In Sector 5, in the Metatron System, on the ‘North’ side, a group of unidentified space crafts entered. They would not respond to any hails and they lacked even a simple IFF tag, something that even the most basic of ships possessed. The fleet was away on its Golden Crusade, so only a small group of old patrol boats could respond. They were the ‘Coast Guard’ of the AHU, poorly funded and poorly equipped and also not viewed as ‘actual military forces’ by the rest of the Angelus Holy Union’s military.

While the oldest AHU naval vessel that could be sent out to fight was well over 150 years old, the ships used by the ‘Coast Guard’ were even older. They were roughly 470 years old and had a whole slew of problems that come from being that ancient. It was nigh on impossible to find replacement parts for these ships, and due to the lack of funding that his part of the AHU military received they were in no shape to get newer vessels or even get hand-me-downs from the ‘real’ navy.

The damages that his lack of respect and funding would cause were about to be seen as the rickety old ships crawled across the void, trying desperately to keep up with the unknown force that had entered AHU space. Unfortunately, the lack of funding for their branch meant that the personnel on board usually did not get the proper training aside from what was taught on-the-job to them. This is another thing that would bite them in the butt. They should have called for backup, but they were both blinded by their own religious zeal and undisciplined due to the lax conditions that came from such a lack of funding and respect.

This would prove to be quite fatal.

…

Even something as slow as a Big Rang was able to keep out of the line of sight of the ponderously slow AHU ‘Coast Guard’. Even as it kept just a little bit ahead it let hundreds of Oggos into the system, which spread out and prepared for an ambush. The Minovsky Chaff launchers on its body occasionally fired a round or two to create miniature Blackout Zones which would help keep their deadly surprise a secret for that much longer. Finally, once all actors had taken position, it was time to start the show.

The Big Rang slowed down and made a hard 180 degree turn that would have been impossible for a living person to made without blacking out or suffering some nasty damage. Once it faced the old AHU ships that were pursuing it, the Big Rang began to charge its Mega-Particle Beam Cannon.

…

Finally, the unknown vessel had stopped. The other vessels had disappeared from the system, and while they did not detect a Hyperwave pulse that would indicate a jump to FTL speed, that could be chalked up to faulty equipment. These ships were really old, after all. As they drew closer, the captain of one of their ships veered off at a harsh angle. The leader of the group got on the comms to demand an explanation.

“Why the bloody hell are you running, you cowardly heathens?!”

The captain of the fleeing ship did not get a chance to answer as the unknown vessel showed its hostile intentions by firing a sustained lance of energy that sliced clean through the fleeing ship before it swept across the others in their group. With a single attack, five of the twenty-one ships that made up the System Defense Fleet had been taken out, and all from a range that they could not begin to respond to.

“Damnation! Charge it! Close the distance by any possible means and take it out! I don’t care if you have to ram the damn thing, just get rid of those infidels!”

This was easier said than done, of course. Even if the enemy ship was facing them, it was still able to just barely stay ahead by going in reverse. The hostile ship charged its weapon again and swept it across the line, taking out another five ships.

“Fuck it all! Divert power from shields and life support to propulsion and weapons! All personnel, prepare for Vented-Ship Combat!”

This was a desperate move that the fleet leader was making. If too much power was sent to the propulsion and weapons systems, it would overtax those parts and cause a critical failure. If that happened, the best thing they could hope for would be that the systems would merely fry themselves and shut down. If they were especially unlucky the weapons and thrusters would explode, and they would die in a ball of superheated plasma and molten metal.

Against all odds, the Fleet Leader managed to estimate almost the exact limit of what those systems could take for each vessel, although this was likely less due to chance and more due to his experience with these rust buckets. Thanks to this, we were now closing the distance, albeit not as fast as we would like. Our guns could now begin to reach the enemy vessel and a few salvos from our Mk. III Plasma Lances did come close to hitting the ship. Mostly they just illuminated the ungodly construct that was before us.

It looked like someone had taken a bizarre spaceship designed for speed and added arms and then attached it to a body that took away its greatest asset. It was painted a deep red with a white stripe crossing the larger body that attached to its ‘head’. The beak-like face of the strange ship opened up and we saw that it had been concealing its main weapon inside of the beak. The fleet tried to scatter, but the misshapen ship was too fast and now there were only five other ships left in the fight aside from ours.

The large missile pods mounted on its sides began firing rockets in front of itself, which exploded and released some kind of special chaff that messed not only with our sensors but also stopped our Lances from reaching it. This was a double-edged sword for the twisted abomination, as it seemed to be unable to fire its own weapon through the anti-energy chaff either. Instead, it fired a scattering volley of kinetic projectiles from its ‘head’ which lodged themselves into the hulls of one of our six remaining ships.

After that, it moved through its own chaff and used its large clawed hand to rip open the bridge of the damaged ship and hold it in place as it unloaded its kinetic slug-thrower into the interior of the vessel before casting it aside like it was trash. With the anti-energy chaff still preventing any kind of normal retaliation, one of our ships tried to ram it.

With no success.

It was hit from above and below by unseen and undetected assailants. It now was perfectly clear what was going on. We had been lured into a trap. It had fired some of those anti-energy chaff rockets before we could visually see it and had used that to hide its allies from our sensors. It was a hopeless situation, but we tried to endure it as best we could. Even when our ship was on death’s door we tried desperately to fight against the strange and exotic infidels that tore us apart. Lugus, the one and only god, did not save us that day. He left us to die in the sea of stars; to either die of exposure, oxygen deprivation, or by the hands of the aliens.

My last sight in this world was the giant red photoreceptor of that mechanical monstrosity gazing into the bridge as it and others yelled their praises to their evil and false god over our comms before slamming its claw though the transparisteel viewports.

And that, dear people who listen to this audio log long after I have died adrift in the near-vacuum of space, is how I died.