March Third 074 SDE, Delmarka starsystem 1340 hours:

The admiral walked down the corridor. It was another peaceful day at Delmarka. Not surprising since the Union always kept a presence of a hundred thousand ships in the system for defense. Not surprising considering the military importance of the system, as it housed one of the twelve megashipyard complexes in Union space. Being a megashipyard Delmarka was part of how the Union was able to defend her territory against Cylovan incursions. Megashipyards like this one were all vast complexes that could build thousands of ships simultaneously. These complexes weren’t cheap to maintain and operate, and required large amounts of labor and materials to operate at capacity. The Union of course had no shortage of labor, considering the Mydori reached adulthood in just three years and the were quite fertile. Which meant there was no shortage of new blood to crew their ships with, and fill the manpower heavy jobs.

Currently the yard was flooded with damaged ships from recent battles. The Cylovan incursions into their space had seen a sharp rise over the last three years. Which is why the yard was running at full capacity to keep as many ships in the action as possible. Three entire fleets were currently at the yard undergoing refits after a recent incursion at the border. They had repelled the attack, but the costs had been quite high. With a forty percent casualty rate, the wounded ships having been sent here for repairs. Many of the ships also needed replacement crew and officers. Speaking officers the admiral was heading towards the local officer academy branch to observe some final year cadets and give them a surprise lecture on tactics. The cadets were in their sixth and final year of training, they still required some time in the classroom, but for the most part these officers were given responsibilities to gain practical experience. Most of these young officers were only around ten years of age. He knew many of them would be killed in battles with the Collective, but those who distinguished themselves would not only rise through the ranks. They would also earn honor and prestige for their families, and more importantly they were the ones who stood between the Union and defeat at the hands of a relentless menace.

He was just about to enter the classroom for his observation and surprise guest lecture, when klaxons began going off throughout the station. It was an alert telling all officers to report to their stations, and be on standby for enemy attack. He didn’t know why the alarm was sounded, but he responded accordingly. He turned on his heels, and ran for the nearest lift.

March Third 074 SDE, Delmarka starsystem 1355 hours:

The Admiral came out of the lift onto the operations deck. Which was currently an exercise in controlled chaos. People were running around everywhere carrying out various tasks. Shouting about strange energy readings filled the room. The admiral carefully weaved his way through the chaos with practiced ease, and stopped before the commander.

“Captain, care to tell me what is going on?” asked the Admiral, the alert had him a bit worried. They were far enough from the front that it was doubtful that it was a Cylovan attack. There was a Rykoni base not far from this system, but he doubted even those idiots would be stupid enough to attack this complex. The only reason the Rykoni base was even there was because the union was to busy dealing with the Cylovans to wipe out the base. On the plus side they had seen a massive drop in normal pirates and the Rykoni were easier to deal with because they were dumber. It was a miracle that their species even managed to reach space, hence all the theories about them being a failed experiment to create the perfect soldier or being the remnant of a fallen civilization. It was said that some of the elder races, had weapons that could reduce the intelligence of the target. He found those theories hard to believe however.

“Odd energy readings were detected emanating from hyperspace a few minutes ago. We can’t confirm, but my science officer thinks we are witnessing the formation of a hyperwarp conduit,” said the commander. An answer that set of warning bells in the admirals brain.

“A hyperwarp conduit? Have all ships converge on the conduit, you can choose the formation at your discretion. I want all super fortresses to reposition, and armed for battle,” ordered the admiral suspecting this to be a Cylovan action. Just as he gave the orders, an officer shouted.

“Sir, it is definitely a hyperwarp conduit. It has just opened, and something is emerging,” said the officer. The admiral and commander simultaneously ordered for it to be placed on screen. Instantly a blue and violet vortex appeared on the screen, and a massive spherical ship emerged from the vortex. It took the admiral less than a second to recognize it. It was a Cylovan battleship, a threat rarely seen. The last sighting of a battleship had been thirty years ago. Twelve colonies, and thirteen fleets were lost before the ship was finally forced to retreat. The retreat had been forced by a combined armada of twenty fleets with some three hundred thousand ships. The casualties had been enormous than as well. Fortunately modern ships were more than twice as powerful as ships from thirty years ago. Even more fortunate is that this time it was alone, and not currently in a fleet. He didn’t know how long that would last, but he hoped they would have enough time to sink it, before the fleet arrived. Thanks to the massive funds and grants being given to laboratories, weapons and deflectors had improved massively. He hoped they would make a difference this time around, but he had reason to be worried. Last time they had a working shield disruptor to get through its shields. Unfortunately they had long since adapted their shields, and the weapon was useless now. Which meant the only way to get through those shields was overwhelming bombardment.

Still he couldn’t be sure that they could win, given how deadly a battleship could be even on its own. The Cylovan Battleship was an extremely tough foe, on its own it was equivalent to five midsized fleets all on its own. With the firepower to match, and shields that made it virtually invulnerable. Even if you could get through the shields, you than had to contend with the thick outer shell of neutronium laced armored plating.

