@o0V0o

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

One moment, space near the jump entry point into the Olix star system was completely quiet. And then... suddenly four hundred Zerg carriers zoomed one by one into the system from jump space. Their drives created a scattering of photons as typical of vessels reentering normal space.

Sitting inside the throne room of carrier 002, Overmind 224 moaned from the transition from jump space into normal space. He sat on his neural-interface throne, quivering while his body writhed in painful spasms as was typical of every transition.

Within seconds, however, the feelings faded, and he returned his focus back on his duties as commander of all 400 zerg carriers.

Immediately, he was barraged by hundreds of voices. "My lord!" yelled the voices of his carriers. "There are unknown enemy signals right on top of us!"

"What?" Immediately, Overmind 224 tied his visual cortex into a neural link with his drone carriers. Their eyes became his.

And then he saw them.

Hundreds, no thousands of enemy warships and combatants were right where he was! They surrounded his 400 drone carriers! They...

"All fighters from all carriers -- launch!" yelled Overmind 224. "Attack the nearest combatant to each of our carriers immediately!"

"Yes, my lord!" yelled all 400 of his drone carriers in unison. Immediately, zerg drone fighters began streaming out of each respective drone carrier. Their targets were the nearest enemy units that were closest to each drone carrier. Armed with thermonuclear bombs and conventional laser cannons, the fighters would pose a deadly threat to anything they fought against.

For a moment, Overmind 224 felt like he had walked in a trap, but that feeling dissipated when he realized he couldn't devote such thoughts into what-had-already-happened. Instead, he had to plan his future actions immediately, for only they could impact what-will-happen.

Suddenly, his thoughts fell on his homeworld Xaro's Awakening, when he would be honored by Overmind 001 for bringing an overwhelming victory to the Zerg race and forcing its enemies to heel... but then that thought dissipated when he realized he may die right here along with his brethren.

Oh, Xaro, won't you guide me in this troubled mission? Won't you allow me to succeed so we can bring these humans to their knees... and force them into slave animals, ripe for harvesting and converting into biomass... for the swarm?

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

Division Admiral Anthony Gallant’s PoV:

The enemy ships jumped into the system without warning. Four hundred massive ships were suddenly in the midst of their ships.

“Sir, the calculations were correct, they warped right where we expected them to.” The ship’s captain said, ecstatic.

“Broadcast the signal to fire. I want a broadside volley.” The admiral calmly replied.
However, a communications officer onboard yelled,

“We have a problem, swarms of fighters emerging from each of the enemy ships.”
They’re carriers? The admiral was surprised, their expectations were for a fight against capital ships, not fighters.

“Hold Fire! Re-aim all our weapons, ensure none of those fighters reach us.”
A communications channel suddenly opened on his holopad. It was Louis Farrel.

“Gallant, they’ve got fighters!” The old man yelled through the channel.

“Tell the entire fleet to move back! I want only my division, yours and the 3rd through 5th to stay in place. We’ll focus on the fighters; the rest will focus on the carriers with their long range weapons.”

“Affirmative”

The channel closed and Gallant focused back to his ship.

The fighters were only a while away.

“Open fire!”

At that moment, every ship in the 1st Division opened a broadside against their small yet numerous enemy. The 2nd through 5th divisions followed swiftly with their own barrage.

Hundreds of beams shot out from the 500 or so ships they had along with the round shots of their kinetic batteries, they would have to wait a while to see their effects. Meanwhile, the sensor display indicated the semicircle formed by the rest of the fleet to be expanding outwards with only their ships left in a line facing the enemy.

A new voice came through on the holopad “Sir, the Experimental Divisions’ commanders are asking about what they should do with theirs.”

“How many of their railguns do they have armed?”

“2 of 3, sir”

“Their focus should be eliminating each carrier until we can identify the mothership.”

“So, open fire?”

“Do it now! Fire all the weapons they have, target the carriers!” Gallant angrily yelled.

“Yes sir!”

Meanwhile, the rest of the fleet was still moving back but they fired whatever weapons they had that could reach the Zergs in range.
Admiral Gallant reached into his pocket and pulled out a watch. He looked at the open space before them where the beams were still traveling toward their targets.

