed for thirty minutes while we rerouted power from the warp grid. In doing so we weakened our warp engines are only capable of a warp 3.8KhW output. We are limping home but its going to take us another four days to get there. Just in time for Christmas. I haven’t been back home in almost seven and a half years and the rest of the crew will be pleased as well. They all have families that have been separated from them. Once we get into the Terra quadrant I will send a transmission to my wife and tell her the news. Wow, it’s one am, I better get some shuteye; tomorrow is going to be busy. End log.”

“Astral date ac6204.12.24, just had a chat with the Dock Master. He’s putting our port time right around midnight. We barely made it in time, but we are all ready for some r and r. A few days ago Lt. Commander Jim Gregory reported that the sensor were picking up an intermittent signal. I watch them with him and while and indeed they do. About every ten minutes there is a blip that shows for around six seconds then dissipates. I told him it was most likely a malfunction from the nacelle feedback and I would let the Dock Master know that there was another system to be repaired. On a more bothersome note, I have heard reports from ships all over the battlefield that the Sliukan have vanished. No one can seem to find any of their ships anywhere. It’s very odd indeed. For the past eight years, you could find at least one Sliukan ship without even trying to look for one. I don’t like it at all. An empire like the Sliukan doesn’t just vanish in an instant. I have a bad feeling about this. Anyway, it’s about time I go make my rounds. End log.”

Elsewhere in the Earth Alliance a young man lays underneath a vehicle, attempting to fix an out dated car.

“Hey Midge, can you pass me a Philips head screw driver?” Said a muffled voice from under a Rolls Royce RT8360 Air Car. A slightly short woman with fluffy platinum hair brought over the tool and handed it to the man and said in a sing-song voice,

“Here you go Boss!”

“Thanks!” the voice said. There was banging and popping as the man worked on the engine. Suddenly there was a groan and the man shot out from under the car as the engine shifted downward. “I swear, Bill is gonna own me big time for this one. Not only is this car over a hundred years old and they don’t even make the parts for it anymore and he’s only paying half price for the repairs. Normally I would have said take it somewhere else, but we’re hurting for money this season. Ever since those self-repairing cars went on the market, business has been down.” The man glanced up at the clock and said in shock, “It’s already almost midnight?!” Midge answered in a I told you so way,

“Just like I said about an hour ago. You were too busy working on a super old car that your only getting paid half price to fix.”

“Yeah, that’s because I was trying to keep the damn thing together. Half of the bolts and nuts are rusted out,” the man said as he wiped sweat from his brow, “whew, it’s sure hot tonight for winter.”

As the clock over the office door chimed midnight other things were brewing elsewhere…

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Went the com system in Hilos’ room. He turned over and looked at the clock, twelve ten am. He flailed to find the com response button to stop the infernal racket it was causing. He found it finally and said sternly,

“It’s bloody midnight, what the devil do you want?!”

“I know Sir, but there is a class nine emergency transmission coming from EACHQ,” a voice that Hilos identified as Gregory announced.

“Well what are you waiting for? Put it through!” Fleet Admiral Conner appeared on the view screen in Hilos’ room. His voice was direct and hard, “To all EAOSM vessels. Our empire is facing a grave threat. We have just received intel that the Sliukan have joined forces with the Ju…,” then there was static and then a transmission was put through, audio only.

“To all of the puny Earth Alliance planets, ships, and citizens. This is the Grand Commander of the Juslorth Empire. Prepare for your eradication."

“Where did that transmission just come from Commander!?”

“Captain, you should get up to the bridge, Sir, you have to go to see this..,” Gregory said. Hilos did not know if it was the treat he detected in the transmission or the fear in Gregory’s voice, but he questioned no further and proceeded to the bridge. On arrival he saw a massive ship decloaking off their port. He ordered the helmsman to evade the ship.

“Gregory, get on the computer and see if any vessel matches this configuration. Quickly!” Gregory wasted no time, he had his answer very quickly.

“None, Sir. There is a possible match to the Sliukan vessel Viserater, which was destroyed almost eight years ago by Admiral Gillart Fortesque and late Admiral Osle Hail. It is a similar design, each of the spike ends contains a class h disruptor array capable of outputting fifty GWz of energy. This seems to me a more advanced model, these statistics are probably an underestimate.”

“Even if we don’t stand a chance, we need to at least slow it down a bit. Lock all weapons on to it and prepare to fire on my command. Alright, just a bit more, ok, fire everything we have!” As lasers and missiles charged at the unknown ship its disruptor arrays kicked to life. Several beams passed over the missiles, which exploded in-flight and caused the lasers to dilute out due to interference. Several more hit the Gallant which shuddered wickedly as it’s Nacelles were dissected. Hilos had time for one last thought before the Warp Core exploded. The ship continued onward towards Earth, decimating everything in it’s path. The Mirage, now piloted by Admiral Gillart Fortesque was away on a long odyssey into deep Sliukan territory and would not make it in time.

As Midge and her boss exchanged gifts she flicked the television on. There was a Christmas special on she wanted to watch, but just as she found it, it was preempted by a news report by an allied Alien race..

“Earlier this evening we got several reports of an attack on the Earth Alliance Command Headquarters on Earth. A preciously unknown race calling themselves the Juslorth followed the EAOSM Gallant back to Earth after successfully completing a raid mission in Sliukan space. The ship was reported to have ravaged the fleet stationed at Earth before it vaporized the planet. The secondary Headquarters Stationed in the Sigma Quadrant advises everyone to stay calm while they sort out what exactly is going on.” The man turned the television off and looked over at Midge, stunned at the events reported. Midge looked as though she was going to cry. Before either of them could say anything and explosion rocked the ground around them. The night sky lit up like a light bulb as a mushroom cloud appeared in the sky. People were now running through the streets in panic. The man ran to the from of his business and saw a wave of blue coming from the direction of the blast. AS it reached him he felt as though time has stopped and then he was aware of nothing.

The man awoke lying face down on the ground. It was morning, he did not know what day. Midge was laying in the middle of the shop, he awakened her then turned the television on. Every channel had breaking news reports. Many of them were Non-Terran speaking new casts. Finally he found one and listened. The date that was displayed indicated that at least four days had passed since he was knocked out.

“Several days ago an unknown race calling themselves the Juslorth invaded Earth Alliance space and assaulted and then destroyed their Home Planet called Earth. We have since received reports that entire planets have been purged of all life all around the EA Empire. Current numbers indicate that only eight percent of its total planets still have life on them. That’s over two hundred and fifty trillion people killed. We watch and wait in hope that the Earth Alliance is not entirely destroyed.”

The man was stunned. So much death, it was mind boggling. AS he stood in shock, a city wide announcement could be heard,

“All able bodied citizens are to report to the Military Recruitment office immediately to be shipped out to the secondary headquarters for training. Please report to the MR Office, thank you.”

And so begins your journey into the universe. What will happen, none can tell, that is for your to decide. See you in space….