The Cel commandant's jaw had dropped before his ship's hull was violently breached by an exploding Wolkar cruiser. Similarly, the Cel boarding parties found themselves backing into corners and unleashing bursts of psionics in self defense, rather than as they had envisioned: While marching on the corpses of enemies. They tried to redirect the Wolkar suicide ship by opening an FTL portal in front of it, but they were too late to save their lead frigate and keep another from being crippled. That, in addition to the fire of the station's defenses and the fact that boarding parties which teleported back were bloodied and maimed... Well, they had no intention to stick around. Those shadowy warships turned and fled at full speed, prepared to enter FTL and depart in a minute's time. Messages had already been sent back to the nearest Lord Commandant. They would know of what had transpired here, for better or worse.

The Litharains fleet watched as assistance came from the scientists and looked in joy as the enemy was routed and fleeing. Though they were not done. One of the enemy ships appeared to be limping through space, adjusting their lines of fire they began to focus on teh crippled ship looking to take prisoners after destroying their engines. Back on the station Litharian fire teams continued to engage the remaining invaders, casualties were appearing, but they didn't stop them from fighting. Their allies sure didn't seem to have any lack of faith in their victory. But the true surge of gusto came when the Cel ships began their retreat. "Switch to Electro-Dispersion Rounds!" Shouted a Litharian Leutenant over the INTCOM, "Try to take one alive!" In tandem, all Litharian soldiers took what cover they could in an attempt to switch rounds as ordered. Meanwhile the Karadons contineud to fire dense plasma rounds without an effort to change over.

The Wolkar frigates and FERALs only conceeded to the idea of taking them alive simply for the sake of ensuring they would beg for death before the end would actually come, their desire to avenge their fallen brothers overriding their usual sense of calm and kindness. With good speed the FERALs were able to get close enough for their grenade rounds to do serious damage to the engines with the aim to cripple them, the armored mechs boarding and latching onto the ship before using their collective boosters to start pulling the slagged vessel back towards the station to be dealt with. While the Litharians were moving to non lethal ammunition to take one in alive, the Wolkar were using less... civilized ways to take them alive mostly. While a few were resorting to the immobilizing foam so they can be interrogated and executed publically, most just opted to use the retractable blades to hack off the legs of the enemies that they had successfully beaten to a bloody pulp and cauterizing the wounds with the flamethrower. If the Wolkar were more level headed they might have concluded to leave the crippled ones alive and let them go afterward so they could spend the rest of their lives as invalids. However, their traditions were clear. Those who attack the pack shall meet their end. And meet it they shall.

The slagged vessel cut down plenty of the things that came towards it. Indeed, it put up an admirable fight for something to so damaged. Unfortunately for the Wolkar who attached themselves do it, they were not having any of that dragging. The Cel ship writhed and twisted, metal bending in ward and being sucked towards an unstable core that was set to self destruct. The vessel crumpled like a tin can, then simply fizzled out of existence with a warping of space. All that was left was a very fine and brief shimmering where it had once been, and even that lasted only a millisecond. The other Cel ships, the two remaining, fled into the nebulous space they used to move quickly across the galaxy. They were gone. As for the Cel who were in the station, well, they were in a bad way. Upon seeing what the Wolkar would do to them if they were incapacitated, most resorted to executing themselves. Part loyalty, and part cowardice. These were not hardened troops. Those who were captured also executed themselves, if through less conventional means. The bits and pieces of Psionics which had detonated the cranium of their user littered the floors. One, maybe two Cel troops could successfully be captured.

The Litharians gave a good cheer to the survivors and a mournful silence to the fallen, but a proper burial for the dead would have to wait. A collection of soldiers had their guns aimed at one of the fallen aliens who didn't explode like the others. It seemed like it was alive. "I want this thing Psionically and bio-mechanically secured now!" A litharian Captain shouted. They managed to bring the creature back to the science vessel and started to prepare of of the specimen tanks for containment. All the while stripping the alien of weapons and armor. In space the HAMMERs watched as their prize seemed to consume itself, the poor FERALs who were around it, they couldn't tell if they made it out or not. But with the enemy gone they began to fly back to the station. Issuing orders to continue grabbing as much data and information from the station as possible. Given the effectiveness of those weapons that became a new priority for recovery, even if they had to detach one and bring it home for later research. "We have chased off the enemy for now, but two of their ships escaped. Expect retribution to be coming. Grab as much as you can, we are leaving within the next few days and this station won't be left behind."

