26/04/5733 P.E.
432 BBT
Celestial Empire Of Galactya
Quadrant 18, 2 light years from the Hercules Borealis Border
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.
1 Like
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"
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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.
1 Like