On the screen, the ship opened fire. A powerful green beam ripped across space and slammed into a nearby union cruiser. Her deflectors straining to redirect the beam and failing. The beam slammed into the foresection of the cruiser. The plating disintegrated, and the hull broke apart. Something exploded and the ship was torn apart, while the battleship targeted another cruiser with a similar result. Just before she entered range of one of the super fortresses. The massive starbase, immediately opened fire on the battleship. Powerful invisible bolts of energy fired from the starbase and slammed into the battleship’s shields one after another. The energy lances had little apparent affect and the ship returned fire. Several beams raked over the station, but unlike the cruiser she withstood the barrage. Her larger more powerful deflectors having managed to deflect enough of the beams that the station actually withstood the barrage.

The starbase fired another volley of maser lances at the battleship, while the few ships in the area opened fire as well with masers, missiles and torpedoes. While the battleship was cycling her main guns, she began launching fighters from her hangers. Given the size of the ship and the massive bays she had just one of these ships carried tens of thousands of fighters. These fighters began engaging the nearby ships in fighters in combat, just as the vortex spat out a few new ships. Four Cylovan cruisers entered the system, and opened fire on the nearest targets. The admiral cursed, as he handed out new orders. Including an evacuation order to get the civilians and non combat personnel out of the system.

March Third 074 SDE, Delmarka starsystem 1420 hours:

The superfortress was disintegrating, as beams from the battleship tore through its superstructure. The fleet was finally forming up in fluid formations to engage the Cylovans. As more Cylovan ships poured out of the vortex in what was now a steady stream. Already dozens of cruisers had entered the system along with a number of destroyers. As the superfortress was breaking apart, two more entered weapons range of the vortex. Superfortress starbases were designed to be mobile, since a mobile defense is far more valuable than a static one. In addition these large behemoths were heavily armored and shielded. Allowing them to take large amounts of damage and their size allowed them to support far more powerful weapons than your average ship. Immediately the bases opened fire on the nearest Cylovan ships. Several of their destroyers were torn apart by the powerful maser lances the bases carried in short order, before they focused fire on the cruisers. The cruisers with their stronger shields and hull held up longer. Thousands of destroyers teamed up with the bases and unleashed their payloads, on the cruisers the instant their shields failed.

Often with devastating results as their weapons had long since been optimized to deal with the strong Cylovan hull plating. Missile torpedoes slammed into the neutronium reinforced hulls dealing massive damage. Yet the cruisers kept fighting long after their shields breached. Often taking dozens if not hundreds of ships with them before succumbing from the bombardment. The battleship finished with the first fortress changed targets, approaching another. While opening fire on any ship in its path with devastating results. Its powerful beam arrays easily capable of destroying any ship that was unfortunate enough to be targeted.

In the command complex the admiral watched the battle unfold with trepidation. Each new ship to leave the vortex was something to worry about. He was certain they could destroy what was already here, but the conduit was a problem. He had ordered the fortresses to activate their hyperspace jammers. While the conduit emanated from hyperspace, the jammers had no apparent effect on the conduit. As for why he didn’t know and his staff had so far been unable to determine why.

“Since we can’t jam the conduit, what would happen if we fired a missile into it?” muttered the admiral. A nearby science officer overheard and immediately did some simulations. Then she looked over to the admiral.

““Not much, the energy of the blast is too low, but if we had something with a large explosive yield. The resulting energy reaction would weaken the conduit, and possibly destroy it,” said the science officer. The admiral replied by asking how large. Realizing that they might have a solution.

“Uh, roughly equivalent to a containment failure on a superfortress,” said the science officer. The admiral didn’t need any elaboration to know how big an explosion that would be. Being large stations with high power requirements, they were powered by massive antimatter reactors. These reactors often contained large amounts of antimatter at any given time, and if containment was lost the resulting energy reaction was often large enough to destroy a small moon. The union also maintained stockpiles of antimatter weapons, but warheads to match didn’t exist. Reason being size, the reactors were the size of a midsize starship each. While a warhead could be made smaller, the resulting warhead was still rather bulky and generally impractical for use as a weapon.

March Third 074 SDE, Delmarka starsystem 1455 hours:

The fleet had worked out the details for dealing with the conduit. Both sides were still fighting heavily in the area of the conduit. On the screen the admiral could see another superfortress breaking apart under fire from the Cylovan Battleship. The damnable ship had so far proven invincible. Its energy shielding wasn’t even showing signs of weakening, despite the fact that it was the target of heavy bombardment. Any other Cylovan ship would have already succumbed to the bombardment, but it remained undamaged. As things stood they had lost roughly seven ships for each Cylovan ship they had sunk. Which was actually pretty good considering the general superiority of Cylovan ships. It wasn’t unheard of for casualty rates as high as twenty or more to one. Rates that high often meant they were losing the battle, for one reason or another.

