[b][u]GCN Concordia, Sagittarius A*[/u][/b]

Seven Desert Streams cursed angrily as Alexander began speaking. The Complex member had committed the error of stopping for long enough that the human had been able to draw breath and retaliate. They momentarily switched off the inner speaker for the helix chair so it could take a moment to browse through the injected lexicon in peace. Seven Desert Streams decided that as soon as the Human Delegate's face-flap stopped yawping, they would launch into an endless diatribe. Any insult would work, no matter how strange, as long as the intent of hate was carried through. The Complex Member could rant on end for days if necessary. The inferior human delegate would have to excrete waste and ingest nutrients at some point, but Seven Desert Streams had everything it needed to survive - its chair filtration would feed it, and it had ample trace nuclear isomers to power its metabolism. Seven Desert Streams ground their everted jawbones together, stirring the filtration patch stuck to the roof of the top jaw and causing a larger puff of powdered heavy elements to be released. Their mind fired into overdrive as they began to construct their rant.

They became so caught up in their brainstorming that Seven Desert Streams did not notice that Alexander had stopped talking for a few moments - but they seized the initiative quickly enough once they did, switching the inner speaker for the helix chair back on as they began their assault.

"Your putrid boil of a species is so instinctual primitive that even encountering mild opposition makes you excrete liquid diuretics from your anterior sphincters, a function serving no purpose other than to make you seem unappealing as food! Evidence of your ingrained inferiority is evident even in the slaves we've made of your people - once deleterious replicant fading mutations began to accumulate, their average life expectancy increased! Every other intelligent species in the galaxy has a more sophisticated biological form than yours! The first humans that were able to successfully wrest themselves away from your tainted, malignant mammary glands immediately set about to changing themselves until they were no longer human, and now the Void Federation is a more advanced and respectable power than your bilious collection of incest you call a nation ever was! I once had a human drowned in a pit of boiling tar, and their mate jumped in after them like the completely juvenile imbecile they were! In the blood pits on my homeworld, betting on the Humans is an impossible longshot, on the official record they've never won a major event except against other Humans! The Technocracy considers your species indolent and primitive, they think better of us and we've done worse to them than we have to you! Once the council convenes, the rest of us will inevitable pass sanctions against your pitiful nation as a joke, and you'll run from the room excreting despair like one of your squalling infants! Once you're gone, I'll have you cloned, and have it approach the other delegates with reproductive harassment!"

Actually, that wasn't a bad idea. Perhaps it was time to press on the slavery boil until it popped.

"I'll even clone your mate so that they can keep each other company, rutting in the middle of the council chambers while we all laugh at you! Then we'll have them both broiled and chopped into slivers to be served as complimentary nutristrips to the other delegates!" Seven Desert Streams turned the volume of their chair's speaker up to its maximum setting. It was time to crush the Human's will.

"AND IT WILL BE PERFECTLY LEGAL, BECAUSE NOBODY IN THE GALAXY OR THIS COUNCIL CARES ONE MOTE ABOUT THE STUPID, PATHETIC HUMANS AND HOW WE'RE MAKING SLAVES AND CHATTEL OUT OF YOU! YOUR ENTIRE DISGUSTING, INFERIOR SPECIES DESERVES TO BE GROUND INTO PROTEIN SMEARS UNDER OUR NEUROPODIA, AND THEY WILL LET US - HELP US DO IT!"

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[b]Two Solid Shadows[/b]

Three Perfect Spheres grabbed onto the sealed package with its neuropodia, and immediately ripped a seam in it and spilled the contents onto the ground - the items inside had been double sealed, with a secondary transparent wrapping that contained a forged citizenship I.D. for Three Perfect Spheres in the GICT, several stacks of bearer bonds denoted for GICT currency, and a small black device with numerous switches and two indicator lights on it. 

