Transport Ship IUTS Sovereign Traveller, Arrival to Sector 59 in 60 seconds, Captain Syythara Vex, Beta Proxosis
The ship traveled through Fold-Space, the form of FTL the galaxy used to travel between planets. It worked by folding space around the ship using reality warping stones in the Folding-Drive aboard the ship. From inside the ship, it would look like you were traveling through a blue blanket wrapped around your ship.
Captain Syythara Vex was a Zyrraketh, a humanoid species that stood between 6 and a half to 7 feet in height- Making them one of the taller non-giant species in the galaxy. Her skin had an obsidian black tone, almost like polished volcanic glass. Under lighting their her body would give off a violet hue, thanks to the mineral-rich cellular structures that made up their bodies. Her species had no hair and instead had a tough- crown, crown-shaped ridges that surrounded the top of their heads. She wore a rich red company-supplied captain's uniform with golden trimming. A white undershirt beneath the company jacket.
She was charged with the command of the IUTS Sovereign Traveller, an Imperium merchant vessel under the banner of the Estavarge Trading Company. They were the largest merchant shipping company in the galaxy and were formed under the Mohan Kingdom. The galaxy's number 1 superpower under the Imperium banner.
"Mam, we still had a report from the Varkath fleet over Arcadia." A radio officer warned. "We are 60 seconds to expected arrival, way past deadline."
A frown formed on her lips. She didn't like the feeling that was beginning to rise in her stomach, as if the forces that existed in the galaxy were trying to warn her. Trying to get her to cancel their mission and return home. She didn't know what she was going to see when she came out of FTL, however her body told her it was nothing good. "Raise shields, prepare to drop out of FTL."
They were sent to collect slaves from the planet, yet somehow she felt that they were about to return with none aboard.
"Exiting FTl in 5,4,3,2,1-"
Commander Vraal, Arcadia, FOB Twilight, 3 hours ago
In the central plaza of a sprawling megacity on Arcadia's surface, several metallic huts were arranged in a circular formation. A large command structure stood at the center.
"Well? What's the latest news from the Admiral? Has he beaten back the enemy in orbit yet?" Commander Vraal demanded.
The Vaerithan commander's blue skin twitched with irritation. His species was known for their unnervingly flawless appearance. His triangular head bore four pupil-less blue eyes, scanning the room in measured aggression. He wore a green fascist-styled uniform, its brown shoulder straps displaying his rank with polished pride.
"Sir, I'm trying but there has been no communication between both the Admirals fleet an the Reinforcements that had arrived moments ago." An officer stationed at a communications desk grunted in annoyance. Mashing the keys trying to get a result he would never receive.
"Keep at it! I need to know when he can offer the next bombardment of enemy positions!"
The silence that followed was cut short by a soldier sprinting into the command hut, sweat gleaming off his pale, elvish skin.
"Sir! The fleet is gone!"
"Elaborate, soldier!" Commander Vraal turned his full attention towards the soldier who had just barged into his command center without warning. "What do you mean it is gone?"
"The entire fleet, sir! It's been destroyed!" The elf turned to the door! "You've got to see this!"
"WHAT!?"
Vraal stormed outside.
The sky above was a dazzling chaos. Fireballs streaked downward, burning bright as they pierced the atmosphere. At first, he thought it was enemy wreckage—until a massive chunk of Varkath warship tumbled from the heavens, clearly severed in battle.
His radio officer dashed out after them. "I just received confirmation from a shuttle that had been headed out of the atmosphere. The enemy has destroyed our fleet, They claim that nearly a hundred warships now surround the planet!"
"Impossible!" The commander tried to deny.
A sharp whistling sound snapped his gaze upward again. Dozens of fiery streaks raced toward the surface—dropships or pods. Just under a thousand feet above ground, their flames snuffed out as thrusters activated, slowing their descent. Still, the metal pods slammed into the earth hard enough to break bones.
