Planet Xaro's Awakening
Galactic Coordinates 14122-18522
Omicron Sector
Homeworld of the Zerg Collective

The vast holomap room was 200 minas (meters) tall and 500 minas wide. From here, Overmind 0001 controlled the Collective and gave direction to what was otherwise a chaotic web of species-wide movement. The room contained numerous holographic projections that showed the status of all of Overmind 0001's units... every ship, every drone, every fighter. From here, he could see every star system he controlled in detail, along with what was in the system. From here, he could direct each of his minions to do anything he wanted in the galaxy.

Overmind 001 twisted his massive lumbering body. He saw it. His attention fell on a 3 planet system near the borders of his star nation. It wasn't his... yet. The distant system's native inhabitants, a Tier 5 race, had managed to fully populate the 2nd planet. After numerous scans by his scouting probes, Overlord 0001 had designated the species as ideal slaves for conquest. He intended to enslave the creatures and make them a food species, whose forever purpose was to supply the Collective with their bodies' supple nutrients -- which were to be harvested by the collective at will.

The first order of business for Overmind 0001 was to designate a task force leader to enter the system and make the Tier 5 natives bend to the Collective's will. That meant that the designated leader would nuclear bombard the 2nd planet (filled with natives) to submission, and then destroy their leadership. Once that was done, the rest was simple. A puppet government would be set up on the planet -- one that would bend to the Collective's every need. Every month, the natives would be forced to submit a portion of its population for food harvesting. Any sign of rebellion would be met with lethal force, and any attempt to create technologies that might enable the population to resist and become independent would be met with orbital bombardment -- such was the ordinary protocol when meeting a tier 5 species (for the Collective, that is).

Overmind 0001 gazed at the system and its planets and laughed. The entire system would be his within a full moon! And then, the harvesting would begin. Once harvested, the sacrifices would be eaten alive!

After considering which of his lower overminds would be the ideal candidate, he delegated the task to Overmind 0424. His orders were sent out to the 0424 immediately through hypertransmission -- and immediately, he saw 0424 launch its fleet, which was a meager size compared to all the other fleets within the Collective -- for its opponents were technologically behind -- but it was more than adequate for the its task.

For moment, Overmind 0001 wondered what he would do if he met a species that were technologically superior than the tier 5 species he had just condemned to slavery. He knew what he would do -- no matter how technologically advanced another race he encountered was, it would be the same thing. Enslave, and if that was impossible, then exterminate.

For... there could be no other species whose priorities were higher than Zerg Collective. The Collective must be the only race to dominate the galaxy and all other species must bend to its will. To think otherwise was blasphemy!

And... when all other races were either enslaved or exterminated, then and only then would the Collective be satisfied.

And... in order to do that, the Collective must grow. The Collective must grow.

It was 29:59 PM on Salvation, a minute before a new day began. The Emperor, Azrian was wearing his signature home clothes, a blue coat over a grey shirt and black pants. He was looking at a holographic map of the galaxy. He dragged his hand over the display, turning it off. He looked out to the glass door leading to the balcony and sighed "Another day another step". He walked over to it and opened it, feeling the cool night breeze blow into his face. He looked around him, around the Imperial Palace.

It's weird, it's already been a month but I still can't shake the feeling. The feeling that I now decide the fate of the Empire's future,
that future my ancestors gave me.

He sang a patriotic tune he had learned in his boyhood as he looked to the skies.

"Forward! Forward! Into the future we march!
Forward! Forward! Out of the blackened past"

He looked at his watch, a wristwatch which was strange as now people had their holographic displays, and realizing the time, he went back inside, closed the door and retired to his chambers. There he was alone, he was still single (being only 21 and all), making it quite weird considering he was the most powerful person in an entire system. He dozed off and dreamed of the future.

He awoke to the sound of his old friend's voice. "Your majesty, please rise, you have a big day today."

"Peltas, gimme a bit more time" he said rolling away from the source of the voice.

"Your majesty, address me as Prime Minister, it is not befitting as Emperor. Besides, the old lady of the chambe- I mean the Speaker of the Chamber of Titles will be mad..."

"I'll be right over then" he said with a sigh. It was going to be another long day.

He went to his wardrobe where he picked out his black trousers with gold hem, a white polo, a black vest with the Imperial Crown's insignia on its right side and a blue trench coat with gold hems. After putting on black shoes, he left the Private Rooms. Upon leaving, he met the secretary at his desk.

"My Lord, would you like me to inform the government of your presence?"

"Of course" he proceeded to take the archaic telephone from his desk and call the secretary on the West side of the building as I walked off to the West Wing, passing by portraits of previous Emperors.

There he was greeted by 2 men in full dress at the front door into the wing. They saluted him and he nodded, they went to his side and knocked on the door once.

A holler was heard from the other side of the room "Announcing the entry of His Majesty the Emperor." He walked in through the double door with my escorts by his side.

The room was an old one yet the brown paint that covered it spoke otherwise. So did the clean almost brand new-looking chandelier which hung in the center of the room. To the room's east, the morning sun filled the room with light. Inside, there were several men, some in business attire, others in their full military uniform and others in elaborate garments. They were all silently staring at him. Across the hall was a throne, his throne. It was a simple seat, a seat of old Terran Oak that had been preserved and cushioned. Above it was the nation's flag - a half-visible sun with 3 rays, the other half being submerged beneath the horizon, on a plain blue field with 3 white stripes running vertically down the banner.

He sat down on the throne as the commotion began to rise once more. After a while, the Prime Minister came in from a room behind and silence once more overtook the room. He walked to the Emperor who was also silent, simply sitting straight and observing the scene. He stopped at his right and bowed, saying

"Your Majesty, there is an urgent matter to report" The Emperor's eyes widened and he raised his hand, palm facing the announcer. The Prime Minister nodded and he lowered all but his thumb and index finger. The announcer, a man in his early 20s nodded.

"May I, on behalf of the government, request that all Lords proceed to their Chamber and all but the Prime Minister leave the room." With that, everyone filed out of the room, leaving the Emperor, Prime Minister, the escorts and announcer in the room.

"Peltas, what is it you have to say?"

"Call me 'minister', your majesty"

"Fine, now what is this urgent matter?"

@o0V0o i hoped you like this, it's a little late lol!

Planet Xaro's Awakening
Galactic Coordinates 14122-18522
Omicron Sector
Homeworld of the Zerg Collective

Overmind 001 lumbered his massive body on the data-interface throne when suddenly a voice spoke to him.

"My lord! We have detected new foreign presences near our borders!" said a voice, puny and nearly shrieking... a mere scout.

"How close?" asked Overmind 001.

"Approximately 20 light years from our nearest expansion colony, my lord! Data about them is being sent to you now!"

Suddenly, Overmind 001 could see everything that the scoutship had seen. They were called humans. They called themselves the Victorian Empire. Suddenly, he could see their vast fleets and could hear the billions of voices that was their people.

Overmind 001 moaned... worlds ripe for conquest. He could suddenly imagine his drones devouring the target specie's flesh, could see his drones eating away at their bodies and turning them into reproductive creep for future harvesting. He could already imagine feeding on that massive territory.

Now, it was time to delegate the task of conquest to his minions. "Overminds 224, 348, 110, and 238, assemble your fleets at once and head towards the designated sector where the Victorian Empires lies. Conquer it at will! Assimulate them! Eat them alive! Any requests for reinforcements will not be denied! Victory shall be ours!"

Overmind 001 groveled in pleasure. He wondered if he had sent enough to assimulate this new target for conquest... this Victorian Empire. The target... they were indeed powerful and strong enough to resist any minor fleet, which is why he had sent over 40% of his entire battle strength. Such an opportunity could not be wasted!

CIC of the JSBF Silent Sentinel
In a brief ripple of time and space, a single Overwatcher-class Corvette, set on an exploration mission out past the Fringe Line- the edge of Joran settled space- warped into the system. It took a moment for the entire ship to recalibrate to its new environment, and activate its active and passive sensor equipment. At the same time, it launched two surveillance drones, high-stealth, quantum-linked drones that glided through space as if they were debris from a faraway comet or moon, very passively gathering information with the best sensors known to Jura.

A dark reddish, unstriped Jura stood in the pit of the CIC. His central position was where the ship was; all around him, space debris and objects began appearing on the holographic display. Because they warped into the very edge of the system- standard procedure- the only objects appearing were generally directly in front of him.

Shipmaster Su'Talra of the Sentinel Clan purred to himself, the graveling rumblings of it making a deep, throaty hum of contentment.

