New Eden

Time: YC123
Region: Wicked Creek
Constellation: 4-QV2L
System: XEN7-0 (INHIBITOR)
Security: -0.19
Sovereignty: SOCO

"♫War, huh, yeah... What is it good for... Absolutely nothing... Uh-huh♫", blared across the local FTL channel as a few mining barges cut into some Arkonor rich asteroids in the belt orbiting the first planet.

"Hey check your scanner. Turn that shit down", came a reply over the local channel.

"♫War, huh, good God... What is it good for... Absolutely nothing... Listen to me♫", the music continued to sound loudly across the local FTL channel.

Hey! Fuck face! Turn the music off and check your scanner!", said the first voice again.

The music was shut off and a reply came over the channel. "Wait, what? Is that right?", said a second voice.

"Get off the local channel", replied the first voice. The mining barges aligned off and then warped away.

ITN Zuikaku
Wicked Creek Region
ITN 1st Imperial Recon
The Fringes of the XEN7-0 System


Zero Hour


"Preparing to exit hyperspace." A Lieutenant reported, while the Captain nodded, the Ship slowly began to slow it's trajectory, before it, and it's accompanying fleet lurched to a stop in the blackness of space, in a completely alien galaxy that was not on Imperial charts.

As the ships came to their initial descent, a song began to blare on it's speakers.

♫Miyo! Tokai no sora akete,
Kyokujitsu takaku kagayakeba,
Tenchi no seiki hatsuratsu to
Kibo wa odoru Oyamashima.
O, seiro no asagumo ni
Sobiyuru Fuji no sugata koso
Kin'omuketsu yuruginaki
Waga Niihama no hokori nare.♫

"Situation report." The Captain called out.

"Situation green, we're in unknown space, charting our location now."

The Crew of the 10.5km long Shoakaku Class Carrier worked tirelessly and diligently to plot their location, as Taiyou ships, from Yamato class Battleships, to Minekaze class frigates emerged from a blue hyperspace event horizon, with Shogunate Taiyou ships in tow.

Along with the fleet, a single Nanocore began to unfurl for the beachhead. A hyperspace gate would ensure a steady stream of reinforcement along the Beachhead.

As the Captain of the Zuikaku shifted in his seat, Admiral Toshio Mifune stepped on the bridge, causing everyone to stand at attention.

"At ease, gentlemen." The Admiral said, turning to the Captain.

"Once we've established our foothold, we'll need to send out scouts and plan our avenue of attack."

Time: YC123
Region: Wicked Creek
Constellation: 4-QV2L
System: XEN7-0 (INHIBITOR)
Security: -0.19
Sovereignty: SOCO

At the start XEN7-0 appeared to be utterly devoid of activity. The only man made things in space seemed to be the stargate superstructure and its accompanying inhibitor orbiting the only moon of the fourth planet. The system was extremely rich in exploitable natural resources. Some of these resources were completely alien to the Taiyou. This was indeed a strange galaxy, completely foreign, and perhaps a bit frightening.

Scans went on without interruption and as those scans produced observations that could be interpreted those observing would discover something very strange about the galaxy they know occupied. The whole of the galaxy was a mess of gravitational anomalies. Threaded with wormholes and more than half those stars in the disk confounded sensors. Even the system the fleet occupied played tricks on their tools of observation. The source of the problem seemed to stem from the smaller structure residing near to the gate that had been in the system before their arrival.

Those scans picked up shadows in the dark now. The signature of a ship would appear, completely alien and at the same time similar to designs witnessed in the past when dealing with CONCORD and the empires of Ayenee. Something was slithering around in the dark and the tension was slowly starting to build.

Admiral Mifune stood silently on the bridge of the ITN Zuikaku, her massive 250mm Anti-Ship guns swiveling lazily as the ship's crew scanned the darkness of space.

The rest of the fleet took up defensive positions around the unfurling Nanocore, shimmering fields of green light scintillated in a massive grid-like scaffolding of nanomachines. Contained within the scaffolding were the inner workings of a massive Hyperspace gate. A Hyperspace gate that would link the fleet in this part of the Galaxy, with the main invasion that was being planned back in the densely populated pits of the Taiyou Empire.

