Encounter (part 1)
Admiral Morgan stood on the bridge of his Kalieum class cruiser, looking out into the vast expanse of space. His flagship sat at the head of a small Terran contingent. The admiral’s task force was a modest fleet of about ten destroyers, sixteen frigates, twenty-four corvettes, and about two hundred fighters and scout ships. The admiral was confident that even if Marauders were behind the recent communications failure, they would be no problem for his battle group’s firepower.
“Admiral, we’re ready to make the jump to LN23.”
“Excellent, proceed with the jump then.”
“Aye, aye sir.”
One after another the ships began to jump away. For a moment, all time seemed suspended in stasis as the ships lurched through space at supra-light speed velocities. What seemed like a moment had passed before Morgan’s fleet dropped out of hyperspace. They were in System LN23.
“I don’t see anything,” said Morgan.
“There! What’s that?” One of the crew was pointing at a strangely shaped shadow floating close to the form of a nearby moon, silhouetted by the light of the system’s flaming gas giant.
“Scan that thing, I want to know what it is. I’ve never seen a Terran or Marauder ship shaped like that before. Is it Aspha?” Morgan did not think the Aspha Miners had ventured this far past the territory lines established following the great Terran-Aspha War. It seemed unlikely that the Aspha Miners, more often relishing peaceful trade over war, would purposely violate the peace treaty.
“Admiral, we’re registering a large concentration of metals and… strafez organism, sir…”
“That can’t be,” said Morgan, “we’ve only barely begun testing with strafez organism. Could someone have beat us to it?”
“Sir! You’re not going to believe this! Scanner results of the planet’s atmosphere reveal that it does not match the atmospheric profile of the planet that is supposed to be there. In fact, it doesn’t appear to match any known worlds.”
E
ExuleOP