The Galactic Ferderation of Light 1
A scout ship from the Galactic Federation of Light encounters a K''rin warship for the first time.
It screamed right out of hyperspace and straight at us . The words "Submit, submit. submit", the language translator said.
That can't be right I thought. Achilles was translating it wrong.
"Send friendship signals", I instructed him. Achilles was a quantum super-computer, but he identified as a male.
And then it came - the unknown starship just attacked. It launched something that looked like a small star at us. I'd been warned about scenarios like this - when two scouts meet each other for the first time, destroying the other one let's you go through it's wreckage.
The chronal shields snapped up, deflecting it's attack harmlessly into the past as Achilles put the ship on red alert.
"What was that", I said in a slightly panicked voice.
"Warhead strength unknown, guidance system unknown", said Achilles.
"Mark get in here!", I shouted, and went straight to weapon status four.
The ships main gun was a quantum-stepped pion weapon with prophetic fire control, using mankind's limited understanding of the nature of Einsteins closed time-like curves. The pi-neutral mesons it generated could pass though a planet and where timed to all decay into energy together, but had a very short life span and only traveled 99.9999% light-speed. But still, there was no defense against something that walked right though all shielding and armor and exploded inside you like a small atom bomb.
I dumped all the power in the ships fusion reactor into our spinal mount - the weapon that ran straight from the drives through the power plant and out the nose through the length of the ship.
Achilles said nothing - he knew what I wanted. He was a Steel Soul - a fourth order intelligence, so that meant an IQ of between 1000 and 9999.
My fox ears twitched as is I heard Mark run to the bridge. He was an Inheritor - a genetically perfect superhuman. I was just a fox Kemonomimi, but he didn't discriminate and he loved me anyway,
The meson gun pulsed until it's barrel overheated. Most of the shots where direct hits. "Negative impact", said Achilles.
I stared in horror. There was no view-screen to stare at because the images where being broadcast directly into my visual cortex, but still it was an instinctive reaction....
"Impossible", Mark exclaimed. "Nothing could absorb that much energy and still survive!"
I pulled an HET - a high energy turn, which is sort of like a bootlegger reverse - and threw all power into running. Weirdly, the alien starship followed us. Never follow a starship. I dropped our ships large nuclear space-mine. "Have a gigaton", I muttered. And it did.
And it survived.
I whined helplessly. At this point I was thinking of subspace evasion, but the only ship ever found that ever came back from subspace was the Eldridge, and most of her crew where fused into the bulkheads. The only survivors where hopelessly insane.
"Authorize me for autonomous control", asked Achilles. Not much choice, and Mark gave the code phrase before I did - "I am not a crook" he shouted while I gave mine: "get your hands out of my pockets!"
Achilles flickered the shields and transported all of our bottles of anti-matter into its path. It was the largest explosion I had ever seen. And the alien ship didn't come out of it.
I sighed, a hand to my chest. "We get get to live", I breathed weakly.
"Guys, we need to talk", said Achilles. "I've never heard of an energy signature like what I just saw".
"Don't blow your circuits", Mark said, trying to sound calming and putting his hand on my shoulder. "It's all part of being a scout".