A system of seven planets had been discovered by a scientist on a comfy chair on his home planet of Earth. Four of which have been deemed possibly habitable. With this find so close to Earth, and the reality of an already over populated planet, the Emperor sent a small fleet of seven ships to probe the system and confirm whether or not, they are indeed habitable for human colonisation, of which they indeed are.
The lead ship's command bridge had the soft green glow from its control terminals, light had been reduced to a minimum inside during the travel of their final jump. The Axiom is a proud ship of the Human fleet, complete with a shining silver hull with a single navy blue stripe down the centre of it's beautiful slender frame. The Axiom swam through the void, bringing the ten thousand souls to their latest mission. The long silver smooth ship ran two kilometres in length.
"Captain, we will be leaving Jump Travel within ten minutes, all other ships are alerted." said the chief helmsman. Captain Smith nodded his head in acknowledgement, standing proud in his clean and pressed uniform, at an age of seventy, he had a long and pristine career where his long years of service will not be soon forgotten by the people of Luna, Earth's moon. Captain Smith was the primary officer involved in crushing the Luna rebellion some years ago. Losing many lives in that dreadful conflict, but saving, so many more.
Returning to his luxurious chair, to await the empty void of space surrounding the designated Merriden System, he lazily watched the countdown to their new home, which had been confirmed to support no civilised life by high command.
Nothing could have prepared him for what actually awaited the expedition fleet. The reports Earth prepared were wrong.
The White walls of the Space station orbiting the fourth planet gleamed as The Gryph aliens worked away at their almost transparent consoles, their long slender frames dressed in soft blue cloth that clung to their bodies. Their eyes oval and a light blue, darting across their consoles, occasionally calling out numbers and requests.
"Governor Arden! A moment, please!" called out a paling Gryph who's electric blue eyes edged closer to his consoles, sweeping back his thick cream coloured dreadlocks as the Governor approached his station.
"yes Junior?"
"Governor, we have seven signatures, subject to enter near the northern hemisphere of the planet."
"Alert the defensive fleet, send a formation to intercept the co-ordinates."
"Aye, Governor."
"Commence Security Procedures." said Arden flatly
The command floor momentarily fell silent before security teams entered the room, strapping on long helmets to cover their oval heads, and the aliens at their consoles began barking out dispatch orders to their corresponding ships. The walls began to dim, it was the walls that provided the light in the circular command room. The glass roof, no longer reflecting the chaos of the command floor and scurrying Gryph. Now the lights had dimmed, the glass became transparent and the endless, cold embrace of space could be seen. An orange circle bearing a timer had positioned itself on the glass where the signature readings would show themselves.
The Axiom command bridge buzzed with excitement as Captain Smith dialled another ship that was riding along side. "Axiom to Divergence. Danny, it's nearly time, we're here. This will be an enormous winner for us! Be sure to get your dress blues cleaned! Axiom Out." and with the Captain cutting off the message to the Divergence Captain, the chief helmsman called over his shoulder, "Sir, we are exiting warp, in three...two... one... mark." The Axiom glided through the warp as graceful as an angel followed by its following six cruisers. The Axiom, Divergence, Faithful Hand, The Spirit of Terra, The Wyre, The Jenny Lee and The Hammer Head, all left the warp together in a perfect triangle formation with the Axiom at the spear head.
All the Captains and Bridge crew saw when their ships steadied, was the battle ready armada that lay waiting for them, however the comms remained silent. Captain Smith stood blinking at the floating emerald uniform ships, at least seventy strong, and all had their weapons aimed directly at his small party.
After what felt like hours, was merely minutes. The Helmsman placed his headphone receiver into another port to make what he was now hearing to be put onto the speakers in the bridge.
"Jenny Lee, moving into defence formation Delta, priming weapons, Hammer Head, take the left, Wyre, take the right, Spirit, you go high, Axiom and Divergence, go low! Let's try outflank their weapons, and get out of here!" came a muffled static voice from the Jenny Lee as The Axion remained still.
With the sudden, aggressive movement of the six human ships, The Lead Gryph Ship fired a single shot.
A massive blue gel like beam left the gryph charged weapon and sailed through the motionless void with hellish speed. The first round penetrated the fore-port side of The Spirit of Terra, and exited through Aft Starboard, followed by the horrific explosion of the warp reactor. Captain Smith's face glowed with the fire of The Spirit Of Terra, awed with shock, his mouth soundlessly muttering.
"All Ships, this is Captain Daniel Arburrow, I am taking command! All Ships open fire! Open fire! Cover the retreat!"
The remaining five active ships opened fire. Dozens of cannons unloaded everything they had, their muzzle flashes could be seen from the Gryph space station. Before their first projectile could hit the Gryph ship, their counter measures had destroyed most of the missiles. Only six of the Gryph ships answered the insult of fire. Six more blue gel's entered the void, heading straight for the Human ships.
Captain Smith's brain finally entered action. "Reverse sub-light thrusters, hard to port!" the bridge quickly began to shudder with the sudden violent movements of the craft. The Hammerhead drove just below the Axiom in a plot to avoid the oncoming blue plasma, however, the ship did not move fast enough, The blue plasma gel smashed into the aft starboard of the ship and pummelled its way through the interior of the interstellar cruiser, instantly incinerating any crew that befell it's murderous path until it exited the ship on the aft port side, leaving a gaping wound spilling out debris from the Hammerheads body. The Hammerhead's shell very quickly fell apart as a chain reaction from the sub-light engines engulfed the ship in a hell-fire. The Captain could not even order an evacuation before the ship was obliterated. The shock waves from this explosion forced The Axiom upwards in a gut wrenching jolt, Captain Smith was thrown with the rest of his crew suddenly towards the front of the room. His head colliding with the helm console, the warm wet blood now flowing from a fresh gash on his forehead, his white hair now showing a crimson stream. Unable to regain his foot hold, the old man's vision became impaired, blurry figures danced around him, rushing from console to console, shouting out reports. Captain Smith felt a sensation he had not felt in more than three decades. He felt drunk. With another sudden jolt the Captain was pulled from the side of the helm console by a shadowed figure and dragged to the rear of the room where he was propped up again the cold metal wall. An unfocused face was now inches from his own, a dull voice echoed through his ears, unable to focus, unable to hear, Smith blinked, shaking his head, hoping this would allow the crew member to understand his words could not get through.
The Bridge soon did not glow with the green hint from the consoles or the flashes of the weapons, but quickly grew blue.
"Sir! Plasma, incoming! Brace for impa... Evacuate the bridge! It's heading straight for us!" cried a tactical officer in a breaking fearful voice. Captain Smith tried his very best to regain focus in his good eye, only to see the electric blue gel impact the reinforced glass of the bridges skin and turn into fire as it engulfed the once proud ship and it's crew.
The Junior Aliens stood in awe as they observed the scene of carnage, security teams stood silently still, awaiting their next orders, Governor Arden stood limply shaking his head as he watch the final ship burst into a fire ball of orange and blue. The Jenny Lee fell apart with all hands, just like all the other ships, wreckages drifting through the once again silent, peaceful void. The Senior Communications team stood by the blue glowing consoles with their long mouths drooping open as Governor Arden approached them.
"Find out where they came from! send a message, we will not tolerate any bullying from any race of alien! I want all available information about our new enemy!"