With a boom, their doors burst open.
"It's an attack!" a soldier screamed.
Panic spread through the outpost. Infantry scrambled for weapons, but they were outmatched. Orange tracer fire ripped through the plaza as enemy troops poured from the pods by the hundreds, wielding brutal slug-throwers. Varkath forces were caught off guard—disorganized, unprepared, and falling fast.
"Fall back!" Commander Vraal ordered. A tracer flew over his head, causing his ears to ring painfully. After a moment his hearing was slowly coming back as the ringing subsided.
"Protect the commander!" A soldier shouted before opening fire with his mana rifle.
The arcane bolt struck an approaching enemy square in the chest—but instead of going down, a golden ripple pulsed across the figure's strange armour, absorbing the blast. Some kind of shield. But Vraal felt no surge of magic from them. No mana signature. It was impossible.
The enemy combatant ducked behind cover before a railgun bolt smashed into the attacking Varkath rifle-man, who quickly died. His blood splattered on the pavement behind him.
Vraal's forces formed a defensive wedge around the command post, slowly retreating under fire. Gunfire lit the air like lightning, and the commander's attention was drawn skyward by the low groan of metal.
warship descended through the atmosphere, blotting out the sun. It had a brutal, industrial design—almost like an ancient slug-thrower pistol scaled to impossible proportions. From its hangers, a swarm of dropships detached and soared toward the surface.
It was larger than the two other dropships and carried a tracked vehicle with a single turret under its rear. The first two dropships hovered a meter above the ground with their rears facing away from the commander. 3 rotary cannons spinning up as a ramp on the rear opened and more enemy combatants exited.
A hail of bullets caught nearly a dozen of his soldiers in it's strafe before they could get out of the way. The enemy combatants had also taken hits as Varkath soldiers fired on their position. Able to land shots, but the enemy armour absorbed most of the damage. It wasn't just durable. It was terrifyingly effective. The enemy went down, yes—but they weren't dead. Just stunned. Disoriented. Their armour was saving them.
Then came the heavy one.
The large drop ship swooped behind enemy lines, releasing the tracked vehicle with a thunderous crash. Its treads dug into the plaza as the turret locked into place with an audible whirr.
Commander Vraal's eyes widened.
"Tank!" he shouted—but it was already too late.
The hulking metal behemoth shrugged off a mana-bolt before aiming its cannon at the cover hiding combatants.
With a deafening blast, the cannon fired.
The impact vaporized the barricade and the soldiers behind it. The explosion flung debris in all directions, jagged shards tearing into nearby troops. Screams and blood followed as chaos engulfed the square.
"Sir! We've lost contact with the Slave holding areas!"
They've already freed the civilians? How? They hadn't even been on the ground long. Whoever these enemies were, they were efficient, frighteningly so. His mind raced. Who in the Divine Goddess's name are we even fighting?
"What's the status of our front lines?" He demanded as they hid behind a car that had been flipped over. The sound of mana-guns and bullets echoing through the streets.
Dozens- no, hundreds of enemy dropships now filled the sky like ants. Vraal's eyes tracked them in disbelief as more warships pierced the clouds, descending into Arcadia's atmosphere. Each descending on a specific staging area. All bore the same grim, industrial aesthetic—the same class as the warship currently besieging the city from above. Streaks of tracers flew from turrets on the side of the assault ships, cutting apart enemy lines and supporting ground troop movements.
Transport Ship IUTS Sovereign Traveller, Arcadia, Present, Captain Syythara Vex, Beta Proxosis
"What the hell is going on!?" Captain Syythara visibly shook with wide eyes as she took in the destruction she had arrived to witness. The proud Varkath fleet that was supposed to be occupying the void around the planet was now nothing more than pieces of debris. Large slabs of melted metal floated around the Imperial Transport vessel as it floated aimlessly, its crew trying to decide the best course of action.
