The Walkers, updated 9-28-03

[chewy027]

2400.1 – 2400.6 ~ A Simple Decision

Our construction on the first of two comet class colonizers is moving along exactly as planned. It should be completed within the next tenth. At the same time, Vice Lord Junon tells me that he feels that we have indeed reached a new level of expertise in physics and in religious technology, and that this new understanding will allow us to research such wondrous things as energy shields, advanced sensors, and even energy based weaponry, though this final area, that of weaponry, is the least appealing to us Vandron. It is for this reason, and after much deliberation, that we have decided that we will indeed forge ahead in the area of energy shielding to give our vessels greater protection from whatever may lay ahead of us. For this is the way of the Walkers. We have always been slow to aggressive action, but have been content with defending ourselves from the aggressor. Indeed, it is because of this that we were called the Walkers by the Cindron and the Eldron, for we accomplished our ends through the use of wisdom and application instead of brute force. And it is this philosophy that we will continue to use as we venture out into the Great Beyond. The Almighty has taught us that we should be slow to action, however, when action is necessary, we should move swiftly, wisely, and honorably. Ironically, it was during our deliberations as to what we should next focus our research on, that the twelfth of our deep space probes relayed information to us from the edge of our system that demanded immediate and swift action.
We quickly put aside our research deliberations, to the consternation of Vice Lord Junon, and focused our attention on this new information that had been brought to our attention. The following is a recording of some of the discussion that took place immediately thereafter:

“It seems” explained Vice Lord Exnon, the minister of space and exploration, “that the twelfth deep space probe that was sent out in the second tenth of 2398 has discovered a strange anomaly on the far eastern part of our home system.”
“What sort of anomaly?” asked Vice Lord Junon. “Is it of any special significance?”
“Well,” continued Exnon “The anomaly seems to be some sort of elliptical disturbance in the fabric of space itself. While we have seen strange anomalies akin to this before, none produced the same results upon further examination by our probes.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Vice Lord Defcon, the minister of defense.
“Yes, explain the significance of these ‘results’” Lord Chagnon demanded.
“Of course Chagnon, it seems that as our probe approached the anomaly for closer readings, as it is programmed to, it somehow vanished.” replied Exnon.
“Vanished? What do you mean vanished?” asked Defcon.
“Well, ah, we were tracking the position of the probe from our sensors here on Serenity when the probe suddenly disappeared from our scanners. It doesn’t appear to have been destroyed, nor does it seem that its systems went offline.” answered Exnon as manner-of-fact as possible. “It simply vanished.”
“I see,” replied Defcon “and do you have any possible explanations for this occurrence?”
“Yes, Exnon, what did happen then?” asked Chagnon.
“Well, to the best of our calculations and observations it appears that the probe went inside of the anomaly. That is why it went off of our scanners, but we don’t know if it was indeed destroyed once it entered the confines of the spatial distortion. I think it would be best if we received Lord Junon’s incite into this.” replied Exnon trying to deflect some of the attention from himself.
“Is that what you think?” replied Junon, “Well then I suppose I could make some educated postulations as to what may have happened.”
“Please do,” said Chagnon, “perhaps you can shed some light on this matter.”
“It appears,” Junon went on, “that there are two likely scenarios as to the fate of the probe. The first is that it was indeed destroyed by this anomaly. If that is the case then we should make note of the coordinates of the distortion and avoid it in the future. The second scenario is that the probe was not destroyed, but was affected in some different way by the anomaly. In either case action must be taken as to ascertain the correct outcome of the probe, and the exact properties of this anomaly.”
“Yes, I agree.” said Chagnon, “the question is, what is the wisest course of action to proceed with? Should we continue to send more unmanned probes through, and continue to collect data from here on Serenity or should we commission a manned scout ship to approach the anomaly and give us a precise explanation as to its effects. What do you think Exnon? This seems to be your department.”
“Yes of course Lord Chagnon,” a somewhat shaky Exnon replied, “I would think that the wisest and safest course of action would be to continue to send probes to the anomaly. We could easily outfit some probes with our new ion technology so they would reach the destination within a few tenths.”
“However,” cut in Junon, “while I agree that would seem to be the wisest course of action, we do not yet have the capability to equip these engines on small probes.” Junon’s interest was beginning to pique as to the possibilities of such an anomaly. He went on, “besides, we don’t even know if the probe was initially destroyed.”
“But we don’t know it wasn’t destroyed.” added Defcon.
“Exactly,” put in Chagnon, “I do not think it wise or necessary to endanger the lives of any of our people. However, I also do not believe that the probe was destroyed.”
“Why is that?” inquired Defcon, “There is no evidence indicating it was or wasn’t destroyed.”
“True,” replied Chagnon “yet something leads me to believe that it was not destroyed, and therefore, I have a proposal as the action we should take.”
“Your intuitions have not been wrong before Lord Chagnon,” said Exnon perking up a bit, “perhaps the Almighty has given you a unique insight into the situation.”
“Perhaps,” Chagnon replied with a slight smile, “In any case, I believe the wisest course of action would be to commission a manned scout ship to investigate the anomaly. However, I also believe that the ship should be equipped with its own probes to send into the anomaly before it takes any such action itself.”
“As long as my men aren’t endangered I see no case for objecting to this course of action.” agreed Defcon.
“Yes, I agree as well,” quickly replied Exnon, not wishing to be the Last to speak up “that is a wise decision.”
“If this is the will of the council then I have no qualms against it.” answered Junon as he rolled his eyes.
“Then it is settled then,” Chagnon said as he stood up from the table. “As soon as the second Comet Class colony ship is built we will begin construction on a scout ship to examine the anomaly.”
“May I make one suggestion,” Defcon put in, “perhaps it would be wisest to commission the scout ship before the second Comet. We know what lies ahead of us on Rigil, but the anomaly may hold something completely unexpected. Speaking from a strictly defensive state of mind, I believe we should know what exactly this distortion is before we make plans for anything else.”
“A wise insight Defcon,” Chagnon replied slowly sitting back down, “So it shall be. The scout ship shall be commissioned before the second Comet is built. And if there are no further details to discuss then I believe this meeting is adjourned.”

