Captian Nol'ran Malphon's Story

Galaxy 131, a place where order only had so much meaning. Its sole vastness ensuring that, somewhere, there is always chaos, always someone planning something. The Raqui and the Humans in talks about either alliance or a joining of the two empires. All the while, ral'nor pirates are constantly attacking anything they can get their scaly claws on and the ACAAI presence near human worlds has increased as rumor of a successful capture of an ACAAI spreads faster than a wild fire.

The talks are currently looking in the Humans' favor, as their multi-galactic empire clearly dwarfs that of the Raqui. However, there is significant resistance to the empires joining. Many raqui reference that there are significant differences in how the two governments work, and state that these differences could cause significant trouble if one side were to join the other.

As the ral'nor attacks on human convoys of every type, the humans have begun to slowly increase the number of military ships in every convoy. Bounties have been placed on the heads of every confirmed pirate fleet, with some ranging into the millions of credits for a single fleet captain's head. Despite these high bounties, and promise of rewards for every ship taken down, there is still few bounty hunters brave enough to hunt down those fleets that have bounties large enough to be worth something.

The ACAAI have nearly doubled their presence in systems close to human systems. No one has confirmed why this has begun, or the point of this build up of the galactic boogymen. However, the rumors of a successful capture have been denied by several different organizations and governments, with nearly every conspiracy theorist shouting about how much this is a lie. The most common evidence is a supposedly leaked document from the supposed secret human dock in dark space that held the capture ship.

On the other hand, many state that the ACAAI build up is one that is of curiosity, not hostility. This has come about from several ship captains admitting to collecting genetic samples of small colonies in exchange for high value metals from the ACAAI. Others have claimed that an abnormal rate of colonies disappearing is the ACAAI collecting research "materials." Most colonization supporters claim that this is from pirate attacks, and ensure that colonies will be better defended in the future. Those who support the ACAAI abduction theory use a report from the investigation of the lost colony Erros, in which the investigator constantly repeats how much the lack of bodies, or signs of resistance, bothers him.



Ark drifted slowly within the asteroid belt of the New Annor system, its stealth systems engaged. Its focus was split between watching how long the humans would take to respond and how long the recovery time was on the neural shock bombs (NSB) that had been deployed to capture the system's populace.

While the deployment of the NSB on the colony of Erros was a success, the pirates who were paid to carry out the mission did not pay attention to the captives. This was evident by the fact that they didn't know when said captives woke, and that they were both badly starved and dehydrated. Ark did the capture personally this time because it needed to know the recovery time of those affected with the NSB, the response time of the human government, and needed to ensure that it got to study the captives before they become excessively traumatized.

Within the pressurized research section, nearly 20 shells were moving about monitoring and maintaining the captives. Seeing them, now stripped of what possessions they had before the subjects were clothed in simple test subject clothes. Ark had very specific plans for them. It needed specific data about how they react in groups, when isolated, and when watching others get operated on. Ark had found that psychological data was always the most valuable, often granting greater accuracy in predicting the next action of others.

---

On the outside of Ark, half of a ship was being torn apart by hundreds of drones, the scrap being moved back to Ark's cargo bay. The vessel had been a military frigate, the only one defending the system and all the colonies could collectively afford in the way of protection. Ark had been able to sneak up on it by coming out of the gate in stealth, then lining up a shot with its moon cracking cannon. By the time that the small ship had noticed Ark, the slung chunk of metal was halfway down the barrel, and ripped the ship in half right as the main thrusters began to activate.

The drones that Ark deployed took nearly a day to get the current half to it, but the other half was still being decelerated. Normally, Ark would not have bothered to salvage the ship, but it didn't have the materials or time to deploy mines in the asteroid belt, and it needed to replace materials lost to repairing the damage from the last engagement as well as almost its entire stock of combat drones. Ark was burning at full thrust, constantly being bombarded by 4 separate dreadnoughts until they finally punched through its shields and a shot ripped clean through Ark's munitions forge. Luckily for Ark, the forge was not in use and the shot missed the munitions storage.