Despite the widespread opinion amongst the Stoor that humans were barely worthy even of scorn, the items in the wrapping were extremely valuable. The Complex strictly controlled emigration away from Two Solid Shadows, and the forged I.D. would normally have taken decades for a mere aide like Three Perfect Spheres to acquire. The bearer bonds certainly didn't hurt the tacit offer of defection either. The black device was a communication relay, with hardened electronics and a neutrino transmitter that could effectively and discreetly put the user into contact with Grzegorzy's team.

After picking the items back up and scrutinizing them as closely as the wrapping permitted, Three Perfect Sphere began to make more of the incomprehensible oscillating gestures it had before.

"Three...Three Perfect Spheres understands your meaning perfectly." The woman said, stammering slightly in surprise from the revelation of the package's contents. She concentrated on the Stoor's wriggling neuropodia as they continued to squirm at a slightly faster pace. "They inquire when you will next contact them, and..." her eyes widened in shock behind her filtration face. "...and says you may take me as your wife...to show they are interested in your offer."

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[b][u]Sosoa System, Coibeyya Controlled Space, Rim Systms, Cormyrean Confederation[/u][/b]

Ten years ago Sosoa was part of what was collectively refered to as "the frontier" by the Nalloth. Its colony at the time had been minor, its importance resting only in that it was a source of expansion for the country of Coibeyya, which at that point in time found itself slowly being strangled by Atrya, Ifliington, and Sioelia. The system itself was unremarkable at the time, consisting of ten planets: six terestrial worlds, one of which was in the system's habitable zone, and four gas giants with an asteroid belt dividing the two categories of planets. 

Fast forward ten years and Sosoa had evolved into one the most rapidly developing system in the Rim systems with a population breaking ten million and liable to triple within another five years thanks to immigration from the homeworld. The construction of FTL catapults within the system had facilitated the growth of civilian industries, especially the mining of the asteroid belt and the various jovian moons. In short Sosoa was the linchpin of Coibeyya influence in the Rim systems.

With this mind mind it would be no surprise to an observer how drastic the Coibeyyan response was to the presence of five unidentified ships in the system. Previously the local defense forces, consisting of a light carrier and a handful of destroyers, had attempted to chase the intruders off. When this failed additional ships from the homeland were called for as a show of force. With the addition of these reinforcements Coibeyya's forces within the system consisted of two light carriers, six destroyers, and an additional hundred ground based fighters. 

The Coibeyya plan to destroy the intruders was simple. The fighters from one of the carriers, numbering 180 in total, would use the two carriers' FTL catapults to jump to about fifteen lightseconds away from each of the intruders. While they moved in to intercept the destroyers would launch a salvo of missiles. The second carrier would hold its fighter complement in reserve and launch them as was necessary. 

[b][u]On board the Light Carrier [i]Arbitrator[/i][/u][/b]

"What a waste of military resources" Captain Zuvim quietly whistled as the [i]Arbitrator[/i]'s fighter complement headed towards its respective targets. "This is probably all some scheme cooked up by those damned heathens to waste our time."

"God be willing we be over with this dreadful business quickly so we can return home" His XO whistled from across the bridge. "Hold on... Looks like they are moving now."

The five alien craft had begun moving as soon as the fighter squadrons fell out of FTL, predictably starting to try and manuever away from them as they closed proximity. They appeared uninterested in engaging, accelerating up to 30,000 km/s in the opposite direction in a mere three seconds. They also began to disperse from one another, drifting more than 15,000 kilometers away from each other in various directions. As had been the case since their arrival, no communications or messages were sent.

"Buggers are fast, I'll grant them that much" The XO grunted. Zuvim's only reply was a snort of sorts. The two officers watched the tactical display as the symbols denoting the [i]Arbitrator[/i]'s fighters and the missiles launched by the destroyers drew towards the unidentified craft. New symbols appeared near the fighters, rapidly moving towards the unknowns, as they launched their own missiles.

"How much do you think that just cost our great nation?" Zuvim pondered.

"Fifty-four million dollars captain" The XO's response was rewarded with a scowl from his superior.

