Original Fiction Tintagel

Part 1: Oops!

bintananth

behind a desk
Captain Wilczynski of the TSS Calypso was feeling confident. His raid had been a resounding success up to this point: 11 enemy merchant ships captured and 3 enemy warships destroyed across 5 star systems.

He listened to the steady stream of reports from his bridge crew. They were in high spirits.

"Captain, six ships detected. 41 light seconds distant. They're tiny. Looks like a local sublight convoy." reported the sensor officer.

"How tiny?" He queried.

"The largest is about 6,000 tons. They appear to be coasting between planets."

Compared to the 44 million tons of the TSS Calypso that was nothing.

"Helm, approach at 45 degrees oblique. I wa-"

Captain Wilczynski's orders were cut off by the sound of the proximity alarm followed by the hull shuddering from an impact. Almost instantly he yelled "SOUND GENERAL QUARTERS! DAMAGE REPORT!"

As the reports filtered in he wasn't happy. The FTL drive system, all weapons, and two of the eight reactors the TSS Calypso had were damaged and offline, along with various other less serious issues.

"Captain, detecting power spikes from all six contacts. Jesus! The smallest one is 37 petawatts." reported the sensor officer.

The communications officer barked "Incoming transmission. It's just one word: 'Bingo'."

Captain Wilczynski was suddenly having a very bad day and it was about to get much much worse.
 
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Part 2: Charge!

bintananth

behind a desk
"Bingo!" came through the communications system.

It was a word Junior Captain Lindiwe didn't know the meaning of, but it was the signal to go to full power and engage.

At a distance of a little over 40 light-seconds the LRS Hailee opened up with her three resonance cannons while turning to close on the TSS Calypso, a ship over 7,000 times the size of the LRS Hailee, at flank.

It would be roughly two minutes of charging before the escorts would be within range. All Lindiwe could do was watch and wait.

When the Chizoba asked the Llyrians for aid and protection according to an ancient Treaty the only Llyrian warships available to immediately assist were Junior Captain Lindiwe's light cruiser Hailee and an escort flotilla. The Hailee, at about 5,200 tons without fuel, was the fastest cruiser her species had.

When Lindiwe was briefed about what she'd be facing she didn't actually believe that Terran warships were that many orders of magnitude more massive than the ones her people built, but the proof was in the sensor records.

The anti-ship missile which merely damaged the unshielded human ship would have vaporized any unshielded Llyrian battleship and served to reinforce the accuracy of the sensor records.

Lindiwe was scared, but she would do her duty. "Continuous fire. Slice that monster apart." she ordered.
 
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Part 3: Worry and Relief

bintananth

behind a desk
Sergeant Suzetta watched the sensor readings of what was occurring almost nine light-minutes overhead.

He was impressed. The obsolete surface-to-space missile his people received from the Llyrians quite some time ago managed to disable the largest starship his society had ever detected.

LRS Hailee was engaging the human ship from a distance that would be about midway between the two Chizoba homeworlds when they're at closest approach ... far beyond the effective range of any Chiboza weapon.

He knew Llyrian weapons and sensors were good. The were, by far, the most ancient and advanced society in the Galaxy. He, and everyone else for that matter, had been vastly underestimating them.

He looked at the sensor readings, blinked, and double checked them before shouting with excitement, "Major! The Hailee just punched a hole clean through that alien behemoth from 32 light-seconds away!"

Major Aniki strode over to look at the display. He, like the Sergeant, was equally astounded.

****

Captain Wilczynski was worried.
Whatever disabled the TSS Calypso managed slip past her sensors undetected.

The sudden power spikes were even more distressing. Those six little ships went from looking like they were completely harmless to a combined power output exceeding the amount of sunlight the Earth gets in an instant.

"How long to repair the Jump Drive?" he asked?

"Two hours." was the reply from the Chief Engineer.

The tactical officer suddenly said, "Captain, something just pierced us from stem to stern."