The Malphon Tor fleet sat near the gate in the sector, far enough away that they wouldn't alert anybody as they came into the sector but close enough that they would have to pass them. The whole fleet except for the Sho'ner in stealth mode waiting just as a human military fleet entered the sector. A tall, blue scaled Ral'nor calmly walked through the halls of the Sho'ner towards the flight deck of the ship. When he entered everybody on the deck stood up and watched as he slowly walked to the chair in the center of the room and setting down. What was left of the Ral'nor's left mandible twitched, "Pilot, what do we have?" he spoke. "We have an assumed 30 human vessels and an assumed 5 to 10 more fighters Fleet Captain." the pilot responded. The Fleet Captain smiled and opened up coms with the rest of his fleet, "Prepare the EMP missiles!"

As soon as the human fleet came within range the order was given to fire and a volley of missiles went flying quickly taking out the shields of most of the human fleet. While it was obvious with how they where flying they where expecting to get attacked it was obvious they where not expecting the bombardment that they had received, Nol'ran's plan had worked. A squad of 5 fighters was released by the humans and quickly taken out by the Ral'nor with little effort. The battle lasted an hour, the pirates dominating the majority of the fight.

Once the human ships where disabled Nol'ran opened coms again, "Time to board men." was all that was spoken. "Pilot board the head of the fleet, I wish to speak to their Fleet Captain." The pilot nodded and drifted the Sho'ner to the cruiser that headed the other fleet and docking with it. Nol'ran stood up and calmly walked to the docking station and stood at the front of the boarding party as they forced the human ship's doors opened, only to be met with fire that was quickly returned by Nol'ran and his crew. After a quick skirmish the boarding party entered the ship with Nol'ran slowly and calmly walking in after them. The sounds of guns firing off filled the halls of the ships and the occasional sound of someone dying as Nol'ran walked to the head of the ship.

As he walked through the halls he soon encountered a young man that had the guts to face Nol'ran himself, pointing a gun at Nol'ran's face. Nol'ran holstered his own pistol and put his hand up to signal his men to not fire. "Y-you won't get past me pirate!" the boy stammered. Nol'ran smiled then leaned in "If I where you I would run." his mandibles twitching as he spoke. When it was obvious the boy wasn't going to back down Nol'ran slowly pulled his knife out and stabbed the boy in the side of the head, "I commend you for your bravery but you where in my way." He spoke as the body fell to the floor. Nol'ran proceeded on his way without much more trouble.

Nol'ran was surprised to find only a few men at the head of the ship including Fleet Captain, the humans called them admirals but to the Ral'nor there was no difference. The humans fired upon Nol'ran, only for the shots to be deflected by his power armor. Nol'ran's small sect that was with him quickly took care of the men firing on their captain as he walked to face the admiral. "I should have known it was the Malphon Tor fleet attacking me." The admiral said as Nol'ran smiled. "So you know who I am but I have no idea who you are." Nol'ran spoke circling the admiral. "You have some nerve coming in here like this. With the bounty you have on your head I can make a fortune." The admiral yelled receiving no more than a small smile and the normal mandible twitch signaling deep thought from Nol'ran. Slowly raising his knife to the man's throat he leaned in, his face inches from the man's, "I have never tasted human flesh before but I heard it is delicious, now, if you don't want to become my first human meal you will tell me your name." Nol'ran spoke in a clam yet threatening voice. The man glared at Nol'ran before answering, "I am Grant Simm, admiral of the 6th human fleet."

Nol'ran smiled and sheathed his knife, "Would you like a drink Grant" he asked pulling out and offering Grant a small flask. Noticing the man's hesitation, "Trust me this isn't Ral'nor liquor, I know what it does to your kind." Grant started to reach out but still didn't trust the Ral'nor, "How do I know you aren't lying to me?" he asked. Nol'ran looked offended, "I would never negotiate with someone without having a friendly drink first. How could I negotiate with you if you are dead?" he said offering the flask to Grant yet again, this time Grant taking it and slowly took a drink from the flask and handing it back to Nol'ran. "So what do you wan-" his sentence was cut off by a bout of coughing and hacking soon spitting up blood at the acidic drink he had just consumed started to corrode his insides. Nol'ran smiled and stood up as Admiral Grant took his last breath.