“Sir, awaiting orders for the next broadside” The captain said, noticing the ship’s armaments were reloaded.

“We are not fighting wars with broadsides anymore, my good friend. Done are the days when we waited to deliver large devastating strikes against the enemy. Now,” He said as. “Now, we do not know our enemy. We do not know how to strike them where it hurts. So now we hurt them as much as we can! Fire at will!”

The beams had by now apparently hit the enemy ships. But now, just as the Zerg were in range of their weapons, they were also in range of the Zerg’s. They could see the enemy fighters’ weapons – thermonuclear weapons and lasers. And they could see the incoming barrage of bombs and lasers.

“Dear me, we should be ready for some turbulence…” The admiral said, quite startled by the enemy’s armaments.

General Overview

The 1st – 5th fleets are forming an arc focused on acting as anti-drone defenses whilst the rest of the fleet has backed away, instead firing on the carriers with their long range weapons.
The experimental weapons are ready to fire (except for the bio-missiles, they’re awaiting fire orders).

Juran Border Fleet

The Marine shuttles approached and docked with the unfamiliar ships, using adapative airlocks that fit around and then sealed against foreign locks, before a dozen soldiers from every shuttle marched onboard. Each one was wearing light armor, with shoulder-mounted pulse lasers, carrying forearm-covering scanners on one arm and the handle to an unactivated energy weapon in the other. They fanned out, scanning for anything amiss for ships of the sort- major warheads, such as nuclear, thermobaric, thermonuclear, hydrogen, or antimatter sorts- and interesting technology. They thoroughly combed each ship, working in groups of two, cross-referencing the scanning data from each Jura with the others of each group, their Shipmaster watching the map grow in realtime. Meanwhile, the rest of the Juran fleet watched, passively, waiting for a report from their soldiers before they did anything else.

In the distance, the speeding reinforcements met up with and joined the border fleet, bolstering their numbers from measly to lowly.

Dregaan Galaxy
Minox Sector

It was a trap. Taranis the Thunderer, Taranis the Heavenborn, Taranis the Lord of Battles, had been deceived. Sat in the throne room of his massive flagship, his face contorted with rage, he shouted orders to his slaves and underlings and railed a thousand curses upon his foes. For all his fire and brimstone, defeat was inevitable. The war between the Star Gods had lasted for as long as time was measured and Taranis had risen to a considerable rank among his peers. But now the base cunning of Arawan and Nubb had cast all his plans asunder. As the battle had raged between the massive fleets of the Star Gods, the enemies of Taranis had precipitated the star they orbited into a supernova. Taranis had only time to open a hyperspace window before the shockwave reached his ship. Immediately, the Star God retreated his consciousness from his host into the metal frame that hid within the bowels of his ship. Taranis’ flagship was accelerated into hyperspace as several of his smaller motherships attempted to follow suit. The energy from the nova accelerated the ship a dozenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold. Sensors went dark. Every system on the ship went haywire. Bulkheads creaked, shields flickered.

For the Star God, it lasted barely a second. For the mortals on the ship, it seemed an eternity.

---

Unknown star system

Deceleration was brutal. Dregaani slaves and Kotra warriors were hurled against the walls, many perishing as a result. Their lives were meaningless. From his iron sarcophagus, Taranis’ voice thundered through every intercom and loudspeaker on the ship:

“KOTRA MAK TEK! TARANIS HAKKI!!!”

The order fell like a hurricane on the stunned and bewildered servants. Though the body of their god had fallen limp from his seat, they heard his voice and knew his spirit endured. They could easily feel his rage at their failure. A defeat meant many sacrifices would be required to appease him. Those who kept their wits about them quickly regained their battle stations, trying to bring online the enormous
flagship’s systems.

The quantum shields were barely operational, the cloaking field was flickering, sensors malfunctioned, but most weapon platforms were operational and self-repair systems had already engaged. Of the fleet, dozens of motherships could be seen reintegrating normal space in proximity of the flagship, several more were probably reappearing all over the star system and possibly beyond it.