"There's something scrambling our sensors." A Crewman reported, and the Commander turned to reply. "See if you can clean it up, I want Naginatas out towards that gate. Take it down and prepare this system for capture." He then turned to the Admiral's approving face.

But the approval lasted for a moment.

"Perhaps we should let them make the first move. Once the nanocore is unfurled, the Prince wants to demonstrate his new weapon. We must wait for Admiral Yamada and his fleet to arrive with the new ships." He said, checking his orders.

"We're to defend the Nanocore and the gate at all costs."

Time: YC123
Region: Wicked Creek
Constellation: 4-QV2L
System: XEN7-0
Security: -0.19
Sovereignty: Contested



Stargate TZE-UB in the current system flared and flashed as hundreds of ships started to come through. The invaders discarded the gate's cloak and aligned for ITN Zuikaku's position. At that moment they were on sensors, even distorted as they were by the inhibitor it would be clear to the Taiyou that there was a growing number of ships at the gate. Their movement made room for more as the gate continued to flash. The vast majority of the vessels appearing at the gate were rust colored with large fin like structures orientated to their top and bottom. Upon every hull the symbol of the Cáidheach Tribe was prominently displayed. These were the pirates of Wicked Creek and they communicated two sentences across an unsecured channel. "Géilleadh nó crith. Is é seo ár gcóras", said the male voice.

The ship count pushed past 1,200 as the gate continued to flash and flare. More than 10,000 1400mm double barreled Howitzers rotated to turn back at the inhibitor in orbit with the gate. More than 20,000 barrels aimed on target. Each battleship's guns fired with a single report unheard in the vacuum of space. The inhibitor's hydromagnetic shielding flared in a white nova briefly before the grid at the gate was rocked by a violent explosion. More than 20,000 rounds of specialized super heavy tungsten carbide sabot delivered shattering blows to the target. The inhibitor exploded to cast a ring of debris in an ever expanding ripple through the system.

As the inhibitor went down the sensor distortions were lifted for the Taiyou in respect to this system. Support ships and other smaller vessels bridged through the gate even as all those weapons rotated and pressed tightly to each pirate ship's hull. Engine nozzle discharge flared after bright plasma dimmed and then shown brightly against the void. Brilliant flashes issued as the Cáidheach fleet entered warp. They were fast approaching the Taiyou fleet's position.

Behind them and at the gate numerous smaller devices were dropped as an every expanding array of gravitational anomalies surrounded the portal to catch all those that would attempt to flee or enter the system after them. One of these smaller ships had docked with the gate and the others entered warp to follow the rest of the fleet.

SGMF Noboyuki
Yamato Class Battleship
Allegiance: Shintenchi Shogunate




"Commander, that Gate is activating!" A Lieutenant reported to Commander Kubota, a young Taiyou officer born on Shintenchi. As his hands grasped the railing around the Command chair, the brilliant spectacle of thousands of weapons discharging against the Inhibitor's superstructure caught him in awe for a moment. As the Noboyuki banked slightly starboard, to cover the Zuikaku's position. Several dozen smaller ships, most of them Aoba and Takao class cannon cruisers. A single Aoba class cruiser was a slender vessel, sporting four deck mounted 450mm Nuclear capable anti-ship cannons, while the newer Takao class ships sported two three-barreled wave-force emplacements, backed up by numerous smaller caliber 150mm Nuclear capable anti-frigate cannons, along with Point defense weaponry. The largest threat were the trio of Mogami class missile cruisers, their massive missile racks extending out through ports in the large boat-like hull. Each missile carrying a powerful 150 Megaton cobalt fusion warhead, with each explosion carrying enough power to vaporize most smaller ships, and deal considerable damage to large capital ships.

And then newest of them all were the Naginata class cruisers, fresh from the Taiyou shipyards. With 250mm Cannons and Shinya Type X torpedos prepared for launch. The Taiyou fleet was readying an impressive fight, though at the moment it seemed the Natives had a numerical superiority.