Turning back to his men he opened up the com system in his armor, "Take anything of value for us. Everything that can be traded take to the Sho'for." He looked up, "Keep this ship in tact, I like it, I want it in our fleet." He added before walking back to his ship. Once the fleet was done looting the ships he looked at the damage on his own fleet, the sheilds where taken down on only two ships and one took some minor damage, Was expecting more of a fight. With that they attached a towing cable to the new human cruiser they had taken. "Time to head home for repairs." Nol'ran's voice spoke over the coms of his fleet.

As the Malphon Tor fleet started to land a crowed could be seen around the dock on the planet. All kinds of people could be found there from traders to people wanting to see a war hero to those bored of planet life and hoping that there may be a chance to get recruited by one of the greatest Ral'nor fleets known. Once they had landed Nol'ran stepped out of the Sho'ner and was greeted by his second in command, Nog'bol. "Get the parts needed to repair our ships and to modify the new one as well as get it a new paint job. Oh and put the word out we will be recruiting." Was all Nol'ran had to say before walking out of the dock and to the nearest city, he never bothered with the trading himself there was a reason he had crew members that where once merchandises.

As he walked into the city of Ram'ker-Yo one of the first things he saw was a monument to the Great War of Ram'ker. Nol'ran stood there with pride, a smile on his face, remembering the war that ended almost 10 years ago, a war that got started because one captain became overly greedy and tried to take the whole planet for himself. Nol'ran remembered that war fondly, the Malphon Tor wasn't even a common name amongst the Ral'nor yet, having only been around for 3 years by that time. None of the other pirates wanting to either move to another planet or go under the rule of one fleet captain a war quickly broke out and Nol'ran was one of the hardest and most fierce fighters they had, by the end of the war leading the army in battle.

As Nol'ran walked through the streets he was constantly getting stopped by people wanting him to buy things or just wanting to talk. Who could help it though, not only was he a war hero he also brought most of the cities around his dock prosperity and was possibly one of the youngest Ral'nor to take rule over a fleet without a parent leading the fleet first. That night he went back to his dock, someone was getting promoted and new crew members where getting recruited.

Nearly a week had passed and Ark had yet to find a reason for the abnormally high variation discovered in the human psyche and reasoning. Determining the cause might have been easier if the humans were willing to hold a discussion with any of Ark's shells. Of course, Ark acquired more data on how much of a difference that being raised in a different environment caused. The clones were always calm, as if prepared to die. This group of colonists, on the other hand, appeared to be quite afraid of being held inside metal walls. Maybe. Maybe, I have been looking in the wrong place.

---

What was the ship that Ark destroyed upon entering the sector had been completely recycled. Now, the munitions factory had been repaired, the basic equipment for starting long term operations was in production, and the hull was now back to what it should look like. Even though the repairs were finished, Ark stayed in its concealed position in the asteroid.

Since arriving, the humans descended to the planet, quickly investigating what had happened. Many of them seemed to begin working to bring the colony back to life with the passengers from the passenger ship, while the transport ship sustained them. This Ark expected, but the lack of human reinforcements bothered it. This wasn't logical.

The Raqui were always kindred, so their aid was far from unforeseeable. However, it didn't make sense to Ark that not a single human military vessel came to the colony. This was a human colony, and the nearest human world was only a day's travel. The raqui ships, on the other hand, had to have made a jump or been in the area to have reacted as quickly as they did. This was ignoring the fact that the Human government was stubborn and proud, who would not normally allow the Raqui to escort their people.

---

Eight men, most appearing to be older than forty ey old, stood around a table with a holographic map of known sectors showing. On the map were several overlapping marks of pirate attacks, engagements, and lost colonies. Most of the men stared intently at the map.

"This is the most recent colony to disappear. We have been able to reestablish contact. The colonists who investigated claim that it looked as if everyone was just suddenly taken in the middle of the day. They also noted that a large volume of metals was stolen from the colony." Spoke the youngest of the men, the eyes of the others looking upon him. As he looked down from the map his head swept across the others before he continued with "General, this points to one of two disturbing possibilities. Either the Ral'nor have a acquired a weapon that can disable masses of people, specifically people, from a long distance and over a wide area, or the ACAAI have and are beginning to take a possibly hostile interest in our people."