However, was really caught her eye wasn't the destruction but 2 fleets with a combined total of nearly 100 large, ugly warships that floated in a defensive formation around the planet, ready to respond to any threats. She could make out the shapes of ships descending into the atmosphere and read out the words on the side of the large warships in orbit. NACR Plunder. The ship was gigantic and dwarfed everything in its fleet of already massive warships. It had to measure upwards of 3000 units. "Mam! We are receiving a transmission from the unknown fleet!"
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
A sense of fear gripped her heart, urging her to answer the hail of face destruction. Looking up her eyes went wide as a warship in the unknown fleet peeled off and headed in her direction at a cautious pace. This ship was far smaller and looked to be some sort of escort vessel, likely of a destroyer or frigate class judging by it's size.
The warship was fairly narrow but still more wide then tall. A industrialized rectangular boxy design with a more square rear surrounding the ships 2 thrusters made the ship appear predatory in nature. The ship possessed a laterally split hull, the reason still unclear to the Captain who watched the approaching warship with fascination. "Put them through."
Moments later, a fuzzy video feed appeared on the ship's front bridge window. The connection seemed forced, like two different means of communication just barely able to connect with each other. A woman was standing in front of her wearing a grey military uniform with very little decoration. It was very dull, just like the ship this communication was hailing from. "I am Captain Liora Ashfeld of the NACR Panama. This planet, Arcadia, is a colony under the North American Constitutional Republic. State your identity and intentions over this world, or you will meet the same fate as Admiral Xyrr'Volak and the Varkath fleet that crossed us."
"I am Captain Syythara Vex of the Estavarge Trading Company vessel IUTS Sovereign Traveller. A merchant vessel sent to collect a shipment from the Varkath." She quickly responded, being careful not to mention the contents of the shipment. If these people claimed to be what she thought they were, then they would not take kindly to the knowledge of her being sent to collect slaves. More specifically, their people.
The woman on the other side of the camera frowned. "Miss Vex, if you mean that you are here to collect the slaves that the Varkath had been gathering, I am sorry to inform you that you will be returning empty-handed. We assume that you hail from this so-called Imperium we have heard chatter of? The remaining Varkath forces of the surface are almost crushed, we have won this battle in less than a days time. I do hope that your Imperium understands that we take the safety of our people very seriously, we are not scared to fight someone like your empire if it means our people are safe."
"I am sure that the Imperium will not wish for any conflict with your people, Captain Ashfeld." Syythara slightly glanced away from the accusing glare of the woman across the video feed.
"That remains to be seen, However, before we send you on your way, we have a demand." The captain gave a glance to something off-screen. Her eyes shifted back to Syythara, who frowned. "Go to your government's leadership and tell them that the North American Constitutional Republic requests a meeting to discuss our emergence into your galaxy. Please tell them to send a diplomatic envoy to this planet in 3 weeks' time, as to avoid any misunderstandings between our people."
Primaris Ascendant, Galactic Center, Imperium Capital, Imperium Council, 1 week later, Captain Syythara Vex.
"You mean to tell us that this so called North American Constitutional Republic had destroyed the entirety of the Varkath fleet in orbit, and they dare to claim that Arcadia belongs to them!?" A voice called down from the left side bleachers along the sides of the Imperium Council chambers located within the Capital Dome.
The room was rectangular and bright thanks to the plentiful amount of lights on the sealing and stained glass windows behind the Emperor's Chair at the end of the room. Two sets of bleachers on either side of the room housed nobles and aristocrats from across the Imperium. Fully packed as would be expected for a sudden Emergency Meeting called by the Emperor himself. The topic of discussion, Arcadia, and more specifically, the newly revealed North American Constitutional Republic.
Syythara stood in the center of the room, in front of the Emperor, who watched her with curiosity. His silver-blue eyes dug into her soul. He seemed to be deep in thought, making her feel more uncomfortable every second that passed. The Emperor was a Mohan, the dominant race in the galaxy. Although not exactly as powerful as elves or other races. Their numbers made up for that weakness. His race had slightly elongated faces and were brilliant strategists. Although not as powerful with magic, the Emperor had an incredibly high Divine Mana count, said to be gifted to his bloodline by the Goddess Divine herself.
