Encounter

"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 planet, 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 with a shape like that before."
"Admiral, we're registering a large concentration metals and. strafez organism, sir."
"That can't be," said Morgan, "we've only barely begun testing with strafez organisms."
"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."
"That's impossible," Morgan exclaimed, "are you sure we're in System LN23?"
"Affirmative admiral, our navigational computers never make a mistake."
"I've got a bad feeling about this, tell the fleet to prepare for battle.
We're going to find out exactly what that thing out there is and then figure out what happened to this planet."

Meanwhile, while Admiral Morgan was giving orders to the Terran commanders, Victor was doubled over in pain once again as his head was filled with the sound of the Voice.
"Victor"
"Yes master?"
"A group of Terrans has entered the solar system. This presents a set back for our plans."
"Indeed it does. I have already taken notice of this incursion and it will be dealt with quickly."
"See to it that it is, we cannot spend too much time here. If we wait too long, the Marauders' main force will have moved on from this sector."
"I understand master. I shall dispose of these troublesome pests."
"Excellent. You are proving quite an asset to me Victor. Go now and deal with these intruders."
"Thank you master, I shall make this quick."

Just as the Terran ships approached, the unknown object began break apart it seemed. It started to become clear however, that the object was not breaking apart, but that small ships were coming off of it.
"What in the name of-," Morgan began to say, right before his ship's shielding flickered from the impact of the large object's weaponry. The ship shuddered from the sheer energy released upon the weapon's impact with the shield. The Terrans had just gotten their first taste of a Viral star base.
"We're under attack," exclaimed one of the crewmembers.
"Damage report," screamed the admiral.
"No external damage sir, but our shields took a hit! We're at 81% shield capacity now!"
"Open fire on that thing, I want it turned to space dust! I also want all the destroyers to focus on that big ship. Let everything else target the smaller ships."
"We've got a problem sir."
"What is it?"
"There are more of those smaller ships coming from the planet surface. We're about to be surrounded sir!"

Indeed, there were many more ships on their way. Victor was eager to test out his new Chiron star base and Borrelly destroyers on real war ships. Thus far he had only gotten the opportunity to use his ships on civilian vessels and local militias. This would prove to be an interesting encounter. On the other side of the Viral infested planet, Victor stood at the heart of a second Chiron. Externally, all was tranquil on this side of the infected world. Within Victor's mind however, the chaos of the developing battle was playing itself out. He could see everything that his ships could see. Just as the Voice shared a common consciousness with his him, so too did he share a common consciousness with his partially living ships. Victor watched as his Borrellies swarmed over the Terran fleet. It did not overly concern Victor that his Borrellies took heavy losses from the various photon corvettes and frigates that were in the Terran task force. For every few Borrellies that went down, another Terran ship would have its hull breached by mass drivers and then boarded by infectious Viral shock troops, whose sole purpose was to infect as many crew members as possible before being taken down. In some cases, boarding parties were not even necessary however, as a Borrelly might get close enough to simply spray the enemy vessels with hull devouring chemicals coupled with his infectious agent. Upon breaching the hull, it was only a matter of time before the ship would be completely overtaken by the 106 strain.

While the Borrelly swarms accounted for a great deal of damage, the Chiron star base lent its own contribution to the fray. The force of the Terran missile weapons was simply shrugged off by the tough outer layers of strafez that formed the primary armor of the Chiron. The star base responded to the missile barrage of the Thor class destroyers with its own onslaught of weaponry. The semi-organic rail guns of the Chiron sent their huge, armor piercing slugs accelerating into the bridge of one Thor destroyer, effectively causing the ship to sink towards the planet, no longer able to use its engines to resist the pull of the planet's gravitational field. Another high velocity slug smashed through the already battered shielding of a second destroyer and blew through its hull. As a result, all objects and crew in the affected area of the ship were sucked out into space by the force of the vacuum created. Like a ruptured bag of sand, the ship spilled its cargo, living and inanimate, out its side.

Back aboard Admiral Morgan's cruiser, shouting voices echoed across the bridge.
"Shields are at 13%! One more hit and we'll be wide open!"
Just as the crewman said this, the shields took another hit and phased out. "Shields are down! We're wide open to attack!"
Morgan had no other choice; he had to give the order. "Abandon ship! If we take any more direct hits we're finished!"

From his command chamber Victor watched the remainder of the Terran fleet begin to melt away. The leading ship, a Kalieum cruiser had began to launch its escape pods. On Victor's command, his fast moving Kohoutek scout ships intercepted all but one of the pods. The single remaining escape pod managed to flee the battle and make its automated jump to the Terran home world. Aboard it was Admiral Morgan, sole survivor of the dreadful encounter with the new Viral race.

Edited by Exule on 2008-06-30