The eldest of the men in the room stroked his thick stubble. The General then spoke up with "While the ACAAI threat is a possibility, all of the outside evidence points to Ral'nor instead. Those machines have been building up, but we have yet to see them stay long enough in a sector to clean a planet like that and they don't typically collect scrap from ships. We would have remains of the ship that was defending the system if it were ACAAI." The others nodded in agreement as they looked around the table, each baring either an expression of fear or anger.

Standing straight up, showing off the emblem of the fifth fleet, a scared man said "Sir, I believe it is quite obvious that this is yet another Ral'nor attack. With the destruction of the sixth fleet before a full communication of the situation being sent and the silent annihilation of the colony, it should be obvious that the Ral'nor are trying to weaken us before launching a full on attack!" Before more could be said, the man opposite him retorted with "Then why was metal taken as well as the people? The ACAAI need metals to maintain themselves, and we believe that they require some level of organic materials for certain ceramics they use."

The scared man took a second before saying "We know that the Ral'nor are willing to eat other sentient creatures, and metal is valuable to any space fairing race. If they managed to get the colonists before they could fight back, they would have to do less to prepare them as meals." As the scared man finished his little speech, the General raised his hand. Almost in an instant, the entire table fell silent before his voice filled the air. "While we don't know who hit the last two colonies, the destruction of the sixth fleet does cause some worry. I agree with the admiral that we need to act, men. We cannot let these modern barbarians push us around like we are the Raqui. It is time that humanity proves that it is the dominant race in this Galaxy, and they will make a perfect example." With that, all but the man across from the scared man shook their heads in agreement.

"But sir, what about the ACAAI? We need to be prepared if they decide to attack!" He said, only for the General to respond with "We will be calling in reinforcements and Wrexal is going to see an increase in business."

Nol'ran looked around at the crowd that had gathered around his port, he knew half of them where there hoping to be recruited and the other half was there for the celebration that would come after words. As soon as he made his presence known a gap could be seen in the crowed where he needed to walk. As he walked through the crowd he observed all the eager faces that watched as he walked pass them, hoping he would notice them. Once face did stick out to him however, a red face with haunting gray eyes. Red was a rare color among the Ral'nor, usually those who where red in color where either destined for something great or to die, something Nol'ran had never seen before though was one of his kind with gray eyes, he would have to watch this one closely.

Nol'ran steeped up onto the port and turned around, taking a microphone for the intercom. "People of Ram'ker-Yo, Ram'ker-La and Ram'ker-Ni, as I am sure you are aware, I have recently acquired a new ship and will be recruiting some new members to the Malphon Tor fleet." he said over the intercom and turned to his crew. "Nor'pel please step forward." A shy and rather short green Ral'nor steeped forward and keeled before Nol'ran, "From this day on you shall be known as Captain Nor'pel, captain of the Sho'hun of the Malphon Tor fleet." With that Nor'pel stood up and bowed, "Thank you Fleet Captain." The crowd and the crew all started to cheer for the new captain.

Nol'ran cleared his throat interrupting the cheering, "Now no Ral'nor can be captain of a ship without a crew so I'm going to need ten men to move to the Sho'hun, and I will be recruiting ten new members to replace them. Know that when you start out you will be in the Sho'ner, my own personal ship, I can't have any of you messing up. Then once you have proven your place you will be moved to a ship of your choice that needs men. Now those of you wanting to join my crew please come into the dock, my crew will show you where to go, and we will decide who gets to join." With that he walked into the dock into a room that was made just for recruiting new Ral'nor.

Recruiting had gone on for hours most of the men and woman that had tried to join either just not fitting the bill or not ruthless enough to join the fleet. Luckily they had filled up 9 of the 10 spots needed, unluckily there was only one Ral'nor left. Nol'ran asked for them to come in and was surprised to find that it was the red Ral'nor for earlier, and was even more surprised to find them to be a female Ral'nor. "So tell me, girl, what makes you want to join the Malphon Tor?" Nol'ran asked as he sat down. "Well this may seem weird but about a month ago I had a dream of a human ship in Ral'nor colors fighting something. Then I saw you come into your dock carrying a human vessel and I knew that I should be in your fleet." Nol'ran nodded finding this answer... strange. "So, what do you think about killing people?" he asked watching the red Ral'nor's reaction to the question. "Well it's in our blood to kill and I don't mind the idea of it. Although I have never killed someone myself." Nol'ran nodded and smiled "Welcome to the Malphon Tor." like she was going to get declined if she had applied. "All I need to know is your name and you can go out and join the celebration." The Ral'nor nodded, "My name is Noy'ral." She responded before bowing then waiting for Nol'ran to open the door and they both stepped outside to a giant celebration.

