Nightfall…

A Union task force was sent to the system of SRS-200 to respond to a suspicion that there was a garrison of a small band of human like life forms, and potentially they would have been a well thought ally. However the patrols of the massive Union could only spare three ships to dispatch to the new area to go and investigate what really was there. There was a Union Council meeting in progress in order to decide who to send on this mission of subtle importance, but alas it was a mission that needed to be done, furthering the goals of the Union entirely, which was so to say, a good idea. In Sol where the council members all convened, there was already a buzzing uproar of arguing political officials arguing over what the Union was spending it’s budget on, and who was going to be the guest that would present what he had to tell the council what was so important about the system they labeled SRS-200.

The chamber was a massive area, plated in steel, with alien designs that gave it an awe inspiring presence. This room also had a massive pillar in the middle of the room representing unity… in a way. The doors at the end of the room opened up revealing a massive being, roughly eight feet tall and dressed in a lab coat. The being was that of a werewolf, also known as a Gothian. The Lab coat was a dark red color, outlined with a thin golden line going across the jacket, the Gothian’s paws lightly clicked on the floor as he strode proudly across the room to where he would present himself to the Council. Many of them recognized as the Union wide famous Scientist and Weapons Developer Ragra Ju, but translated into the basic human language it was pronounced Kelland. Kelland continued onto a soft red carpet that contained the Union symbol in the middle, a Planet with eighty rings around it, representing all of the races within the Union. Kelland then stopped at the middle of the carpet, where a hovering platform was lowered, and he stepped onto it, and waited for it to rise into the air so he could have the floor. Kelland scanned the entire room, many aliens sat here today, including one human. He then felt the platform raise, and he heard a voice call out to the senators. “My fellow Senators, our guest comes from the distant Go-Ui System, home to the Gothian people. I present to you, the holder of these claims, our Union-wide renowned scientist. Ragra Ju.” There was an applause, out of courtesy towards the scientist that stood in the middle of the room, and then he cleared his throat and began to speak in a smooth tone.

“Greetings my esteemed senators, there is but a small thing I am here to speak of, and I thank you for letting me use your time at such a short notice.” There was a pause, creating a silence that grabbed everyone’s attention. “There is a system, far from here, and far from the last Hyperspace Gate. We have discovered this system ages ago as I had presented this to you in the past before. This system we labeled SRS-200 is but an immense Nebula that is famous for it’s black appearance and it’s… ‘storms’. We have recently found a planet within this nebula.” Again there was another murmur throughout the entire room and then one of the senators spoke out “Scientist Ragra, I am hoping you can point out as to why you are mentioning this to us right now yes? I do assume it is something either about the system or about the Planet.” This wasn’t a question. Kelland shook his head slowly, politicians were always so quick to judge. “Yes Senator, it is about the Planet.” The senator sat back down in his seat letting the man continue. Kelland spoke up again. “This planet was recently probed for anything by a remote satellite for any life sighs what so ever, and none were found…” again there was a murmur among the entire room. Another senator spoke “No life? Then why are you here boy? Tell us so we can get on with our lives and return to our jobs!” Kelland chuckled slightly when he was barraged with these type of complaints, these people could be so simple sometimes. “There are cities, empty… these were the photos that were taken from the satellite.” Images popped up onto a massive screen located near the middle of the room. “These are images of buildings, abandoned and what looks like tell tale signs of war.” He then highlighted several structures. “These three structures… are eighteen times larger than this entire building.”

There was one gasp and murmuring surging through the senators. “In turn I am here to request that I assemble an investigation team, but I do request several certain… personnel to accompany me to this system.” One of the senators spoke up, a rough voice, it was one of his own kind “It seems that you make a bold request… only suitable for our most bold scientist. I believe we are all in agreement that this investigation must be carried out. We may have only scratched the surface of this… and maybe there are forms of life that are sentient on that specific planet. If there are, then we can aid them on their recovery by helping them any way possible, and if they are enemies, we will have the rare opportunity to strike first rather than to suffer another boarder war.” Several minutes passed as the senators argued amongst themselves, and then the one up on a pedestal stood up and spoke. “You have your wish, go to military command and acquire your needed personnel. Take what you need to go and find your… intelligent people… but report directly back and tell us all of your findings.” The massive Wolfman nodded and the platform descended down onto the floor and he stepped off, rushing out of the room in a fluid motion, the doors shut and the senators began to argue again.