And so it was. Upon the completion of the first Comet, a Revelation Class scout ship, derived from the escort chassis, was commissioned and built. It was immediately sent to the coordinates of the anomaly to discover once and for all what secrets, if any, this distortion held.
Meanwhile, Comet 1 safely arrived on Hope and the construction of Hope Colony was immediately begun. In addition to the construction, teams of scouts began to scour the land in search of any signs that the Almighty may presently be or may have previously been to this world. Hope was designated a Research World as the initial scans showed that its resource levels were particularly low, a fact that Lord Chagnon was not pleased with. Since the end of the Last Great War, resources had to be closely monitored so as not to waste anything. As it was, Hope would serve the Vandron well in their search for the Almighty, and boost their glorious civilization’s research capacities, which had been performing wonderfully.
The research for the energy shields proved to pass very quickly as an adequate level was reached within only two tenths. These new shields would now be included on the designs for all of their ships, a detail that Vice Lord Defcon saw to personally. At the same time, it was decided, albeit grudgingly, that the best defense would now be a stronger offense, and so a new level of expertise was sought for the projectile weapons currently in use, and the ability to build larger chassis for the fleets starships. Though it was projected to take nearly a year to accomplish these goals, it was decided that it would be the wisest course of research to pursue, in the event that someone or something should meet them.

[ September 02, 2003, 02:36: Message edited by: chewy027 ]

[chewy027]