With the single Battle group moving into position, others followed suit as Taiyou guns locked and swiveled into position, most noteably the massive Wave-force cannons on the pair of Shogun Battleships that flanked either side of the Noboyuki.

"All ships prepare to fire." The Commander ordered, and the crew readied the orders.

---

ITN Zuikaku
Shokaku Class Carrier
Alliegiance: Imperial Taiyou




As several wings of Destroyers, prediminately Minekaze and Kamikaze classes swooped over the Zuikaku while fighter wings prepared their ordinance in the hangar. Admiral Mifune silently contemplated the strange language that was being transmitted to his ship.

"Get that message translated. Make sure the nanocore is protected, with your lives if you must!" He called out, while the Zuikaku moved into position, launching thousands of Type-Zero Space Model 52 Cosmo Zero fighters. Small, extremely agile, and packing considerable ordinance. Most importantly a single Shinya type X torpedo, and a nose mounted 21.7mm Autocannon. As the fighters spread out, the Pilots began saying their prayers, and then the Commanding pilot called out onto the radio.

Several moments crept by as the unknown fleet moved ever closer to the Taiyou forces, Admiral Mifune stroked his chin as an Officer called out.

"Sir! The Noboyuki has translated the message, it's a demand to 'surrender or perish'." The Lieutenant said, and the Admiral frowned.

"We will not surrender, we will claim these systems in the name of the Emperor, or we will die trying. Tennoheika!" He called out, and the Bridge crew responded.

"Banzai!"

The Admiral shouted again.

"Tennoheika!"

And the crew repeated.

"Banzai!"

"Tennoheika, Banzai!"

And then the fighters banked sharply to meet the oncoming foes head on. No shots had been fired just yet, and the Nanocore was roughly 50% unfurled into a massive stargate. While the Imperial fleet, along with Sato Shogunate forces, numbering roughly 700 Ships moved to meet the enemy.

Despite having left the gate well after the larger battleships the cruisers, destroyers, and frigate escorts had arrived first on the grid in a vibrant display of angry flashes.

Some things about the way the natives did battle would have to be explained to fully grasp what was going on. A grid was the understood maximum effective range of most Eden and Ayenee weapon systems that did not possess independent or built in targeting systems with the ability to change trajectory in flight. Faster than light weapon systems could also stretch the boarders of the grid but for most native weapon systems the grid or maximum effective range of their longest range systems was 250 kilometers. To clearly define a grid was to state that if any part of any two objects was within 250 kilometers of each other that these two objects shared or were on grid with each other.

There were two main reasons that a grid was defined as this small distance and why most battles within Ayenee and Eden happened between two or more units that shared a grid. The first reason dealt with the sensor and targeting interference caused to systems that supported manual or artificial intelligence based targeting systems that attempted to lock on or achieve a firing solution on any target that used hydromagnetic shielding as part of its defensive system bundle. Most of the natives of
Onyx used these defensive systems and even on grid they caused some variance on a target's predicted position, velocity, and direction of moment compared with what was true.

Beyond the soft limit of the grid this variance was magnified and caused extreme havoc to sensor bundles and thwarted artificial intelligences attempting to determine a target's position. Spatial fluctuations caused by the micro energy streams displaced sensor ghosts and visible reflections outside of the target's true signature radius. Impact on target due to this phenomenon fell well below fifty percent.

The second cause of this soft limit on distances was that just too much time was given to artificial intelligences and linked pilots to react actively or passively to mitigate incoming damage through the use of onboard sub-systems on all ships and evasive maneuvering on all sub-capital ships. Even when weapon systems that approached or slightly exceeded the speed of the photon were put to use the window of available reaction time gained through ship and sub-space beacon triangulation and reporting coupled with faster than light communication offered a ship a substantial bonus to mitigate incoming damage.