Captain Jayden Severns stood right outside of her ship looking over the final preparations to leave port and to go back onto patrol after she had a run in with a bunch of well equipped bandits that nearly claimed her Aguso Class Carrier, one of the smaller ships in the Union’s Navy, but also the ideal expedition ship as well. She was wearing her standard uniform. But no matter what she wore, people just looked at her, because of the way she looked. She was apart of a race that was like a mix between a cat and a human, Her eyes were a dark purple, then her face was a soft spoken, and well kept. Her hair was long and reached down to her shoulder blades, her hair was black with red highlights. The most noticeable thing about her was her cleavage… which is what she was known for unfortunately. She also had a well shaped butt and her legs were just as good as the rest of her as well. She also possessed a tail and cat ears, which was what made her specific race one of the more exotic within the Union. She stood there wearing her standard uniform.

A black dress coat that hugged her figure rather well and her pants that covered the dress shoes she wore. The medals she earned sat right above her right breast pocket, she had three rows of colorful ribbons, each representing what she had done in her combat career, three ribbons in each row. Jayden turned her head to the side after hearing a clicking noise, usually associated with the Gothian race, she saw someone she knew rather well and one of the only people who don’t stare at her chest. It was her adopted older brother, whom she called Kelland. The massive werewolf waved at her as he closed distance with his shorter sister. The two hugged each other tightly. “Big brother, I haven’t seen you in a long time… what have you been up to lately?” The werewolf chuckled in a coy tone and smirked slightly as he began to speak “I was just visiting Sol, arguing with the Senators who ‘work’ so hard at their jobs, and I was granted my wish. I am going on an exploration excursion and I wish to recruit you to accompany me on this.” Jayden nearly passed out upon the request, she then started to talk when he had begun speaking again “I already cleared it with the fleet admirals, and I already secured your… mate to accompany me to the system SRS-200.” Her eyes widened slightly in reaction to the mentioning of where they were going to go. Union ships never went there for a god damned good reason, and that was because of the magnetic storms that came from there. “B-brother? Why are we going there?”

Kelland smiled slightly and looked down at his significantly shorter sister “I need to see that planet with my own damn eyes. I need to see if there is anything alive on that planet… I have this feeling there is something there that will change our lives as it is.” Jayden listened intently to what the man had to say, Kelland was usually right in his… feelings. He then looked at the ship “I know you made illegal modifications onto your ship, and in fact I requested that they turned a blind eye to your modifications of your ship as well, and I know this ship can tough it out if a storm hits it.” She nodded slowly looking away from him slightly, a little ashamed that he knew that she did something illegal. She looked up to him, even though he still was a civilian. “I’ll go… where is Jordan?” Kelland chuckled at the mention of his life long friends name and shook his head “So eager to see him? I’m sorry but you can’t at the moment. We have to get the ship ready for departure.”

Jayden looked slightly depressed for a moment and then looked up and saw Jordan get on the ship. She smiled slightly at that and looked to Kelland “Anyone else?” The werewolf shook his head “No, nothing else… we have to go now… we have a long way to go to reach the nebula.” She nodded and snapped to attention “We are ready to depart as soon as we board. Please follow me.” She turned around in a strict military manner and walked him into the ship, and the door behind them closed and the airlock secured. “Welcome aboard the Legacy.” She extended her hand to Kelland and he gripped her hand tightly and shook it. “Very well I will show myself to my quarters. I know the way.” She nodded and then began to walk to the bridge.

The bridge was silent as Captain Severns walked into the room. “stations report!” She barked in a loud tone She got the following responses. “communications online, and receiving disengaging orders” “Logistics online” “Weapon systems online, ready to fire when ready” “Engineering online! Reactor at full power!” She nodded slowly and then looked to the helmsman “Take her out.” She said in a calm  voice and the man nodded slowly and began to do the proper procedures. Around an hour later they were underway, and approaching the first Hyperspace Gate.