The Wolkar growled as their prey killed themselves off, robbing them of their chance at answers. Each one they tried to capture quickly killed themselves as soon as it saw them, covered in the blood and guts of it's fellows and scaring them to suicide. They likely knew that whatever pain they might feel from their heads exploding would be MOST CERTAINLY less painful than what these monstrous beasts would do to them. Cursing they eventually gave up, the captain telling his crew to use tranq darts whenever they got the chance though knew few if any would be properly stopped before they killed themselves. Instead the Wolkar commander went to find the leader of the Litharian forces, seeing them taking their prisoner away. "You fought well. How did your people fare? How many more deaths will these cowards be made to answer for?" It was not as much any sort of competitive question and more a measure of the crimes these creatures had committed on the Litharians, most of the surviving Wolkar seeming to be much more friendly to them after fighting side by side.

On a positive note, the precursor station yielded the code for an extremely advanced artificial intelligence unit. A prototype, but still a great boon to any who wished to advance their computing software. That, and those big honkin' guns. Unfortunately, whatever they shot seemed to require technology unavailable to either of the races present in order to be manufactured. Clearly ammunition for these types of weapons was to be prized and scarcely sacrificed.

Litharian Galactic Date 5371-239, Unknown Station. With everything finally calming down the Litharians returned to their original tasks, the most important was to mine as much data as possible. Yet when that was done and they had their prize secured in special data partitions on board the science vessel they started to go to work on the guass cannons the station had. The weapons themselves weren't particularly complex and could probably be replicated if given enough time and research. With that said they detached two of them to have them stored in the cargo bay of the science vessel. The ammo on the other hand was something out of a science fiction book. It was an interesting design that helped augment the weapons firing power allowing it to pack an even more devastating punch. While the scientists didn't understand anything about it, they took as much as they could find to see if they could replicate it given more time and better facilities back in Litharian space. On a more living note the alien specimen was transferred to a secure holding tank and both bio-mechanical securities and Psionic securities were successfully activated. It was only a matter of time until the subject awoke and proper studies could be had. Similarly several bodies of the aliens were and their scant equipment were gathered, not much was learned from their gear and it was quick to realize that whatever these creatures had came from their minds, making their corpses and the one live one much more valuable. "We aren't sure yet, current body count has us at over 20 lost, but we are still turning up bodies. With any luck the MIAs will start showing up alive, but my hopes aren't high." Said the Litharian Commander in response to the Wolkar's question. Whatever they were they came out of nowhere and hit they hard. A message was sent to the Wolkar fleet, warning them of the Litharian's intention to detonate the portable reactor core and send the station into the sun.

Wolkar engineers dismantled two of the cannons and had them delivered to the relief ship's cargo hold. It was mainly designed to carry medical supplies so they could not fit whole, though the engineers were careful to memorize the assembly process. They were not difficult to break down and put together though as much as the ammunition. The design was.. remarkable to say the least. Many of the engineers were even arguing over who should lead the research into learning it's construction and learning the fabrication process to make more. The Wolkar commander nodded solemnly. "We've lost around 25 on the station, and there were about 100 estimated dead on the cruiser before it's last stand.. The frigates are busy picking up the escape pods from the cruiser to recover the crew that managed to escape and we'll have a more solid number. They will pay dearly for this. I know I am not officially permitted to say, but I have no doubt the Alpha council will seek retribution along with you. If your people seek allies, they will find them in spades."

Litharian Galactic Date 5371-248, Unknown Station. The Litharians made their final preparations over a span of the next few days making sure that anything of theirs that wasn't a part of the reactor core's structure was taken back into the science vessel. Including the Modular Command Structure, taking it back apart and storing it away safely. With the scientific being handled by scientists, several soldiers took to gathering up the bodies of their fallen, collecting them for a proper burial once they arrived home. Only after the scientists scanned the bodies for any sort of biological weapon that would have been brewing inside the corpses. With that the ships in orbit began breaking off from patrol and started returning towards the station to pick up surviving soldiers and scientists. At this time the Litharians made contact with the Wolkar warning them that their time on the station was running short.

Wolkar Galactic Date 5371-248, Unknown Station. The Wolkar made similar preparations with cleaning up their own dead though they did not gather the bodies. Rather, they removed the dog tags from all of their dead breatheren and laid their arms over their chest in a ceremonial manner. Rover, being the highest authority on hand, said a few words over the gathered bodies which were brought together in one of the larger rooms. The Litharians would easily tell when the ceremony ended by the loud collective howl of all the Wolkar on the station, saying their final farewells. When the reactor would blow, it would make this station their vessel to whatever afterlife they would find. With the names of the fallen listed with, the deceased captain chief among them, they all retreated to the two remaining frigates and left to a safe distance. As these preparations were underway Rover dispatched the signal with the list of dead to the Alpha Council. It was only an hour after that the Sirius went on the net to announce a memorial service to take place for the fallen one week after the return of the emergency response fleet and extended a formal invitation for the Litharian Council of Masters to attend as the Wolkar would also honor the losses of their Litharian allies as well as their own.

