[b]IR1211 (5 years prior to current events)
1st Imperial Morte Expeditionary Fleet
31 minutes until reaching Blume Vier[/b]

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"[i]Leutnant Kranke, status report![/i]" Kampführer Sterbstahl asked impatiently. It had been 94 seconds since his request and by computer terms that time equaled an eternity. "[i]No result, Sir. Without a proper context or common basis of language we have no way of decoding the message.[/i]" Leonore Kranke the Tannhäuser's communications officer said. "[i]How about interstellar first contact as the context and using our own standard message for this occasion as the basis?[/i]" Said Sterbstahl in response. "[i]Wouldn't that be assuming too much, Sir? Also to my knowledge the Morte Empire never made a standard first contact message. Not unless you count evasive maneuvers to hostile fire as that.[/i]" Indeed, first contact with other races was nothing less than disaster. If you look at it from a certain angle the Reich's history was nothing but a series of diplomatic failures. Not like the Morteans had any choice in the matter. "[i]...Right. Just use whatever I did 5 minutes ago and see if we can get something comprehensible, okay? These xenos don't shoot at us, that's already a plu-...[/i]" Kampführer Sterbstahl was interrupted by the automatic siren. "[i]...What's going on!?[/i]" "[i]Sir, it's a space-time distortion ahead our route![/i]" "[i]A hyperspace exit?[/i]" "[i]No Sir, but definitely something similar![/i]" Oberleutnant Henlein said, provoking a sigh from Leutnant Kranke with a silent remark. "[i]So much for the peace...[/i]"

[quote=@SgtEasy]Anton looked out and saw an anomaly in the corner of his eye. A Flingshot portal. A deep purple radiated from the portal, looking sick and demented. To his horror, he saw as purple boarding pods flew at a percentage of light speed and crashed into his ship, the [i]Hero of the Poor[/i] and two ships in the Xenos ship.[/quote]

Accidents could happen. Maybe a distant alien fleet innocously choose that place as their jump exit, unaware of the incoming Mortean ships in their way. It could've been also a brazen and very straightforward greeting from an otherwise benevolent race. The Mortean soldiers thought none of these. Just freshly out of the 3rd Luxon War the crew knew all about the terrors of hyperspace ambushes and drilled relentlessly to counter these, their actions almost going by pure instinct. Before the portal could even stabilize the Mortean fleet opened fire. They began with counter-missiles: antimatter shaped charges, durachrome multi-kinetic impactors, beehive kinetic cloud interceptors, durachrome cloud beam disperser warheads and the like. Meanwhile the Destroyer squadrons finished turning, pointing their cannons towards the opening of the portal. The Schwertjager-class was developed precisely with such attacks in mind. By the time the enemy surfaced from the purple gates they were welcome with almost 500 tons worth of relativistic missile payload and over 20 exajoules of superluminal directed energy.

"[i]Target is destroyed, Sir! Judging from the energy fluctuations in the jump portal prior the opposing fleet was numbered four medium vessels.[/i]" Oberleutnant Braun made his routine report. "[i]Any survivors?[/i]" Kampführer Sterbstahl asked, even if he already knew the answer. "[i]None unless you count their constituent atoms, we disintegrated them completely Sir.[/i]" Oberleutnant Braun gave the expected reply. Pitting 4 ships against over 500 in a close range shoot-out bears rapid and excessively destructive results. Whether the xenos were hostile or peaceful no longer mattered. They were gone as soon as they had appeared. "[i]Any way to identify them?[/i]" "[i]Well, without any wreckage it's going to be difficult, Sir. Maybe I can grab a few frames from our high-speed hypertelescope footage.[/i]" Oberleutnant Braun said. This battle was closer to quick drill or joint target practice. It lasted only a few nanoseconds after the fleet fired their Grav Lances."[i]Alright, let's do it. Better to determine if we're dealing with a new enemy or if our would-be-friends suddenly turned hostile.[/i]" Kampführer Sterbstahl said, of course hoping for the former. Dealing with an unknown force may come later but if a nearby fleet with almost 60 warships were to turn against them it may even sabotage their colonization plan. For Morteans death is just matter of course. What they fear is failure to serve their empire. Making Blume Vier their fourth planet was vital for the Mortereich.

"[i]That may not be necessary Sir. It appears they're under attack by the same force. They suffered minor damage and about to finish off on their side.[/i]" Noted Oberleutant Braun after he checked the reports coming from other ships. "[i]Great, that means we got ourselvses caught in somebody else's war. Once we establish proper communications I'll be sure to remind them. Speaking of which...[/i]" With that Kampführer Sterbstahl focused his glare on the comms officer. "I-I didn't even have time to input the new parameters Sir. On the other hand I detected a distinct telepathic wave along with the message." Leonore Kranke reported her findings which chilled the bridge's atmosphere immediately. Morteans still remembered the horrors of the two Ixian Wars. Ix were a mysterious race with potent telepathic powers. They used otherwise harmless communications to plant subliminal messages in people and dominate their minds. Ever since then the Morte Empire employed through defense mechanisms to filter out any subliminals, hypnotic messages and especially isolate psychic waves of telepathy. "[i]All personnel aboard the bridge, level 3 quarantine! Grab the nearest brainwave scanner and perform the routine check! Nobody exits the bridge until we erased all suspicion![/i]" Kampführer immediately issues his order. Their psychic filters are potent but not invincible. They need to make sure their crew hadn't been telepathically compromised.

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"[i]All clear! No devices record any change on the crew's psyche. That's our luck, Sir![/i]" "[i]Luck has nothing to do with it, Leutnant. We can learn. And the Ixians taught us quite a lesson.[/i]" It took 13 minutes to scan every officer aboard the bridge. Until then the ship was commandeered from the auxiliary operations crew in the secondary bridge. The main staff took back control and resumed their course, estimated 18 minutes until they reach planet Blume Vier. "[i]Sir, what about the other fleet? Using telepathy is a clear sign of aggression against us![/i]" Said Victor Sturm, tactical officer. He was right, by the Moreans point of view anybody who tries to effect their minds should be punished the same if they were trying to directly harm them. Yet Kampführer Sterbstahl disagreed. "[i]Let's avoid further aggravating the situation! Our mission is to colonize Blume Vier. Unless that fleet gives us a clear sign of attack we should remain on standby. Is that clear everyone!?[/i]" "[i]Yes sir![/i]" The crew's response was immediate.