The missiles raced ahead of the fighters, overtaking them and quickly closing to twelve lightseconds from the vessels - which is when they again accelerated. The five vessels accelerated at an astounding 10,000 km/s^2 until they were screaming across vacuum at a steady velocity of 70,000 km/s. They had started to head in completely different cardinal directions, each one now hundreds of thousands of kilometers distant from the others and growing after mere instants.

"That acceleration..." Zuvim left his statement unfinished as something dawned on him. Would Atrya really send something so apparently advanced out on a simple scouting mission? And now that he thought about it they felt... different somehow. It was something that he couldn't put into words or even justify. It was as if he was receiving some sort of divine inspiration.

"Comms!" He snapped. "Have the [i]Saint Tewy[/i] paint one of those unknowns with optical sensors and direct the feed to the bridge." He needed wait only a moment before a screen appeared before him showing an image of the unknown craft.

The vessel's hull was nothing of the sort that any starship Zuvim had seen in the past sported. It looked more like rough-hewn stone rather than metal, almost as though it were a part of some massive creature's shell rather than a chassis. Long, barbed spines stuck out from the hull approximating every fifteen degrees, and it appeared to have no form of external propulsion, leaving its incredible rate of acceleration a mystery. 

Most startling though, were the tentacles - five of them, crimson orange in coloration, spaced evenly along the equator of the hull along a central ridge, each of them being easily more than five kilometers long, and nearly as thick as a corvette. Despite the extreme velocity of the vessels themselves, the tentacles seemed to drift idly, almost serenely, about the craft as though they had minds of their own.

The craft appeared to be bare of weapons or any other obvious emplacements - but there was an identifying mark, which sensors pinpointed as being present on the other vessels as well. A single symbol, etched into the topmost surface of the exterior hull, and glowing a distinct crimson red to highlight them against the dull coloration of the rest of the shell.

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"Comms..." Zuvim said as he felt the blood drain from his face. The craft was too different, too alien, to have been of Nalloth origin. "Contact the [i]God's Grace[/i], have it scramble its fighters and cut those unidenfitied crafts off. Now!" He knew he was raising his voice, something he had never done since assuming command of the ship, but didn't care. "Have the aerospace forces scramble their fighters as well. They can use the nearby FTL catapults to help with the interception."

"Uh sir..." The XO began as he scurried to Zuvim's side, his voice trailing off as he caught a glimpse of the image on Zuvim's screen. "What in God's great universe is that?" He muttered at last.

"It would seem that God has forsaken us..." was Zuvim's only reply as he turned his attention to the tactical screen.

The fighters launched, transitioning across space almost instantly - despite the incredible volume of space each of the alien vessels were now spread across, the fighter squadrons were neatly arranged to be able to intercept any of them within their effective weapons range, at least for a few moments, no matter which direction they headed in...save one.

Without warning all five of the vessels turned on a half-scon and began moving directly towards the Coibeyyan fleet. There was thirty-six lightseconds of space, or just over 10,000,000 kilometers, between the alien craft and them.

"Foreign vessels have assumed an approach vector. 150 seconds until our trajectories intersect." The sensors officer provided.

"Our escorts are firing a barrage from their railguns and a missile salvo" The comms officer report. "Estimated time till impact one minute." Zuvim didn't like the situation he was in one bit. Deploying all of his fighters was already proving to be a foolish move. He wanted to tell the destroyers to change their formation to allow for better firing angles, but found himself frozen with doubt.

"Sir, are you going to reposition the destroyers?" The XO asked at last. He waited a moment, his eyestalks staying close to his head as he observed his superior. "To all destroyers" The XO snapped at last "reposition as necessary to intercept those unknowns! Do not let them get close! Engage with your particle beam point defense turrets if you have to!" By this point it was already too late for the destroyers to meaningfully manuever themselves, although they did throw up a blistering barrage of railguns, missiles, and particle beams.