"From what range?"

"Unknown. Our sensors can't detect whatever it is they're using."

Captain Wilczynski thought for a moment before responding to the Chief Engineer. "We don't have two hours. Ignore all safety procedures and other damage. Do a blind emergency jump the moment the FTL drive is fixed."
 
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Part 4: Countdown

bintananth

behind a desk
A/N: The TSS Calypso, by itself, is more massive than the entire Llyrian fleet, combined. They're the only ones who even stand a chance of fighting back.

Senior Lieutenant Kirika counted down the range in light seconds for her captain. "32, 31, 30 ..."

When she hit 20 the LRS Gerfrid, a destroyer a fifth the size of the LRS Hailee, opened with all five of her resonance cannons and started bracketing the TSS Calypso.

The countdown continued. "18, 17, 16 ..."

Junior Captain Lindiwe listened and waited. She didn't have enough firepower to quickly destroy the massive human warship, but she did have enough to maul it.

When the countdown reached 12 light-seconds the remaining four Llyrian ships opened fire and she gave orders.

"Comm, signal the fleet, maintain 11 light-seconds, cloud formation. Helm, hard 30 degrees to starboard, 20 degrees down, maintain flank."
 
Part 5: Escape

bintananth

behind a desk
Electricians Mate 1st Class Higgins was deep in the bowels of TSS Calypso's FTL drive looking for a broken wire.

He wasn't wearing a spacesuit. Or any other protective gear, for that matter. When the alarm sounded he'd been asleep in his bunk and he was still in his underwear.

The order to ignore safety precautions told him all he needed to know: this was bad.

He frantically continued his search as the Calypso shook around him every few seconds as a result of what he figured could only be hostile fire.

Finally, he found it.

A few seconds of quick work saw the control wire repaired and the FTL drive started to power up.

He ran.

****

Captain Wilczynski breathed a sigh of relief when the Chief Engineer announced. "FTL back online. Jumping, NOW!"

For the past 40 to 45 minutes he'd been receiving reports of how his ship was being damaged by the ones taking potshots while circling in the distance. He was no Engineer but knew that the Calypso, upon reaching a starbase, wouldn't return to service for several years if she wasn't deemed damaged beyond economical repair and scrapped.

Once the jump was complete and the FTL drive shut down he looked at the navigation officer and asked "Where are we?"
 
Part 6: Picnic

bintananth

behind a desk
Several weeks later ...

Brussels, Belgium, Earth

"Ambassador, what can you tell us about these ships?"

Ambassador Caytaya reviewed the sensor records several times before replying. "You say these came from a crippled starship which barely escaped?"

The General he was meeting with nodded.

"And that it was crippled almost instantly?"

The General nodded again.

"On the record, I would need to consult with my government first."

The General frowned and turned off the display before saying, "Off the record then."

"I think tomorrow would be a very good day for us to have a picnic at a secluded spot in a nearby park so our children can get to know each other better."

General Volske smiled. "That sounds like an excellent idea. Shall I pick you up at ten?"

****

The next day ...

Ambassador Caytaya's and General Volske's children had full bellies and were off doing children things while their wives kept an eye on them and made smalltalk.

Caytaya turned to Volske and said, "Those starships are Llyrian." Volske nodded and listened while Caytaya continued with, "They are a very ancient race and do not like to be disturbed. You woke them up."

"You either attacked them or attacked something or someone they've said they would protect. Based on where the Calypso was damaged I can make an educated guess as to who asked them for help but I might be wrong so I won't say."

"The best piece of advice I can give you is this: make peace with the Shalmaneseer. They don't have a defense treaty with the Llyrians but someone they're friendly with certainly does."

Ambassador Caytaya turned his attention back to the sky. "It's such a lovely day for watching clouds. Wouldn't you agree?"

General Volske simply said "Yes" in reply. He had a lot to think about.
 