2400.6 – 2400.7 ~ Revelations

As the Revelation class scout ship neared the distortion, it began sending probe after probe into its maw. They all simply vanished without a trace leaving no hint that they had ever existed. This information was relayed to the High Command on Serenity, and the decision was made by Lord Chagnon and his councilors to allow the ship itself to approach the anomaly. This was made possible by the decree that all ships in the Vandron’s Navy were to be equipped with real-time communications devices that would transmit everything that the ship saw and everything that the crew spoke. It also allowed for orders to be transmitted as soon as they were decreed by the High Command. In an instant, the Revelation class starship vanished just as quickly as all of the probes. This turn of events was expected. However, what wasn’t expected was the sudden silence of communications and images being broadcast from the ship. Immediately, thoughts of regret swept through the mind of Chagnon: Had he made the wisest decision? Was the crew dead? Why did the transmissions cease? What should he do next? And he could visibly see the effects of the seeming loss on the faces of his comrades. And then, just as suddenly as it had vanished, the Revelation reappeared on their scanners as the anomaly gave a blinding flash as it spewed the little ship forth. For a moment there was silence, and then it was broken by the laughter of Vice Lord Junon.
“It’s a wormhole!” Junon sputtered with glee. “The Almighty be praised! We had thought that wormholes, if possible, could only exist in deep space. This is welcome news indeed.”
It was at this time that the voices of the crew came through over the speakers and the men and women of the tiny Revelation could be heard cheering and laughing for joy, though there was a hint of nervousness present in all of it.
“So what did you see?” asked Vice Lord Exnon. “What was on the other side?”
“What do you mean ‘other side’?” asked Vice Lord Defcon, “what is a ‘wormhole” anyway?”
“It’s a tunnel,” grinned Exnon, “a tunnel to another part of the Great Beyond.”
“He is right” added Junon, “a wormhole is adequately described as a tunnel, though what lays on the other side and how far away it exists are the questions on my mind.”
It was at this time that the crew had received the initial question and was responding.
“Another system,” the commander was saying, “but there were no signs of any planets. Just one dim yellow star, however, that was not all that we found.”
This Last sentence seemed to hang in the air like the incense that was burned to the Almighty.
“What do you mean ‘that was not all that we found.'” quipped Chagnon.
The room was silent until the captain responded, by this time the ship’s crew was also deadly silent. “Well, i…it seems th…that there was another ship in the system, in one of the far eastern parsecs." The captain's nervousness was detectable in his voice. "There was no time for communication, nor time to hide our own presence. If they are as advanced as we, they will have known that we were there. What’s more is that they seemed to already know of the properties of these anomalies, and es…escaped through one as soon as we appeared.”
“Are you sure of this? Are you positive it was another ship, and how do you know they escaped through one of these wormholes of their own?” Defcon spoke the words incredulously.
“W…well sir,” the captain went on. Even more timidly then before, “h…having studied the patterns of the anomalies or w…wormholes as you have called them, we have determined a way to d…detect them, sir. I…in fact, there are two more of these anomalies in our own home s…system. One to the far n…north and one in the south near H…hope, sir. The…therefore, we have de…determined that there was an anomaly in the same vicinity as the ship, and s…surmised that the ship must have passed through it, sir.”
“But are you sure it was a ship your scanners detected?” asked Defcon the disbelief now gone from his voice.
“Y…yes sir.” The captain began to regain his confidence, “It could have been nothing else. It was at a standstill, and then vectored off toward the wormhole, only to vanish an instant later.”
“So what of this system, what is it like, and where were you?” asked Exnon.
“Yes, please describe it to us.” added Junon.
“Like I already said, sir, it is barren. There are no signs of any planets, just the remains of a star, and of course the other wormhole to the far east, and one closer to our position to the North. As for distance, it was perhaps 40 light-years away. It was hard to tell, we were there in an instant, and came back through soon after.”
“So you are unharmed?” asked Chagnon feeling much relieved.
“Yes my lord. Praise be to the Almighty that we were not harmed.”
“But why did the transmissions cease?” asked Defcon.
Junon answered, “Going from a couple parsecs to 40 light-years will have that effect on communications.” And almost as an after thought added to himself, “I will have to devise a way to continue communications utilizing the strange properties of these wormholes.”

After a few more quick questions to the captain, the High Command retired to their deliberation room to decide what should be done. None thought that these wormholes were dangerous, the seemingly unharmed ship and crew proved this, however, with so many of these wormholes no one would take the risk of not further exploring them to be sure that they would not be invaded by a hostile enemy through one of them. The fact that a starship was present in the barren system proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was other highly intelligent life to be found, and that the far eastern wormhole held a way to reach beings of this caliber. After a few hours of deliberations many decisions were unanimously agreed upon. First, the Revelation and its crew would travel back into the Churba or barren system, and see if this ship would make another appearance. In the meantime, Vice Lord Junon and his team of scientists would devise a means to continue communications through the wormholes. Secondly, the current research into ship construction would be continued, for the projectile research had ceased, and the research into ship construction was going faster then expected. Vice Lord Defcon’s intuitions about the appearance of the wormholes had proved accurate, and they were now quite pleased that they had prepared thus. Finally, with the completion of the final Comet colony ship, Serenity would begin to mass produce Escort class Angels. They would be equipped with the new projectile weapons and the new shields in the event that they were attacked.
On Hope, the search for the Almighty was winding down as it appeared that there was no trace of any prior inhabitants. With that order of business settled the colonists turned their full attention to the completion of their own space yard, before commencing to build their monstrous research complex comprised of 23 research facilities. Though there were hints of disappointment that the Almighty was not found on Hope, things here were going well, and the High Command believed that in the future Hope would become as indispensable as Serenity itself.