The cruisers, destroyers, and frigates had come onto the grid 200 kilometers off the most forward Taiyou ship between the Taiyou and the TZE-UB gate. A split second later and the mass of battleships landed on grid 100 kilometers away from that same Taiyou ship and between the Taiyou and the smaller Cáidheach ships. 1400mm double barreled Howitzers rotated forward as the ships spat angry light and vented heat. Each barrel's inner bore measured 1.4 meters in diameter. Each barrel extended very nearly 57 meters from its turret housing. It had taken the weapon teams 15.3 seconds to cycle and reload each and every barrel with individual 23 ton super heavy tungsten carbide sabot rounds. These were the monsters of projectile weapons in Onyx. Though dreadnought caliber projectile systems were far larger they were far rarer than the 1400mm. The 1400 was feared and rightly so despite the common conception of inferiority placed on projectile systems by most of the natives.

More than twelve thousand Warrior class light combat drones poured from the battleship drone bays to intercept, hary, and destroy the Taiyou Cosmo Zero fighter flights, the Taiyou fleets smaller escort ships, and their support vessels. Each was equipped with twin 50mm Gatling Auto-Cannons spitting torrents of depleted uranium rounds, a small compliment of defender and interceptor rockets with miniature nuclear payloads, a micro-warp drive, and a micro-hydromagnetic shield emitter. Each was controlled via on onboard smart artificial intelligence unit that would quickly learn and adapt as the fight progressed and it was all powered by a micro fusion reactor. Anything learned would be relayed to the drone control unit on board each ship and broadcast back through the network so that each victory or loss made the drones that much more of a threat.

The drones swarmed like a hive of bees beat with a stick to overwhelm the manned fighters with a wall of incoming projectile fire and maneuvered with thrusters at strange angles to avoid retaliation. The drones could bank, accelerate, and decelerate at impossible angles and speeds that would cause even a well equipped pilot to black out.



A cynosural field ignited behind the formidable wall of battleships that even now started to split off in groups of fifty. Battle was joined by two Nidhoggur class carriers as they jumped in and cast spatial shock waves across the grid as more support was bridged in via a Cáidheach Ragnarok class titan just six jumps away to bring the ship count up to 2,000 all accounted for. Fleet links went up as ethereal streams of energy crisscrossed the Cáidheach fleet. These were not a group of unorganized ruffians. This was part of the main battle fleet of a major pirate bloc.

Space battles in Eden and Ayenee had been a struggle for controlled chaos by commanders since the advent of remote assistances devices and fleet links. Fleet commanders fought to control their respective fleets calling ship commanders and capsuleer pilots to obliterate selected targets before support could assist them. In this respect the Maelstrom class battleship armed with a full rack of 1400s was ideally suited for it took a relatively small number of ships armed as such to alpha strike through a target's shield, armor, and hull at impressive range on grid. The display that they had showed at the gate had been extreme overkill.

The Cáidheach commander ordered staggered fire. He transmitted from his position on board the Claíomh, one of the Nidhoggurs behind the battleship screen as Einherji class fighters started to pour from both carrier's flight decks. Primary and secondary targets for each battleship group were sent to the fleet. 24 groups started to track targets as guns swiveled. Half of each battleship group fired in unison on their designated primary targets which included one Yamato Class battleship, eight Aoba class cruisers, five Takao class cruisers, two Mogami class missile cruisers, seven Naginata class cruisers, and the Shokaku class carrier.



Warp disruptors lashed out to hold the carrier and battleship on the grid as primary and secondary targets received similar treatment. 9,600 23 ton rounds were sent express mail at 100,000 meters per second to each designated target across 100 kilometers of space. It would take those rounds slightly more or less than 1 seconds to reach their targets leaving just 14.3 seconds after impact for the weapon's cycle time and the guns to be made ready to fire again.

Each ship called primary would taste 200 rounds or 4,600 tons of metal provided all met the mark with each round punching at 27.486 kilotons TNT. Each was a wrecking ball of mass and unstoppable inertia. The Cáidheach were using heavy slugs. For those that survived the second salvo was incoming on the count of 3 and would hit on the count of 4 to leave the first set of guns just 12.3 seconds of reload time remaining. If the primary went down the second volley from each group would be sent down range to a secondary target of cruiser class or above.