Part 7: Attrition

bintananth

behind a desk
Shalmaneseer homeworld, Admiralty headquarters

Admiral Chizeta read the latest after-action report with dismay. The last battle with the Terrans had cost his people a carrier, a cruiser, and three destroyers. Every other warship present was damaged, some severly.

Yuck!

The Shalmaneseer intelligence services and technical experts all agreed on one thing. The Terrans were very new to the interstellar stage and sorely lacking a lot of technology spacefaring races took for granted. Like artificial gravity.

The Terrans more than compensated for how primitive they were. Sure, their ships were clumsy, sluggish, and handled like a draft animal stuck in mud. They were also enormous, could shrug off obscene amounts of damage, and hit hard enough to hold their own in a fight.

Publicly, Admiral Chizeta would have to announce that the battle was a victory. Technically that was the truth since they had been driven off.

When he met with the Cabinet in a few hours he would present a different conclusion. His people were losing and it was only a matter of time before the number of damaged ships overwhelmed the ability to repair them in a timely manner.

It was not a meeting he was looking forward to.
 
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skychan

New member
I admit I think I'm going to need more to make any kind of judgement on this. It's an interesting set up, but the plot is as yet entirely elusive.
 
Background Information

bintananth

behind a desk
I haven't yet decided where the plot is going and my writing style doesn't include a lot of exposition.

The basic situation:
- Humanity is the new kid in the neighbourhood, trying to proove themselves, and irritating people in the process.
- The Shalmaneseer have been around awhile, have a very strong military, but aren't prepared for a long drawn-out fight.
- The Chizoba have a small population and mostly interact with others via trade. Their merchant ships are getting attacked, hence the request for aid.
- The Llyrians are the grownup in the room. They're generally uninvolved with what the kids are up to but will intervene to say "knock it off" when necessary.

The societies which have direct dealings with the Llyrians don't openly announce that fact. Most of the ones who don't have dealings with the Llyrians have at least heard rumors of them.
 
Part 8: Disbelief

bintananth

behind a desk
Admiral Chizeta was mulling over how he would present the bad news to the Cabinet when his seceretary informed him that there was an incoming call for him from an unknown source using the most secure encryption code the Shalmaneseer had.

He told his secretary to put it through while hoping it was good news from one of the scout vessels.

It was nothing of the sort.

It was from a Llyrian Captain requesting his immediate presence in low orbit so she could meet with him.

He agreed and the shuttle he boarded docked with one unlike anything he'd ever seen before. The meeting with the Llyrian Captain was very brief.

He was told and shown that there was a Llyrian heavy cruiser two light-minutes from his homeworld on standby and ready to engage any Terran warship which entered the Shalmaneseer home star system.

He wasn't sure how to add this to what he had to say to the Cabinet, or how they would react.

He'd heard rumors of a very powerful and ancient race but those rumors said they were powerful beyond belief. The Llyrian Captain he met was a mere 5'2", half his height, and the "heavy cruiser" massed only 8,400 tons ... 1/10th the size of a Shalmameseer corvette.

He had a hard time believing that he had been told the truth.
 
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Part 9: Standoff

bintananth

behind a desk
Captain Levitt was bored and half-asleep.
His ship, the TSS Penolepe, had been assigned to keep an eye on an uninhabited star system just in case the Shalmaneseer decided to use it as a rendevous point.

"Captian, jump points forming! Ten, eleven ... fourteen. 28 light-seconds distant."

That woke him up. Far enough away to not be an immediate worry but close enough to be a concern.

"Watson, what do you see?"

Chief Watson replied. "Computer says 13 of the 14 are merchants. One's a tanker. They're probably here to refuel."

"And the 14th?"

"Nothing but a silouette and mass. 750 tons. Computer can't ID it."

Starships that small usually don't have FTL drives. Captain Levit thought for a few moments after looking at the silouette. He'd been briefed on what ships that size had done to the TSS Calypso and the silouette matched.

