Too Big Of A Risk - The Hiding Place Incident

[Galaxiel]

26/04/5733 P.E.
432 BBT

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Celestial Empire Of Galactya
Quadrant 18, 2 light years from the Hercules Borealis Border

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It had been a couple of weeks since the Magrathea departed from Galactya. On this particular trip, the Cruise Ship was travelling next to the Imperial Frontier, through the densest parts of the Hercules Borealis Nebula. After all, the colonies deep inside these parts of the Empire were generally much newer compared to the worlds of the first quadrants, and many older citizens often desired to visit these colorful areas of space.

The Magrathea, being a Luxury Cruise directly from the Capital’s ports, had it’s own medium-intensity Rainbow Shielding to protect the passengers from the harsh conditions of Galactyan Space, but had little to no weaponry. A couple of SuperLuminal Turrets here and there to dispel eventual debris, but other than that the ship was relatively harmless, despite it’s large size. This had never presented a problem before though. The only times where cruise ships had their own armament was during the Second Interstellar War, where U’Lnuibian Contingents would… try to raid the ships, with little to no avail. But now, the Empire hadn’t met any new enemy for thousands of years, so wasting so much space and resources on such ship wouldn’t have been a clever move.

One morning, during the scheduled breakfast times in the Dining Hall, the ship got out of Warp to properly observe a particularly vibrant gas cloud in the south-eastern parts of Hercules Borealis. It was truly beautiful. The voyage had been going great so far, and in around two days, they were going to reach their last destination, before circling back to Galactya.

All of this, was pure calm. And what was going to happen shortly after was, to put it simply, a pure storm.

[killermantiss]

Flash. Pulse. Fade.
A ship brakes into realspace.
This isn’t tho a Calerostan ship that flies trough space with elegance on it’s large warp wings, nor any force that was there before. It was small but agressive, carrying more guns than anyone would expect on a ship it’s size. Instead on wings it glides on the terror of many who lost their loved ones or their homes to it’s kind. The craft that just entered the Hercules Borealis nebula was a Miraline raider, and it wasn’t there to do sight seeing.

The Miraline war was already drawing to it’s now painfully obvious conclusion: the victory of Calerost and extermination of the Miraline. In their despair the Miraline began scouting serounding nebulae in hope of finding a good location to hide. This was one of those scouting missions.

But they didn’t expect to find a cruise ship in the dense nebula

"Unidentifieds observed in proximity. Our eyes say that they are large in size, their shields are weak, and their arms are few. Easy pray, my master.

In the center of the bridge was a large, almost throne like, chair and in it sat a imposing figure, the commander of the ship. Her skin was pail blue, and her eyes many. She was smarter, larger and stronger than the rest of the crew. That’s why she was even in command

"cover us in shadows and approach them. None is to see us in our search.
Today we hunt"

[Galaxiel]

Suddenly, the Galathea’s radar sensors picked up on a unknown object. This was a rather common occurrence though. The interstellar spaces in the deepest regions of the Nebulae were saturated with dust clusters, asteroids and other kinds of debris that had been pushed away from star systems by gravitational interactions or powerful interstellar winds.

This object though was… different. The radars suggested a shape far too definite to be a dust cluster, and far too linear and smooth to be an asteroid. Additionally, the mysterious energetic pulse that was picked up seconds before spotting the object had never been seen in nature before. Could this be a new phenomenon they had never identified before?

Or… could this be a remnant from the Second Interstellar War? This did use to be U’Lnuib territory all those thousands of years ago… But no, it was impossible! They would have found it much sooner if the shipwreck had kept emitting pulses of this intensity.

No, no. This was something else entirely. The Galathea raised its shields and sent a message to the nearest Border Patrol Fleet, informing them of the unknown and potentially dangerous object. It would take them quite some time to arrive there, but it was still better than nothing.

The Galathea, on order of the Captain, started activating its Gravity Drive to get out of the immediate area, but it would soon find itself unable to do so.

[killermantiss]

Before it even had chance to escape, the Miraline raider entered missile range. They ware known for their speed. It opens a bay and releases 7 torpedos accompanied by a spin . Having a bay instead of launching tubes was slower among other disadvantages, but allowed a large number of torpedos, even possibly the whole magazine, being launched at once. While Calerost was using more advanced and tactical tubes, while the Miraline wanted raw power. They ware rapidly approaching the cruise liner, aiming for critical areas, while the raider was slowly approaching gun range.

[Galaxiel]

Seven large, powerful explosions hit the ship in rapid sequence. The Margrathea tilted on it’s side, it’s gravity plating temporarily flickering in inactivity and throwing the interior, full with expensive furniture and people, into chaos.

The enemy fire reduce the shielding’s integrity drastically, way under 40%. Another hit, and they would be down. The captain hurried, issuing a full evacuation order. A colonial star system laid less than 1 lightyear away. She would try to distract the unknown enemy while the escape pods warped away with the little fuel the had towards the close star.

The passengers frantically abandoned their things and ran in the large escape pods. A few had gotten injured by the rocking blast, but from what they could see, it wasn’t anything serious. Children cried while their parents tried to comfort them. After a while, the escape pods closed, activating their autonomous gravity plating and charging up their warp drives as they started detaching from the Magrathea in the inside hangars. Then, the hangar doors opened, with pistons pushing rapidly pushing out the escape pods.

Rings of darkness surrounded by prismatic halos finally closed around the pods and, in a flash of colorful blinding light, they disappeared, warping away towards the colonies, their only chance at salvation.

The Captain started instructing the rest of the main deck on how to act, but before she could start any of her plans, another barrage hit the ship. And as she predicted, the shields fell mid-regeneration with the third strike. The remaining four hit the ship.

The side hull exploded, tearing and decompressing large areas of the Margathea, pulling out even more of the interior, causing irreparable damage. Motors down, oxygen levels lowering and the hull continuing to deteriorate to the point of the ship splitting in half, the crew accepted their fate. Another torpedo hit the still relatively intact front, destroying the control bridge and everyone within it. The Magrathea, the stabilizer system of it’s fuel reserves deactivated, flared up in a large final explosion.

Nothing remained.

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Quadrant 18, Border Hypelane Relay Station HRS-18-3

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The 11th Border Patrol Fleet, lead by the Conqueror Class Warship “Astral Reverie” had exited the temporarily stationed itself at the spaceport of one of Quadrant 18’s Hyperlane Border Relay Stations. For a couple of weeks, as usual, they had been patrolling the border in a circling pattern along with the other fourteen patrol fleets. While the Empire had largely de-militarized in the 4000 years following the Second Interstellar War, they were still wary of the nation’s borders.

While the crew was taking a break in one of the Relay Station’s care centers, a distress call came through. It was coming from a Cruise Ship near the Thremina Star System, notifying them of a mysterious vessel that didn’t seem to match any Imperial or ancient foreign design.

The massive crew was hastily pulled back onto the fleet’s ships, who detached from the spaceport and aligned back with the Relay Portal. If the took the Border Hyperlane for exactly three lightyears and then exited it, they would be around 25 minutes from the current position of the signalling ship. In a big flash of colorful light, the ships entered the Hyperlane Network, travelling at speeds much greater than the ones that could be achieved on their own.

Soon, the entire fleet of hundreds of ships would reach them. And the Miraline, would painfully discover the sheer size of their mistake.