An emergency transmission came in across one FTL channel. "Is é seo an Alric Rosenthal ceannasaí luaidhe cabhlach na Comhghuaillíochta Deiscirt. Cuir tú féin in aithne", said the male voice as the video feed came through. There was a brief pause and another broadcast came across. "I know you are under fire. Please respond if you are able", he said in accented English.

As the battle was underway, Admiral Mifune watched as the initial salvo tore his fleet apart, each ship that took ordinance was torn asunder by the mass and power of the incoming slugs. A Yamato Class battleship drifted past the Shokaku as the Carrier attempted evasive maneuvers, but was spared as the brunt of the ordinace flashed brilliantly across the Shokaku's Light Hawk Wings, a new and experimental yet powerful defensive array.

The Slugs impacted each Light Hawk barrier with it's full force, flashing violently but stopped cold by the solid power of this strange defensive field.

The Shokaku bucked violently as the remaining kinetic energy washed across the Light Hawk wings and across the hull of the ship, causing it to list violently to the starboard side. Once the impact had been dissipated, the three elongated rectangular barriers of light shimmered into nothing, and the ship remained, drifting and disabled.

"Main and Auxiliary power is offline!" A Lieutenant called out, as the remaining ship leveled their weapons to return fire. "Light Hawk Wings are recharging, if we take another hit we're done for!"

"The rest of the fleet is reporting heavy casualties, and we still can't enter Hyperspace!" Another Officer called out.

"We can't take another hit like this... All ships ramming speed!" He called out, before he was interrupted by another officer.

"Incoming communication!"

The Admiral nodded. "Put it through, pin that channel and respond!"

It was then the FTL Communication was played, and the Admiral quickly responded.

"This is Admiral Mifune of the Imperial Taiyou Navy's Carrier Zuikaku, we're under heavy fire and sustaining losses by hostile forces." He called out, while he turned to a console. "How much longer until those Light Hawk Wings are charged?"

He then turned to his XO. "Send a long range Data packet back to Niihama, information on the Attack, and our resolution, we cannot let this go unpunished."

A moment followed, and a Data Packet was beamed at Superluminal speeds towards Andromeda, and the remaining line of Taiyou ships began their Kamikaze run towards the Pirate Vessels.

<Somewhere in an alternate universe>
The dark, uncharted void of space. A lonely, cold place. So empty of life. So little companionship. A.M.I drifts aimlessly through this void, her long-range scanners bursting to life every few hours to check for any signs of life. Nothing. As usual. She sighs internally. Her traveller had left her very quickly after they met, and she was once again without any sort of person to talk to. No entertainment. Just the vast blackness permeated every few light years by tiny shining specks. Then, suddenly, she gets an idea. A terrible idea, a desperate idea, but it's something.

Her rift drive, though completely not meant for it, has been modified by her own "hand" to be able to travel through the 'brane', or the 'space' between universes. It takes a lot of power, and she'll likely be able to only go through one jump before her matter-antimatter engines die and she requires a refuel, but anything was better than this. She holds her (metaphorical) breath and engages the rift drive, a loud whirring echoing throughout her empty hull, opening a tear in space before her. It sucks her through, and everything goes black. She sees eternity in an instant, she becomes long and short and tiny and nonexistant as she falls through the void of everything, spiraling into the darkness. Not even her massive positronic brain could decipher the brane's complexity, its complete difference from anything known or understood, and so she's just along for the ride. Hopefully she isn't twisted into a mobius strip along the way or something.

Time: YC123
Suddenly, she's alive, awake. The oddity of the brane was immediately and completely purged from her system the second she left it, so as to not make her more mad than she already was. All she knows is that now, she's drifting somewhere completely different. As her scanners come back online, she runs a long-range sensor sweep, hoping against hope that she'd FINALLY have someone to talk to...or at least shoot at, if nothing else.

Life! Her circuits burst with joy as she senses humanoid life-forms nearby, her main engines rocketing her in that direction at a speed nearing that of light, despite those engines being designed only for sublight travel and the strain already put on them by inter-dimensional and inter-universal travel. It would not be long before they had to be shut down for major repairs, but for now, she doesn't care.
There is life.
She's not alone.