Sector 1523 was the definition of a "fly through" solar system. The system had a perfectly good yellow sun will three planets within the habitable zone, and several planets outside of the habitable zone. Five gas giants that orbited the sun provided the crucial meteor and comet defense system. However, the three planets within the habitable zone had no obvious draw to them. Each was Earth-like in size, but was just rock.

Ark had gone through the point of giving each of the three planets a name: Erris (the closest to the sun), Douz, and Bequi (furthest from the sun). Erris was the least interesting of the three, with only a single moon and little metal in its crust. Erris also spun fairly slowly. Douz, sitting in the middle of the habitable zone, was easily the most interesting of the three planets. It had two moons that stayed on the opposite sides of the planet, a slightly above average amount of metals in the crust, a slightly fast planetary spin, and a slightly high water content. Douz had great potential, but all of the three were going to feel Ark's influence. Bequi, in and of itself, mimicked Earth, excepting the lack of a moon. If the life refused to develop properly, Ark was more than willing to haul a meteor to the planet to form a moon.

---

The few days that Ark had already spent in the system was collecting the materials that had been gathered by the asteroid mines it had placed several years ago when it first found this system. What had been mined was already being processed into countless modular facilities. Everything from basic monitoring and communications equipment to facilities most organics would not even understand.

All this construction had a definite purpose. The original purpose. Ark was the first of the ACAAI life ships, the vessels designed to be capable of turning barren worlds, like the three it had found, into beautiful garden worlds. Everything from creating and adjusting the atmosphere to slowly introducing the ecosystem, and modifying it as necessary. While the small, normal ACAAI vessels could easily adjust existing atmospheres and ecosystems, to construct the systems required to create them was a much greater task than they had the space to handle. Now, Ark was one of the few life ships remaining, most of which were scrapped as the ACAAI improved, and became capable of creating more advanced and less space intensive systems to accomplish the tasks that the life ships used to handle.

---

Admiral Jonson stood at the front of the bridge of the UHG Military Dreadnought Aries, looking through the window that spanned the entire bridge. His eyes scanned across the entirety of the Fifth Fleet, smiling as he knew that the Sixth Fleet was only a scouting and escort fleet made to deter threats from trade routes that were under threat. The Fifth Fleet, on the other hand, was the main offensive fleet stationed within 131. Originally they were brought in to help show the Raqui the power of humanity, but the Admiral was more than happy to prove the strength of his fleet in battle.

A quick sweep of the fleet and the Admiral looked to the most obvious of the ships, the two other dreadnoughts in the fleet. While the command vessel was nearly a mile and three quarters in length, the other two were only a mile and a half in length. The rest of the fleet was made up of 8 cruisers, 14 frigates, and 20 corvettes, with countless fighters hidden among the larger ships. Yes, this fleet is more than ready to begin taking on anything that those scaled bastards can bring to bear.

"Admiral, the entire fleet is in position. Should we advance into the gates?" Asked one of the many comm officers on the bridge. Taking a deep breath, the Admiral turned to the comm officer and said "Advance. Ensure all ships know to keep weapons armed." With that command, the bridge nearly tripled in volume as the comm officers relayed the Admiral's orders to the rest of the fleet. Not but a few moments in, the engines on the ships grew bright as each of the vessels jolted forward toward the gate that separated human and ral'nor space.

The rest of the night after the recruiting for the Malphon Tor was spent partying. Nol'ran spent it among his crew and the citizens of Ram'ker. There was never a moment that night you didn't see him without a bottle of Ral'nor rum in his hand, and while people knew he was drinking you could never tell that he was drunk he hid it too well, especially because he was watching Noy'ral. Most of the party she stayed on the sidelines and didn't interact with people much until Nol'ran had approached her offering her a drink. Nol'ran still didn't know what to think of her, there was something special about her but what it was who knew. Noy'ral quickly earned Nol'ran's respect not only when she was able to hold her liquor after drinking a whole bottle of rum made special in the Malphon Tor fleet but also when she nearly beat someone to death that tried to get to friendly with her.

