[center][b]DRACONIAN VERSUS VALKIAN[/b]
[b][u]FIGHT TO THE DEATH[/u][/b][/center]

---

[b][u]Uncharted Space 2: The Sequel[/b][/u]
A partially damaged Explorer, accompanied by an escorting Varren, had just finished both self-repairs to the fullest extent it could without a drydock, and finished scanning the second system. There had been no more incidents of note since the skirmish with the unknown aliens, and without serious damage preventing them to complete their objective, they continued onwards, rather than waste fuel. 

As they approached the edge of the star system, they began powering up their warp drives, and the crew went into pre-warp emergency state, everyone securing everything and climbing into cryopods. Anyone outside a cryopod could suffer from trauma from being torn apart and reassembled, since their mind would 'see' it happen, see it dissolve around it. At least, so the scientists think- no one has survived it, or survived with their sanity to the point of being able to speak. 

The two ships flashed, and were gone... and reappeared several lightyears away, in another system neighboring the Valk Home System. As the two ships had their alarms shut off, and the bridge crew stumbled out of their cryopods and to their stations, they met another chilling sight- five ships were flying through the void between the outermost two planets, actively scanning. All five simultaneously disappeared from the half-active sensors on the Explorer, before it could fully focus in on the ships. Obviously, they went passive before they could get an accurate reading.

As the crew came back online and studied the short recordings of what the weaker sensors picked up when they came online, they came to the conclusion that five smaller vessels are in striking vicinity. Already faced with having two or three enemies, they figured this one was hostile to. The ship commander, another Tinkerer, already figured that the best way to survive in galactic interactions is to be aggressive against enemies, and very defensive at home. Both of which they've done so far, and they've only sustained... somewhat minor damage. As it was, they were quite sure they could dispatch of the smaller ships just as they have with every other ship. The Varren had a kill; the Explorer three. Both ships moved forward, coming to full alert and sweeping the space around them with active sensors, searching.

Some time later, as they approached the first, outermost planet of the system, out of five planets, they detected slight energy readings from the other side. They quickly altered course, and began retreating from the planet. Several minutes later, sixteen signatures appeared around the planet, slingshotting themselves around to face the Explorer and Varren. When they pulled out of orbit and began aggressively moving towards the Explorer and Varren, the crew of the Varren... panicked. Four turrets opened fire without authorization. Eight slugs flew through the void, and went straight through three of the enemy ship signatures. Both of the ships paused in their retreat- the enemy was using decoys to scare them away. The Explorer brought its bow about, and prepared to meet the bluff head-on, while the Varren began moving into a supportive position. When the Explorer reached range, and fired a swarm of missiles, they quickly found out that all the ships were simply small decoys, half of which were destroyed by the swarm. 

Moments after absorbing the fact that they were not, in fact, outnumbered, at least at the present moment, the Explorer was abruptly blinded as active sensors very close to its hull lashed out, scanning the armor for weaknesses. The Valkians reeled- not even their mass-sense had felt anything moving- and struggled to regain their footing as a laser blasted into their armor. It fired for three seconds, burning through ablative, ceramic, titanium, carbon, and special armor alloys, and hit the arm that connected it to the ship.

With a sickening lurch, a plate of armor bigger than a frigate shook against neighboring and overlapping pieces, and slowly drifted off. The arm, relieved of its pressure and torn nearly in two, drifted slightly off, still connected to the ship. The entire crew watched, horrified, as the ship that had fired turned, and fled. Orders were shouted, and the crew dove into action, working desperately to do [i]something[/i] about the horrifying fact that they lost 20% of their forward armor, and lost a plate of armor that cost more than a multi-billion dollar ship. The Council would [b]not[/b] be happy, if they returned. 

They watched with even more horror as three groups of possible decoys approached, slinging across the planet's gravitational orbit. They approached, and the Explorer barely responded as pretty much all of the ship disappeared into just one group of four, due to the Varren's intervention. The lesser armored ship had moved closer to the Explorer, firing rounds at the fleeing Cirrus, failing to score any hits, and tried to cover the Explorer's newly unarmored section. Before it could, a barrage of a Nova's MAC rounds flew by. Several impacted the hull of the Varren, tearing off a small chunk of the lesser armored ship, but not enough to cripple it. The Varren returned fire, rolling and moving in front of the Explorer. The crew slowly came to as another MAC round flew past, and another scored a lucky hit. The round penetrated the almost entirely unarmored weakspot, burrowing into the ship and venting atmosphere into the void. 

The Explorer reeled again, coming very close to being mortally wounded. A small ship would've been outright destroyed by the round- as it was, it destroyed CIC and the XO ((XO being a sort of second-in-command)), leaving the emergency XO in the second CIC and the ship commander in the bridge left in charge. This time, the resolve of the crew hardened. Hatches were shut, those that could be saved were taken to the infirmary, and Engineers went to work, sealing and repairing everything they could. The souls of the Valkians hardened, and the Explorer turned to present full broadside armor to the incoming ships. Another barrage flew by, but the Explorer had already fired its engines, and may have been hit again had it not moved. When the Draconian ships came out of their low orbit, and approached the two damaged Valkian ships, they were met with fierce resistance. 

