Date Point: January 21, 2437

Warp space inbound to Arcadia System

USS Seattle

“This is a quick in and out,” Commander Allen said, “Norfolk wants to know what ET’s doing in Arcadia and we’re going to find out. We’ll make the transit from warp at the Oort cloud and scan the system, then high tail it out of there. If all goes well then this should take less than an hour and we get hazard pay. Dismissed”

The gathered command staff saluted and went off to their respective duties. Allen had complete confidence in his men and ship. He’d served nearly a decade as the Seattle’s CO and had even made an excursion into Empire space. The Seattle was an Intel ship, one of only eight in the US fleet. She was equipped with the most advanced sensors that humanity could produce and could scan an entire system in under thirty minutes.

“Stand by for transition,” the all-hands command calls. The crew in the bridge sealed their suits up and he could hear the airlocks cycle into place. “Transition from Warp in ten, nine, eight..”

When the count hit zero, the ship shot out from the rift. Immediately it lit the space around it with scanners, the Seattle pinged the last known locations of any and all ships. None returned the call. For the next thirty minutes, the crew waited with held breaths and clenched hands. Finally, the scans returned, “put it on the main display.”

“Aye sir.” in the center of the bridge a massive 3d holodeck glowed to life. It showed the Arcadia system in nearly perfect detail, the twelve planets revolving around a singular star. The massive trade station in orbit around Arcadia, and the gaping hole of black that seemed to tear the galaxy apart. Miniscule dots surrounded the hole and more seemed to flow out of it.

“Zoom in on the wormhole.” Allen said, “I want to see what those dots are.” the view shifted and the wormhole expanded. He knew from the briefings that the intergalactic wormholes that the Xeno’s used for their FTL travel were each the size of Sol. The network supposedly ran to every corner of the galaxy, that is if one believed the words of an alien. Which few did seeing as there were only four such wormholes in Terran space.

The hologram zoomed in to a cluster of dots before stopping. They ranged from more than four kilometers in size down to less than a hundred meters. Each was built like a pillar, very similar to the ship designs utilized by the Russians and Indians. “Intel, who's ships are those?”

They waited for several minutes before Allen finally snapped, “Damn it, I need that info yesterday! We’re in enemy space for God's sake!”

“Sorry sir, there’s just so many.”

“So many what?”

“So many ships from different species, the tactical computers having trouble tagging all of them.”

“Forget about tagging all of them, just show me the composition of that fleet,” he said pointing at the ships on the holodeck. A split second later, the ships changed color and a key appeared in the corner. Each color corresponded to a different race. Allen's lips drew to a grim line as nearly two dozen different colors presented themselves.

“So it seems ET has chosen their master.” he scoffed, “very well, now we won't have to worry about friendly fire.”

“Sir you might want to take a look at this.” one of the technicians said, Allen, looked down at his command deck. It showed a view of the sole habitable planet in Arcadia, Innocence, once home to more than three billion people. He expected to find the planet a burned husk of its once idyllic landscape. Instead, he saw a planet teeming with activity. The station orbiting it was a hive of activity and the space elevators at the equator buzzed with life.

“Those aren’t Terran maintenance ships,” his first mate said darkly, “they don’t just want us dead, they also want what we made. Stupid fuckers probably don’t even know how our tech works.”

“What makes you think that?”

“You’ve seen their tech, they hardly even understand most of it. The Stigarians are the most technologically advanced race in the Senate and that’s only because they got a headstart on finding ancient tech. Perks of being a class two I guess, the rest of them just steal and copy from their more advanced neighbors. There is no actual knowledge being obtained, no new ideas or inventions. Just rehashing the same old shit but never being able to get it right.”

“Seems like you’re rather knowledgeable on this subject Derek,” Allen noted and he scoffed.

“I had to take a class on it in college.”

“I would assume that is also why they are so mistrusting of us?”

“Don’t ask me about how ET thinks, who knows what goes on inside their brains. Personally, I think that they’re just jealous that we can invent new tech that they can’t copy.”

Suddenly the ships flashed and the holodeck went dark, “What the hell just happened?”

“The fleet just jumped and we lost connection,” the holodeck returned to life but the ships were gone.

“Damn it, find out where those ships are headed.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Navigation, prepare to jump to warp I think we’ve seen enough.”