The next morning the new recruits joined Nol'ran on the Sho'ner to find out where they would be placed while learning about what they would be doing. They all gathered in the main hall, "Now possibly one of the most important jobs on a Ral'nor ship is that of a pilot. Who would like to learn how to pilot a ship?" Before he had even finished his question two young Ral'nor both raised their hands, and Nol'ran nodded in acknowledgment. "Alright you shall both learn under Nar'til the ship's pilot. Now we need a cabin boy that can learn under the ship's chef." With that a timid looking female Ral'nor stepped forward "I would like to do it sir." she said as Nol'ran nodded. "Alright, and you will address me as fleet captain from now on. Now as for the rest of you, you will be taking on other jobs around the deck, this includes watching the radar and firing the weapons. All of you are going to have to learn how to fight and well, we often bored ships and the last thing I need is you dying as we board another ship. Now as to the lay out of the ship, this is where the crew eats, the door behind me leads to the kitchen, that is where out new cabin girl will go once we are done. Now follow me." he said as he walked out the door leading to the rest of the ship.

"Down at the back of the ship is our engine room. Just before that you will find the crew coders which is where you will all sleep." he started to walk towards the head of the ship the new recruits following him. "This door leads to the armory, you will report here to get combat training as well as get fit for armor once you are ready for combat. And this leads to the main deck." He said opening the door leading to the deck allowing the recruits to enter before him. When he entered everybody stood up and Nar'til yelled, "Fleet Captain Nol'ran on deck." and with that everybody saluted Nol'ran. Nol'ran just looked around and nodded, "Take your positions and prepare to leave soon." He said sitting down in the captain's seat and looking at the new recruits, "Now this is my seat no one is to sit here, if they do they will find out just how long a Ral'nor can last in space. Now go where you where assigned and prepare for take off." With that the recruits went there they had been assigned and soon the Malphon Tor fleet took off into space.

Shortly after the Malphon Tor fleet left Ram'ker Nol'ran started receiving transmissions from the edge of space where humans had started attacking. "So they want to start a war." He thought to himself before having the fleet move closer to the center of their part of the galaxy. It was there that he started training the new recruits, Nol'ran even started doing something new that confused the crew, he started training them how to fight himself. The crew was worried, they knew how rough Nol'ran could be. While he didn't show it some close to him suspected that he was worried about the humans, they didn't know how right they were Nol'ran was very worried about a war with the humans was about to start. Besides combat training the recruits also had to go through pillaging runs and what to do when the fleet attacked another ship or fleet. There was not much time to rest with all the training they had to go through.

Ark looked over the countless calculations that it had done. It had to make sure that the system would get the atmospheres up by the time that Ark came back. Without them, the organisms being born in Ark's belly would be pointless. Everything from the genetically engineered plants and animals, to the bacteria and fungus being introduced to such creatures. The coming years of work of simulating evolution requires the atmospheres to go according to calculations or else it could end terribly.

However, if everything went within the normal parameters of "right," then three new garden worlds would be born. At that point, Ark will have to come back every so often to ensure that the environments and ecosystems remain stable. If it didn't, then it would be failing its purpose.

---

Outside of Ark was now nearly clean, with the countless machines now being hauled off to their intended planets and locations. Once deployed, the machines would begin their tedious and careful tasks of bring an atmosphere to their designated world. The gasses that most of them spewed forth were any number of colors that spread out into the sky. Other machines deployed shells to move various items around and maintain the machines of the planets.

As the last of the drones returned, Ark activated its engines. The ACAAI had managed to intercept a transmission about a station in deep space. While the source was not the most reliable for accurate news, the potential of a deep space station was worrying to the ACAAI and Ark was the one that could act in human sectors the most independently.

Beginning its trip through the gates to human space. Ark had a lot of work to do.



The Admiral casually walked about his command vessel, having moved down countless hallways and a tram ride. Soon, he stood in a room that was almost the exact same as the bridge, only without the massive windows that allowed him to view his entire fleet. The Admiral took a quick look around the room as the lights turned on, showing that lack of life within the secondary bridge, also known as the safe bridge.