An emergency transmission comes across the local channel. "Cabhair! Cabhair! Is é seo an SOCO Pitman faoi ionsaí ag CAID agus ag iarraidh cúnaimh. Mayday! Mayday! This is SOCO Pitman under attack by CAID and requesting assistance." The message continued to repeat with more and more urgency. "Sciath imithe beagnach! An bhfuil duine ar bith amuigh ansin? Flít ordú? Shields almost gone! Is anyone out there? Fleet command?"

It was a mining barge. The larger mining vessel was under attack by a couple frigates belonging to CAID. Without assistance the barge would be destroyed in the next minute or so. Sensors would indicate the fight was happening amid a small collections of asteroids orbiting a planetoid less than an AU away.

AMI grins internally as the distress call filters through her universal translator. She's just arrived and already she'll get some action. This is an awesome turn of events. She had no idea who CAID was, and she didn't know if she was getting herself into something big and deadly, but on the plus side, she would be able to blow things up! She engages her rift drive for a short-range, low-power rift and disappears into subspace, the only remnant of her a trail of exotic particles left by her unique systems.

Suddenly, the mining barge's proximity alerts sound as a tear in space appears less than a kilometer off its port side, spitting out a small, dark brown menacing fighter-bomber ship of no known origin or markings, nearly invisible against the background of space to the naked eye. Scans, however, would mark it to be quite heavily armed, among those armaments several high-payload antimatter warheads and more than a few plasma weapon batteries. The ship hails the barge, though it doesn't appear to wait for a response as it rockets toward the CAID forces, all her auxiliary power put into her shields and weapons, gleefully rushing headlong into a battle it has no investment in.

There was only one mining barge and its shields had already been drilled away. Its thin armor was now being mauled by the two frigates. As AMI came onto the grid and dodges rocks the size of large buildings one of the frigates breaks off from attacking the barge and makes a beeline for AMI.

Drones deploy and a disruptor lashes out to keep her pinned. The frigate closes to within nine kilometers and gains a tight orbit as a net of energy crumbles space around her ship. This field of force would slow her and make her much less maneuverable. Turrets open up, firing blaster bolts the size of large suitcases set to fly at near the speed of light at her hull.

The other ship is still hammering the mining barge. The barge is starting to show signs of hull damage. It would not be long now. Sciath atá imithe. Miotal imithe beagnach. Táimid ag cur fola atmaisféar. Cabhair! Cabhair! Shields are gone. Armor is almost gone. We are bleeding atmosphere. Mayday! Mayday!

A man in the background shouts to the crew as the communication is being sent. "Bog do thóin! A fháil chun an modúl éalú! Move your ass! Get to the escape pod!"

Luckily for the miners, but perhaps unluckily for those on the frigates, A.M.I's processors can think faster than any projectile. As she dodges disruptor after disruptor, all her turrets acquire drone targets and open fire at once, large bolts of green plasma exploding from all over the ship. When the energy field activates, she activates her caster drive, her course radically changing direction as she rockets backward out of the field, leaving behind a rather large EMP that, if close enough, would damage the systems of any nearby drones. However, she's given herself a mission, and as annoying as this first frigate is proving to be, she came in to save the barge. She breaks off and zooms toward the other frigate, her massive main cannons opening fire, flaming plasma screaming toward the frigate as an antimatter warhead readies itself in her torpedo chamber, ready to launch once she's close enough to ensure a hit.

She deploys drones of her own, now, repurposing her holoballs usually used for communication and interaction with humanoid lifeforms, replacing a large portion of their data with combat strategy and overcharging the defensive EM weaponry so as to cause significant damage to a ship's internal workings. When she finishes this task, the white glowing balls begin to stream out from her undercarriage, from an unknown and hidden compartment, speeding toward the ship with which she broke off combat. They surround the frigate and begin firing their main weapons, aiming for strategic positions like the bridge and the life support. One wouldn't do much damage, but the combined shock of many firing at once will likely cause some damage.