Outright, a Nova received its final rites as a lucky shot from the Varren tore it apart, shattering the hull and its innards. The other ships randomized their course, reducing the chances of being hit again to a very, very, very tiny chance. They got too close, though- the Explorer unleashed a three-fourths full force swarm, the fourth turret having been lost to the damage taken by the Novas. When the Explorer fired, though, a several missiles, maybe six total, diverted away to the rear of the Explorer. It became exceededly obvious as to why when the missiles approached an unknown target, split, and roared into a... Cirrus-class Lightship, which had just shut down its stealth systems in preparation of a fatal blow to the ship's FTL drives. The small, fragile ship was obliterated by the even smaller warheads, torn apart by the combination of high-explosive and armor-piercing warheads. 

This small victory caused the crew of the Explorer to cheer- another possibly fatal mistake, though not as much as their lengthy stunned silence. Before the Swarm missiles could close half the distance between the Explorer and the Draconian ships, the two Nimrod destroyers opened fire with their own. A storm of plasma point defense came online and fired on the incoming missiles, trying to target and sprayin'n'prayin'. The missiles, small enough to not be easily targeted, weaved their way through the void towards the Draconian destroyers. As they closed in, nothing could necessarily escape from the storm of short-range plasma erupting from the ship's plasma defense. 

One Nimrod went up in flames, little missiles tearing into the hull all over, explosions mounting as it pierced its shields and bucked into the hull. Moments later, a missile hit the engine room, and the entire ship erupted into pieces, flame and debris tearing it apart. The remaining Nova and Nimrod kept firing, tearing off chunks of the Varren as it moved to block the Explorer from more damage. The Explorer lashed out with its particle cannons, summoning energy from the rapidly draining supply, striking shield and doing little the damage. The Varren fired again, launching as many projectiles as it could, but only one managed to hit, taking off one of the engines of the Nova cruiser, smashing through its shields. 

It was then that the Nimrod destroyer unleashed a full salvo. A half-dozen sublight antimatter missiles fired, and were followed by over a hundred bomb-pumped laser missiles. If the Varren had any kind of medium shield, it may have survived the initial sublight barrage, but the damaged, heavy hull of the ship did little to protect it. The six missiles darted nearly instantaneously into the craters and holes in the armor. The entire forward section of the Varren blew into a massive fireball, radiating outward and shaking the Explorer it had saved. The Varren progressively destroyed itself, ammunition lockers, fuel tanks, and other rooms being consumed and exploding, adding to the damage. The rear section slowly began to tear itself apart, following the end of its bow. 

Shortly afterwards, the Explorer began picking up the distress signals of dozens of escape pods. Their kin had died to protect one of the seven legendary ships. They had survived genocide before; here is one that means true genocide against them. Armor plates rearranged, switching arms and extending to the side facing the last to enemy ships. They reloaded their swarmer missiles as fast as possible, and the particle cannon lashed out again. It broke through the Nimrod's shields, mercilessly cutting through the hull, scarring it. They scored a lucky hit; after the cannon lost power and began recharging, the ship still approached, but then a small explosion flared in one of the furrows wrought by the particle cannon, and then another. Moments later, the engines in the ship exploding, tearing the rear of the ship apart. 

The last ship took in the heavily wounded, possibly dying Explorer, and clearly rethought what it could do. It turned, and began limping away from the Explorer as fast as it could, desperately trying to escape the wounded ship's wrath. There was no way it'd close in on the ship to come around to its unprotected side in time to escape the swarmer missiles. 

Then the Explorer gave chase. While the Explorer may originally been outrun had the remaining Nova been fully repaired, it lost a third of its engine power, and had to make adjustments to keep it from knifing into a lower orbit, and sending itself into the atmosphere of the planet. The Explorer barely kept up, straining its thorium engine drives. The Nova, out of range of optimum firing range for both the swarmer missiles, and the particle cannon, charged up its last weapon. 

The Nova limped away, charging up its own FTL drive, getting ready to flee, and gain reinforcements. They had been expecting only one dreadnought, and a large freight ship. No regular warship was armored as much as the Explorer, not even a Battleship-X. When pain erupted inside the heads of the Draconians, and they slowly began dropping to the floor, unable to think or do anything, not even send a message, and the Nova stopped adjusting itself, the Valkians knew they won, at a heavy cost.

Days later, the ship returned to Valkian space, the Nova firmly secured to its hull. The outermost moon watched the Explorer limp into orbit and give out, scrambling messages all across the system. A Varren destroyed, the Explorer coming a fraction of an angle close to being destroyed, multibillion dollar plates of armor lost or critically damaged. A full crew of a nearly completely intact ship, ready for study and dissection, secrets to learn, data files to decrypt and understand.