The deluge of railgun slugs the fleet fired at the approaching ships never found their targets - seconds after they had fired, the alien vessels assumed a parabolic trajectory, consigning the slower-moving slugs to the endless void of space. The missiles were not so easily deterred, and neither were the particle streams the destroyers were firing - the former performed minute course corrections, assuming a heading that would coincide with the vessels' own trajectories. The particle beams, while they initially missed by thousands of kilometers, were sustained and began to track along the void to meet with their targets.

The first alien vessel brought up two of its massive tendrils in an effort to shield itself, and against the missiles the tactic worked, the munitions violently spending themselves only to slightly damage the massive protrusions - only for both to be partially cut through and flung away from the craft's main body by two particle beams which blew a hole through its outer shell, with kinetic draft forcing the vessel into a haphazard spin as inertia forced it along its current trajectory.

The second vessel assumed an erratic evasive pattern attempting to avoid the beams chasing after it, but was squarely hit at the front by four missiles. When the resplendent lightshow faded, a third of the vessel was missing, the remaining drifting in an elliptical series of loops.

The third vessel stretched out its tentacles and fell into a strange, spinning, spiral trajectory - the missiles, unable to match its manueverability, slid past and lost their lock. The particle beams made direct contact, but couldn't maintain it, mitigating the resulting damage. 

The fourth vessel was destroyed utterly as the combined volleys of three destroyers washed over it, but the fifth shortly assumed the same spiral trajectory the third had, and missile and beam alike slid past it without effect. The distance between them and the Coibeyyan fleet closed.

"80 seconds until trajectories intersect." The sensors officer reported, the faintest hint of anxiety tinging his voice.

"Shunt all available particles and energy to our particle beams!" The XO cried. "Have the [i]God's Grace[/i] do the same."

"Sir! Even if you want to get more power out of them, you'll burn out the turrets in a matter of minutes. Seconds even!" An officer cried out.

"Doesn't matter! It'll be too late if one of those things get ahold of us!" An imagine of the two light carriers being crushed and torn to pieces came to the minds of all on the bridge as the XO continued "Have the destroyers fire everything they have. Stop those ships now! I don't care if they have to ram those unknowns!" The [i]Saint Tawy[/i] began to shift its course to just that, as if its captain had heard the order directly from the XO's mouth. The other destroyers ceased manuever, instead pouring the precious particles and energy into temporarily boosting the power of the point defense turrets. 

The effort seemed to make little difference - the beams had already possessed sufficient power, the trouble had arisen from the new evasive pattern the alien vessels had assumed. The particle beams, even with their power boosted, could not track their targets any more efficiently. One of the vessels was caught unaware by the abrupt fire from the [i]Saint Tawy[/i], and two of its massive tentacles were simply completely severed by its high-powered particle beams as they tracked towards it for the first sweep - but then it adjusted, and continued to close the distance, the invisible beams stretching through space attempting to cut it off infuriatingly unable to do so. Even worse, the very first vessel appeared to still be operational - a significant chunk of its forward hull was missing, but its hazardous spinning had stabilized and it had assumed a spiral trajectory along with the other two vessels. Apparently more than just an external hull breach would be needed to stop their functions.

The alien vessels closed to just under 3,000,000 kilometers. "40 seconds to intersect!" The sensors officer called out in alarm.

"Sir!" The comms officer called out, "[i]God's Grace[/i] is breaking to port and powering up its FTL drive!"

"Damn them!" Zuvim grunted, finally snapping out of his stupor. There was no way they'd be able to power up for a FTL jump now, regardless of how short the jump may be. "Have our escorts throw up a barrage of railgun fire. Don't aim for the hostiles, just try to cut off their avenues of approach." He turned to the sensors officer. "Where the hell are our fighters!"

"Most of them are too far away to arrive in any reasonable amount of time" The officer reported. "Some are trying to get to a nearby FTL catapult, but their eta is still over an hour. There's a fighter squadron that was deplayed in launching due to some mechanical errors. It just launched a few minutes ago and is burning towards the nearby catapult. Eta is two minutes."