"Helm, give that convoy a wide berth and take us to 75 light-seconds away. Engineering, stand by for emergency jump. Sound general quarters."

A chorus of "Aye, sirs." and an alarm was the response as the TSS Penelope prepared for action.

To answer the questioning looks he was getting from his bridge crew. "You've all heard about what happened to the Calypso. I'm taking no chances. Comm, if that convoy asks why we aren't closing to provide close escort tell them we're investigating something."

****

Junior Commander Iska of the LRS Ginko listened to the sensor reports with dismay. There was a massive human starship in the vicinity and she did not want to fight it.

She and her crew were pretending to be tourists on vacation out for some sightseeing. Eleven of the thirteen ships she was escorting came from societies which had never encountered the Llyrians before and she did not want them to know that her frigate wasn't a yacht out for a pleasure trip.

"Commander, power spike detected. The human ship is going to battle stations. They're also turning away. They know what we are."

"Weapons, ready the missiles just in case and take the cannon and shields to standby. Do not raise the shields. Engineering, keep our power signature as close to idle as you can. Sensors, keep an eye on that thing."

****

It took 11 hours for the convoy to refuel. During that time the crews of the two warships warily watched each other from a distance. The Ginko's crew was able to get sensor readings good enough to make deck plans of the Penelope. The Penelope's crew was only able to determine how much fuel the Ginko consumed when her reactor was operating slightly above idle and even that was a rough estimate.

When the convoy jumped to its next destination both Captain Levitt and Junior Commander Iska were very relieved.
 
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Part 10: Hope

bintananth

behind a desk
A/N: At this point no human starship has fired on a Llyrian starship and the Llyrians have not destroyed any human starship. As for plot? There is one, but I don't know what it is yet.

Admiral Lafayette had 64 ships and needed to refuel on the way to his objective. He'd picked an out of the way uninhabited red dwarf star system to do it and hoped no one was watching it.

His fleet would be there and vunerable for a day.

He was very jealous of the Shalmaneseer. According to intelligence their navigation systems and FTL drives were precise and accurate enough for a rendez-vous in the voids of interstellar space.

When his fleet jumped in the sensor operator on his flagship reported eleven contacts, all Llyrian, and the communications officer relayed an incoming message: "LRS Prika to Human fleet: Leave this place, NOW."

It would be about an hour before some of his destroyers would have enough fuel to jump out and Admiral Lafayette didn't want to abandon them.

"Range?" Admiral Lafayette queried.

"58 light-seconds." was the reply.

"Comm, tell them we need five hours."

A few seconds later his flagship shuddered from a near miss and his communications officer relayed the reply: "You have 10 minutes."

Admiral Lafayette told his communications officer to inform the fleet to jump to the nearest star system, which was about seven light-years away, as soon as possible.

He was abandoning eleven destroyers and wished their captains and crews "Good luck." as the rest of the fleet jumped out.

****

Commander Muhammad watched as his destroyer, and ten other destroyers, were left behind. Scared off by alien warships from a society so advanced that their weapons were completely undetectable.

"May Allah have mercy on us, because they won't." he idly said.

"Captain? We're being hailed."

That broke Muhummad out of his despair.

"They're asking us about our fuel needs."

Commander Muhummad smiled. He and his crew would not be sent to Jannah today.
 
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Part 11: Convergence

bintananth

behind a desk
A/N: I have a Cray-1 Hardware Manual

Professor Mikal was examining the ruins of a computer that was millions of years old when he was handed a remarkably well-preserved binder found by one of his students.

He'd been able to somewhat translate the faded ancient writing so far discovered but this, this was something special. While flipping through the binder he recognized the computer's instruction set.

It was the exact same one used by the Cray-1. 128 opcodes and no division instruction because it didn't need one.

Professor Mikal considered this and kept his thoughts to himself. His conclusions: either Dr. Cray was told how to build the Cray-1 by aliens or the aliens who built this were humans who were tossed back in time and across space.

