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Date:March 28, 2289
The Glorious orbited the small brown planet. It's keep, a large box-like mineral harvester, rose up from the surface. It's coffers were full of minerals taken from this enemy planet. The Captain turned to his Comm Officer.
"How long before they should arrive?" he asked.
"About four hours before the first response team will arrive," responded the Officer.
"Good. Tell that pig to get moving. I don't want to be here when the entire UPA sector fleet gets here."
By now the mineral harvester had made orbit height and was turning around. Once it was pointed away from the central star for this system it began spooling up its sublight engines. The Glorious didn't hesitate to begin its own preparations for leaving this system. The United Planets of America would not be exactly happy to find out that the crew of the harvester murdered the entire population of this new colony world. Their weapons were known far and wide. Only the Hekius would dare challenge them to a battle. It would be nothing for the UPA to wipe away this small pirateer fleet. The Lojay were known to pillage themselves if they were desparate enough. The harvester began moving followed by the Glorious.
* * * * * * * * *
"Sir, I have just got word from subFleet 3 that Helgut IV was just hit by a pirate team. The EBC can find no signs of life on the planet."
"That makes the fifth planet to be hit today," observed Captain Burnes.
"No kidding. Can we locate the mothership yet?" asked Commodore Lanz.
"Just did, sir. Do you want to head there now?" asked the Intelligence Officer.
Lanz turned in his chair, "You bet. Begin warming up the engines. Take us to Full Alert, Battle Stations. Raise combat shields. Prepare to engage sensor diffusers."
Almost immediately the massive engines of the Dreadnought Class Starship began spewing out toxic plasma. A barrier of pure energy manifested itself around the ship. And sirens could be heard all through out the ship. "All hands, Battle Stations! All Combat Personnel Please proceed to Combat Positions! All Pilots, prepare to scramble fighters! General Quarters! This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill. All hands, Battle Stations!" called the Master Chief of the Deck. The Dreadnought began turning.
"Helmsman, open the warp tunnel." commanded Lanz.
A wall of energy began to form in front of the massive triangular ship, as the other ships that guarded this behemoth of power raced inside. The wall began to implode as a hole formed. In just twenty seconds the hole was transformed into a tunnel. The Dreadnought Freedom entered it and immediately disappeared with the tunnel, in a flash of light.
* * * * * * * * *
The Glorious was following the harvester out of the system when a disturbance in the fabric of space caused the Scanner Officer to look twice.
"Captain, You'd better get a look at this." called the Officer.
The Captain walked over and looked over the Scanner Officer's shoulder. "What is that?!" demanded the Captain
"I don't know. But it can't be UPA. They don't have that kind of power. The only thing they have that comes close is a Dreadnought. And they don't have any of those around here."
The disturbance quickly became a tear as the space around the system exploded around the pirate team. The tear was 5,000 miles by 6,000 miles. Out of it came thousands of ships. All of the fleet of aliens began heading towards the center of the galaxy. a few ships broke off from the fleet and attacked the pirate team. There was no battle. The team was annihilated by the more powerful ships. After three thousands ships passed through the rift in space it closed, leaving no evidence of its existence say for the wreckage of the pirate team. About two hours later a UPA scout team dropped out of hyperspace and found the wreckage of the pirate team.
* * * * * * * * *
The Lojay mothership drifted in space about 100 miles from the Freedom. The battle had been swift. The Lojay fleet had been unprepared for an attack by a much larger Dreadnought. The Lojay troops offered little resistance to the UPA Combat Soldiers. The Scout team had reported the wreckage of the pirate team.
"Wonder what got them. Oh well, get me the Admiral on the Comm. He needs to be made aware of our position." commanded Lanz.
* * * * * * * * *
Three hundred years have passed since the Rift first appeared. The war that the aliens caused ended thirty years after it started. The Freedom Alliance, that consited of the French Empire, the United Kingdom, the Yerda Star Republic, and the United Planets of America, had effectively confined the invaders to a twenty-three lightyear cube of space. Many years had passed and then the Rift began to reopen...