<Another successful jump. Communications, send word to Central Command that we have reached our destination, and are scouting it now,> Su'Talra said, voice heavy and deep, in their native language. <Thirty-second system to be scouted in as many solar days. Not even Su'Vakra can keep up with me.>

Seven other Jura manned their consoles in a semicircle around him, an officer at their station: Communications, Helm, Navigation, Weapons, Utility, Executive, and Analyst. Each had their role, and having served with all of them for years- he knew they'd do it well.

His contented purring and inner musings caught in his throat, however, when the first two moons appeared on the display. The farthest planet in the system was at its orbit closest to their position, and it took a full twenty minutes for them to get the data from it. The worst thing about warping in at the edge of the system was that you were ten light-minutes or more from the nearest planetary body, and this one was occupied.

<Inform Central Command that we have made contact with a foreign entity in the system. Pass on all data with it.> The Communications officer obediently relayed the message, transmitting it through the ship's instantaneous internal quantum communicator.

Shipmaster Su'Talra stared at the slowly-updating, slowly-expanding field. The unknown contact had covered the moons and planet in something- the computer couldn't identify whatever it was, based on preliminary analysis. Which was odd, because there should be a hell of a lot more natural items in the way- more random atmospheres and gases, and the like. Here, it was all... weird.

The Jura growled, while his underlings remained silent. They knew they could offer up suggestions or ideas, but if they didn't work out or offered something to the problem... Su'Talra would then be Su'Angry.

Finally, the Navigation Jura barked at his Shipmaster, who turned his contemplative, mildly aggravated eyes on the officer.

<It could be that they grew on the planet and moon. The active sensors are reading very notable heat sources from what must be space-worthy power plants, but the readings are showing organically designed ships. Why not have ships that were grown? Rich Jura can grow gold on a plant, why not something like steel or titanium?>

Su'Talra stared for a long moment, before muttering, <A meal in your name, Ni'Jioran.> The officer perked up, pleased that his contribution earned him a meal dining like a king, and everyone shouting a toast to his name. It was an excellent time to preen and enjoy oneself.

The Shipmaster had already turned his gaze back to the slightly shimmering figures spread in front of him. Reaching out, he stretched three clawed digits to surround the planet and its two moons, all occupied, and extended the fingers, quite quickly. The computer obediently zoomed in on the area, slowly providing higher and higher resolution and greater model accuracy as the active sensors swept them over and over.

Growing all over a planet... he had a terrible gut feeling.

<Cu'Ylleri, send word that a Fleet might be required. This Shipmaster thinks our new contacts may not be interested in peace.>

Unbeknownst to the Jura, the Zerg that he had just stumbled across were already beginning to react to his presence, and how obvious he was, scanning them with radar.

It took several long minutes before he began seeing movement, and he snapped his digits at Utility.

<Order the ship to run silent. Cut the exhaust, the turrets, everything. We will be nothing more than another rock floating through space. We will wait for the fleet, or for orders.>

Zerg Planet: Light of New Dawn
Galactic Coordinates 13788-0920
Lynat Sector
Border World 0248

What was that? thought Overmind 0024 of the Zerg Collective.

He woke from deep slumber. His oversized body crawled through his command chamber and, through his neural link with the swarm's main computer, he began reviewing sensor logs.

The Command room of the entire system was small. Situated on his flag carrier, it contained numerous data displays but that was it. It didn't need much for its purpose. Through Overmind 0024's neural link with all the zerg drones within the system, he could accomplish his task without much need for complicated data informatics. Everything happened in his brain.

What was that?

He thought he saw something. Something had broadcasted with active sensors at the very outskirts of the system. And then... it had stopped. Something alien. Something that was not zerg.

He checked the sensor logs and it was confirmed. Something had indeed existed so far out in the edge of the system. And then it went into silent running.

Was this a new species? Was this something that he should alert Overmind 0001 of the fact of its existence?

No, not yet. He did not want to disturb Overmind 0001, yet.

First, Overmind 0024 decided he would send scouts in the direction of the signal. So he can see more about what it was made of. To ascertain...

Overmind 0024 used his neural link with the rest of the zerg in the system to send a command. "Drone Carrier 0007, 0008, and 0009 -- this is the Overmind of the system. Head towards coordinates 84758 and 10028 and active scan the surroundings. The mysterious object must be ascertained. Once you find something, capture it with your warship infiltration drones! I repeat, do not destroy it, we must know more about this unknown object."

"At your command!" said Drone Carrier 0007, 0008, and 0009.

---

Immediately, 3 drone carriers boosted out from the 2nd planet in the system towards the enigmatic object that was at the far reaches of the system. Each drone carrier was equipped with 100 drone fighters as well as 20 standard warship infiltrator units. Warship infiltrator units are drones specially made for entering an enemy warship and eliminating all resistance inside... in order to capture the warship as well as any data stores within the unknown warship.

---

---

Lumosa didn't know why he signed up for this. He thought it might be cool to get out into space again but it was really just another cargo shipment to the Alkaren System. The nation that controlled part of the system, The Alkion Federation, was raided by those that Acropolis had ran out of their system earlier that month. The Alkion Federation, having helped them with the raid suffered the consequences. An industrialized planet was bombed heavily by hired pirates, and their titanium supply faltered.

Lumosa sat, eyes closed, listening to the soft melodic hum of the ship's engine as they traveled through hyperspace. The sweet silence was broken by one of the crew members, "Captain Lumosa, we're coming out of hyperspace shortly at the Hydian System's rendezvous point." Lumosa opened his eyes and sat up in the chair.

"Yes, right. Prepare to make a jump to the Alkaren System once we rendezvous with the second fleet." The crew member nodded, and began the plug coordinates into the holo-screen in front of him. The ship shook as it slowed down and came out of hyperspace, into an empty sector. A few seconds later the second fleet appeared. "Prepare to jump."

"Yes S- Uh... sir?" Lumosa looked up from his control panel. "What? What is it?"

"There is a Non-Trade Atlas ship coming out of hyperspace blocking our route. Sir it's heading right for us!"

"Evasive maneuvers, now!" He said urgently as the fleets veered off to either the left or the right, as the Light Destroyer appeared where they just were. "It's an Ark Patrol Ship. Transmit our codes and try and contact them. Try to tell them we mean no harm."

The crew memeber's shaky hand reached for the Com button, and pressed it. "This is merchant fleet EX27 of the Trading Atlas of Acropolis. We were simply using your system as a rendezvous point before we head off to the Alkaren System to transport goods. We mean no harm to you, the Juran Ark Federation." If they didn't let them pass, there would be little ways of escape or successful battle for 6 merchant ships and 12 small fighters against a Juran Light Destroyer without casualties.

"Your majesty, there seems to be an unidentifiable presence on the fringes of the Empire" Peltas said with a calm expression.

Azrian's eyes widened as he held his chin

"What do you mean?"

Peltas raised his glove-covered right hand its pal facing upwards. Around them, the room closed down, the windows closed and blue lines glowed on the roof. From the floor, a trapdor opened and from it a glowing blue orb emerged.

"Peltas Movley, Prime Minister" He said, his glove also glowing blue.

"Azrian Victorinne the First, Emperor" Azrian said as he looked on in pride at the Empire's greatest supercomputer - the Valiant.

"My Lord, I'll be opening a real-time stream with the Captain of the sighting ship" He said as he touched the blue orb. Before them, a hologram of a short, red-haired young man appeared. He was already on the floor kneeling and in a trembling voice said:

"Your Excellency and Your Majesty, I am honored to be communicating with you"

"The pleasure is ours" They said in unison.

"My Lords, the ship sighted seems to be some sort of bioform but is currently showing no signs of activity. It seems to simply be floating in space" He said as he stood up and brought up an image of the sighted object.

"Yes, but could you please elaborate more on this ship and the location?" The Prime Minister said.

"Oh, I apologize but I believe I'd already informed my Division Admiral of all the required details"

"We understand but I'd prefer a direct report from a direct observer" Peltas responded as he rubbed a finger against his forehead.

"Of course," The terrified captain squeaked " err, the ship is currently in the outskirts of the Olix System. This ship I'm commanding is the VIF Furst - A frigate of the IEEESF"

"Yes, thank you, now-" Suddenly, another man appeared in the hologram, a man in a military uniform and whispered in the captain's ear. The captain's eyes widened and his mouth was hanging slightly open, then his expression changed to one of horror. He ran out yet the messenger stayed but failed to notice his presence on the hologram.

The 2 watching the scene could only look on in fear. The Prime Minister was froze in place whilst the Emperor could only mutter

"What...what...what"

They looked at each other and Peltas nodded. He moved his hand and with a movement similar to pushing a button, the screen changed. Now, they were looking at the outside of a nearby ship, from there they could see not one not two but several, possibly 50 of the bioforms. They were advancing and showed no signs of slowing down.