He didn't believe either conclusion and would have been very wrong if he did.
 
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Part 12: Escalation

bintananth

behind a desk
A/N: The star system from Part 10 and this part is far enough away from human controlled space that a human destroyer's FTL communication system can't reach any friendly comm relay.

Commander Muhammad and his fellow destroyer captains debated - argued would be more accurate - how to respond to the Llyrian question.

Some thought they should admit to the amount needed to reach the nearest star system with a comm relay. Others, enough to reach humanity's nearest space station. One, a well-connected greedy bastard most other officers loathed, wanted a full fuel load.

As the senior officer present, the decision was ultimately Commander Muhammad's.

Admiral Lafayette immediately fleeing told him all he needed to know: these aliens were not be trifled with and do not want humanity here.

With his mind made up Commander Muhammad ordered his Communications officer to inform Llyrians the amount of fuel needed for all eleven destroyers to reach the nearest Terran space station.

The Llyrian response was, "Standby.", followed by instructions to move to a position in the system's Oort cloud, which Muhammad gave orders to comply with.

****

Senior Captain Nonhle listened to the amount of fuel the Terrans stated. He was shocked by just how much they said was needed to for them to reach their nearest space station ... a mere 100 light-years away.

Confirmation was required and he ordered his sensor operators and engineers check the numbers. A few hours later he was informed that the Terrans were telling the truth. Their FTL drives were that inefficient and they were asking for a little less than half their bunker capacity.

After more back-and-forth it was determined that both Llyrian starship fuel and starship refueling gear was incompatable with Terran starships.

This would take some time to figure out.

****

Brussels, Belgium, Earth

Ever since the "Calypso Incident" the Terran Starfleet had studiously avoided attacking any convoy in Shalmaneseer space which included a ship matching a Llyrian silouette. To say President Pascale was furious would be an understatement.

Unrestricted Raiding was supposed to be just that: unrestricted.

He sent a message to the Secretary of the Fleet reminding him of this and of the fact that Captain Wilczynski had been caught by surprise.
 
Part 13: Mystery

bintananth

behind a desk
Star system SH-61, at the edge of Shalmaneseer space

Upon jumping in the nine ship convoy was greeted by the corvette Chupa. A sight for sore eyes after stumbling upon a Terran warship during the outbound journey.

Master Demyan of the Tanker Theogno watched as seven of the other eight ships in the return convoy maneuvered to refuel. The eighth, a tiny little yacht called Ginko hovered nearby.

He turned to his 1st Mate and said, "That yacht worries me."

"Why?" said the 1st Mate.

"It's been with us since the outbound convoy formed. It hasn't taken on any fuel and it hasn't once left our side. They've got to be running low by now."

"Perhaps they don't have an adaptor compatable with any of our fuel lines. Or, maybe, they don't use #4 Fuel." was the reply.

Master Demyan wasn't sure which of his 1st Mate's comments disturbed him more. Either way, a pleasure craft far from home joining up with a tanker it could not get fuel from on a long journey made no sense whatsoever.

"We were in Shalmaneseer space when we encountered that Terran behemoth, but it didn't attack us. Why?" He continued.

"I don't know." the 1st Mate replied.

"I think the Ginko is from a society the Terrans are afraid of."

****

Earlier that day Captain Sliva of the corvette Chupa had received an reviewed the latest situation report he'd been sent.

Part of it was the presence of a Llyrian "heavy cruiser" near homeworld. The derision in the briefing officer's voice was evident when she described it.

He was not expecting a ship with a similar profile in the convoy he'd been assigned to escort. He was also not expecting it to be less than one-tenth the size of the "heavy cruiser" he'd been told about. He certainly wasn't expecting for said tiny ship to hail the Chupa using Shalmaneseer military communication codes."

****

"Comm, has the warship responded yet?" asked Junior Commander Iska.

"No sir."

