The Dimensional Mishap

"Vice Admirals Log Number 227. Admiral Kadstin is currently away from his post, as part of a meeting with the Board of Admiralty. This has left me as the current highest-ranking officer of the Federal 104th Fleet. As of recently, we have received a wideband distress signal. This signal originates from an Imperial Capital Class ship. We have not been able to ascertain the details of this ship's mission from the distress signal. As the highest-ranking officer, I have given the order to investigate the distress signal to understand what happened to her. End Log"

I leaned back in the center chair of the Farragut Battlecruiser, 'Capricorn'. "Sir, all ships are linked up and report green for Frameshift Drive. The course has been plotted and we should drop into dry space on the Galore's coordinates."

"Well done Navigations.," I congratulated Navigations Officer Whisley, "Helm, begin Frameshift Drive when ready." I ordered him.

"Roger that Vice Admiral," He began tapping some buttons on his control panel. "Beginning Frameshift Drive in three, two, one, Engage."

Within moments we entered witchspace with a thunderous roar. The glorious dimension that allowed us to get from system to system within moments. It was beautiful the first few times, but after a while, you get used to it. We exited with the same mountainous roar that we entered with.

Ahead of me was the wreckage of an Imperial Majestic Class Battlecruiser. Yet a green mist surrounded her corpse. I stood up from my seat slowly. Walking forward I spoke out, "What the he-" Before I could finish my sentence something rocked the ship. This sent me to the ground as whatever did that completely bypassed the Artificial Gravity's stabilizers. Right afterward red lights engaged throughout the ship and warning lights sounded, "Someone tell me what the hell just happened!" I got back up, understandably a little pissed

Everyone was hard to work, "Sir, something just put out a very powerful electromagnetic pulse. It got through all countermeasures and disabled many of our systems. Right now only Life Support, Gravity, short-range comms, and other essential systems. But long-range comms, thrusters, sensors, and other non-essential systems are all knocked out." Operations Officer Petranov reported in an accent reminiscent of Russian.

"Can it be fixed?" I asked.

"Yes sir, the EMP seems to have short-circuited a few parts we have spares off, McLaren is already on the job in the Engineering bay," Petranov responded, still tapping away on his panel.

"Just what happened to you, Galore?" I asked myself out loud, before steeling my resolve. "Is everyone able to handle what they need to do up here?" I asked the officers. all responded with a variation of 'aye'. "Alright good. I'm taking a group down there to see what happened down there for myself. Get me a Spec Op squad in the hanger prepped immediately." I knew none of them would oppose me. Being with the ones who actually got their feet dirty was my specialty. As much as it may seem, not everyone with a high rank prefers to sit in the safety of the Battlecruiser.

I walked through the ship briskly, nearly jogging. Stopping in my quarters I grabbed my armor and easily put it on over my uniform. I grabbed the helmet and made a beeline towards the armory in the back of the ship. I grabbed a rifle and holstered it on my back, as it would be needed more than the standard officer's pistol. Afterward, I made the quick trip to the hangar, where the squad was already awaiting me.

They quickly noticed me and snapped to attention. "At ease," I told them and their stiff poses relaxed, but they still kept up appearances. "Get into the dropship, I'll brief you all on the way in." First inside was me, followed by who appeared to be the leader of this particular squad, and then all of his subordinates. The moment we entered the more than spacious Federal Dropship, the door closed.

"Huddle up soldiers, I called out to the already close soldiers. Once all eight of them were with me, I began speaking of my strategy, "Alright, this is the ship that sent out a distress signal not too long ago. Yet the reck looks a few hours old at best so she's been wounded for some time. We need to get in and recover that BlackBox to find out what struck this ship. It will be in the command room," I used my wrist-mounted holo to create a projection of the Galore. We will land inside the top hangar bay, as it is the closest hangar to the command deck that is not destroyed. Upon touchdown, we will begin making a beeline straight to the command deck of this ship. We get what we came for and we get out. It's as easy as that."