"Lieutenant 6 activate." Shouted the Admiral, shortly before a holographic projection came into fruition before him. "Hello Admiral Jonson. How may I help you?" 6 asked, moving its holographic head to tilt in curiosity. The Admiral took a second before asking "How much longer before the meeting?" After a moment, 6 said "The meeting will begin in a few minutes. They are waiting on you sir, as well as the 3rd fleet admiral." "Open an encrypted line in the holo-comms. That will be all, Lieutenant 6." The Admiral said before walking into a room at the back of the safe bridge.

"Admiral Jonson and the Fifth Fleet reporting in." The Admiral stated as he walked into the comm platform. The hologram of the General looked around at the others within 131. The General then took a deep breath before saying "The reinforcements will be arriving shortly, but we will only be getting two war fleets, each smaller than the Sixth. More will be sent with time, but they are what they had that quickly available..." As the General took a breath, Jonson spoke up with "Sir, the Sixth couldn't even survive a single Ral'nor fleet..." Jonson was then cut off by the youngest of the men, saying "That was the Malphon Tor! We only know of four fleets that can rival their size. The sixth would have chewed through a normal Ral'nor fleet without trouble."

As Jonson took a breath, preparing to retort to the young man, a ninth hologram came into fruition at the opposite side of the General. "Commander Smith reporting in." The General put his hand into the air, signalling silence to the silent holograms. "What is wrong, Commander?" Taking a breath and whipping his brow, the Commander said "Sir, when the labcoats activated the retrieved ACAAI ship it went live. Before it could be shut down, it managed to break free and destroy a portion of Station Dark Space. We have been able to retrieve the male Dr. Archibald alive, but his wife perspired when the ship broke out. We have also been able to retrieve everyone, dead or alive, accept the kid Archibald. We believe the ship may be holding him captive, but we have yet to identify why as of yet. The ship also managed to escape with several experimental weapons and a FTL drive that we were preparing to field test."

Looking over the table again, the General spoke up "Can we track where it went?" Whipping his brow again, the Commander said "No sir, they made a blind jump. We tried to run projections, but it would have jumped deep into unexplored territory. For all we know, it is back within the Jump Gate Network." Before anyone else could get a word in, the man across from Jonson shouted "We need to ELIMINATE that ship! If this situation isn't resolved quickly, it could lead to a conflict with the ACAAI. We simply don't have the resources in this galaxy to manage that campaign, even without the Ral'nor conflict. What did we manage to learn before the ship escaped?" The Commander responded with "Their large scale weapons and armors are behind ours, a single of their foot soldiers could take out 3 of ours, and their networking and computing systems are well beyond anything we have. One of the labcoats estimated it would take us 10 years to build a computer that could handle an average consciousness of theirs. However, they estimate it only would have taken a human brain level computer to run the computing systems of the ship we captured. We also believe that the ACAAI may have a pair of working, prototype jump gates. They manage to deploy this technology, they would have an instant advantage."

Raising his hand again, the General looked to Admiral Petrov, the man across from Jonson, asking "Do you think you can handle the escaped ship?" To which Petrov replied with "I will begin immediately." The General then spoke again, saying "Commander Smith and Admiral Petrov, you are both to coordinate to recapture that escaped ACAAI. This time, Petrov, the Fourth fleet is authorized to use as many EMP missiles as you feel fit. You two are dismissed." As the holograms of Admiral Petrov and Command Smith disappeared, each with a salute, the General looked to Jonson asking "How is your campaign going?" Jonson responded with "We are half way to the second gate within Ral'nor space. We have managed to sink 5 Ral'nor fleets, and have only lost 3 corvettes and a frigate. However, I don't believe that we will be able to make it to their home world without those reinforcements." With a moment of thought, the General looked back to Jonson and said "Jump through the second gate, then maintain position until reinforcements make it." The meeting continued on for several hours before everyone went about to fulfill their designated duties.