“Calibrating warp engines, FTL transit in six minutes.”

Three minutes later an alarm blared and a ship blinked into existence barely a light minute away from the Seattle. The ship’s tactical computer tagged it as Tiliarian light cruisers. At roughly eight hundred meters long the ship was armed with an array of missiles and lasers.

“How much longer before they jump again?”

“Two minutes.”

“Can we outrun them?”

“Outside of FTL, not a chance.”

Allen let out a deep breath, “Then charge the MARS cannon and unmask the rail gun batteries. It’s time to earn our pay.”

“Aye, sir!” The crew called in unison, for the next minute the bridge was a flurry of activity as nervous men carried out their tasks. The Tiliarians were a class 12 species resembling large lizards. While not high on the interstellar pecking order, their society was incredibly war-like and they had carved out a niche as mercenaries.

“Remember, we can’t fight them on an even field and we do not need to. All we have to do is hold out for a minute and high tail it out of there,” he said to Derek, the first mate was taking notes trying to learn as much as he could from the older man.

The cruiser jumped again and a split second later they re-emerged within weapons range. Allen didn’t even need to give the order as the Seattle poured every ounce of firepower it had onboard at the four ships. Allen gripped the railing as the MARS cannon shook the ship, its shell raced into the dark of space. Less than three seconds later, it fired again and then again. The Seattle might not have the sheer power output to take out a ship with one shot but it made up for it with a much higher recharge rate.

A round connected with the cruiser, blotting out the sensors momentarily. A second shot slammed into the ship causing another flash. An alarm blared and ten red arrows appeared on the command screen swarming towards the Seattle.

“We barely even scratched them!” a gunner exclaimed as their attention was drawn back to it. Its shields had easily stopped the two rounds and even before the third one hit it was obvious that they didn’t have the firepower to breakthrough.

“FTL transit in one minute!”

At the distances, they were fighting at there really wasn’t much to worry about. That being said it was always a good idea to be prepared.

“Fire countermeasures,” Allen said calmly and the Seattle shuddered, firing off nearly three dozen missiles followed by a wave of PDC fire. They didn’t need to stop every single incoming contact, only to slow them down long enough to make it to warp.”

In front of the ship, a hole started to expand, spilling red and purple light into the void. Hellish electricity shot and spasmed as the hole began to grow casting a harsh light on the Seattle. “FTL in ten, nine, eight…”

Realizing that their target was going to get away, the cruiser’s captain decided it was worth firing off its main weapon, a nuke pump laser cannon. Deep in the belly of the ship a fission bomb exploded, the combustion was compressed and focused into a beam before being sent out of the lasing tube at the tip of the ship. Traveling at the speed of light, the lazer crossed the distance in mere moments. It cut a neat three-meter hole straight through the Seattle burning through hull plating, pipes, wires, and the unfortunate humans inside.

Allen’s head slammed into the railing of the command deck, “Lord Almighty what was that?”

“We’ve taken a hit!” damage control called, “decompression in deck’s 1,2, 5, and 6. Power is out on deck 4, and engine 8 is offline.”

“Is there anything that isn’t fucked!” he demanded.

“They missed the reactor and the warp engi-” he was cut off by navigation.

“Transiting to Warp now!”

The Seattle was swallowed by the light, the portal to another dimension cut off in an instant. The crew let out a collective sigh of relief, “get damage control out there and fix the ship, have the marines go along with them just in case.”

“Sir, intel has the trajectory of that fleet.” At his nod, the man continued, “sir, they’re headed for Long Kou, at their current rate, they’ll arrive in less than a week .”

____________________________________________________________________________

“Barkeep, get me another one of these,” Oscar said waving his glass. The bartender from the Eighty-eight had found himself an empty storage room and had decided to turn it into a makeshift bar.

The man raised a brow at him, “Damn Oz, you trying to drink yourself to death or something?”

“Just get me another one, I wanna get that thing out of my head,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Come on it couldn’t have been that bad, I hear stuff like that happens all the time. Besides you weren’t even the one holding the gun.”

“Yeah, it happens all the time to other people. I’ve never seen it in person and let me just say, those are some of the most fucked up looking things I have ever seen.”