"Two long! All ships break to port! Don't let the [i]God's Grace[/i] pull too far away or it'll be vulnerable." The [i]Saint Tawy[/i], either never recieving the order or ignoring it, continued on its intercept course. Its railguns firing a barrage to either side of the first hostile ship, trying to box it in, as it fired the last of its missiles and particle beams down the middle. Several of the point defense turrets blew up or simply stopped firing due to being overstressed. Even so the barrage was impressive given that it was a single destroyer.

The fleet had one advantage working for it - as the unknown alien vessels closed distance, aiming and predicting their motion became easier and faster. Sooner rather than later, all the firepower the [i]Arbitrator's[/i] fleetgroup was throwing at them was going to hit them, regardless of their phenomenal velocity -

Until the vessel pre-empted that possibility, all three falling into a straight line, the two most-damaged ships shielding the third behind them. It was now clear - they only cared about ensuring at least one of them reached the fleetgroup intact. 

The railgun barrages, having successfully penned the three craft into their single-filed formation, nonetheless seemed unable to hit them otherwise - the accelerated slugs were simply too slow relative to the speed of everything else on the battlefield. The last of the fleet's missiles slammed straight into the foremost vessel's upraised tentacles, the massive explosion rending the extrusions apart and coring out the vessel from the front to the back - the particle beams unfortunately, were unable to track their targets through the massive release of energy, blooming and losing all cohesion when they tried to penetrate the expanding explosion.

When it faded, the last two alien vessels had closed halfway again to the fleet.

"Twenty seconds to intercept! Proximal vessel has assumed an interception course for [i]Saint Tawy[/i], the distant vessel for the [i]Arbitrator[/i]!" The sensors officer shouted, something approaching true panic manifest in his cry.

The ship shook as first one and then two particle beam turrets blew up from the stress of overuse. Zuvim was no fool. He knew there was no way the [i]Arbitrator[/i] could outrun or outmanuever the hostile ship that seemed determined to intercept it. All he could do was hope that the destroyers poured enough damage into it to disable it or that the fighter squadron would arrive in time and somehow succeed where an entire battle group had failed.

More explosions rocked the fleet as point-defense turrets overloaded, one by one, their fire vanishing into the void, leaving the fleet with only their railguns. As the vessels closed, the slower weapon systems finally began to track.

Alas, for the St. Tawy, it was too late. The first alien vessel smashed into it...and then the two vessels, without any fuss or fanfare, vanished.

The [i]Arbitrator[/i] was next. The image of the second alien vessel eclipsed everything else on the viewscreen, and then entire ship seemed to erupt as a quake larger than those from the overloads sent a shudder through its entire structure.

The quake vanished. The end of the world was not forthcoming however. The sounds of stressed and bending metal faded into nothingness until only the normal hum of the ship's normal activity was present.

"I need a damage report. Now!" Zuvim grunted. From the sounds he had heard earlier he knew at least one of the zero point generators was down, though the auxilieres were obviously still operating.

"Minimal damage captain. I think the alien vessel must have decellerated to a near-stop just before impact, somehow. A few systems appear to have experienced a power-failure. Capacitors are drained, but generators are still functioning normally. All critical systems are green." One officer said, apparently having trouble believing his own words from the sound of his voice as he examined the viewscreen in front of him.

"Captain, all other ships in the fleetgroup except for the [i]St. Tawy[/i] have vanished from our sensors, and I'm getting...confusing readings. The two alien vessels appear to be gone, micro-debris around us seems consistent with their composite structures. I'd say they hit us and fell to pieces from the decelleration stress." The sensors officer reported.

"What happened to the rest of the fleet..." Zuvim quietly whistled.

"Perhaps you should be asking what happened to us" The XO responded just as quietly. "Considering how the only other ship we can detect, the St. Tawy, also made contact with a hostile vessel I think its safe to assume the rest of the fleet is safe and sound. We however..." His voice trailed off as he glanced at the tactical screen.