In this case they were currently winning, but how long that would last was up for debate. Especially considering the fact that the conduit was allowing the Cylovans to reinforce almost as quickly as they were losing ships. In fact they were gaining ships slightly faster than they were losing them. Which explained why the fleet had grown in the time. Still most of the superfortress that hadn’t been sunk were already in the area. They had originally had twenty of the behemoths to protect the system thanks to its importance to the war effort. The battleship had already sunk three of them, and another three had yet to reach the site of the battle. Their slow speed and previous positions hampering them from reaching the battle. This meant they were now fourteen of these battlestations on site supplementing the fleet with their heavy artillery. Which had proven invaluable in taking down Cylovan cruiser shields. Speaking of cruisers he had seen and sunk more of them in this battle than in previous military engagements. He suspected this attack to be a sign that the Cylovans were preparing for a major offensive and not another of the small skirmishes that had characterized the last few decades.

The battleship smoothly changed direction and started making a beeline for another nearby fortress, while targeting any ship unfortunate enough to be in its path. Those ships employed evasive maneuvers to get out of the way quickly. Those unlucky enough to be hit, were destroyed instantly. While at the same moment over four thousand Union ships formed up with three of the superfortresses and made a direct push for the conduit. In response a dozen cruisers and a number of destroyers shifted targets to engage the push. While their fighters moved to swarm targets.

The dark of space lit up in violets, greens and blues as the ships exchanged heavy fire. Their formations shifting like leaves in the wind, under the commands of their leaders. Every few seconds a flash of light signaled the demise of a ship or fighter. While the Cylovan Battleship changed her course again this time heading to engage the fortresses being escorted.

March Third 074 SDE, Delmarka starsystem 1515 hours:

A large flash of light, signaled the demise of a superfortress. The push had lost just over half its ships, and that flash was one of the three battlestations they were escorting. They had been doing just fine until the conduit spat out a pair of a battleships along with an addition twelve cruisers just five minutes ago. Ships which had instantly focused on engaging the stations, recognizing that they were a threat. That the union was planning something with them, even if they didn’t know what.

Beams of energy raked over a second fortress as it shifted its course and suddenly accelerated straight towards one of the battleships. The battleship began changing direction to avoid the station. Being the more maneuverable vessel, it succeeded in avoiding the collision, but in the process created an opening. The other fortress also accelerated, as escape pods all across her surface began launching. Most of which were snagged as quickly as possible, by the escorts. None of the ones present realizing the futility of their actions as the fortress entered the vortex. Mere seconds later the conduit collapsed in a violent burst of energy that rippled outwards at hyperlight velocities. Every ship in the immediate vicinity of the conduit disintegrated, and seconds later the yard was engulfed before the wave travelled into deep space. When the wave cleared, only around thirty thousand union ships remained, along with a couple hundred cylovan ships all in various states of repair. Including three badly damaged Cylovan battleships, their outer hulls severely degraded. The only union asset near the former conduit was a badly damaged superfortress. Her outer hull had disintegrated and most of the inner sections had vented to space. The mighty station had survived, but she had also seen her last. Some still lived aboard the station, but they were trapped. The other fortresses having been far away enough to avoid taking massive damage, moved to engage the battleships.

The admiral after recovering from the shock of the blast, turned to his science officer and asked, “What in the galaxy happened?”

“I’m not sure, sir. None of our models indicated this would happen,” replied the officer.

March Third 074 SDE, Deep Space, SFS Enterprise SFRX-01, 2.57 lightyears from Delmarka 1545 hours:

Countryman was bored as he read the latest report. There had not been much to do over the last few weeks. Even at their current speed they were still over a month out from their destination. The report he was perusing was a fleet wide diagnostic of the engines and related hardware. They were close enough to Mydorious that they were going to switch off their stealth fields in a few hours and increase speed to warp six. Which would allow them to reach the system in two days. They planned on warping out on the systems edge and that a small task force would proceed deeper into the system to make contact with Union. While the rest of the fleet would set up a defensive anchorage around their prize ship, which the Enterprise was currently towing. The report said that everything was good. So he was just about to put it away, when suddenly there was a shout from the science station.

“Sir, I’m picking up a massive energy wave bearing down on our position. Impact in three minutes,” said the officer. Countryman asked him to forward the data to his station, and glanced at it. The wave whatever it was was clearly dangerous, and he made his decision quickly.

“Take the fleet out of warp, and shut down the warp engines. Shunt warp power to the hull plating, and anchor the fleet,” ordered Countryman. The crew instantly went into action, and several cruisers moved between the wave and the prize ship before they anchored themselves in place. Then a fleetwide brace for impact order was given shortly before the wave slammed into the fleet. The entire fleet was shaken by the wave, but for the most part was perfectly fine.

“Status report!” barked Countryman after the wave passed.

“Hull plating is holding, no damage. No other ship is reporting damage. Minor injuries have been reported however. One serious injury reported, the Sylnari liaison,” said Misaki.

“Selia? How did she get hurt?” asked Countryman. Misaki spent a couple minutes inquiring before replying, “It seems she was on the upper levels of Aka district, during the wave. A child lost their grip on the railing and she went after it. Used her body to cushion the fall. She broke a few bones, but will be fine. The medics have already stabilized her, and she is being taken to sickbay” said Misaki using the summed up version that she had been given.