[b]Galactic Announcement[/b]
"The Lakfakalle Cooperative Federation suggests the halfway point between the Kalle and Nikolien systems as the location for this central construction. There is a large debris field there, so you wouldn't have to ship in any materials. Plus, there is a large, somewhat intact ship there that could be used as a station. Besides, don't you think the center of galactic civilization should have some character to it? This debris field was obviously the site of a major battle, to have it turned into the center of galactic peace is somewhat poetic, is it not? Plus, we can easily bring in defense platforms from Lakfakalle there. Our trade lanes do not intersect with it, as our drives operate in real space, so it is not within our self-claimed territory. Oh, there's a problem. We don't have a standard system for the recognition of territory, that should be discussed in the first meeting as well."

[b]Sol System[/b]
The Imperials seemed surprised at the resistance, as they had assumed that there would be none at Sol. Warhead after warhead hit their shields, the entire barrage only managed to take out a few ships. They were instantly replaced by reserve vessels, so there was no telling how many casualties they took. The ships continued to advance, holding their fire for quite come time until they were almost at the defensive lines. having been pelted by long-range bombardment, their fleet had taken heavy losses (by Milky Way standards). However, every ship that they lost was just replaced with another one. 

Finally, they opened fire. Positron bolts smashed into the defending vessels, ripping into their shields. The Destroyers proved to have good targeting systems, many taking out fighters in a single attempt. The EMPs had no effect on the weapons or engines of the enemy, but they did seem to disperse their shields somewhat, allowing even a fighter to take down one of them. Apparently, they relied heavily on all-purpose shields. Probably to cut back on weight, their interuniversal transportation system may require more energy to transport more mass. 

"All equipped starships, the enemy fleet is now within streamer range!" The massage came from the [i]Starfire[/i]. "Open fire immediately!" 

The weapon ports of the LCF warships began to glow orange, before releasing the beam-like streams of antiprotons that had become so familiar to the citizens of the Federation. The streams cut the unshielded enemy warships straight in half with a single sweep, but simply pinged off the shields. Sensor probes transmitted shield frequency information back to the LCF warships, which then tuned their shield breakers to the corresponding frequency and fired. Green lines streaked out of the shield breaker turret housings, smashing into the enemy shields and breaking them like a glass on a concrete floor.