The only one they would be taking. The ship jumped from the system as soon as it was disengaged and it entered the gate, now it was just a matter of time. She stood up from her command chair and looked to her XO. “You are in command for the duration of the Hyperspace travel. Reach me when we exit Hyper.” The man nodded “Mam.” She then walked off the bridge, and as the door closed she let out a sigh, looking down at the floor “Jeez… Alright, now to find Jordan.” She continued walking down the hallway when she saw Jordan exit a room, he had blue eyes and a well shaped face, and brown hair. He was also slightly muscular. She hugged him tightly squishing herself against him causing him to blush slightly “Its good to be with you again… especially after I thought you would have been gone for the rest of the year…” the two kept talking to each other and they walked down to her room where the both of them were staying. Kelland however was sitting in his room watching the data stream down his holoscreen. His gaze was a heavy one, reading every bit of data at lightning speed. He couldn’t make anything of it so far… all of it was rather useless.

There were no architectural designs like this before… this was completely new, and random. Everything was random, as if there weren’t any connections to be made, but then again this was his job that he had to do, and he would do it. Hour, upon hour upon hour passed, and still he saw nothing to relate to. He couldn’t make any sense out of the structures or the condition they were in, it was like a war happened that made everything disappear, except everyone died… and there was no battle scarring… he then heard a thump. They exited Hyperspace, and they were probably over the planet by now. Kelland stood up and exited the room, and left the data alone, and still running. As he left, an alarm went off briefly from the data pad, and then it resumed to go about and deciphering everything it found.

Kelland arrived at the Bridge and looked around spotting his little sister ordering about, setting up a base of operations over head… hopefully the VNTU aren’t around here at this time of year… Those ships prowled the nightmarish south eastern quadrant of the Union’s boarders. Hopefully. “What’s the word Jayden?” Kelland asked in a curious voice as he looked at the view on the bridge main screen. There was a pause that suggested ill bearing news. “Well we sent out probes to scout out the area before we deployed our harvesters to collect what material we can.” The pause bothered Kelland and then she spoke. “There are slight energy signatures around the planet, but nothing seems to worry about really. I believe that we should move closer towards the planet and investigate… if there are any contacts that just so happen to be hostile towards us, then I will send a message to Admiral Kierov for her support…” Kelland nodded slowly, understanding that this was her part of the job… to get them safely to where they needed to go. Kelland remained silent as Jayden gave her orders and the crew went about their duties… this was a warzone… or rather might be a warzone. Kelland closed his eyes in deep thought, and wondered about the energy signatures, but they were in a nebula. If the signature was a VNTU ship, they would have known by now since those nasty people fire away at the Union ships… no matter if it’s a civilian ship or a military ship. All they knew off hand was that if it was a VNTU ship… they would need all the support they could get.

The Carrier moved to the edge of the planet and hovered overhead scanning the surface, when alarms inside the carrier went off. “Mam! Something has locked on to us!” He shouted at her, and he scanned his imaging and spotted what had locked onto them “Mam! Contact to the rear… a Black Star!’ Jayden widened her eyes slightly and then she barked her orders “Alright, swing the ship around Helmsman… Communications, send the message to the Admiral! Weapons… Lock on any hardpoints you can see! Try and slow it’s advance down!” The crew of the ship concentrated on their jobs as the massive starship approached them at it’s usual lumbering speed mimicking that of a titan. Kelland looked at the image of the ship… it was his first time seeing the thing… He was impressed at the design over all, and how… thin it was as well. He calculated how many weapons the thing could possess… he stepped back a little, as if it would get him a little farther away from the massive ship. The thing was massive… it made the carrier look like a bath toy.

The Black Star approached slowly, and on board a crew who looked as unearthly as the ship crewed it. Their teeth sharp, and needle like, they bore a fearsome tattooed appearance to that of a barbarian than a space faring race. “Tieklekuroviek reroute the systems to weapons immediately. Juikilnjuab I want you to deploy our Falcons to strip them of their hull!” The two VNTU class ones nodded slowly and went about their work, the inside of the ship was bright, and it was a… garden. A place of tranquility and war, the Captain was a tall class three VNTU wearing complex robes to that of a ship captain. “I wish to see their ship collide into the planet.” He said in a harsh voice as he gave out more orders to move the ship about and then he looked to the weapons officer and said their most favorite word. “Open when ready.”

