Ivan, Mazur, Iris and Valeria leisurely explored the spaceship graveyard left over from an old battle. Mazur picked random pieces of wreckage which interested him, floating from one to another leisurely. By moving through the fourth dimension, it was possible to examine the insides and working of some components without having to pull them apart, but it was still far from enough.
"What are your findings?" Major Harold asked with consternation before the otherworldly Mazur.
"Their technology isn't greatly superior to ours," Mazur said with a shake of his head. "But all the important technologies are completely ruined. The greatest difference is the energy content. Many of these technologies don't focus on the efficient use of energy and should have a lot of wastage. My conjecture so far is that they have an abundance of energy and don't care about wasting it."
Before the Major could reply with his questions, one of the communication officers hastily turned his head and said, "Major, we have received communication that one of the undeveloped human life planets we are monitoring several light years away is under attack. It appears to be the Scalians, Sir."
"Good, use the open channel to inform all fleet ships. We will automatically synchronise our vectors and enter hyperspace immediately. What is our ETA?"
A navigational officer in standard uniform was busy calculating it with the computer, he then informed them, "Major, we are estimated to arrive in 27 minutes, given time to increase velocity and decrease again before the destination."
The crew rapidly began calling out status reports as the fleet turned in space and faced away from the ship graveyard. The Galactic Fleet ships were like iron filings in a magnetic field automatically aligning themselves into a unified direction.
"Informing all Captains and Majors, Scallian assault has been detected in Sector D46-Y11-Z8, Solar System SS-47B. Coordinates have been automatically shared with all ships, adjust vectors immediately and enter combat state, all weapons are to be armed, and all pilots are to be ready in their mechanoids to deploy immediately after exiting hyperspace."
"Fleets Delta-Gamma-Androis and Alpha-Century under command of Colonel Regiere have sent a transmission from hyperspace. They are on there way to the site and will arrive in 92 minutes."
"Captain Reila has responded they will head back to the Andromeda Federation Headquarters in consideration for Prime Minister Mortimus who is on board. All other ships have a confirmed vector, alignment status is green."
"Activating primary impulse engines, velocity is rapidly approaching FTL speeds."
"Approaching FTL speed, engaging secondary and tertiary impulse engines."
"Inertia dampers are experience fluctuations, chart reading are still within safe parameters. Priority given to shields to disperse residual dust in space."
"Attention all crew, there will be some turbulence entering hyperspace, please move to a nearby safety station and use the safety belts in order to prevent personal injury."
"Jumping to FTL. Transition was smooth, shields dropped two percent from friction with residual dust in space."
Ivan, Mazur, Iris and Valeria were nearly shaken loose from the space turbulence. The turbulence wasn't from atmospheric differences such as flying on a plane, but from the dust and minute fragments left over from the battle with the Scalians that left behind the graveyard. It was negligible and normally unable to see, but when moving close to light speed, those minute fragments and dust could tear apart a ship moving close to lightspeed if it didn't have an energy shield.
"Mazur, Ivan," Major Harold spoke with a firm resolution, "there is a chance our fleet may suffer catastrophic damages in the battle with the galactic fleet. Colonel Regiere is the captain of one of the Galactic Fleet's flagships. It's defences and offensive weaponry are far above ours, but they will still take just over an hour to arrive. If we are destroyed before they arrive to reinforce, leave with them."
Ivan and the others couldn't move while in hyperspace, but he still had enough leeway to nod his head and say, "That's an admirable spirit, Major. But how can you lead a fleet if you don't show confidence before your crew?"
"You misunderstand, I am merely basing this on statistical facts. These Scalians are difficult to deal with. The fold space around their ships so even though they don't have energy shields, most attacks curve and are simply unable to hit them, while they are free to fire back. You will understand when we see them. You can somehow survive and even move in space with just your body, so you should be able to survive."
"Even if you are a hundred percent certain of losing a battle, you should still inspire confidence in your subordinates, Major. Leading them into battle full of fear is a failure as a leader."
