[@Hokum] The small Khaganate fleet dropped out of its SPS translation into a battle. Destructive Sporn weapon energies cut across the cold and vast darkness of space, colliding with the Quatis ships. The Khaganate fleet emerged in a roughly ellipsoid formation, with its twenty military vessels on the outside, protecting the small group of civilian ships within. They had been dragged here unwillingly, and Admiral Schmidt had sworn to protect them until his last breath. "No damage detected, Admiral, it seems that the Quatis shields are strong enough to hold back the weaponry of those alien vessels." "Then let us hope that ours will as well. Admiral, they're preparing for a second assault, and this one will be even stronger than the first!" "Status report," Admiral Schmidt ordered. He was one of the few on the bridge to remain completely calm in the face of these seemingly overwhelming enemies. The recently promoted admiral had been in many battles before, even as just a captain. [i]I hope I'll be able to lead a fleet rather than just one ship,[/i] he thought. "The hostile vessels have chased us here from our previous position, sir. The Quatis have changed into a circular, defensive formation. One of the small ships that was in the system has been teleported into what could possibly the Quatis flagship. The hostile aliens are indeed preparing for a second assault. All our weapon systems are ready, and our shields are fully charged." [b]ADMIRAL,[/b] Erwin could hear the robotic voice from the AIR core in the KSS [i]Capek[/i] say, [b]ACCORDING TO MY CALCULATIONS, OUR SHIELD SYSTEMS SHOULD BE ABLE TO WITHSTAND THE SECOND ASSAULT, ALTHOUGH ENEMY WEAPON ENERGY LEVELS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER THAN THOSE OF THE FIRST ASSAULT[/b] Chaos erupted in the bridge right then as Palin's message came in, and the subsequent confirmation that the Quatis' energy levels were spiking as well. Admiral Schmidt frowned. [i]Who do these Quatis think they are,[/i] he thought angrily. Still, he gave the order for all ships to fire at will. In mere seconds, the Khaganate ships opened fire. Khan-class Dreadnoughts rolled, aiming their auto-ballistic cannons at the Sporn ships, shooting a powerful broadside barrage of shells and superheated plasma packets as the Khaganate ships slowly continued moving forward. Khaganate battleships and dreadnoughts fired their torpedoes, attempting to destroy any Sporn ships flying in front of them. Laser and particle beams shot through the void, crossing the gap between the Khaganate and Sporn ships at relativistic speeds. Massive Gauss and Kinetic turrets fired, propelling ultradense projectiles towards the enemy ships using gravitic launchers and supercooled electromagnets, careful to avoid friendly fire. Point-defense turrets and laser grids stood ready as the shields were fully charged, ready to protect the Khaganate vessels against enemy attacks. Between it all, large swarms of fighters, bombers, and other, more exotic and powerful strike-craft flew. While they wouldn't be able to attack the Sporn ships due to the imminent capsule shielding, it was still a good exercise, and would help if the Sporn would send out any of their own fighter craft. Of course, in war, and especially battles in space, supply and logistics are important, and while many Khaganate ships are capable of producing their own ammunition, the importance of space battle logistics generally goes for the Khaganate as well. Normally, the Khaganate fleets have specialized, military support ships for those tasks, but unfortunately those are not present. Luckily for the Khaganate fleet however, several civilian ships were transported together with the military vessels as well, and those were quickly converted to provide the support the Khaganate vessels would need. None of this mattered for now though, for as soon as the Khaganate assault had died down, the Quatis erected their capsule shield around both fleets. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The shockwave reached the KSS [i]Aqua[/i] in moments. Even though it was no small ship compared to many of its fellow Second Fleet ships, it was still shaken vigorously. Captain West looked to her left, just in time to see the Khan-class dreadnought KSS [i]Krieg[/i] disappear into a micro-wormhole of its own making. Many of the more advanced and powerful Khaganate ships had the ability to make very short wormhole jumps, which they can use to quickly traverse the battlespace. In this case, however, the wormhole tunnel was closed from the shockwave just as the [i]Krieg[/i] had entered, meaning that the Khaganate Second Fleet had effectively lost that ship. Yet, the shockwave apparently had another effect. It somehow caused a black hole to appear on one of the planets in the Phantom Point. Luckily, captain West was as brilliant as some of the other scientists on the bridge, and a quick thinker as well. She immediately ordered to charge up the ship's wormhole generator, and then to use the spacetime folder and Exotic Matter Scaffolding Device to stop the black hole's growth. Since Khaganate wormhole are really just black holes that are tunnels, using the wormhole generator to stop the black hole from growing would work, was her reasoning. The ship continued on its course until it suddenly started to slow down. Captain West could see that the other ships around the [i]Aqua[/i] had also slowed down considerably. A simple scan revealed the issue: a ribbon-like entity that was made out of light. This issue got considerably worse as the outer planet of the system they were in blew up as soon as the entity touched it, and continued on its way towards the star. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Khan sat back in his throne. He was slightly overwhelmed by the events that previously happened almost at the same time. First, vice-admiral Knaggs, and even more surprising, the long-lost general Anderson, had appeared on the bridge, fully nude, and in pain. Then, a massive wormhole opened up, engulfing the fleet and bringing them to an unknown location. Only seconds later, the Khan received the message that general Nurzhan had returned, from the general himself. Now, the entity Fanny May was standing in the bridge of [i]his[/i] ship, after casually walking through a wall. The Khan was used to governing a nation, not being a character in a space opera, so it was somewhat understandable that he was a little overwhelmed. He saw her do away with Dino Gavon with a mere flick of a hand. Then, as she put all of the crew on the bridge in some sort of stasis, Fanny started monologuing. As soon as Yuri saw this, he opened his mouth to speak, but found that he could not find his voice, and so remained quiet. The Khan listened intently as he heard Fanny speak of destroying the strange aliens they just met. Whether she meant the Quatis, of which Admiral Gavon was part of, or the strange, yet unnamed aliens from the cylinder he did not know. She mentioned his people that had been abducted, so the Khan assumed the latter option. Again, the Khan began to speak, but again, he could not, and so he gave up as Fanny finished her speech. Then, she blinked out of existence while the bridge crew snapped out of their stasis. After giving an order NOT to try departing the wormhole they were in in any way, the Khan stood up from his throne and made his way to the sick bay as fast as he could. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Khan arrived in the medical bay as fast as he could. Given that he, as the Khaganate's Khan, had access to every available form of transport on the ship, this was very fast. He ordered the doctors to give Katie and Jens all the treatment they would need, and got himself a chair to sit down on while he waited for them to wake up.