The Emperor rose from his throne and said

"Give the order to broadcast an ultimatum to these bioforms! If they don't stop, we will use military force"

"Yes my liege!" The Prime Minister said. "Shall I call for a general assembly of the government?" He asked.

"Yes, do it and have the Minister of Military Affairs be ready to ready and mobilize every single weapon and soldier in the Empire. If all comes to the worst, we will be at war by the end of the day."

Later that day, in the Assembly Hall...

The hall was filled with silence, the air was tense and everyone in the hall - every minister, legislator and several commanders were simply staring at the Emperor standing behind the podium and the Prime Minister sitting on a lower platform in front of it.

"Gentlemen, we are officially at war" The Prime Minister said. Whispers could be heard all over the room. He raised his hand in the air, signalling for them to stop.

"I'd like to call the Imperial Expansion, Exploration and Exploitation Special Forces Head Commander to explain" A tall and stocky man in a military uniform walked to the stage. He was pale and visibly trembling as he moved to the stage.

"Th-thank you, yout Excellency" He said.

"As you probably know, an unknown enemy recently appeared in the Olix System earlier today at 7:14:46 Capital Standard Time. They were originally somewhat benign and seemed not to pose a threat. Suddenly; however, more appeared and they began moving towards one of our own divisions. As per the Emperor's order, an order to stand down was broadcasted." He gulped

"They were not heeded and they were soon within firing range of our ships. By 8:46:03 they broadcasted their own message. It will be read after this. They, by then officially declared an enemy of the state, continued their advance and we opened fire. In the end, out of the 1,000 frigates present, 679 were lost but the UE (unknown enemy) lost all of their 500 strong attack force. We are currently deploying a research team to conduct an analysis but it seems the enemy's ships are essentially large bioform. As for the message: " He swallowed hard as everyone in the audience looked on with expressions of fear.

"We are the Zerg, we will enslave you all. Victory shall be ours." He was breathing heavily by then. The Prime Minister went back up as the other man walked off sweating heavily.

"In response to this, we are currently readying and mobilizing all forces to the Olix System. The IEEESF fleet that had recently been attacked is currently patrolling the system." Moreover, only 15 of our 50 Victorian Imperial Fleet Divisions will remain in the system, the rest are already being deployed to the Olix System and others to guard against the threat. We will also be producing new ships and are currently conducting research into bioweapons that could possibly have an effect on them. Nonetheless, the elephant in the room is that we are at war - at war with the Zerg. All I can say is this - We will survive."

The assembly was silent for a moment. Then, a single person began to clap, slowly yet with conviction. The rest of the hall then began to resound with the cry:

"Long Live the Empire!"

CIC of the JSBF Silent Sentinel, 2 hours later
Su'Talra watched grimly as data was fed back to him: three large warships, easily battlecruiser-sized, were moving towards his position. He had been drifting, but because of his speed and course just before going silent, he wasn't too far away from his last position- if anything, he had been getting closer to the investigating foreigners.

Those three ships were easily large enough to deal with his small one, and there wasn't any way to fight them. They were moving too aggressively, and he didn't like it when unknown ships bolted straight for his position, and didn't attempt to make contact. He had been the first one to meet the fifth sentient species that the Jora knew of; they were spacefaring, barely, but they had the courtesy to ask who's at the door.

<Use maneuvering thrusters, and bring us around. On my mark, go full burn towards the edge of the system. Helm, get ready, Navigation, plot us a course to the best hyperspace gateway,> Su'Talra snapped, in no mood for playing any sort of game with the aliens. Unfortunately, he knew that they wouldn't make it, not even if they full-burned at this very moment. If they opened up a hyperspace portal, there was a larger and larger chance that they could enter hyperspace with him, and follow him to one of the Juran systems- if they had the technology for it. No, if he wanted to get out of this system undetected, he'd either have to slingshot himself around and away by trying to glide past them, or...

<Shipmaster,> rasped Ni'Jioran, the Navigation officer. <We would not make it to the closest silent warp without being caught. They have the acceleration advantage on us.>

Su'Talra growled again, and began to order the Communications officer to prep another message. He was interrupted by him the next moment.

<Su'Talra, Central Command has sent word. Two patrolling ships from the closest system have been dispatched. They'll be here within the hour, and can come out wherever needed if we send the coordinates,> Cu'Ylleri recited, staring at his console, back to Su'Talra.

<This gives me an idea. Helm, full burn immediately. Silent is off the the grid now- retreat is our best option. Go for full burn.> Su'Talra gnashed his teeth in annoyance, but easily conceded to the need to retreat. Unfortunately, the unknown ships had proved themselves to be an annoyance, and were now closing too fast to outrun.

---

The Escort Corvette had spun around so its engines were facing the three approaching ships, some hundred thousand kilometers away still. Nonetheless, the range was getting far, far too close for comfort. It was with silence- as it was with everything in space- that the small, slender ship ejected blazing hot heat sinks, and the two rear fusion thrusters lit up like two small blue suns. At 100% efficiency, the forward drift ground to a halt, and then became a rapid acceleration.

But it wasn't enough- two destroyers were set to arrive in the system in two and a half hours. The corvette needed to escape the system, and its best chance was an area of empty space even emptier than the rest, with a slight gravitational 'tramline' to the next system over- and this disturbance causes eddies in hyperspace, which the corvette can take and hide in. Escaping through this route would take three hours of travel.

The three warships on the corvette's tail would intercept at about two hours.

The corvette’s turrets unfolded out of their ports on the hull, five triple-barreled railguns turning to lock onto the oncoming carriers. Sixteen ports the size of a Jura also opened, and even smaller railgun turrets popped out- point defense. All the point defense railguns were designed to fire a 25mm 1-kilogram bolt at .002% of lightspeed- a whopping 6,000 meters per second. Such impact force from a tiny projectile at high speeds was easily enough to disable or destroy fighters, drones, and even lightly damage heavy armor. Every strike railgun turret fired at a rate of about 2.333 rounds per second, with 200mm rounds traveling at .0005% of lightspeed- 1,500 m/s. The SRTs easily had a greater fire rate and higher damage per second, but weren’t even close to being as pinpoint-accurate as the point defense- the SRTs relied more on spraying short 5-second bursts and letting the collective damage mount up. On a bigger ship, they were far more intimidating because they could fire almost forever, with all the ammunition- but a corvette was only armed for short, fleeing engagements, or to fight off a small group of fighters or tier 5-3 civilizations. Any warship worth its salt from tier 3 and up would be able to take a corvette on, and this corvette knew it.

Sensing the incoming trio’s hostile intentions, the small patrol ship nonetheless attempted to communicate, sending a message that could hopefully be translated by the aliens.

<Incoming foreign entities, the Juran Spacebourne Fleetship Silent Sentinel greets you, and requests that you slough off speed and avoid coming too close.>

The message played on repeat for several minutes before cutting off, engines of its transmitting ship still at full burn, tearing through the ship’s internel helium-3 fuel supply.

---

CIC of the JSBF Valiance, Hydian System Deep Space Picket
The Corvette was already sending a report back to Central Command of the intruders, as it took several long minutes to receive the foreign ships’ broadcast (due to it being ten light-minutes away) and use its computer to translate it.

Within short order, a message was sent back in the same language.

”Mercantile Vessels of the Altis Acropolis, this is the JSBF Valiance, you are tresspassing deep in Juran Ark Federation space. You are hereby ordered to standby and prepare for an inspection. JAF Fleet units are en route; any attempt to flee will be taken as guilt of hostile intent, and treated accordingly. Hold speed and course, and wait for boarding parties for examination; resistance will be responded with accordingly. Do you copy?”

The corvette didn’t slow until it reached the turnaround point for a backwards burn, drawing closer and closer with computer-guided precision.

Meanwhile, in the Morris System (2 System jumps from Valia, ~ 2 LY away)

On board the IES Delphia of the IEEESF - Exploration Division

The Delphia was a massive ship of an experimental design - A Discovery Class Frigate. There were only 5 in existence and they were all under the IEEESF's command. They were specially designed to scan entire systems several jumps away. Their main weakness was; however, that they were large, bulky, slow and badly defended. Compared to other ships of the Frigate type, they were massive yet they were extremely useful to the Empire and its goals. At its helm was Captain Louis Gallyron, a relatively new captain. He had served onboard a VIF Capital Ship for 6 months only recently and had been promoted for handling a sensitive situation quite well. He looked out at the blue planet before him, one of 3 possibly hospitable worlds of the massive Morris system. His holopad suddenly vibrated as its screen began to glow.