[ September 02, 2003, 17:52: Message edited by: chewy027 ]

[chewy027]

2400.8 ~ Peace…

For we Vandron, peace is a way of life. We have always tried to look past our differences and made every effort to avoid situations that may lead to violence. This was our way even before the Almighty manifested himself among us. And since the destruction of our enemies on Serenity, we have had nothing but peace for over 2000 years; wisdom, honor, and foresight have prevailed where anger and rash action have failed. At least that was what Captain Mandron was telling himself as his ship, an escort class Revelation scout ship, appeared back in the Churba System where his mission was to make contact with the alien vessel they had seen before.
“I do not like the fact that we have no communications with Serenity.” Mandron thought to himself. “Still it seems prudent, even necessary, that we meet this race and determine if they are friend or foe.”
“Captain!” his first mate Sharnon was saying, “There they are, and they are not moving toward the wormhole, sir.”
“Excellent Sharnon, open all frequencies but make no transmissions.” ordered the Captain. “We will see if they want to communicate with us before we play our hand.”
“A wise decision sir, opening all frequencies,” came the reply.
“Lieutenant Sharnon, I don’t need your opinion on the wisdom of my dec…” but he was cut off by a low muddling sound coming from the speakers.
“What is that?” demanded Mandron.
“It seems to be a transmission coming from the vessel, sir.” answered the communications officer.
“Can we determine what they are saying?” asked Sharnon.
“No ma’am” came the reply. “But the computer is working on making a translation. Their language, or whatever it is they are transmitting, seems to be very different then ours.”
The transmission continued for some time until they could make out what it meant. While the transmission was being decoded, Mandron silently contemplated what the wisest course of action would be. His thoughts were interrupted when the communications officer suddenly spoke up.
“The message says, ‘We are the Aquilaeian Empire. We mean you no harm, though we are curious as to what your intentions are in this system,’ and then it starts over and repeats itself.” said the communications officer with an edge of triumph to his voice.
“Can you make a reply in their tongue?” asked Mandron.
“No, sir.” answered the officer.
“Then transmit to them in our own, ‘We are the Vandron, and we mean only peace.”
Almost as soon as it was sent a reply came back in their own tongue “Greetings Vandron, we are glad to see a fellow race with peaceful intentions. My name is Arguile; I am the captain of this ship.”
“Put me on direct communications, ordered Mandron.” He waited a second and went on, “I am Mandron the captain of this ship, by the authority of the High Command. We have declared our intentions of peace, what are your intentions?”
“We wish for nothing but peace,” the reply came quickly, “and it is for this reason that we have been waiting for you.” Arguile went on, “You see, Mandron, we wish to extend to you an offer of a trade alliance.”
“An alliance?” the surprise was evident in Mandron’s voice.
“Well, more of a trading pact” Arguile went on. “An agreement stating that we will give a certain percentage of our goods to you every tenth, for the same percentage of your goods in return.”
“Why would we want to agree to this ‘trading pact’?” asked Mandron.
“Well, Mandron, we Aquilaeians are much larger then yourselves, and have many friends and enemies. It seems that you are in a disadvantaged position in that we are the first species you have met beside your own, and the one you call the ‘Almighty’.” Arguile said this with a discernable air of superiority that made Mandron’s head swim. How did they know so much about us? What should I do? Make the wisest decision he ordered himself, but as he was telling himself this, his thoughts were again interrupted.
“You are no doubt wondering how we know so much about your people? The answer is simple really, we have been monitoring you for some time now, and we know that the wise decision for you to make will be to agree to the pact.” The words dripped off of Arguile’s tongue. “Besides,” he went on, “why would you not want peace?”
Mandron thought for a moment, “You are right,” answered Mandron, choosing to avoid the tone with witch these Last remarks had been said. They would no doubt greatly benefit from this inflow of new resources, as the amount they were going to receive would more then likely be far less than they would give out. “We agree to this trading pact. But how will we give you our materials if we don’t even know where to send them?”
“Do not worry about that, our ships are already standing by. When our shipment is delivered we will simply pick up our percentage from you.” And with that the transmission abruptly ended, and the Aquilaeian vessel, a ship comparable in size to the Vandron’s own, plunged through the far eastern wormhole and vanished.
“Take us back through the western wormhole.” Mandron ordered, “Prepare a transmission for the High Command. Tell them we have good news.”