Taranis extended his consciousness through the ship’s systems. It was a difficult task. The metal frame of the sarcophagus preserved his essence but it was taxing. In the eons since the Star Gods had started taking hosts, they had lost the ability to survive in their original state of pure energy. A living body of flesh and blood was now the optimal vessel for a Star God’s divine essence.

The sensors were still reeling from the uncontrolled hyperspace jump. The flagship was at the edge of a star system of 7 planets and several moons, all orbiting a massive main sequence star. It was impossible to get definitive readings on the planets to determine if they were inhabited. 38 motherships reported their status from all over the system, 13 were in the area of the flagship’s cloaking field, but it flickered in and out of existence, rendering it mostly useless at the present time. Over half the fleet reported their interceptor and bomber fleets still intact, not yet deployed in the recent battle.

But above all, Taranis did not recognize the system where he was. In fact, he could not make the position of his fleet at all. The supernova had blown his ships so far from known territory, it was probably in a new galaxy. A galaxy that likely contained no other Star God. A galaxy ripe for conquest.

From within his iron cage, the Thunderer smiled. Each mothership carried over 200 attack crafts and 1500 warriors along with their attendant slaves and his flagship had a hundred times that number. The remnants of his fleet were sufficient to carve out an empire. And when the lifeforms of this galaxy bowed before him, Taranis would return to Dregor and punish those who dared defy him.

Ostersund system.
Federal Meridian Union space.

With a flicker, the roughly six hundred metre long vessel of the ancient materialized close to the third planet of the system.
It casually began to make contact with the relay and zoomed along the system.
As it it initially couldn't contact the relay, the ancient moved closer, as it did it noticed similar miniscule metal satellites, ships and orbiters as it had done in the previous location.

Perhaps it was more of the same type of creature? No, the scans showed they were different biologically. But there were loads of them. Fascinating, this was the first time there were advanced biological creatures with space travel and the like in the ancients history! Or memory. It couldn't remember all the details.
And in several locations as well! Truly exciting times.

The union satellite network quickly picked up the alien vessel and sent out warnings all over, an alien vessel roughly the size of a Huai-hai assault dreadnought had appeared from nowhere and was travelling through the system at ludicrous speed.

Aboard the Leipzig class heavy cruiser "Tricamarum"

"What the hell!" The Com Nav specialist said, the Cruisers bridge was small, Spartan. An armored cell placed in the heart of the ship, reinforced by bulkheads.

"Stop yammering over the comms, we have an incoming unidentified target. I want every ship undocked, ASAP that means anyone outside the ship, or on the colony are sitting this out." The acting CO, Brigadier Colonel Rushdi el-Hamed watched the status screen. This ship was nothing anyone had ever seen. None of the ship logs on known alien vessels cropped up a hit. And whatever it was, it was nearly breaking light-speed like it was a cake walk in the park.

The speeding alien vessel was heading straight for a cluster of moons on the furthest gas giant in the system. The only thing stationed here was a task force that just happened to be refueling at the Helium mining colony Alspar V. Rushdi had a bad feeling about this.

"Whats the sitrep on undocking?"

The Communications officer promptly replied "We have eight minutes, the light cruiser Sena Gallica has three. The corvettes have already departed on a broad intercept course as you requested. The relayed information just keeps getting... stranger and stranger.

Rushdi looked over the logs, nothing from MajCom yet though it would be a few minutes, and that's all it would take for this crisis to end.

The corvette's bristled with intermediate range multi-purpose Nuclear weapons, cheap implosion type nuclear shrapnel bus's meant for both ship and interception use. Though he doubted they would have much effect, whatever this ship was it had capabilities way beyond their's no doubt. The energy coefficients probably godlike compared to simple fusion and fission machinations Humanity had perfected over the course of thousands of years.

A warning signal at the speed of light was lasered in the general interception courses for the Alien vessel to receive, not to mention radio and simple light signals from a bygone era.