She sighed. "Go to an open channel and request permission for the 'yacht' Ginko to continue through Shalmanaseer space" because it never hurts to be polite. Especially when you commanded a warship pretending to be something else.

That got their attention. On the open channel permission was granted. On the secure channel was a very confused and upset sounding Captain Sliva demanding an explaination.

Junior Commander Iska could feel the headache starting to form as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.
 
Part 14: Meeting

bintananth

behind a desk
Unnamed red dwarf star system:

Senior Captian Nunhle received his orders and the plan. A neutral alien tanker would arrive and provide enough fuel for one of the eleven Terran destroyers to jump out with the crews of all eleven. The remaining ten would have to remain behind. A ship could be posted to keep an eye on the remaining ten - powered down and unmanned - until the Terrans could return to collect them on their own, provided that was done in a timely manner. He was to reassure them that the Llyrians would not board the Terran ships.

When informed of this Commander Muhammad had mixed feelings. On one side of the equation returning with one ship and eleven experienced crews would probably get him a medal. On the other side of the equation he would almost certainly be court martialed, convicted, and shot if ten undamaged destroyers were just left behind uncrewed to be collected at a later date.

Commander Muhammad chose a middle path. One destroyer would leave with all the crews. The remaining ten would be rigged to self-destruct after the crews were taken off.

****

Star system SM-61:

Junior Commander Iska's headache was growing. The captain assigned to the Shalmaneseer home star system either neglected to tell them why a Llyrian warship was there or the reason wasn't relayed to Captain Sliva.

He clearly did not trust her.

There was only one way to solve this: a face-to-face meeting. Sliva agreed to this but wasn't going to allow her to send a shuttle to the Chupa and someone of Shalmaneseer stature was too large to board the LRS Ginko without getting stuck in an airtight hatch.

That left only one solution they could agree upon. The Ginko was to continue with the convoy until it reached a space station three jumps later in four days. Once there the Llyrian ship would occupy a berth a Chizoba merchant vessel could use and they would meet in the base commandant's office, with the base commandant and Master Demyan.

****

Base Commandant's Office:

Master Demyan was clearly uncomfortable as he gave his account of the outbound and inbound convoys to Captain Sliva and Commandant Arte. He felt like he was being grilled by a good cop/bad cop pair far less friendly than a customs official who doesn't believe the cargo manifest and is searching the entire ship for contraband.

They were especially interested in the activities of the 'yacht' Ginko. He figured that was why there was an alien woman in some sort of uniform, average sized for someone of his race but tiny compared to the towering pair of Shalmaneseer military officers, sitting off to the side.

After what seemed like an eternity he was allowed to leave, which Demyan did with as much dignified haste as he could muster.

Once he was gone, Junior Commander Iska stood and spoke up. "Now that you're satisfied I've told you the truth about the 'yacht' Ginko's activites in the presence of his ship it's time to get down to business."

They both nodded in agreement at that to the small, to them, alien captain from a species they'd personally never encountered before.

She began with, "The Ginko is not a privately owned yacht, but you've probably already surmised this: it is a Llyrian warship."

"We have been asked by the Chizoba to protect their ships, and by extension all neutral civilian ships, during your conflict with the Terrans. So far you have not attacked neutral civilians in their space but they have attacked neutral civilians in your space."

"One of their ships entered a Chizoba star system while raiding your space and was turned away by us. Later 64 Terran ships entered one of our systems. 53 of them fled after just a warning shot."

The pair of Shalmaneseer exchanged glances before the Commandant Arte asked, "How do we know this isn't a ruse and a prelude to an invasion? You could be on their side for all we know."

Iska pulled a small device about the size of a cigarette lighter from her a skirt pocket and placed it on the Commandant's desk. Above it a wireframe holographic image of the TSS Penlope slowly rotated. "This was constructed from the sensor readings my ship took of the Terran warship which did not attack the outbound convoy."

"That proves nothing." said Sliva.