"Accept stream" He said as he brought the device to a receptacle nearby.

A garbled voice began to come out of the holopad but slowly began to unscramble itself.

"Hello, hello, is this working?" A low, troubled voice said. It was the IEEESF Head Commander.

"Yes, hearing you loud and clear commander"

"Good, transfer the transmission to a monitor set."

"On it" The captain responded as he pressed his finger onto one of the nearby unactive monitors. The screen lit up and the commander's face could be seen.

"Now, Captain Louis, news has come in that one of our divisions in the Olix System has apparently encountered an enemy force. They were able to soundly defeat them but with heavy losses."

"What attacked?"

"I'll be giving you a copy of the report, but listen. I'll be reassigning 50 Frigates under your command, thte rest will be sent with the Division Commander to Axior System two jumps from here to patrol."

"What will I be doing?"

"You captain will continue your exploration. We need as much info as we can get to prepare for this war."

"Understood, sir"

"Good, I'll be off then."

The screen went blank as Captain Louis sat down in his chair, thinking of their next course of action. He had the ship communications system brought up. It was normally a blue interface with tabs to the right for each division and inside those would be tabs for each ship and the logs for communications with each. He brought up communications with the newly assigned group of 50 frigates. He opened up a line between him and the group's utility ship.

"Special Task Group 1 - Utility Ship 1 this is your Group commander speaking."

"Reading you loud and clear" A voice from the other side said.

"Is your inter-system communications system up?"

"Inactive, sir"

"Activate it, I want a clear broadcast line to get communications to Valia"

He then closed the line and opened a new one with all ships in the group.

"All ships of STG-1, this is your temporary commander, Captain Louis of the Delphia. We will be continuing our system analysis while our other comrades are off at Olix. I want all our utilitiy ships other than 1 spreading out so we can bounce the scanning."

"Affirmative" They responded in unison. However, suddenly, the utility ship from earlier attempted to request a communications line. He opened it and suddenly, an anxious voice came from the other end.

"Commander, it seems an unknown ship with a strange communications system has appeared."

He nearly fell off his seat upon hearing that.

"Should we open communications?" The voice on the other end asked.

"Broadcast an inquiry of intent" He said.

"Sir, our version of international law may not apply to them. And besides, no IoIs have been broadcasted in years!" The man panicked.

"You have a broadcast protocols and etiquette handbook don't you? It's on Section 10 Subsection 5" He tried to sound as calm as possible but still had a hint of anxiety in his voice nevertheless.

"Ye-ye-yes sir, broadcasting inquiry of intent" There was silence on the line for a long while.

"Inquiry broadcasted, no response received. Unknown entity identified as being under something known as the JSBF"

---

Because I got the idea from @OfWindAndRain (Nice concepts by the way, I like them)

@OfWindAndRain

Zerg Planet: Light of New Dawn
Galactic Coordinates 13788-0920
Lynat Sector
Border World 0248



Overmind 0024 laid prostrate in the command room of his flag ship that was orbiting the planet. He was analyzing the sensor data that his three leading drone carriers was observing. He could see what they saw, even as they were accelerating away from his planet and towards the lone unknown vessel.

As for the lone unknown vessel, he could see it clearly, too -- especially since it had disabled its silent running cloak and was now as bright as day.

Saliva fell from Overmind 0024's mouth. He groveled. He wanted it... that unknown vessel. He wanted it as a prize. He wanted to eat its inhabitants. He wanted to take it over and assimulate any of its advanced technology. Surely... it had to be advanced, if it could cloak that well?

While Overmind 0024 was licking his lips, he wondered if he should alert Overmind 0001 back in the home system on the Zerg Homeworld... of what Overmind 0024 saw here in the border world. He wondered... and then decided not to. He would keep the existence of these aliens to himself -- and when he had assimulated them and had dissected their ship... then he would alert Overmind 0001 of the good news.

Overmind 0024 grinned. A big smile appeared on its bulbous body. The simple idea of taking that ship apart made him excited.

"Carriers 0007, 0008, 0009 -- Deploy fighter-drones!" yelled Overmind. "Deploy all of your warship infiltration units as well! Accelerate all fighters and infiltration units towards the unknown vessel. All fighters are to target the unknown's propulsion. Once the unknown vessel's propulsion is down, all warship infiltration units are to latch onto its hull and take it over from inside. It is ours!"

He watched as Carriers 0007, 0008, and 0009 ejected all 300 of its fighter-drones as well all 60 of its warship infiltration units. Each warship infiltration unit was a pod that could move on its own. Each pod contained a spider. A spider was an infiltration unit that could latch onto enemy hulls and then cut their way into the enemy's inside. Once inside, it acted as a soldier -- it would kill everything that was inside the targeted starship and attempt to take it over from within.

---

@o0V0o

Planet Xaro's Awakening
Galactic Coordinates 14122-18522
Omicron Sector
Homeworld of the Zerg Collective

Overmind 0001 gazed at the battle reports from the war with the Victorian Empire. He was ecstatic. So far so good, he thought.

It was true. His scouting fleet had been utterly annihilated in the system that was so called Olix, but they were just scouts... nothing more.

As for his main force of 400 drone carriers, they were almost at their destination -- the star system Olix.

He wanted that system so bad, for none other than the fact that it was key to claiming the Victorian Empire's homeworld. He was at their door steps! He could smell the odor of victory! Once he had taken Olix, he would immediately head towards the Victorian Empire's homeworld and then began enslaving the empire's people -- not simply at the Victorian Empire's motherworld but here in Olix as well.

His plan was to defeat all the defenders of the star system called Olix, and then proceed to land ground troops on all the planets and planetoids in Olix. The idea that he would take over the population of an entire system thrilled him to his very core. Once enslaved, the population would become slave animals, which his collective would feed on and turn into biomass, which would be part of mechanism in which the Zerg Collective would breed more of its own...

His 400 drone carriers were almost at Olix... almost there to ravage and defeat the system's defenders.

Zerg Planet: Light of New Dawn
Galactic Coordinates 13788-0920
Lynat Sector
Border World 0248
Several Hundred-Thousand Kilometers in front of the JSBF Silent Sentinel
@Luna_Maria & @OfWindAndRain

UZF Siren's Rose
Space seemed to distort in a circular pattern in multiple positions, and from these came a variety of ships. A few moments later, the ships activated their sensor suites, scanning the surrounding area. "Captain, we're through. All systems are coming online now, sir," spoke a young lieutenant manning the operations console, before returning to the task that was the tapping of keys and pressing of buttons.

"Thank you, lieutenant," Captain Nasko Feo spoke, before returning to reading the latest report from the too-smart Zenohunts aboard the UZF White Wolf, the science ship that was accompanying the flotilla - or rather, that the flotilla accompanied. Ever since the war with the Lasdan, expanding the territories and known lands was never done alone. Whenever going to a completely new system, a ship was accompanied by a formation of UZF ships. It wasn't something that captain Nasko cared for - he figured that if a science ship was armed enough, it could go by itself. At least it gave him something to do rather than guarding a border planet.

And, it gave him a shot at commanding a flotilla. That was sure to make him seem better to the promotion board.

"Captain!" Someone yelled, freeing Nasko from his own thoughts. Upon looking at the speaker, Nasko realised it was the sensor consoleman. "We have a contact on sensors, one ship, perhaps corvette class, approaching fast." The captain reacted quickly, issuing out orders with a strong voice. "Red alert! Bring guns to full readiness. Comms, hail it. Send it the first contact greeting, text and vocal. Also, warn it not to engage. Tell commander Wilar to deploy his fighters."

"More contacts! Three ships. I'm presuming them carrier class because of their size," the sensor consoleman called. This surprised the captain, and forced him to think. If the carriers were already moving at such a speed, there was no way that they had moved to attack the flotilla. Had they just walked into an internation, perhaps interspecies conflict? If so, who was the good, and who was the bad?

Taking a gamble that the corvette was fleeing, as the carriers were flying straight for it, he made the decision to help it; perhaps it could tell him more of the situation, if they could even communicate; It was almost a one-hundred percent possibility that the occupants of the ship spoke a different language than Zenospeak, the Zenohunt's own language.

"Order all ships to move to defend that corvette. To clarify, we are not targeting the corvette, we are going to try and see what is going on here, and engage the carriers if they remain accelerating. Comms, send a message to the three carriers via text, tell them to hold position or at least stop accelerating. Hopefully they can translate it."

@datadogie

Zerg Planet: Light of New Dawn
Galactic Coordinates 13788-0920
Lynat Sector
Border World 0248

What was this??? thought Overmind 0024.

A new unknown force arriving into his system?