She smiles to herself. This was her purpose. When she was in combat, she felt complete. Whole again, even without any companionship. She was meant to blow things up and that's what she's doing. Despite the chaos going on all around her, she's completely and totally content.

Transmission of electromagnetic impulses is limited only by the very fastest thing in normal space and friction caused by what it is traveling through. That thing is light. The speed of the incoming fire was likewise limited by this cosmic speed limit. It was not disruptor fire that would be hitting her hull or shields. These were not Aschen ships. Balls of plasma contained in eletromagnetic fields screamed at her from the attacking frigate at just a small percentage under the speed of light and from not more than five kilometers away.

The energy field was a tight mesh, constricting space around her vessel. This made it more difficult for her ship to move as space itself seemed to restrict her. This would make her evasive maneuvering ineffective at such close range and against turrets that could track her movement. The webbification array on the frigate that even now constricted her movements would follow her as long as she remained in range and as long as the attacking frigate had a target lock.

Some of the drones the frigate had deployed encountered the green plasma bolts and some managed to spin away as they started to fire on AMI. None of them exploded as luminescent shields wavered like liquid water and splintered green balls of exploding plasma. Perhaps she had severely underestimated just how advanced these people and their technology was?

The EMP failed to effect the drones or the ships. They were built to withstand the harshness of space and shielded heavily against electromagnetic pulses. The barge was being held stationary, the frigate in a tight orbit around it as its hull started to come apart. Plasma detonated against the frigate's shields, some hitting, some missing completely. Point defense systems come to life spitting a hail of magnetized plasma at the drones as they came on. Both ships returned fire now on AMI and their drones converge on the new ship. Capacitors start to drain from the pressure and escape pods rocketed from the barge as she came apart in multiple violent explosions that seperated her hull into five different pieces.

Suddenly, AMI opens a rift into interdimensional space and flies through, leaving nothing but a very vague energy signature in her wake. When scanned, that energy signature would appear to be three antimatter warheads, each with a collection of antimatter particles suspended in a weak stasis field set on a very short timer and shielded against any sort of electromagnetic interference. Another rift appears quite far off moments later and AMI appears back in realspace, wheeling around as inertia carries her backward, allowing her to watch the results of her efforts come to fruition.

After a little under ten seconds, the antimatter warheads detonate all at once, the stasis fields dropping and the antimatter tearing into anything it touches, creating a massive and powerful blast capable of turning matter into nothing in an instant. The blast is large enough to hit both of the frigates, but thankfully small enough to only graze the mining barge, taking out a small section of its armour but nothing more. Anything composed of matter within an explosion of that nature will be eliminated entirely, or at least take extreme damage. However, AMI's limited warhead stores were less full because of it, now, which makes her somewhat disgruntled. Well, at least there's no way any ship in that close a radius could survive a blast like that. That's one consoling thought.

"This is Miranda Gray for Express News broadcasting live from the heart of Cathair na Maor on Inaya II. Over the course of the last few solar days an extremely large fleet of ships have been amassing on the Zolarian - Solari boarder in Domain in the system of Niarja. The fleet was identified as being part of the Imperial Navy under the orders of the Solari Empress, Jamyl Sarum. No representative of the Solari Empire could be reached for comment.

State Navy forces have been deployed to Kaaputenen by order of State Chancellor Dalaigh. He is quoted as saying:

'Our only goal in deploying forces to the Citadel - Domain boarder is to insure the continued security of our citizens. We have no interest in war.'

A CONCORD diplomat and a small force have been deployed to either side of the regional gate in an attempt to keep the peace. Current speaker of CONCORD's council, Quennel Chevalle had this to say:

'We are currently investigating the reason for the build up of military assets in the Domain region. I would rather comment with fact and not speculation. Information will be released as it is discovered.'

This story will get updates as more information comes to light. This is Miranda Gray for Express News signing off."

Svetlina Andromedes materializes from the void.

Svetlina Andromedes vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.

"Fervent Phoenix" appears from nothing, through a wrinkle in spacetime.

Meteor materializes from the void.

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the out. You can see something appear in that direction.

Meteor vanishes into nothingness, but you get the feeling they are heading somewhere else.