The outside of the ship had countless compartments that just opened, revealing the troubling amount of weapons on the ship, along the middle of the hull ontop of the ship unleashed hundreds of missiles. Their white contrails were the only evidence that they were there streaked towards the Carrier that deployed a flax screen taking out most of the missiles, but the missiles kept coming from separate launchers, keeping a constant battery on the Carrier. The Carrier’s front was directed at the Super dreadnought, and the forward energy beam fired out at the front of the massive ship, thinking that it was over, the ships hull merely absorbed the fire and returned with a wall of cannon fire. In response, the carrier began to turn to it’s broadside as it released shield drones that put up a protective screen keeping the massive rounds from colliding into the carriers hull. Union fighters launched from the carrier to engage the massive ship, only to be greeted by a wall of Anti-fighter missiles and a wall of flak. This ship was like a fortress, and it demanded to be treated like one. The bottom cannon of the massive Dreadnought fired out, the one round hit the side of the carrier, and exploded as it contacted with the ship shaking the carrier, and sending it slightly off course. The Carrier returned fire with it’s broadside cannons, each round impacted against the ship’s front, shreds of it’s armor blew off but the ship continued forward.

Then the ship began to turn, so that it’s broadside faced the Carrier. Both ships kept a constant lock, and a constant fire on each other. The one winning at the moment seemed to be the Carrier because of the shield drones. Then the Black Star had it’s broadside facing the Carrier’s Broadside and the two exchanged massive volleys of ordinance. The Carrier shot bright lances of energy, drilling into the armor of the Dreadnought, and the Dreadnought fired over 400 turrets, bearing explosive shells that lit up the shield wall of the Carrier. Shorting the shield out, the constant battery collided into the hull of the carrier, massive sheets of metal were torn from the carriers hull, but the ship still held together. Then another missile battery was fired at the Carrier, the missiles impacted on the side of the ship, shaking the ship from the amount of explosions. The VNTU Dreadnought however, was unphased by every attack thrown at it, easily shrugging off the damage. The front of the VNTU dreadnought had a dark red glow, readying it’s main energy cannon, the ship was ready to finish the fight, when the Admiral’s ship arrived in system, another carrier… but it was a Super Carrier.

The VNTU Dreadnought shifted half of it’s missile batteries towards the newcomer, and thousands of missiles streaked towards the Carrier. One against two. The Ship flew inbetween the two Union ships and opened up it’s broadside batteries once again. It’s high explosive rounds impaled the two ships brutally in a violent display of brute force. Still the two ships laid their energy blasts against the massive Dreadnought, lighting the sides of the hull revealing a black color to it, and it’s battle scars as well, they were fighting against an… experienced ship commander. Some of the lights revealed gaping holes in the side of the ship, telling of battles long ago… what ever this ship fought… it was epic.

The two Union ships had the upper hand for while now, since they could constantly hammer the Massive Dreadnought… The Dreadnought disappeared for several moments, and then reappeared drifting in the same direction, but the front of the ship was pointed at both ships. The dreadnought did a mini-hyperspace jump to line them up, and when the Captains of bother Carriers discovered why the ship did that… it was to late, an orange beam flew out of the front of the ship colliding into the smaller carrier first, splitting it in half, and then the second carrier… Obliterating the middle of the Super Carrier, the two broken ships drifted closer and closer to the planets, caught it it’s gravity well. Few escape pods left the two ships as the massive hulks drifted into the planet. The Captain of the VNTU warship looked at the screen along with his silent crew. “Notify Ground commander El’Kail U’buva Sejek that we have invaders in the system… we would do nicely to please the Quel ‘ak Alahmuha by eliminating these… Union pests from our pure space.” The communications officer nodded slowly, and sent the message. Then the Captain spoke “Alahmuha guides us well this century. I do hope my brother Vossik shall deliver them to their judgement.”