[chewy027]

I'm just a bit curious as to who has taken the time to read any of this, and if i'm taking too much time on these seemingly meaningless points. How can I make this story better? or do you like it as is? Your responses are appreciated.

[EvilGenius4ABetterTomorro]

As is, very good story wouldn't change a thing. Keep up the good work.

Now until the next chapter, I guess it's back to the good ol German Scat Porn

[primitive]

I read it, and I like it a lot. Perfect stuff to read at work

Your writing is very good, with lots of detail. If I should critisize anything it would be that it had too much detail. As the game grows, there is no way you can be that detailed on everything.

Remember your audience: We all played this game dozens (hundreds) of times, so the interesting stuff is whats different in this game from all the other games. Your race, your interaction with other races, and Last but not least the small snippets of artistery you put in. Things like the stuttering captain makes the story much more readable, while the details on how a T/R agreement work.... well, I knew that from before

Keep up the good work.

[chewy027]

Thanks for the feedback guys, keeps the incentive up to put time into this. Here's the next installment...

2400.8 continued ~ …and War

Lord Chagnon and his Vice Lords anxiously awaited news from the Revelation they had sent through the wormhole. Each, save Vice Lord Junon, had retired to their personal chambers until word came back that the ship had returned. “Could this be the race from which the Almighty had originated?” Chagnon thought as he paced around his room. “If these wormholes have been in existence for as long as Junon says they were, the Almighty could have easily used them to come to his system and lead our people. I will have to think more on this matter, and keep a clear head so that I will not make a clouded, unwise decision.”
While Lord Chagnon paced around his room, Vice Lord Defcon bent over the star charts and satellite images of the area in which the Churba System was located and the coordinates of the exit wormhole into their home system. “We must be prepared he thought. I don’t like these wormholes one bit, it leaves us vulnerable to an attack from an unknown enemy who may be much powerful then we.” As he thought of this Defcon thought if this, his mood darkened. “I shall have to petition Chagnon to begin construction of an adequate defense fleet. It would be most wise to be prepared.”
Meanwhile, Vice Lord Exnon sat at his desk with thoughts of adventure and far off places coursing through his head. He had gone into the ministry of exploration because he had always loved the vastness and possibility of the Great Beyond. Now that a way had been found that to traverse the star, seemingly in an instant, his dreams could come true. “I wonder what the Churba system looks like.” he mused aloud. “Perhaps these aliens that our little ship spotted will be friendly and share with us their knowledge of our little shared corner of the galaxy. I would like to meet them very much.” and with that his thoughts turned back to the stars.
Of course Junon was hard at work with his team finalizing the details for a prototype communications system to be employed on ships so that their real time communications would function through the wormholes. He had no time for frivolous thoughts, and concentrated on finishing his work so that when the escort class Revelation scout ship reappeared, a probe carrying with it the prototype system could be sent out to meet it. This prototype system was just being loaded onto the probe when Junon was summoned to the High Command conference room to receive an urgent message. “They have returned.” Junon thought. “This must mean that the meeting went well.”
“a t…trade alliance.” Captain Mandron was saying as Vice Lord Junon entered the room. “They will give us resources in exchange for a percentage of ours.”
“Are you authorized to make such an agreement?” demanded Defcon, only enhancing Captain Mandron’s nervousness. “What makes you think that this is the wisest decision? How can you be sure that we will benefit from such a deal? They will bring their ships here?!? How will we know that they will not try something devious?”
“Calm down Defcon,” commanded Lord Chagnon. “Captain Mandron made the right decision. The way of peace is always the right way.”
“Th…thank you sir,” came the sheepish reply from the Captain. “They seemed to know much about us, and intimated that this trade would be bene…” he was cut off by an even more annoyed Defcon.
“They seemed to know…‘much’…about us?” he hung in the word as he spoke it. “What do you mean by that?”
“W…well, s…sir,” an overly intimidated Mandron replied, “it s…seems that they have been studying us f…for some t…time now. They even kn…knew that they were the first race that we had met other then the Al…Almighty.”
“They knew of the Almighty?” Chagnon asked, a bit taken aback.
“Yes, Lord Ch…Chagnon. Though they did n…not say more than that.”
“It seems to me,” Junon chimed in, “that there is nothing we can do now but wait for this shipment of resources.”
“Perhaps it will be beneficial to us, as this Captain Arguile, or whatever his name was, told Mandron,” Exnon said flippantly. “In either case, I would like to meet these Aquilaeians and find out what they know of our quadrant, and any other races they are in contact with.”