"I do, When we arrived all we found was the wreckage of Varkath warships. If you could even call what remained wreckage." She sent a glance in the direction the voice had come from. Her hands crossed behind her back in calmness. "However they also told me to relay a message to the Imperium's government."
"Go ahead." The emperor finally spoke. The Obsidian Gold robe laced with protective magical runes he wore shinning in the afternoon sunlight. The Merchant captain sending a glance to the Divine Paladins standing behind him with their weapons in a natural position.
"They demand that leadership or ambassadors from the Imperium arrive in Arcadian space 2 weeks from now between the planet's moon and the planet itself." She paused her sentence. "They claim that a meeting is necessary between our two civilizations for the continuation of peace in the galaxy."
"Preposterous! We have no reason to give in to their claims!" A Council member shouted. Causing a uproar within the chambers, insults were passed through the room. Some directed towards the NACR, others to the Varkath, a few to other nobles, and a couple to Syythara herself. It didn't matter what they thought of her, however, she was mentally begging the Emperor not to cause a negative response from the North American Constitutional Republic. When she had examined the NACR warships over Arcadia she had been shocked. There hadn't been a single fresh scar on their hull, meaning that they had taken little to potentially even no damage during the battle. Something that was not possible in modern space combat. Warships always returned home with battle scars.
She feared that these sudden arrivals were more advanced than she currently thought.
There was a reason nobody had heard of Arcadia before this. It was a simple reason everyone kept missing, even the people in this very room. Arcadia and the entire system it floated in were not supposed to be habitable. Terraforming projects on the planet had always failed, causing the Imperium to give up on the planet. Now the planet in Sector 59 was suddenly full of lush fields, forests and water. There were suddenly people who lived on the planet and gave the planet a name that everyone in the galaxy had accepted. A strange government with no correlation with the Imperium that had appeared out of nowhere and claimed the planet.
They had been so hungry for more resources and a new potential forward operating base to strike rebel sectors in the region that they had never bothered to ask questions about how such a turn of events was possible.
"Your Majesty, we should crush these rebels immediately. They have unlawfully stolen from Imperium territory and are arrogant enough to believe they can get away with it." A radical voice shouted from the tops of the bleachers.
"We don't even know where they came from!? We already have our hands full with the Rebellion that already exists! Do you want us to risk the front lines by pulling out fleets away and sending them to this isolated planet that means nothing in comparison to the rest of the galaxy!?" A female Nobel argued. "We can focus on this planet after we win the war against the rebels already in our territory!"
There was a long pause in the room as everyone's attention turned towards the Emperor, awaiting some kind of reaction or response. He looked up, making sure that the room was totally silent before sitting up straight. "I have decided on our course of action." He sent a glance to Syythara who shifted under his gaze. "I will meet with this North American Constitutional Republic, I have a feeling they could become useful against the the rebel forces."
"I will take with me members from the Aeternian Council, as well as a fleet for protection. Dealing with the Varkath is not the same as dealing with a fully trained military. I trust the Aeternian Council with my protection in this matter." The Emperor declared. A chorus of uneasy Nobles giving a murmur of reluctance that swept across the chamber. "This meeting is dismissed immediately."
Siptina Kingdom, Sector 2, Veltraxis System, Planet Kaerion, Capital Planet, Rebelling Nation.
"It's time for the weekly report. What is the latest in the Imperium." Vaelen Duroth-Siptina IV, Grand Duke of the Siptina Kingdom looked at a magically produced holographic display of one of his top advisors now standing in front of him through a highly realistic projection. Vaelen was a Velari. A humanoid with faintly glowing veins of silver beneath their skin and enhanced lifespans along with a high affinity for Devine Magic.