Down the row, one of the marines scoffed, “quit your whinin’ you haven’t seen shit. Hell, some of the ET’s I’ve seen are weirder lookin’ than that. Fugly sons of bitchs I tell you.”

“Still prettier than your mama.” another marine quipped, the first marine snapped his head around.

“Which one of you dumbasses said that?”

“Nah Milo have you seen Greyson’s mom?” one of the women from engineering asked, “I’d tap that.”

Greyson rose from his seat, slamming his glass into the makeshift bartop, “right someone’s aboutta die.”

The engineer grinned, “You ain’t going to do shit Andrew, you’re all talk and everyone knows it. Why don’t you go back to your datapad and write your mama a message?”

“You’re the head Combat Controller?” Oscar asked.

Andrew turned to him with a frown, “yeah that’s me.”

“Ha!” one of the marines barked, “Head CC, there’s only four of you fuckers in the first place.” his face went solum, “well, there used to be four anyways.”

“I take it you’re the replacement?” he asked, looking at him with a critical eye, “Michael told me about you, and your particular background.”

Oscar stiffened, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb with me kid, I know who the Slaters are.” he scowled, “and why they do to people that get in their way.”

“Look man, I'm done with that stuff, I’m not too proud of what I did but it’s in the past now.”

“Bullshit, I see the red in your hair,” he spat, “You still with that psychotic bitch?”

“Stephanie?” he shook his head, “Do you think I would be in the ass-end of space doing contracting if I was still dating the daughter of one of the most powerful men alive?”

“I don’t buy it.”

“What do you mean you don’t buy it?” Oscar exasperatedly asked, “Dylan never approved of me in the first place, then someone botched an operation I was on and that’s all he needed to pin the blame on me and get my ass excommunicated.”

“So why keep the hair?”

“This shit doesn’t come out easily you know, plus the day that old bat keels over and dies is the day I return.”

“So you are still dating the midget,” Andrew shouted triumphantly.

“She has a name and she’s not a midget!” Oscar shouted back.

“I don’t give a shit, you admitted you’re still dating her.”

“Why do you care?!”

“I don’t!”

“Then why did you make such a big deal out of it?”

“I don’t remember!”

“You little shit!” in a heartbeat the two were both on their feet sizing each other up. They were almost exactly the same height and build. Both swayed slightly from alcohol consumption as they closed the distance. While Andrew had the hand-to-hand training that came with military service, Oscar had much more experience in drunken brawls and fistfights.

“It must have been a sad, sad day in hell when you climbed out of the abortion bucket.” Andrew spat and cracked his knuckles.

“I’ll gouge your eyes out and give you a first-person perspective of your colon,” Oscar said, there was a pregnant moment of silence before Andrew grinned and enveloped him in a hug.

“I can’t believe Dylan finally snapped!” he laughed, “Oh the looks he would give you when that girl of his kissed you. It was unbelievable, I don’t think I’d ever seen someone go so red!”

Oscar scratched the back of his head looking sheepish, “yeah well, you should have seen him after he found out we’d done more than kiss.”

“Wait, hold on,” the engineer asked, “you two know each other?”

“You could say Andrew was my mentor for a long while.” Oscar shrugged, “So yeah I know him pretty well. Pretty sure it’s one of the reasons Michael hired me now that I think about it.”

Andrew nodded, “that’s right after Zach kicked the bucket on Miasma Station we were down a man and when I saw your name pop up on the registry I thought, why don’t we recruit him.”

“You trust this kid, Andrew?” a marine asked, he nodded again, “Hundred percent, he might be a little shit that talks too much trash and whines on every job but he won’t rat you out.”

“Good enough for me.” the marine grunted and the rest of them muttered their agreement.

“So Oscar,” he said, turning his attention back to the man, “what brings you out here?”

“It’s like I told you, someone didn’t cut the security feeds to a prison ship when we busted in and half my guys got thirty years on ice.”

“That someone wouldn’t have been Roach would it?”

“Oh, it was.”

“Stabbed in the back by your best friend huh? That’s tough.”

“Should have seen it coming, to be honest, he was always the jealous type.” he waved it off, “It’s all air out the airlock now, Stephanie cut him to bits a while ago.”

“Now that you’re here, I guess I should get you up to speed on your job.”

Oscar looked down at his glass, “maybe we should do it next shift.”

“Maybe we should.”