Inside his command room, he grinned. What good fortune! he thought. Now, he could take over even more alien ships and steal even more alien technology.

Certainly, this was time to alert Overmind 0001 of the existence of not one but two new alien races?

No... smiled Overmind 0024. He would keep it a secret. When he had captured all the alien vessels in the system, then he would tell Overmind 0001 of his successes. Although... at the moment, he wasn't sure if he could capture the vessels of both alien factions. I will dare try, I will.

0024 used his neural link with the remaining drone carriers within the system to give them orders. "Drone carriers 0001 to 0006, boost towards the new enemy fleet that just arrived into the system. Your sensors should be able to detect all 8 ships of this new enemy faction. Take control of them using the same commands I gave to drone carriers 0007, 0008, and 0009 regarding the lone unknown ship of the first faction. Send your fighters first to destroy the second faction's unknown ships' ability to move, and then board them with your spiders to kill all enemy resistance within each ship. Victory shall be ours! For the swarm!"

---

Immediately, all 6 remaining idle Zerg drone carriers within the system boosted towards the second unknown faction's 8 ships in an effort to commandeer them and take control away from their current masters.

Each of the six drone carriers carried 100 drone-fighters and 20 warship infiltration units per.

The JSBF Silent Sentinel
The ship waited, thrusters still at full burn. No response was recorded; nothing changed. By any means, it appeared that the ship hadn’t broadcasted anything at all, and there were still well over three thundred incoming entities on an intercept trajectory.

Abruptly and silently, all point defense turrets opened fire, releasing easily over a hundred rounds per turret, each of them layering at least ten rounds per incoming interceptor. The railguns targetted the larger craft hanging back behind the interceptors, likely bombers or heavy fighters of some kind; with a 9-round burst from each turret, the small patrol craft spit out enough ordnance in 10 seconds to lay a small city to waste.

---

Inside the CIC of the Silent Sentinel
Su’Talra paced back and forth in front of the holographic map depicting their ‘battle.’ If only he had missiles…

<Utility Officer, how many surveillance drones do we have?> asked the shipmaster, a plan forming in his mind to ensure his survival.

<Shipmaster Talra,> replied the resonanting voice of the slightly smaller female officer. <This craft currently has ten more surveillance drones, but has more of other types. What do you plan?>

Su’Talra remained silent for a long moment, watching the small icon that represented the brief 20-second burst of fire from all his turrets. It was hardly a third of the way to the incoming interceptors, having fired nearly two minutes ago, but the rounds would impact shortly. Still, though, their motherships might have more interceptors, or ship-to-ship weaponry on board.

<Prep six of the drones. I want commands entered for them to detonate at half the distance as normal, and i want their launch tubes aimed at the carriers. Designate enemy units as Tango Carriers One through Three, and Tango Intercept and Tango Heavy. I want all Tango Heavies dead as soon as they enter the edge of effective point defense range- there’s no way they could survive point blank range. Ready launch tubes to fire two drones at Tango Carriers, and ensure that their self-destruct blows only when they’re very close to their hull- ballistic course only, keep them silent.>

The officers on the bridge were… unsettled with the unorthodox attack, but notheless did what he said.

All surveillance drones were top-of-the-line Juran Ark Federation technology, using the latest passive and active sensors, electronic warfare modules, and sensor scramblers. It could fly invisible, or it could fly to appear exactly like an asteroid. Cut off normal communications in an area, send and receive messages, and more. Because of the advanced technology used, it’s considered imperative that none of it reaches the hands of its enemies- and so inside each drone is a small 40-pound core, right next to the pressurized and cloaked hull that contains the drone’s batteries and its black box. Inside the 40-pound core is a 15-pound containment core, 24-ish pounds of titanium armor around the outside, and 20 grams’ of antimatter held suspended inside the containment field generated inside the core.

The twenty pounds of antimatter is enough to annhilate the entire drone, and the area around it.

Using them as makeshift missiles was definitely plausible, even if you could produce sublight antimatter missiles for about a third of the cost of each drone.

Suddenly, the Communications officer piped up. <Shipmaster! We have a confirmation on reinforcements; Central Command acknowledges our plight and discovery of a hostile alien race, and is dispatching 3rd Fleet to help scout and take the system. If we slip into hyperspace now, we can meet with them halfway along. If these enemy ships follow us, we could easily lead them into a trap. The Commodore of 3rd Fleet has already ordered us to escape immediately and bait the ships behind us- they want to pull the enemy ships out of hyperspace somewhere out in the Deep and deal with them there.>

The officer, knowing what Su’Talra would ask, had already transferred the message to the holographic plot. Reading over the official orders, he inwardly frowned- he was looking forward to surprising three enemy warships with antimatter. Nonetheless, he had orders and a new commander.

<Helm, have Engineering power up the Warp drive, and bring us into hyperspace. Navigation, plot the best possible course to 3rd Fleet’s hyperspace coordinates. Stand down all weaponry and drones; all hands to Transition Stations, Combat Stations are on hold.>

As the CIC officers scrambled to do his bidding, Utility piped up.

<Sir!> snapped Cu'Ylleri. <There is a second alien fleet to our bow. The computer affirms that they are of a different faction of the one that’s following us; different design.>

Truly beside himself now, Su’Talra physically swiped at the holographic display, snarling. Unable to process the command, the floating holographs just flickered red for a moment.

The shipmaster wasted no time in responding, snarling, <Report this news and continue our previous orders!> He saw for himself as the purple-neutral icons went enemy-red at the same time Utility called that they were preparing weapons.

<Retreat into warp, immediately!>

With that, the corvette disappeared in a flash, having left behind only a single salvo to impact the incoming starfighters.

Within half an hour, it’d regroup with the two destroyers that were en route. Shortly after that, the three ships will meet up with the much, much larger 3rd Fleet, which will drop out of warp to wipe the offending aliens out of space.


CIC of the JSBF Third Harbinger, Carrier-Flagship of the 3rd Fleet, Intersteller Warpspace
The carrier’s shipmaster and Fleetmaster both had two different rooms: the CIC- Combat Information Center- was reserved for the shipmaster and his ship, while the FIC- Fleet Information Center- was reserved for the Fleetmaster.

The Fleetmaster was one of few particularly high-ranking Admirals in the Juran Spacebourne Navy, and a veteran of over fifty years of combat- having joined into a town’s militia by the ripe age of twelve, and continuing on into a career ground-pounder. After a series of incidents, the gifted non-commissioned officer found himself in fleet school, and shortly afterwards, on the command track.

3rd Fleet’s Fleetmaster was a Juran of particular talent and skill, even as he was one of the lowest ranking Admirals.

And in this case, he was also the calmest out of an entire fleet’s worth of shipmasters.

The FIC had a dozen consoles, with only four of them within reach of the holographic pit in the center. Those four officers were rather straightforward- Executive Commander, or the Fleetmaster’s second in command, Communication, Fire Coordinatior, and Fleet Analyst. In this case, the Fleet Analyst officer had been replaced with a robot- Juran in all aspects but being of metal rather than flesh, with a quantum supercomputer with organic storage core in his chest rather than a brain in his head. The robotic Juran was one of five, placed among various positions near Admirals, both as an advisor in whatever form, and bodyguard.

Fe’Sutakra, Fleetmaster of the 3rd, Admiral of the Fourth Class, Victor of Vilery’s Bay and Brawler of Boshtyk, stared at the constantly updating holographic display, as routed to him via Silent Sentinel. A salvo was about to impact a series of small attack craft en route to the Sentinel’s final position, and a total of nine battlecruiser-sized carriers, carrying those attack craft, were en route to a second alien force- one that didn’t appear to be backing down from the fight.

The fight would’ve been maybe half an hour, an hour into it by the time he arrived. Neither force, even if they combined their numbers, could possibly beat his own, of that he was certain. Both of those forces were also being updated in real-time because of the two surveillance drones the Silent Sentinel dropped right before it entered warpspace and began to rendevous with him.

The Jura Fleetmaster crossed his arms, and waited silently for his fleet to arrive.

Zerg Planet: Light of New Dawn
Galactic Coordinates 13788-0920
Lynat Sector
Border World 0248

"Sir, we have detected six more enemy ships, carrier-class. Warning, enemy fighters detected, coming fast!" Before the captain could issue any more orders to counter this, the sensor consoleman issued out another announcement; "Captain, the corvette has jumped. It's no longer in-system!"

That changed things; the whole point of them staying was to defend the corvette. Nonetheless, there was no way they could turn around without dramatically slowing themselves and then being forced to speed up again, a time of which the fighters would definitely catch up to them. And so, they were forced to fight. The system behind them would have seen that they hadn't sent a ship back to indicate safe passage and would get help. With the discovery of a whole new race, possibly two, hopefully it would be a few battleships.