"Sir. A situation has arisen in the 59th Sector of space that has earned the attention of the Emperor himself." High Marshal Kael Drastin, a broad-shouldered humanoid with slightly ridged forearms and higher muscle density, spoke with a respectful posture. There seemed to be a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. Something was obviously bothering him deeply.
News from the 59th Sector? That was rare considering that area of space was abandoned a long time ago. What was so special about that lifeless sector that had failed to be terraformed.
High Marshal Drastin sighed, preparing himself. "Our Spy's report a first contact situation has taken place."
"WHAT!?" The Grand Duke jumped from his seat behind a dark wooden desk. The lantern to his right flickering slightly with the sudden motion.
"They call themselves the North American Constitutional Republic. It is unclear where they have come from, however recent speculation pointed to them being from outside the Galaxy. All we know is that they have colonized the only planet in the goldilocks zone, the planet was completely terraformed and has been redesignated as Arcadia." Drastin reported, shifting in the quickly tense atmosphere that could be felt by the advisor from beyond the communications feed. "It seems there was a conflict between the Varkath and the NACR. According to a Imperium Merchant Captain, the battle seems to have resulted in the total wipe out of the Varkath fleet of nearly 100 that attacked to planet. It is also worthy to note that she mentioned the unknown warships seemed to carry little to no visible damage that was fresh."
"This is absurd." Duroth tried to deny. The damaged warships must have been pulled away from the planet, and fresh warships sent to replace them. No damage sustained was unheard of in modern combat. "What magic did they use."
The High Marshal paused before looking away from a troubled expression. "Reports show that no magic was detected from any of the Unknown warships. Almost like they never used magic in the first place. Only the wreckages of the Varkath warships contained faint traces of lingering Devine Energy." A pause that caused more tension to build, while also allowing both parties in the conversation time to think left them silent.
"The Imperium will try and turn them against us. Regardless if the rumors of them belonging to another galaxy are true." He pondered. "There must me some way to meet with them and warn them against joining forced with those monsters."
"We are currently in the process of attempting such an action your grace."
"Report on the rest of the territory."
High Marshal Drastin nodded. "Sir, our allies have managed to take over Zephyria and have set up a stronghold on the planet. Mining has begun on the planet to gain the material to supply our troops with higher quality armor that can rival the Imperium. Manufacturing is still at a all time high after the last victory. Taking that planet was a good moral booster to the entire Rebel Army." He took a breath. "At current estimates, nearly 2 thirds of the entire Imperium military have been deployed to all fronts."
"That's very good High Marshal." The Grand Duke smiled. "Call for a meeting with all Rebel leaders, we need to discuss our next course of action now that our enemy has begun taking us seriously."
"Sir. Contact with the New Encounters withing the 59th Sector should be our highest priority. Our data shows that should the Imperium gain access to that planet. It could act as a major staging point for their operations against Quintaran. We can't let that happen or we risk losing one of our most powerful allies."
"Damn." He cursed. "Very well High Marshal. If that is the case then we must speed up our efforts to gain contact with them. Have our intelligence committee get involved."
"I will do as you command Your Grace." The transmission ended, leaving the Grand Duke with his thoughts. This war had started 15 years ago, the tension between some Outer Sectors and the Imperium exploding when the former Emperor had his son killed after discovering the truth of the current Emperors bloodline. When the Outer Sectors protested the Imperium had sent a war fleet to crush what they called a rebellion. In response an Alliance was formed between the Outer Sectors to oppose the Emperor, however it was a lackluster attempt at best. When the Siptina Kingdom had done nothing wrong the Imperium staged an attack, allowing the Emperor to declare them a enemy. It had placed the 2nd most powerful nation in the hands of the Rebels, and caused them to join the war effort with the Rebels as their allies.
He could not loose this battle, for the honor of his dead son, and the sake of his daughter who he refused to be allowed into enemy hands.