Major Harold briefly showed surprise before stating, "Understandable. Should we survive this battle, I will consider it for the future. Comm Officer Portere, inform Colonel Regiere of the status of the four individuals aboard and the contingency plan should the fleet suffer catastrophic losses."
Halfway through the journey, there suddenly came a communication from one particular battleship.
"Major," One of the communication officers on the bridge hurriedly reported, "Captain Argentear has reported his battleship has suffered damage from turbulence before entering hyperspace. Several of his impulse thrusters are beginning to fail and he is losing speed. He requested to exit hyperspace and make emergency repairs."
Major Harold's brows raised in surprise briefly before he mentioned, "Accepted. He is to immediately return to hyperspace as soon as the necessary repairs are made and to regroup Colonel Regiere's fleet to reinforce us."
"Passing along orders now, Major," The communications officer rapidly contacted Captain Argentear and Colonel Regiere's fleet.
The fleet travelled through hyperspace quickly without any other incidents, only occasional status updates and communications running through the bridges of the battleships and destroyers. The Galactic Fleet soldiers and officers waited in dread as they felt this moment was the calm before a storm, one which would cause innumerable casualties amongst them.
The pilots sitting in the cockpits of their mechanoids gripped the controls with white knuckles. They had steeled their hearts to die protecting the human race, but they still sweated nervously from the fear of death.
"We are exiting hyperspace!" One of the navigational officers shouted nervously.
Ivan, Mazur, Iris and Valeria watched the monitors which transformed into enhances visuals of different light spectrums. A secondary monitor also wrapped around the room the moment they left hyperspace, a top tier technology that gave Major Harold and the officers a full view of every direction around the ship, as if they were standing in space itself. Of course, it had some transparency, so everyone could see the floor and not trip over.
Ivan looked at the enormous planet looming in front of them like a behemoth. They could leave hyperspace so close to the planet as the ship's quantum computer calculated the safety margin to the precision of a quarter of an inch.
Around the planet, several hundred miles away in space, an ultraviolet camera targeted the fleet of Scalians. They gave off no visible light, but they did emit ultraviolet light in rings around the hull of their ships. The secondary monitor surrounding the bridge also adjusted itself to show the ultraviolet light emissions, revealing a fleet of five thousand warships against the pitch-black background of space.
The quantum computer also rapidly adjusted cameras and located scenes of destruction and death on the planet's surface. Hundreds of thousands of Scalians flew through the air at rapid speeds in wingless combat ships, firing beams of black light which simply annihilated anything it touched.
"Aim main artillery cannons, all ships are to fire at the Scalian fleet immediately!" Major Harold shouted while sternly gazing at the enemy fleet.
"Major! Power diverted from Sol Reactors, Photon Atlas Nexus is reaching critical levels. Opening mirror channels immediately!"
Different from the massive barrel of a proton cannon, the Photon Atlas Nexus was a reflective circular chamber where massive amount of light, photons, were forced into and trapped inside. Several channels were then opened, and these hyper-condensed photons were released in a concentrated ray.
Hundreds of long barrels on the front of the destroyer, each merely a foot in diameter, emerged and pointed at the Scalian Fleet. Beams of white light were fired from the barrels at the enemy fleet, each containing a mass of photons so dense all light around them was warped at they passed.
A hundred destroyers fired almost simultaneously, sending tens of thousands of these photon beams at the Scalians. The effect was less than anticipated. Although the photons were the very definition of lightspeed, already hitting the warships the moment they could see them, they suddenly curved before hitting the ships and curved away from them. This occurred to every photon beam, causing them to become a chaotic mess amongst the enemy fleet like a squiggly children's drawing.
Not all ships of the Scalian fleet were safe though, there was a limit to the distortion in space they caused, and thousands of the photon beams still pierced through some ships.