"Order the ships into a square, facing the enemy ships and unlock missile tubes and point defence. Weapons, unlock the pulse laser as well, target the closest of the first three carriers." Immediately after that order was complete, the captain began to issue offensive orders, "All ships, fire missiles at these three carriers." He selected the closest three, the ones that had been chasing the corvette before. "Engage."

With that, all Zenohunt ships unloaded part of their missile load, a stream of around 140 missiles leaking from the tubes of each ship. As well as this, the pulse laser fired from the heavy cruiser, a harsh red beam that beamed across space almost instantly, aimed directly at the targeted carrier. The drawback was that at such range, the power of the laser was reduced significantly and drew a lot of power from the ship. Captain Nasko hoped it would at least do some damage, however, but they didn't know anything about the hostile ship's armour nor even if they had shields of some kind.

"Point defense, engage the hostile fighters," he then ordered, crossing his arms behind his back as he watched.

@OfWindAndRain @datadogie

Zerg Planet: Light of New Dawn
Galactic Coordinates 13788-0920
Lynat Sector
Border World 0248

Overmind 0024 grinned. The first alien ship has fled in defeat! They flee in terror! Cowards!

He laughed. His round bulbous body rumbled with glee. That is what will happen if you mess with the Zerg Collective. You will die. Therefore, you must run while you can!

He laughed and laughed and laughed and --

"My lord!" said a fighter-drone. "We're being shot at by point defense mass driver bullets!"

"What?" demanded Overmind 0024. "But the cowards have left!"

"They shot the field of bullets before they left, my lord!"

"Then evade! Evasive maneuvers -- All fighters of carriers 0007, 0008, and 0009 -- EVADE!"

But it was too late.

Instantly, he could see through his sensors on board his 300 fighters that had left carriers 0007, 0008, 0009. He saw the point defense particles slam into his fighter cloud. Fighter after fighter went down, turned into exploding hull metal from the collision with the point defense particles. Explosions dotted throughout the blackness of space as his fighter's already significant kinetic velocity slammed into the kinetic velocities of the mass driver particles going in the opposite direction. By the time the explosions ended, only 40% of the original 300 fighters had made it through the enemy ship's point defense projectiles. At the same time, his 60 warship infiltration drones (that had followed behind his fighters) had also been dealt terrifying damage. Many drones had died, and now there were only 30 functioning pods out of the original 60. Still, there were 120 fighters and 30 drones, and each fighter carried two short range fusion warheaded missiles as well as a main kinetic cannon in order to...

But enemy ship that had shot those particles was no longer there...

Cowards! They shoot and then they flee!

There was only one thing left to do, thought Overmind 0024. "All fighters-drone and warship infiltration drones of carriers 0007, 0008, and 0009 -- divert away from your original course at the escaped enemy ship and head towards the new enemy combatants!" His eyes glossed over 8 new enemy ships that had just warped into the system not long ago. He could already anticipate the excitement of taking them over with his warship infiltration pods. "Attack and occupy the new enemies!"

"My lord!" said carrier 0007 through the system-wide neural link.

"What now?" said Overmind 0024.

"In-in-incoming missiles, my lord!" said carrier 0007.

"Fire your flak cannons!" said 0024.

"They're coming too fa --" A massive explosion detonated right on top of zerg carrier 0007. Overmind 0024 could see the explosion -- could sense it, could feel it, and the pain blinded him. Not only that, but he could feel more blinding pain as more and more missiles -- where had they come from? -- detonated on top of carriers 0007, 0008, and 0009. He could feel his carriers losing cohesion, and feel theirs hulls buckling to the stress, and felt as numerous sophont-drones living and working inside those carriers perished. He saw gigantic craters appearing all over his hulls, and could feel the pain as his three carriers were torn apart, explosions belching throughout their bodies.

Not only that, but somewhere in all that pain, he felt a lone superlaser beam crash into one of his carriers. The beam tore through hull-metal and organic composites, and dove through nerves and power conduits, and did more explosive damage than any of the missile hits.

When it was all done, Overmind 0024 writhed in agony. He had lost communications with two of his three carriers. He could only neural link with one, and through that link, he could see the debris field that had been zerg carriers 0007 and 0009. He saw the hot molten slags of 0007 and 0009 as they expanded outward in a forever expanding cloud, and could feel the stammering pain that carrier-drone 0008 felt even as it survived.

And... when the pain finally diminished and reality set back in... Overmind 0024 could only feel one thing. Vengeance. "All carriers within the system, deploy all fighter-drones and warship infiltration drones at the remaining 8 enemy combatants within the system. Destroy them! Pay them back for what they've done to us..."

---

Zerg carriers 0001 to 0006 followed Overmind 0024's orders by launching all 600 of their fighters and 120 of their warship infiltration drones at 8 enemy ships that were still in the system. The remaining surviving fighters and infiltration drones of carriers 0007, 0008, and 0009 were already on the way.

The Coming Storm
Olix System
Victorian Colony 1 FTL Jump from Home System

DA Anthony Gallant's PoV

The Victorian Imperial Fleet had sent 40 of its 50 Divisions to Olix in preparation for the Zerg threat, so far around 30 had already arrived. Their colony worlds - Olix IV, V and VI had readied their orbital defense systems and the local militia, according to some sources, they'd even begun drilling their populace quite heavily to the point of keeping them awake late at night. The main fleet base in the system, the Stalwart, had its weapons systems armed and its men drilled.

Each Fleet Division had 200 Fighters and Bombers in 2 Carriers, 100 Frigates and a single Capital Ship. One of these such ships was the VIF Glorian of the First Fleet Division manned by Division Admiral Anthony Gallant.

He stood on a platform overlooking the staff of the bridge, all of them running around and pointing at screens frantically. On this platform with him was the captain, who was calm compared to the rest of his crew. He was reading reports while sitting on his chair with a mug of coffee on his desk.

"Admiral, how confident are you that we'll make it" The captain asked out of the blue.

Gallant, who had been staring out into space with his hands behind his back replied "What made you ask this, Captain Farrel?"

"Nothing at all" He replied as he sipped his coffee "Ah! Too hot" He said, smacking his lips as he brought his coffee down to the desk.

"Careful, that coffee's from the forests of the homeworld. It might as well be the closest thing to home you have. Besides, from the smell, it's an Illion mix, which is quite expensive." The admiral said, not ceasing to look out the window.

"A good nose you have there, admiral" The captain with a burnt tongue said. As he blew on the coffee to cool it down, he couldn't help but ask another question. "What's it like being a fleet admiral?"

The admiral looked at him and frowned.

"Quite frankly, it's boring. I'd rather have been in the IEEESF before this whole fiasco."

"Don't they have a bunch of 'experimental' design ships?"

"Yeah, they're technically not counted under the military ships but they pack a lot of punch from what I've heard."

"There are what, 5 divisions here right now aren't there?"

The admiral looked back at the stars but held his chin with his right hand.

"3 have arrived, 2 others are still back at home packing up."

"Oh"

"From what I'd heard they have an experimental weapon with them"

"Hmmm? Do tell" The captain said as he sipped his coffee, taking care not to burn his tongue again.

"One division's got a bioweapon packed with them. One with a rapid acting neurotoxin that killed 5 humans before in a few minutes."

"Ouch, do we have any idea if it'll work on the Zerg?"

"According to analysis, the Zerg are essentially a hive mind. That gives us one advantage - take out a certain unit and we win, all their ships will probably drop dead. If that neurotoxin works on them too, that could kill a lot of them and probably the 'overmind' if he's with them."

"And if they use them against us?"

"Antidotes, never use bring a weapon whenn you don't know how it works or when it can be used against you."

"Anything else?"

"A railgun"

"What?"

"You heard me, a railgun"

"They fit that onto a ship?"

"Yeah, our scientists and engineers are capable of achieving miracles nowadays aren't they?"

"What else do we have?"

"An advanced communications and sensor system"

"The kind the IEEESF has?"

"Yeah, each utility ship of theirs can bounce signals and has sensors on board, thereby if anyone picks anything up it'll bounce across the system and let us ships see it. Kinda like having eyes and ears everywhere."

Then, the holopad on the captain's desk opened.

"Sir, the Division Admirals are opening up an urgent channel, you should go to the communications room."

"Of course" The admiral said running to the back of the room.

After running though a short hallway, he arrived at the communications room, a relatively large room with several screens on the walls. They all lit up with a blue light upon his entry. A message on the holopads read "Open Channel - 'DA Command Assembly' forwarded to this ship, Open?"

