From the Begining New Chapter Added (9/12/06)

[Starhawk]

2421.0 Battle or Murder?
HMS Repulse a Lord Nelson class dreadnought had been sent ahead of the first fleet to scout out the newest Target system belonging to the Phong and was three days out from the main fleet which put them 5 hours from the warp point to the next so far unnamed star.
Captain Donald Riker had just finished his cup of coffee when the tactical alarms howled and the ship’s AI began calling battle stations over the ships speakers.
“What’s going on?” Riker asked calmly, trying to keep his new crew from overreacting in the face of what might be enemy assault.
“8 Starships sir, well kind of.” The tactical officer was young and nervous, so Riker chose not to raise his voice, even though he wanted to shout the young officer down.
“What do you mean “kind of” mister?” Riker tabbed the controls that brought a small tactical overlay onto his personal command panel.
8 tiny blips, 6 of them so small they didn’t even rate the term “ship” in the Royal Navy, barely 150,000 tons each, the other two were only frigate sized vessels, which only slightly larger then a dreadnought’s gun turrets.
“Sir I’ve got an energy spike.” The tactical officer jerked around with a panicked look but Riker simply gestured for him to relax.
“Confirmed sir, I’ve got two birds incoming, both mark 2 fusion catalyst warheads, they won’t even dent our shields.” Commander Broady withheld a chuckle as she watched the two tiny sparks of light against the massive dreadnought’s shields, which signaled the impacts of the two enemy “missiles”.
“Hail them, com, they don’t stand a chance and they must know that I mean my lord they’re still using Fusion catalyst missiles!” Riker’s voice was still calm but a subtle humor was hidden beneath it, whoever these aliens were they were children compared to Icaran war fighting technology.

“Sir no reply, it’s possible that they are not able to operate on our frequencies?” the com officer sounded more concerned about that fact that she wasn’t able to do her job then about the fact that two more missiles and a salvo of enemy cannon fire had just impacted the shields.
“Captain even with shields, those missiles and cannons will add up and then we will start taking fire.” Broady said grimly as the foolish enemy continued to close on them.

Riker frowned deeply as he considered his choices, he could easily out run these aliens but to what end? They were obviously aggressive though primitive, and even fusion catalyst missiles could destroy worlds, as had been proven far earlier in Icaran history.
“Guns, lock on to those frigates and one enemy escort and fire at will.” Riker folded his hands together, he hated killing anything but especially some fools that didn’t know when they were outclassed by generations of weapons technology.
In the blink of an eye three of Repulse’ massive beam cannons lashed out into the enemy squadron, for each beam that struck an enemy ship vanished in a ball of expanding fire and plasma, most of their solid wreckage being vaporized by the sheer power of the I-Lasers.

“Hail them coms, maybe now they’ll give up.” Riker hoped that seeing three of their ships vanish, each to just a single shot would make the enemy give up, yet he feared they would not, a fear quickly proven correct as the enemy formation continued to advance.
“No reply Captain.”
”What could they be hoping to do, they are outgunned and out manned yet still they try to com after us, even though they don’t even know who we are.” Riker thought to himself as the enemy continued their suicidal charge into his gunners range once more.
Every face on the bridge watched their captain intently, waiting for him to give the order to wipe these unknown xeno’s from the face of the universe, either that or to run away and defy Icaran naval tradition.
“Guns, open fire all batteries all targets.” Riker finally grunted.
“Aye sir, all batteries all targets.” the echo repeated across the bridge as the weapons crews plotted their targets.
Seconds later 5 of the massive dreadnought’s guns fired and 5 enemy ships with unknown numbers of xeno
crewmen ceased to exist, only dust clouds remained of their frail hulls and the lives within, while the Repulse hadn’t even suffered shield failure or a single injury during the “battle” with the Xeno race.

“Continue survey of this system for the first fleet helm, Com’ launch a messenger drone to Admiral Babcock informing him of our engagement please.” Riker unhooked his shock harness and turned to leave the bridge, smoothing his copper colored hair after removing the vac suit helmet.
“Commander Broady you have the bridge.”
“Aye sir I have the bridge.” she echoed, but he didn’t hear it as he left the bridge and walked down the corridor of his massive ship, wondering what insane motivation had driven a race still using system patrol cutters to attack a vessel that was over a kilometer long.