The blip on the screens was growing closer by the second, deck hands raced back and forth in the halls. The corvettes were ready for their order's, well spaced but close enough to support each other the squadron numbered five in total. He just prayed whatever happened, that they wouldn't die in vain; whatever happened, he'd rather die than let that ship kill the eight thousand souls or so inhabiting the Helium farm colony.

The ancient darted past some space debris of some strange alien contraption, it recognized the material. Species 4'1, violent, no need to send warning before engaging. Luckily it was just wreckage from long ago, so the ancient promptly ignored it. Blasting away a piece that would have hit the hull with a directed matter to energy conversion beam which promptly annihilated the piece.
The ancient also picked up some more debris, unknown species, not the same as the current dwellers, ignore.

As it gently corkscrewed through space it ran into the warning signals sent from the Union ships whom desperately were trying to stop the thing from closing.
However, from the ancients point of view they were blinking lights and sending radiation towards it, were they trying to attack it? It didn't seem like it, scans showed that they have far more power available within their ships.
Then it hit it, perhaps....

The ancient slowed to a halt within a second, the G's would have killed most biological lifeforms with ease as it came to a violent stop. Which for the ancient was more like stopping mid-step.

Perhaps they were like the previous species? Perhaps they as well were trying to communicate? The ancient now realized that similar radiation was launched upon the different satellites and orbiters and ships within the system, it must be communication!
However, the ancient didn't really have time to chat, what was disturbing was that it still hadn't got contact with the relay.
Had they destroyed it? Surely a signal would have been sent out to awaken it to rush to its protection?

No other options were left.
Overlaying the vision of those present within a light minute, 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 Sena Gallica had just undocked, the group of corvettes achieving geo-synchronous orbit with several strategic moons ideal for skirmishing. It seemed as if engagement was inevitable.

Everyone aboard all vessels had dawn their battle rattle, readied their side arms, with damage control teams praying for the best; and expecting the worse. "We got an update!" Comm Nav announced, a single pure burst of Laser fire flashing across the void at old space Hulk's from the Chimeric Wars, slagging the tough nano-composite hulls like it was butter. Murmurs filled the bridge, before shortly after another update came through deciphered by Comm Nav.

"Something is going on here..." Rushdi said to himself. The ship had stopped entirely as if shedding of velocity and inertia was child's play, from the calculations relayed to him. It was a dead stop. Only possible in the theoretical sciences of warp drive travel. But fine tuned to such a degree it boggled the best minds of the onboard to even begin guessing.

Then the message began to play.

The crew seem confused, even Rushdi. The image of a... godly? Angelic like? Perhaps advanced form of life played across his mind's eye.
"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?"
There was no tone, just meaning that formed into words in his mind. He grimaced, this new encounter was a wild card. If it really wasn't hostile there was only one way to find out. Keying in a message of his own devising and punching it through. The message relayed in Binary, with a packet of references; though the chance of it being enough for the Alien vessel to understand itself would be very slim considering.

This is the FSMF Cruiser Tricamarum, you are invading Federal Meridian space, you will be fired upon if you enter range as an act of self defense. Do not approach, break off.

The ancient had sent the message, now it was just time to wait for a response.....
It took a good minute, and all the while the biologicals were sending radiation and light towards it. It stored the scan logs but forgot to put mind to it until it realized.
They can't communicate this way.

The ancient was puzzled, never before had it been subjected to biologicals in vessels. In the memory databanks there were encounters, sure, but they were not its....
Not its memories.....
The ancient dismissed this thought, it needed to figure out how to communicate with these lifeforms. It checked the logs, worked to make sense of the radiation patterns, the lights.

For several minutes it sat dead in space, it was however giving off some odd energy readings. It was no spikes however, no buildup.
It was about here it realized it was stupid.

All ancient units are fitted with a universal translator, it just needs to somehow implement it upon these data.
In the meantime the ancient would have to do something, the biologicals were getting more vessels ready, they might be hostile.
The ancient decided to try something that was actually prohibited, but the great had not come in a long time, and the goal justified all means. So it took specific parts of the message and added some from another, and thus sent it.