Admiral Gallant straightened his hat and uniform and said in a loud voice

"Open Channel"

Immediately, an old man in the same uniform as his, Division Admirala Louis Farrel of the 2nd Division said "All divisions ready for encounter! The enemy has been spotted - 400 Carriers heading our way still in FTL Jump. I repeat, all ships be ready for encounter, the Zerg have been spotted and are moving toward us!"

The admiral's eyes widened and his expression was of surprise. "Computer, direct transmission audio to division-wide announcement on all ships and open a channel between us and the rest of the division!"

His mouth widened to a smile as he narrowed his eyes. "Let the games begin" He said, readjusting his hat. He walked out of the room. Arriving in the bridge, he watched the crew return to their stations running as if they were being chased. He stood at the platform, where the captain he had justs been talking to was sitting and frantically reading reports. He faced him and said

"I want the entire division ready for a broadside against that position" He said pointing at his holopad, showing a map of the system with the Zerg's assumed jump entry point on screen.

"Yes sir" He said.

General Overview

The First Division is on the system's edge, along with the Second - Fifth Divisions. The IEEESF's ships are close by along with the experimental weapons. Once maneuvering is complete, the Zerg's assumed jump destination will be surrounded by ships ready to broadside them. No planets are nearby. The closest would be Olix IV.

Collab by me and Datadogie

Zenohunt outer rim space
Trius star

For eons, the slumber has lasted this time. The usual wake-up sign was calling, the sun was dying.
Regaining its composure and getting its bearings, the ancient began to check itself, hull, propulsion, fade drive and finally sensorium.
Figuratively opening its eyes, the ancient looked around itself. Yes, the sun was dying around it. The last stages before going supernova was already in effect. It was time to leave.

With drives older than the currently living stars, the ancient cast itself into motion, the power given off the final spark needed to ignite the super-nova.
As the star was literally exploding behind it, it moved faster and faster. Shooting itself out of the rapidly dying star looking like a comet entering an atmosphere.

Seeing it would not be able to outrun the exponentially accelerating blast, the ancient faded out of this existence and into hyperspace with a flickering like shuddering jello.

"Strange, there seems to be an anomaly," one of the Zenohunts at the consoles read. They were far enough from the Supernova to have time to study it and it's effects before it reached them. The lead scientist of the team strolled his way behind the man, peering over his shoulder. It appeared he was right; something had shot out of the star, before vanishing, almost as if it was entering hyperspace. However, it had seemed to flicker strangely before doing so. Did the Supernova influence a new kind of hyperspace travel?

"Record everything, save everything," the leader of them said. "We'll take the files home and have them studied, this is very interesting. We haven't seen anything like that before." He turned to a different Zenohunt, who sat up once she realised she was being stared at. "How much time until we have to-"

The lead scientist was interrupted by the warning for hyperspace travel echoing throughout the ship, a low beeping alarm. The Zenohunt hyperdrives worked through brutally opening a hole in space, 'brutally' being an almost incorrect term as those within the ship actually felt nothing but perhaps a little ambient vibration in the deck plates, and it wasn't uncommon to feel a little ill for a few moments on the other side.

After a few moments, the Zenohunt ship was on it's way away from the system, heading back home.

Zenohunt core space
Loskel system
Planet Loskel

The travel through hyperspace had been short and uneventful, the ancient was already back on going on its instinctive route. This was something the ancient lived for, was it some long lost order? Or a subconscious wish or hope? It did not know, but it knew it was its purpose and that was enough.

As it reached the closest site on its route the ancient faded into realspace as usual, but found odd things it had never seen before.
Figuratively cocking its head to the side, it gazed upon lights, structures and metal things in the space around the planetoids of the system.
Even what its deeper subconscious told it was a "ship". Seeing this the ancient's curiosity was sparked.
It had already gotten contact with the array, so its task here was done and it could leave if it wanted, but these structures and lights was far to interesting for it to ignore.

It quickly zoomed across the system, gracefully zig-zagging around a moon of the gas giant and over its rings before reaching the living planet with its abundant greenery.
Reaching the atmosphere, the ancient stopped, turned into a purple lightning bolt going from orbit to the surface and was now standing upon the ground in its humanoid form.

It had appeared in a nice green valley with agricultural buildings and massive fields of crops, some leaf tree patches in the distance.
The sight was peculiar to the ancient, never before had it seen sapient life. The concept of buildings was a bit off as well.
It decided it was nests, similar to those of birds. Used by the bipedal animals of this world.

The black and purple giant hovered over the fields and gazed upon the strangeness of it all.

UZF Angel's Glory
Loskel System

"Captain!" The Zenohunt who owned that rank turned to the sensor ensign in question, unspoken words asking for a report. The ensign was quick to oblige. "New sensor contact, class unknown. It's moving for Loskel." Because of the distances involved with space, the ship would have already made significant movements toward the planet. And, the ship hadn't asked for clearance; with little doubt, the captain believed that the ship had hostile intentions, perhaps was a new rebellion in the making - there was bound to be one soon, after the last one was put down so quickly.

It then came to him that one of the Tapresiden-Radaughte was visiting Loskel, in order to ease the minds of the people there after the raids of the anti-government group on the planet's surface. Could this be an attempt at assassination?

"Red alert!" The captain bellowed. It wasn't a moment later that the lights snapped to red, and an alarm blared throughout the ship. "Weapons, bring guns to full ready. Operations, order the marines to load up..." The captain glanced at his console to see where the unknown (now determined hostile) ship was, displayed by a helpful red triangle, in respect to the planet, "... And launch to the surface, Marine-Commander's choice where." Next, he turned to the communications officer, who sat ready to obey. "Comms, order Celestial Sif and Salamol Fire to form up, we're moving to the planet. Also, let the planet know the situation, and give the Tapresiden-Radaughte's Zenofighter the full report file."

***

Planet Loskel
Indigo City
20 minutes later

"Tapresiden-Radaughte," Zenofighter Luna Kota spoke, after making what Amy Farport believed was the fifth or sixth security precaution. "I still advise against this. Some people believe that it's still a new hostile rebellion, some believe it is in fact alien, and I personally agree that it may be. Whatever it is, it seems dangerous. Let another person handle it, hell, let the marines shoot it or the flotilla send a missile from orbit." She pulled the slide back on her rifle, before sliding it into her back holster.

"Luna, don't you see?" Amy Farport was one of the few excluded from the people forced to add the Zenofighter prefix to Luna's name, "You said it yourself, this might be an alien ship as opposed to another rebellion. I want to be one of the first to meet it, to convince it of our good." They walked out to a waiting shuttle, a pair of soldiers standing at full attention. Luna would have better preferred marines than army, but they were all dedicated to setting up a perimeter around the ship that was being judged more and more as being alien; a rebellion would have already started to shoot by now.

It wasn't long before the shuttle touched down near the strange ship, allowing it's two passengers to dismount. As soon as they were out, and Luna couldn't blame him, the shuttle pilot made his way as fast as he could from the airspace. A platoon of the UZF's finest surrounded the Tapresiden-Radaughte and her escort, and they walked until they were about one hundred meters from the ship.

It was at this point that both Amy and Luna thought it wasn't a ship, but some strange, floating god. The marines chattered, almost nervously, to those next to them, and Luna studied the strange, floating... person, she couldn't think of it as anything else. Amy stepped forward, cupping her hands to her mouth, calling out to it, "Hello?"

As the ancient was studying a barn a bit closer a small vessel flew over the scene and landed nearby. This caught the attention of the ancient whom kept looking at the metal construct as it landed close by.
As several life forms began to leave the small vessel the ancient had closed the distance to about 20 metres and was tilting its head as they moved about.
Seemed to be some sort of herd animals the ancient pondered, they wore fibres from other animals and plants over their bodies. Perhaps as a way to impress the other sex?

One of them suddenly cupped its hands and did something. The ancient tilted its head to the other side trying to figure out this behaviour. Before realizing it might be trying to communicate.
Fascinating, it forced air through its body to vibrate the air to produce shockwaves in the surrounding atmospheric gas. The other animals can probably pick up on this with sensory organs.

Mimicking the thing, the ancient cupped its hands in front of its face and vibrated the air around it with micro-vibrations of its body. Using different frequencies and volumes.

The area around it violently shook with the cacophony of noise, the shockwave shot out around the thing with such force the tall wheats in the field was toppled over away from the ancient and remained lying on the ground in a 10 metre diameter.
The noise danced all over the audible spectrum, beginning high pitched and ending on a low seismic bass which was probably audible within hundreds of miles.
Some of the zenohunt troops were holding their ears from the pain, the shock wave had even cast one or two to the ground and they were now writhing in agony.

The ancient stopped, gazed upon the animals and returned to its initial posture. Communicating was exciting!