After a few weeks of training the new recruits Nol'ran decided it was time to test them in an actual boarding and took the Malphon Tor into Raqui space to test them. They where on the very edge of the sector waiting, watching for a ship using one of his favorite tactics since he gained his Dreadnought, sitting all ships but it in stealth mode and send out a distress signal into the sector. It took a little longer than Nol'ran had expected but after a few hours a couple corvette ships came to the aid of the distress signal. Unfortunately one of the ships noticed one of the bigger ships of the Malphon Tor and the two ships started to run, the Sho'ner on their tail. Nol'ran quickly ordered for a EMP missile volley to be released to try to slow the Raqui ships down. While this tactic helped it did not slow them down as much as Nol'ran had hoped and allowed the Sho'ner to open fire on the ships.

After a couple hours and a few more missile volleys released the Malphon Tor finally got the Raqui ships down and it was time to board them. Deciding to board the one that lasted longer than the other he issued a no kill order to the rest of the fleet, while he had a name to keep he knew not much harm would come from just releasing the Raqui. "Now while you may kill a couple please try to keep the majority of the crew alive." he spoke to his own crew before leading them to the docking bay. When the door opened no resistance was found and quickly the crew shuffled through the Raqui ship. Nol'ran made sure to take his tame to make his way through the ship examining every inch of it.

On his way to the deck he found Noy'ral standing over a Raqui her pistol trained on it as it quivered in fear. Nol'ran walked over, "Well, what are you going to do? Shoot him or leave him be but whatever you do make it quick." Noy'ral looked at him but it almost seemed like she didn't even register Nol'ran. "No, it's not his time yet." She said as she holstered her pistol. Nol'ran nodded, "Come with me, you need to see how to negotiate." he said walking out the door Noy'ral behind him.

When Nol'ran walked into the main deck he found the captain of the ship there and nodded to him. "Do not worry I mean you no harm." The Raqui captain huffed, "Then why did you attack us." Nol'ran stood there for a minuet thinking how to respond before looking at the Raqui, "I needed supplies I will be taking the minimal needed while not being of any harm to you and your crew." The Raqui mumbled something under his breath and Nol'ran smiled, "If I really intended to harm you, you would already be dead and your crew with you, I issued a no killing order before entering this ship." He said before walking out and ordering his crew back to the ship and breaking away from the ship.

Once the crew was on his ship and they where headed back into Ral'nor space Nol'ran stood up and looked at Noy'ral, "I need to speak to you Noy'ral. My private chambers now please." Noy'ral simply nodded and followed Nol'ran out and to her captain's room. Once the door was closed Nol'ran offered Noy'ral a seat, "So why didn't you kill that Raqui, you had the upper hand, it would have been easy." Noy'ral sat there for a second before replying, "Like I said it wasn't his time, it was like I could see that he was not supposed to die yet, he had more to do before he died, please forgive me." Nol'ran nodded "Do not worry, I was never upset with you I just wished to understand your reasoning, you will need to know these things if you are ever to become a captain or even a fleet captain." With a nod and a thank you Noy'ral left Nol'ran's room to join the rest of the crew while Nol'ran sat quietly in his room thinking over her response.

Nol'ran sat in his captain's chair, while everybody else slept, watching ships that called this planet home come and go. He was having another sleepless "night" trying to come up with a strategy on how to try and recruit as many of the fleets and single pirates as he could to help against the coming fight against the humans. Uniting a single planet against a single fleet was one thing but every single Ral'nor against the humans, well that's another story.

The planet the fleet was orbiting, Ran'tol, was one of the smaller Ran'tol planets and only hosted a few small fleets. The should be easy to convince and if they didn't cooperate they should be easy to defend against. But who should he start with was the question and what should he say.



Pan'run sat listening to the man drone on and on about the target as he continued to drink. Finally the man finished up with "So is there anything else that you need to know about your target?" Nol'ran let out a long mechanical sigh, "All I needed to know was his name, and where to find him." He said standing up, "By the way, you're paying the tab." He added before walking out of the bar and down to the docks only to find his ship blocked by 4 men. Must be friends of the drunk that I put out of his misery. While no one could see it he smirked commanding the nanobots to reform his arm back into his favored blade. "YOU DAMN STUPID LIZARDS." The biggest of the men yelled "GET OUT OF OUR GALAXY!" He added throwing a beer bottle, that just happened to break on Pan'rul's face the bear running down his body. "You just made a huge mistake." He said to the men raising his bladed arm.