Again a vision was seen of those present within a light-minute. This one however was more choppy and bore obvious resemblance to a video crudely edited to say something different. With a slight flicker at times.
-"This unit is performing a task important to the goal... await further instructions... your intentions... stand down any aggressions... this unit... intention... perform... task important to the goal..."
The message would have to do, as the ancient was trying to figure out how to translate the seemingly random radiation pulses of the biologicals.

Another vision had stricken the crew, Rushdi rubbing his temple from a throbbing headache. "What should we do sir?" Asked the Americano senior NCO. He habitually chewed on a tooth pick, eyeing the status board in the CnC. A red dot that had been speeding across it like a bat out of hell, now stationary.

He had no answers as to what would be the right thing to do, but there was protocol for this. If all else failed unidentified vessels were not to at all costs be able to invade Meridian space. Time was ticking away, and the options were few. The readings coming off the vessel heading right towards them didn't bode well. It was even more powerful than what the Chimerics had thrown at them in the past.

But the FMSF had always fought against the odds, doctrine dictated survival of war vessels was above all else even in the face of an enemy approaching a small habituated object. All those souls down bellow didn't equate into value compared to the Patrol group.

But when all else failed screw the odds. The Alien vessel might not seem hostile, but chances couldn't be taken never. It would simply have to listen or figure out what they were saying. But perhaps their was a middle ground?

The Tricamarum had finally undocked, however instead of joining the rest of the patrol group it would orbit the gas giant and catch the Alien Vessel in a six way cross fire if it entered to close. The speed at which it could approach would mean all ships would have to achieve the slowest possible orbits, as to hopefully stay behind the planets until the last second. "What to do?" He finally said the bridge dead silent. "We'll wait. Cut off the warnings and messages, if it couldn't understand or already has. We've done all we can."

In the belly of the ships crewmen prepared launch tubes, ECM MITWBs(Mulitple independently Targetable Warhead Bus) were prepared for the first volley aboard the Tricamarum, with it's 525mm N.B.C being brought up to speed, system checkouts and loading procedures starting. As crew in Hazard suits loaded the Boron projectile and Nuclear Implosion pellet into the breach.

Everyone changed into vac gear. Their uniforms designed for such use, with the simple addition of a helmet and pair of gloves needed. It would be only a matter of time now. It was obvious of their intent, don't approach. But it would be obvious to a human, perhaps not an Alien.

The situation had reached an impasse, the ancient could not translate the biologicals messages, nor did it want to destroy them. Since it seemed to be curious about the ways of the biologicals, even if these ones were more difficult to understand than the previous types encountered.

But as it couldn't close any further without risking miscommunication with the biologicals, nor could it stand in place for it task was clear. It came down to one option.

The ancient activated its fade drive.
With a flicker that most reminded the Meridians of shuddering jello, the ancient phased out of real-space and closed with the planet in hyperspace.
That planet Being Ostersund.

In the sky at a measly 10 kilometre height the ancient vessel materialized over the main continent of Ostersund, the purple and black droplet of pure power hanging there like gravity was not even a concept worth mentioning it let loose four smaller droplets which began to spin around it in a perfect square.

The small orbiters span first slowly, then began to speed up, until they were moving at a speed which was close to 200 revolutions per minute.
All within ten seconds.

Then it fired. The orbiters lashing out continuous beams which with the spinning made the entire vessel into a massive matter to energy conversion laser drill.
It lurched into movement, glided into the earth like it was nothing and disappeared into the crust of Ostersund.
The resulting explosion was massive, not from the impact but the continued use of the beam array. It shook the earth of Ostersund, triggering a local earthquake and destabilising the natural geological patterns. Albeit only temporarily.

Deep inside the planet it found what it needed, the relay was intact, the composition of the planet had disrupted the ancients scanners, but the relay was working at optimum performance.
After reaching its target, the ancient was pleased. If that was a concept it had at all that is.
With another flicker, the ancients fade drive activated once more and within the second, it was gone from federal space, as suddenly as it had appeared.

The federal meridian union was stunned at the event.
What they had not realized yet though, was that at 800 kilometers depth, the ancient relay waited to be inspected.