The smile of Amy grew as she saw the thing cup it's own hands in front of it's face, just as she had! It was the first step to communication! Even Luna seemed excited, and the marines had stopped chatting, watching. This excitement within Amy, and the others at the scene, ended very quickly. The sound that was made by the strange flying humanoid was agonising. She thought she could hear someone screaming in pain, but she wasn't quite sure.

Finally, the noises ended. Moving the pain into a corner of her mind like she had been trained to do, and had to do anyhow in previous engagements, Luna drew her rifle, the marine platoon following suite when they had recovered. The twin barrels of the rifles rotated at magnificent speeds, preparing to launch semi-explosive slugs at the target. Amy stepped in front of Luna, holding her hands up at her chest, palms out. "Stop, don't do anything!" Amy said quickly. "Hold fire, but keep ready," Luna spoke loudly to the marines, after a little hesitation. Their guns did not waver from their target, however.

Amy turned back to the Ancient, staring up at it. She had no idea how she was going to communicate to it, let alone ask if it spoke Zenospeak. It's native language could be much different to theirs! "Luna, what's the gesture for a pilot to lower? To come closer?"

The Zenofighter sighed, shaking her head. Staring up at the Ancient, she held up one of her hands, and began to perform the required gestures, rifle still held in one hand.

Studying the creatures, the ancient understood that one of them held supremacy over the others since it could halt their actions with only a few motions and signals.
Recognizing the procedure as something oddly familiar, the ancient pondered for a few moments as the creatures were now waving their appendages around. They were probably exchanging tasks, relaying orders.
Again, the odd familiar feeling.

It suddenly remembered, it had a task, a mission. For too long had it been examining the nests of animals. It was time to carry on.
It flicked through some of the pre-recorded messages, its parameters was that if another lifeform was hindering the relay patrol, it would send this message.
It was not exactly the correct use of it, but in a way these creatures were hindering its work.

Overlaying the vision of those present within a light second, a moving image of a being similar to the ancient overlaid some of the visual spectrum of those present. Effectively showing a picture in picture with the message, with a simple translator enabling all creatures to understand it.
-"This unit is performing a task important to the goal, stand down any aggressions or be forced to surrender energy. You have been warned. What is your intentions?" The message was still sending as the ancient began to float away.

It was slightly sad, it would have liked to keep studying the creatures, but it was time to carry on with the mission.
The ancient turned one final time, the mysterious creatures were moving about seemingly confused or perhaps dancing? After all, the mating rituals of organic species was as fascinating as it was complex and varied.

And evidently something the ancient didn't understand a single bit.
With a bright flash of lightning reaching to orbit, the ancient was in space and faded out of reality with a blur. The orbiting zenohunt fleet barely reacting before it was gone.
It was back on track, moving to the next relay.

Another day, another stressful load of governing to handle, words the Kaiser lived by. This day was special though, this day, 5 years ago, he took power of the Rurnian Kingdom. It was bittersweet, while it reminded him of the passing of his father, he promised to prove himself a strong leader and established ambitious goals for his domain. Today, the 10-year plan begun and he was overseeing it from the minimum safe-distance. Within a large crowd surrounded by body guards, behind him, a small fleet ready to make its first flight.

"Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of our glorious kingdom! 5 years ago from this day I inherited this position from our beloved previous Kaiser, and I promised that we would finally explore this vast galaxy and expand beyond our borders. Finally, on this day, we see this dream come true!"

"20 years ago my father vowed that no ship would exit Rurnian space! He made sure our core systems were well-equipped and that we did not focus on building a large nation, but a strong one! Now look around you, what do you see? Endless miles of trenches! Our ships flying high in the sky! Our flags still stand! We are ready to take our first steps outside of our bubble. Over the next 10 years, 4 more exploration fleets will be produced and they will search for suitable systems, and then we shall establish our first new colony in over 70 years!"

Over in the command center, mission control was preparing for launch. Over the many loudspeakers, a voice began the countdown, "T-minus 30..."

The Kaiser spoke once more, "Now, watch as our glorius fleet takes its first steps into the endless universe!"

Moments later, the small cluster of ships: a few small corvettes, exploratory ships, followed by one large Dreadnought, took off from the ship construction yards. Of course this would've been much cheaper if done in orbit, but the Kaiser had to put on a show. He began to make his way out, escorted by body guards back to his regal palace.

On board the new fleet, cheers filled the halls as they finally broke out of orbit and began to make their way to the first plot of uncharted territory, a mysterious system bordering the kingdom...

Juran Stealth Satellite[
The Virtual Intelligence watched the Rurnians with mildly more internet than normal. The Rurnians always were eccentric, thinking ground-warfare was the key in the age of space, but the VI wasn't advanced enough to truly be derisive or judgmental, so it simply thought to itself that they were just... eccentric.

But a different type of activity had begun lately- ship launches, from the surface. Another odd thing- it's far easier to build spaceships in orbit, where they'll never have to deal with the stresses of gravity- but the VI simply added the information to the next packet.

Then something truly foreign happened. In the thirteen solar cycles- thirteen years to the natives- the stealth satellite hadn't seen a single ship or probe enter non-Rurnian space. Because of this, the Juran Councils had decided to leave the nation alone, to watch and glean what they could until there was enough stability to make a small force capable of easily annexing the nation.

But there was a fleet, already warping out to another solar system. The satellite took long hours to collect passive data from the emissions of the hyperjump, and finally concluded its report: the Rurnians were entering unknown space- to them- with a fleet focused around colonization.

Before the Rurnian fleet had even made it halfway to their destination, Juran warships were on an intercept course, having already warped over from a nearby solar system. The Rurnians had kept to themselves, never poking their head outside their bubble once, and so the Juran Empire had began to encompass that bubble. The alien ships would be dropping right in the middle of the spacial region's major mining and industrial node.

Juran Defense Fleet
Three destroyers, two cruisers, one heavy cruiser. There was a support carrier en route, along with four more destroyers, but this was going to be the heavy cruiser's captain first action- he had been sitting around collecting dust, as one of the few ships stationed here and there as protection against pirates or the like. The new Fleetmaster had already sent a message to Region Command, but they had yet to be able to request an actual fleet. So, it was just aging defense ships against some unknown, normally recluse entity.

The fleet was almost to the rendezvous point when the unknown fleet exited their flight into the industrial system. The Fleetmaster's heavy cruiser already in position, plus a cruiser. The other cruiser was being escorted by a destroyer, approaching from the bottom-right, from the other side of the system. Slightly above them came the last two destroyers, only ten minutes away from the heavy cruiser and their new Fleetmaster.

The Juran in charge glanced at his display- a single light-hour away from the new alien entities, the Rurnian, who hadn't been in the system long enough to detect him. Because sensors were limited to the speed of light, he wouldn't be detected for another hour. Meanwhile, he was connected to a complex systems of quantum sensor stations and satellites scattered all over Juran space. The moment the Rurnians dropped out of warp/hyperspace and settled into realspace, quantum sensors would detect the location of the exit. Anytime one tears through the veil between warpspace and realspace, it creates brief quantum rifts. As such, it's easily detected.

And these Jurans knew exactly where this rather small, technologically inferior race was.

An hour later found the Jurans waiting for the encroaching Rurnians just inside the edge of the system.

[In the Rurnians' native language:] "Cease acceleration, Rurnian Fleet. The Juran Empire welcomes you to its borders, and demands that your fleet states your intentions, and that you power down weapons, warp drives, and thrusters. Prepare to have your flagship boarded by Juran marines.

As soon as the fleet detected the Jurian warships, they began requesting for immediate aid from any friendly fleets nearby. The head of the fleet had already commanded the ships to power down all weapons and escape methods, against a superior enemy they would have to give into demands. "Jurian fleet, we've been sent on a mission to explore and expand our borders, we mean no harm. Given the chance, we promise to leave immediately and not to repeat this action again. But we will open a hangar for your marines," the Rurnian commander sent a message back in the Rurnian tongue.

Troops on board the flagship took up defensive positions around the available entrance to the ship, preparing for any hostile action. This was definitely a bad start for the expansion program.

Back on the capital planet of Razek, reports coming in regarding the state of the fleet was met with distress and worry. For now the public was not informed, but the government buzzed with activity. Talks about a possible war with the Jurians if they took hostile actions, and how to deescalate the situation. A fleet was mobilized and sent to the system bordering the location of the current fleet, with orders to do whatever they could to allow them to escape, given non-military personnel were onboard certain ships.

Of course everyone who knew about the situation realized that the Jurians were playing on their superior power. Appeasement was a terrible strategy but it was the only thing available to them for now.