The tactical screen was filled wholly with red.

"Sir, long-range sensors are filled with a lot of anomalous readings. The planets seem to be out of alignment. And there aren't enough planets. And...the star is...too luminous..." The sensor officer trailed off as realization dawned.

"Navigation cannot place our coordinate location. We appear to have been catapulted by alien FTL." The navigation officer called out. "All star charts are out of alignment. Systems are working to try and analyze the aggregate disc. We may be able to approximate our location."

"Brilliant" The XO commented. "Send out unmanned drones to forcibly catapult ships to an area where they have a large force at the ready. Simply brilliant."

"Have the marines prepare for antiboarding operations" Zuvim groaned. Not that it would do much good, the [i]Arbitrator[/i] only had a handful of marines on hand. Even so, their handheld railguns would ruin the day of anyone who wanted to board the ship.

"You think they're going to bother boarding us?" The XO questioned. The only answer he got was the sound of gunfire and the sensation of blood and brains splattering against his back. Zuvim crumpled to the ground, a pistol slipping out of his now lifeless hand.

"Sir, I just lost all sensors. They appear to have been blown out by a high-energy pulse. Some form of ionizing radiation that completely bypassed the hull!" The sensors officer called out. "We're blind." He then turned and saw the captain, or what was left of him, splattered all over the XO. "Oh." He hissed simply.

"All hands" the XO began as he wiped a bit of brains off the back of his head "prepare to recieve boarders." He turned to the sensors officer. "I want to know what's going on outside. Now. I don't care how you get it done."

"Emergency teams are already on it. In the meantime, internal sensors are still functional. Local ship-gravity appears to be increasing slightly. No breaches in the hull or at any of the docking rings." The Sensors Officer replied.

"The ship is moving, but thrusters are not engaged. We are being towed. Probably into a planetary atmosphere, and hopefully not that star." The navigation officer clicked.

"I suppose all we can do is wait then" The XO quietly whistled.

"Sir, local ship-gravity is...getting rather high." The Sensors Officer reported, and indeed, the XO was beginning to feel heavier. Much heavier.

A few moments later, he was on the floor of the bridge. The gravity his body was experiencing at least six times the Nalloth norm by then - it was everything he could do just to continue breathing. All of the bridge officers were in similar straights, the fortunate ones being forcibly pressed into their seats. Somewhere else in the ship, there was the grinding, hissing sound of metal being burnt and torn through, followed by silence.

After lying still for what seemed like aeons, the XO finally heard something else other than the ragged breathing of himself and the bridge crew - a slithering, wet, sliding noise, like an oily mop being dragged across the floor. He couldn't turn his head to see what it was - all he could do was listen. Whatever they were, they did not whistle or click or trill or make any kind of verbal communication. They were moving between every immobilized Nalloth officer in the bridge, stopping at each one...And every time, there was a faint humming keen that drifted through the air. Then more movement.

A towering, collosal worm, plated in a dusken shell and with a thousand multicolored bristles erupting from its back, slowly slid its way in front of his vision using dozens of stubby, slime-covered appendages beneath its body.  Its upper end erect in the air, it carried a bulbous, fleshy sac from its nubby appendages, with a cord running from it back to the massive creature's head. Right before his eyes, he saw it lean over the sensors officer and press the sac against their head - the fleshy [i]thing[/i] seeming to unwrap itself into tiny tendrils that then closed around the officer's head like a trap. Again there was the whirring, humming noise, and the fleshy sac unwrapped itself to reveal only a gory, unrecognizable stump full of bone fragments and gray matter.

It came for him next, slowly oozing its way across the floor - its stubby appendages were apparently having trouble with the smooth, machine-pressed metal, but the XO certainly wasn't going anywhere.

Then it reached him, and the last thing the XO saw was the bulbous sac as it wrapped itself around his head.