“It appears that you will get that chance,” echoed Defcon, “even though I am wary of the situation.”
“So how were you able to communicate with them?” inquired Junon. “Did they speak our language?”
“W…well at first no,” replied the captain, “b…but then they did after we r…replied to them in our own t…tongue.”
“So you would agree that they seem to be more advanced then we?” Junon asked in a rhetorical tone. “By the way, where is your current position?”
“We are a few parsecs outside of the f…far eastern w…wormhole” answered Mandron. “About f…four parsecs from Serenity.”
“Excellent Captain,” returned Junon, “standby to receive a probe that is carrying our new prototype communications system. It should allow us to communicate like this once you pass through the wormhole.”
“And Captain,” added Chagnon, “when that probe arrives, see to it that you return here with it, I would like to debrief you further myself. In the meantime Vice Lords, let us discuss what should be done next.”
And so it was, Captain Mandron returned to Serenity, while Lieutenant Sharnon took control of the Revelation class ship. The new communications system was installed and tested, and worked exactly as designed. Now the real time communiqué between all vessels and Serenity would function even when the ship was in another part of the quadrant. It worked by setting up specialized transmission beacons on either side of the wormholes that could transmit through them without any lag time or interference.
At the same time, and after much deliberation, it was decided that Lieutenant Sharnon would pilot her ship back through their wormhole, and continue through the far northern wormhole in the Churba system, a system that was now recognized to be in the same cluster as the Vandron’s home system. Likewise, Mandron was debriefed fully by Lord Chagnon and commended for his handling of the situation. Because of this, he was elevated to the position of liaison between the Vandron and the Aquilaeians, as well as any other races that may be encountered, effectively making him the minister of diplomacy, and the fourth Vice Lord.
In unrelated events, Hope completed its construction of a space yard, and began construction on the massive research complex that would encompass the planet. Meanwhile, research into ship construction moved swiftly, and it was predicted by Junon that a new level would be reached within the next tenth. The new class, what would be called a frigate, would be slightly larger then the current escort class, and allow for greater firepower to be added to the defense fleet that was being raised around Serenity. For Vice Lord Defcon had succeeded in convincing Lord Chagnon that it would be wise to be prepared for an attack through one of the, as yet, unexplored wormholes.
A few days later, the four Vice Lords and Chagnon gathered again in the High Command conference room. The beacon had been deployed, and they watched as Lieutenant Sharnon’s vessel cleared the second wormhole and appeared in a system with twin stars. This new system had six planets, three of which were adjacent to the wormhole from which the ship had flown through. This system was again within the same cluster as the other two, and was named Vando or twins in their language. However, almost immediately the ships scanners began picking up readings from four of the planets in the system. It seemed that all four had substantial amounts of life, and at least one was highly developed.
“Another new race!” Exnon called out. “What should we do?”
All were silent until Mandron summoned the courage to speak up. “M…maybe we should w…wait as we did l…Last t…time?” his reply sounded like a question lacking any real conviction.
“A wise idea,” put in Chagnon. “Lieutenant Sharnon, proceed as you had previously in the Churba system. Open all frequencies, but broadcast nothing.”
“Yes, sir” came the response. “My Lord, we are picking up an unknown vessel approaching us from the closest of the planets. It has begun to transmit something, we are patching it through you n…” but her Last word was cut off. As the High Command looked on, the unknown vessel opened fire shorting out the audio feed from the ship. The Revelation went evasive and tried to make its way back to the wormhole, but it was equipped with no shields nor did it have any weaponry of any kind to fight back.
“We must do something!” cried out Defcon. “There are good soldiers on that ship.”
“What can we do?” came a dejected reply from Junon. “That system is light years away, and we have no ships in a position to offer assistance.” As he was saying this, the ships engines were hit, and the little ship began spinning out of control.
“They are being massacred,” a breathless Mandron said almost to himself. “I should have been on that ship. That’s my crew. That should have been me” he whispered as he watched the little ship being raked by enemy fire. Then, in an instant, there was nothing.
A few minutes later the haunting silence was broken by Junon. “We have the translation of the message that was broadcast by the enemy vessel.” He said in a low solemn voice. “It said ‘We are the Terran Confederacy. You have invaded our space and, therefore, must be destroyed. No exceptions will be made, and no survivors will be taken. Prepare for war.’”