With the Wolkar out and a safe distance away, the crews of the science vessel and the HAMMERs loaded up with only a few men staying behind to set the core on a destructive path. The science vessel took off first being the larger and more valuable of the two. Orbiting the station with the Wolkar the majority waited for the final HAMMER to join them for the return trip. On the station a few scientists and soldiers cut a few lines and switched off a few of the reactor's coolant systems, making it start to go critical. Though they would have a good hour before it finally blew, so the men still on board slowly made their way to the HAMMER and into orbit. One of the HAMMERs gave the order to engage warp drives to finally get moving back towards home. Though two of the scouts were left behind to make sure the station was destroyed when the reactor blew. Cloaking to make sure that if more alien ships came they wouldn't be seen right away. Litharian Galactic Date 5371-248, Unknown Station. Litharian fleet enters warp space on a course for Litharian space and eventually Planet Yithrid, The Xilithrix Research Facility to better process the data, weapons, and creature they were bringing back. Estimated time of arrival, Litharian Galactic Date 5371-251.

The Wolkar evacuated quickly and waited for the evacuation of the Litharians to be complete before they too left to return home. The weapons and pieces of equipment they recovered from the aliens would be brought to the Natre-Dorme University of the sciences to be examined by the Wolkar's brightest minds andto possibly replicate the ammunition used by the turrets they recovered. One of the gauss rounds would be in the military section of the university where only authorized personnel would access it, the more mundane and safe portions being made more available for the whole of the faculty to examine. Their estimated date of arrival would be Galactic Date 5371-249 with the appointed time of the memorial to be 256 of the same year.

The rigged power source did its job well, tearing holes in the precursor station's hull with great efficiency. It would not die immediately, but within a week's time, the station would meet a fiery end in the great orb of the sun. The captured Cel was panicking. They didn't know where they were, but they certainly were not back on one of the Reaper frigates.

When the station went up in smoke the two ZEPHYRs that were still at the station turned and followed the rest of the fleet back home. Satisfied that the station would meet it's end soon enough. Back on board the science vessel Litharians were passively scanning other bits and pieces of the foreign tech when a few alarms started to go off, the alien was awake. As if in unison, every scientist turned to look at the Cel through the thick glass that made up it's container. Several rushed over to see the specimen move and learn as it came too. But the biggest change came when a pair of scientist began fiddling with a nearby console causing a few lights inside the containment cell to switch on. This was all followed by a disebmodied voice to come throw a speaker system, "Hello, can you understand us?"

The Cel struggled without end. No doubt, he was also trying to fling psionic attacks everywhere. He gave no response to the words, clearly incapable of understanding their language. Unfortunately, telepathic communication was less than possible in this containment.

The Litharians around the creature noticed it seem to become less panicked and more agitated, electing to skip the rest of the vocal communication and more on to physical. One Scientists is particular stepped up to the tank, making his presence known to the alien inside. Then he began to make a system of gestures, first gesturing to his head, trying to hint that he is capable of intelligent thought.

The Cel soldier paused in his struggles to acknowledge this scientist, eyes narrowed and filled with rage. His mere expression made it abundantly clear that, were the psionic defenses not advanced enough, this would not be a very pleasant place for the scientist right now.

The Litharian scientists took note that while the creature may be able to understand them, it was truly hateful towards them. The scientists quit trying to be nice about contact and elect for more aggressive measures. On two of the tank's sides the walls slid open to reveal a pair of mechanical clamps each one snapped a few times before hovering over the specimen, threatening to restrain it. Back outside of the tank the scientists began flicking switches and levels readying something. Though whatever it was wasn't made a abundantly clear just yet.

In the end, there was little the Cel could do to resist, so it didn't. Far off, in the deep and particularly dark stretch of space, the Cel savoured the knowledge of new civilizations to subjugate and subsequently exterminate. Well, some of them did. The frigates to escape the conflict of First Contact were captured and hastily brought under the control of a particularly powerful vassal of the Emperor who deemed this information too valuable for his fellow lords. The wealth of knowledge that could be assimilated could boost his power in the empire a million times over.