Like a beautiful, yet deadly dart, the Kushan Heavy Cruiser Kharak floated in space. And on the bridge of the vessel, Commodore Lin Kuei looked across the viewport to the space outside. The battle was almost over. The Taiidan fleet that had found them had been forced to retreat after the bulk of their ships had been heavily damaged. Unfortunately, the commander had not expected a defeat and hadn’t prepared for the need of a retreat. The price was the destroyer assigned to the fleet. Very bulky, requiring tons of resources to jump, it was left behind. As were two frigates and all of the fighters who didn’t have the time to dock. But the victory had not been flawless. Thousands of brave Kushan had perished when the Destroyer Indomitable had been lost. Tens of fighter pilots were lost as well. But the Mothership was safe, along with the cryo-frozen colonists. The Resource Collectors had also been protected fiercely, and as result, none were lost. Good. At least the Collector fleet is still there. We won’t repeat the mistakes we did at the Sifkreean Nebula thought Lin. Back in that battle, Fleet Command had ordered the fleet to leave the Collectors undefended in order to battle the Turanic Raiders with a larger fleet. Unfortunately, the Raiders jumped an Ion Array Frigate near the Collectors. All were lost. As result, the fleet retired several damaged ships to obtain the precious mineral resources with which to rebuild the collectors. It took 8 weeks to obtain enough to rebuild the lost ships and have enough to jump to hyperspace. Now, unless completely necessary, the Collector fleet boasted of a very heavy escort. “Sir,” said the communications officer. “We have received what seems to be a surrender note from the Taiidan Destroyer. It has powered down its weapons and power readings have lowered to a point it should barely be able to keep life support and Comm online.” His voice was full of scepticism. This had never happened before. Not with the destroyer with a big enough crew left to run the ship. “Most of the other vessels have done the same.” The other vessels, two Assault Frigates and a couple dozen fighters had powered down engines and had lowered their power readings. “Sir.” This time it was the tactical officer. “Captain Nassau is asking for orders. As are the other captains of our fleet.” The whole bridge went silent, waiting for Lin’s answer. “Ok. Move the fleet to status Yellow-Two. Tell the Mothership to send dropships to those vessels and order the carrier to start docking the enemy fighters. Prisoners are to be taken to the cargo bays. They are not to be treated like normal prisoners. Nothing is to harm them unless I order otherwise.” Something felt wrong to Lin, a feeling he had felt before every ambush, before every trap. And now… “Tactical. Send Probes to investigate the whole surrounding area. I want every bit of space within 500 kilometres of the Mothership scanned.” “Yes, sir.” Came the reply. For several minutes, nothing wrong happened. The carrier, Intrepid, collected the pilots and reported happily that the bulk of the fighters that had surrendered were Plasma Bombers, a technology Kushan scientists had been trying to develop for months without success. They were going to take them back to the Mothership for further analysis. The dropships were halfway from the Mothership already and would arrive soon. Long Range Sensors had detected a new asteroid cluster around a small deep-apace comet and the Collectors were heading for it. But the feeling Lin had still remained. Why? Thought Lin. Why this feel- “Sir!” shouted the tactical officer. “Enemy ships appearing out of no-where! They are at two-o’clock. Range…60 kilometres, count…Ten, repeat ten, one-zero. Configuration…they are all Ion Cannon Frigates.” The officer paused for a moment. “Sir, Intelligence reports that those particular markings do not match any of the other Taiidan markings we have encountered, nor do they look-.” “-like Taiidan designs,” came the voice from the speaker. “They are accelerating at maximum and will be in range in about 3 minutes.” Admiral Apwar Triggit, military leader in the Kushan Fleet, stared at the sensor readings in disbelief. God, Another fleet. “Intelligence any ideas of where they come from?” he asked. “No sir,” was the reply. “There was no quantum waveform, nor could they have moved in quietly without our LRS-system detecting it.” “Tactical. What ships can make it to the Kharak in time to engage the incoming fleet?” asked Apwar. “We have, two Ion Cannon Frigates and three Assault Frigates. Commodore Kuei has already called them to form up with him. As for fighters, we have two squadrons of interceptors that I have already ordered to move into position.” The officer’s face reflected Apwar’s own feelings. Our forces there are outnumbered. “What about the Intrepid and the other destroyer, Hiigara Search?” “The Intrepid is to far away. Its best speed puts it near Kharak in more than twenty minutes. It would never make it. The Hiigara Search was severely damaged in the previous battle and has lost main propulsion. Other vessels report heavy loss of propulsion systems, as those were the main targets since the Taiidan fleet tried to prevent us from pursuing them.” “God…” said Apwar in desperation… “Open a channel to the Kharak. Attention crew of the Kharak, this is Admiral Triggit. We are in the unfortunate position of not being able to help you. Good luck everyone. May God bless you. Mothership-” “-out.” The Comm channel died. Commodore Lin looked at each member of his bridge and sighed. “This is it, everyone! I expect you to do your best. If well all do, we may survive…” he said. “Anyway, Tactical, label the enemy ships 1-10 and transmit list to the fleet. Ships are to fire at ship one until it is crippled or destroyed unless I give special orders to it. Fighters are to target the enemy Frigates from behind and hit their engines. Hopefully, they’ll get a lucky shot and hit the reactor. Good luck.” The battle started seconds after that, and Admiral Triggit watched in horror as he saw the enemy ships all zero their shots in one target. The Kharak.