"It's raw sensor data from LRS Ginko converted to a format readable by software you use. Consider it a gift. Now, if you'll excuse me, there are matters I must attend to."

With that, Iska left and returned to her ship.

"Do you think she's telling the truth?" asked Arte.

"Possibly. Her ship initially contacted the Chupa using our military codes. We should have intelligence check this out and verify it. If this model," Sliva waved at the floating hologram, "is genuine it's too sensitive for anything but chain-of-custody hand delivery by high-speed courier."
 
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ATP

Well-known member
So,Humans with capitol in Brussel? not possible.Aside from that - good story with humans as smarter and weaker IoM and Llyrian are smarter Eldar with morality.
 

bintananth

behind a desk
So,Humans with capitol in Brussel? not possible.Aside from that - good story with humans as smarter and weaker IoM and Llyrian are smarter Eldar with morality.
I hadn't thought of it that way but your analogy works.

I was thinking more "grandma dealing with a toddler throwing a temper tantrum when she's babysitting all the grandkids."
 
Part 15: Arrogance

bintananth

behind a desk
Star system SM-18:

Captain Randolpf listened to the sensor reports with glee. An unescorted 34-ship convoy had just jumped in and were beginning to refuel from two tankers.

A juicy target he did not intend to let escape unscathed.

One of the two tankers had a silouette similar to that of the Llyrian starships humanity had encountered before but was much larger.

He had not-so-subtly been reminded that Llyrian starships in Shalmaneseer space were to be engaged when encountered instead of avoided.

His ship, the TSS Diane, turned to close the distance and readied for action.

The ships in the convoy went about their business, seemingly unaware of the approaching danger.

****

Senior Captain Nunhle, on the bridge of the LRS Sashe, listened to his Ops Officer's reports on the refueling operation. The Sashe was to top up the smallest four of the merchant vessels to speed things up.

Not strictly necessary, but his ship had fuel to spare and such operations were good practice for when escorts needed refueling.

Normally there would be a five-ship escort group with the Sashe. That escort group, however, was refueling in the voids of interstallar space and would rejoin the convoy in the next star system on the itinerary.

His sensor operator was giving him updates on the massive Terran starship way off in the distance.

It was closing at what, to a Llyrian, could best be called a laughibly slow snail's pace.

Senior Captain Nunhle knew what the Terrans intended. He also wasn't going to reveal the maximum effective range of his ship's weapons unless he had to.

When the Terran starship was two light-minutes away his Weapons Officer informed him that the fire control computer had multiple firing solutions.

"Comm, hail them. Firmly tell the Terrans to leave."

The Communications Officer replied that the Terrans did not respond. The sensor operator chimed in to say that the Terran warship wasn't changing course and was prepared for combat.

He shook his head and quietly wispered "Idiots" to himself because the Sashe was not a tanker. It was a battleship.

Loud enough for his crew to hear he ordered "Weapons, if they get within 40 light-seconds or open fire it's weapons free. Blind and disable them."

****

Captain Randolpf heard the ultimatum and ignored it. No mere tanker, especially one as small as the one sending the ultimatum, could possibly do more than scratch the Diane's paint job.

The Diane continued to close the distance while the convoy continued to refuel, unaware of the danger they were in.

Moments after the Diane crossed the 40 light-second threshold the proximity alarm sounded and the ship shuddered from impacts.

Captain Randolph yelled "DAMAGE REPORT!"

He did not like what he was told. Primary and secondary sensors and fire control had been destroyed. Three reactors and all four sublight drives were also damaged and offline.

The Diane was dead in space and drifting uncontrollably.

Once again humanity had failed to even open fire on a Llyrian vessel before the wrath of the ancients came crashing down.

****

On the bridge of the Sashe Senior Captain Nunhle was was pleased with the results of the first salvo.

"Comm, contact the Shalmaneseer. Let them know there's a disabled Terran warship in system SM-18 for them to come collect. Weapons, hold fire. Sensors, keep an eye on them."
 

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