Liam Fieldstone, despite being only 39 and having climbed the ranks of the commander's order faster than a monkey up tree, was staring at the faces of the dismissal board of the Unitary Alliance having not yet had the chance he felt he deserved so dearly, the command he felt robbed of, was robbed of.
It had all started 16 years ago, when he was a new, unranked officer onboard his first post, and inspiration for the rest of his life, the UA Anubis- Lead dreadnought of the commander's order
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Date: 31st of March, 2098.
Location: Command deck, UA Anubis
Ship status: Minor damage, on return to nearest port for resupply and repairs.
The bridge of the Anubis was silent except for the screams the engineering officer and the yells from the frantic doctors as they pumped him full of gallons of anaesthetics to no avail in a desperate effort to save him from the auto cannon round that had buried its way deep into his shoulder bone and was stubbornly refusing to un-nest its self from its agonising home despite the unspoken pleas that silently defended all words for it's departure from its resting place.
23 year old Liam , one of the ships most junior officers, staggered onto the bridges in frantic hurry,
"Captain Cale, I have an urgent needs from radar chief Linton, she says that ...oho, I'm sorry "
"Go on Mr Fieldstone" Sighed the captain " I assume it is urgent"
"Chief Linton says she has been tracking large numbers of unknown objects that resemble the drones that we found aboard the FH destroyer we captured over Trappist B last month, but that we have just lost contact with. She worries that they are trying to use a stealth system like the ones on the Albatross to attack us while we are defenceless, and given the state of lieutenant Richardson I fear they may have already begun "
"Thank you for you message ,Ensign, and remind Linton that ships comms exist and she need not use you like a medieval messenger".
No sooner had Liam left the bridge than the thunderous roar of of the ship's many hundreds of missile launches echoed through the hallways, sensing urgency Liam paced towards the railracks, the 22nd century's equivalent of what in old earth where known as moving walkways, and frantically cravers aboard the first carriage it pass by.
70 tense seconds later he was at the door to the survalence suite when an eerie whistle wa heard, then another, then another-this time followed by distant his and muffled screems.
They where under attack. But this time, the drones where out for more than just one ship,
They had their eyes on a habitat large station that had been cowering behind the Anubis
The immense metropolis in space-Gia's Oath.