[geoschmo]

Year 2419.2 (The beginning of the end)

Commander Dennison looked over the pile of reports on his desk. The condition of the fleets in Cephredi were just shameful. It was his job to rectify that. He only hoped that the Norak gave him the time to do it.

He reviewed the threat assesments. Nothing new there. Things had calmed down considerably in a remarkably short time. He hoped his intelligence was right and that the the internal flux apparently going on within the Continuum would prevent them taking any action against the Republic.

He expected that the Amonkrie and Cue Cappa would be no problem for them here in Cephredi, even if they were to go crazy and attack. But it's been so long since either of them made a peep. There was no reason to expect a change from either of them. The Pretorians had no ships within three systems distance. Neither did the Sergetti.

For that matter according to the recent reports coming from the east, the Sergetti may not have any ships anywhere. Grandow had apparently taken upon himself the personal mission to remove every Last vestige of the Sergetti empire from the galaxy. Not that Dennison blamed him all that much. Their meddling had very nearly cost the Republic their empire, and would assuradly have cost Dennison his own life along with the rest of the Sallegans in the Cephredi system. Official positions notwithstanding, he had no illusions about holding off the Norak fleets were it to come to that.

No, the Norak were the threat that he was preparing for. And there was little hope of any assistance coming from the homesystem, and even less hope of assistance from the Fazrah. They had for all practical purposes ceased to exsist as an organized government. The planets were still there, but with the fleet losses to the Praetorians and Norak in the recent war, their remaining sytems had reverted to there prewar chaotic state. No, no help coming from there, Dennison thought.

He picked up the retrofit reports again and had just started reviewing them, when the red alert klaxon started blaring. Dennison jumped up and ran to the operations center, "What's going on!" he barked over the din of alarms and officers shouting at one another.

"Commander. It's the Norak. They are attacking sir!" the lieutenant said. The man was very obviously close to breaking down.

"Get ahold of yourself man. Where are they attacking?" He asked the Lt.

"Everywhere sir." the man stammered.

"My god!" Dennison exclaimed. Just then he saw the tactical screen. The Norak were attacking in a two pronged assault. Even if all the ships orbiting the two Sallgan colonies had been fully operational, they would have been no match for the Norak and their damn tailsmans. As it was, fully half of the ships under his command were in various states of repair and retrofit. It was going to be a slaughter.

Just then he heard the first explosions in the distance as the norak ships had sliced through the fleet and began pounding the planets surface. "Open a channel to Narcisston. Now!"

FLASH TRAFFIC........CEPHREDI SYSTEM UNDER ATTACK....ATTACKERS POSITVLY IDENTIFIED AS NORAK......REQUEST IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE......REPEAT....CEPHREDI SYSTEM UNDER ATT...................................