The most destructive part about these condensed photon beams were their unimaginable heat, so hot they made even the hottest of stars seem ice cold in comparison. Many Scalian warships had partial melted sections from nearby beams passing by, while those that were pierced through suffered massive damage. The foot-thick photon beams would cause a hole almost a 200 feet in diameter from the heat. If one of these beams were fired onto a planet's surface, it would boil the atmosphere and incinerate anything within ten miles of the blast center.
Shortly after the light from photon beams disappeared into the vast emptiness of space, the battleships had finished charging their proton cannons and immediately fired the massive beams of charged protons into the enemy fleet, but they also curved through the fleet just like the photon beams.
"Major, 57 Scalian warships destroyed, 529 suffered significant damage, 1… unknown ship took insignificant damage."
Major Harold looked at the Scalian Fleet, particularly one ship in the center of the fleet which was as large as a hundred warships placed together, almost as big as one of the Galactic Fleet's flagships.
"It appears to be a mothership," Mazur commented lazily while looking at it on the monitor.
Major Harold ignored Mazur's comment and resolutely commanded, "It is unimportant, visual data is automatically sent to the nearest LHQ, this is a for them to figure out. It is an enemy ship posing a lethal threat and should be eliminated as soon as possible."
"Understood, Sir."
"Good. Command the fleet to fire all torpedos at the enemy fleet, automatic detonation is set for the time taken to travel to the center of the fleet. All mechanoids are to deploy immediately, passing through above the central battlefield. Inform all pilots not to cross the combat zone directly between the fleets."
Torpedos and mechanoids flew from the Galactic Fleet battleships and destroyers en masse like a swarm of locusts.
The Scalians weren't one to not retailiate after suffering such an attack. As soon as the Galactic Fleet dropped out of hyperspace, they had detected them and began to respond. The Scalian warships ignored the molten and gasified metal floating in space from the photon beams as they rapidly turned to face the galactic fleet to aim their own main cannons.
The Galactic fleet and the Scalians began exchanging fire, torpedos and secondary smaller proton cannons firing from the Galactic Fleet, while the Scalians fired small beams of black light which has an ultraviolet hue. They also had torpedoes, but they were different in nature from the Galactic Fleet's. When the Scalian torpedoes exploded, the turned into a black ball, similar in appearance to a black hole, which enveloped and annihilated everything within its blast radius.
"Antimatter bombs and beams containing concentrated antimatter particles," Mazur commented with interest as he watched battleships being constantly destroyed.
Major Harold glared at him and shouted, "Don't forget why we are here! We need you to infiltrate their ships and understand exactly what their technology is, mainly focusing on how they are warping space around their ships!"
"Let's head off immediately," Ivan calmly commanded and lead the other three into subspace where the mass destruction of the battle couldn't reach. They then rapidly flew toward a Scalian warship a hundred miles away.
The Scalian warships suddenly fired off their main cannons, burst of antimatter particles which destroyed large swarths of Galactic Fleet ships. If Major Harold hadn't commanded the fleet to spread out in order to increase evasive manoeuvrable space between them, this single attack would have completely crippled the fleet.
"It's merely been five minutes, and ten percent of our fleet has already been destroyed. A thousand losses, and we have only destroyed two hundred of their ships. Can we really survive an hour?" Major Harold quietly murmured to himself.
*****
Elsewhere in space, Captain Argentear's battleship was drifting listlessly.
"Captain, I can't say I approve of this…" First Lieutenant Percy said uncertainly, voicing the concerns of every member aboard the battleship. "Our impulse engines are perfectly fine."
Captain Argentear snorted in anger as he stated, "As much as I desire to fight and destroy the Scalian scum invading our galaxy, Mazur Ral Vendick and those other monsters are an equal threat. They are raising a force we have no means of counteracting."
"Our ship holds valuable information on them and must return safely. The Prime Minister is blinded by their threat, but that doesn't mean others are as well. My family will help arrange members within the parliamentary party to combat this growing disease of unlawfulness."