"Rules of engagement sir?" He questioned.

"Crew Expendable. With their situation, I doubt anyone is alive anyways." By the time I finished speaking we had arrived at our destination.

The speakers throughout the dropship opened up, "Prepare for touchdown and have your helmets on, the moment we hit the ground the door opens." The pilot spoke to the current passengers aboard his ship. I put my helmet on and made sure it was secure.

On cue, the doorway opened to reveal a destroyed hangar interior. The inside was a total mess. The ships inside were destroyed entirely. Wreckage of Eagles, Clippers, and even their Cutters lined the walls and floors. Not a thing was left standing, and yet the 104th was not destroyed. We had time to get in and get what we came for, "I'll take lead, follow after me." Pushing forward, all eight other soldiers followed after me.

In the corridors lied more ruin and destruction of the ship. I ruled out pirates as we pushed further in, and this clearly wasn't a Federal Attack. We weren't even at war. The Alliance had an armistice with both great powers, so I doubt they would risk testing a weapon on the Empire. But with all of these options ruled out, none of it made sense.

As we continued, I noticed a body on the floor, away from their battle station. I leaned down to investigate the corpse. It was still fresh, but not warm. This confirmed my suspicions of the attack being hours old, and that the transmission was delayed. I stood back up, giving silent respect to the fallen soldier.

Continuing on there was a noise coming from a corridor to our left."Hold, I swear I'm not the only one that heard that." The others turned in the direction of the news. "We now have a secondary objective: Who, or what, is in here with us. On me soldiers." I walked down the secondary corridor into what was supposed to be the closest Hangar to the Imperial ship. It was a complete mess just like the last one, but the hangar should've been sealed shut by the debris. Yet in front of me was s ship of unknown design and an Imperial sailor. "Hold fire, they might prove useful." I lowered my weapon, while the others kept their weapons aimed properly.

She didn't notice me immediately, investigating the ship. "Imperial sailor, put your hands up slowly," They noticed me immediately, and yet they refused to do as they were told. They spun around and looked into my helmet. I'm sure the soldiers were questioning if to fire on the sailor.

"Of course the Federation is here. I was hoping a couple of independent pilots would show up, rather than you all. She spoke. Venom laced her voice. She was seemingly one of those who would have preffered the war go on longer. She raised her hands mockingly, "You caught me looking at your ship, oh no. What are you gonna do about it? Shotting me would be a waste of ammo at this point."

"That isn't ours, Imperial, drop the facade." I coerced her, trying not to make the situation worse.

She scoffed, "This isn't my ship, Fed, that's for certain, that leaves you all." Her words confused me. If it wasn't hers, then who the hell was it.

Quickly there was a roar echoing through the ship. It sounded like the roar of something exiting Witchspace, but more... Menacing. "Admiral we got a bogey that dropped out of Witchspace. Unknown Design. It bears the same signature of the pulse that struck us. Suggest you get out of there, now!"

"Fuck it." I cursed under my breath, "Leave her, she isn't worth the trouble. Let's go!" I began racing back to the dropship, parked in the other hangar, everyone else following me. We made it to the Dropship in record time, and the door was already open. I turned around and watched behind us as everyone entered the ship. After they entered I back in and slammed the side. The door closed and I heard us take off.

Pushing to the front, we had already exited the hangar into space, but the sight in front of me was unreal. There was one hostile contact. and it was big. yet without warning, what seemed to be nearly hundreds emanated from it. They tore through one of the Corvettes of the fleet in seconds, turning it into floating wreckage. "Gut us the hell in that Battlecruiser, now!" I spoke in haste to the pilot. Activating my comms I spoke to the bridge. Get everyone linked up and prepare for Frameshift Drive. We are leaving as soon as this ship gets in the hangar." I kept looking through the front as weapons fired upon the unknown entity. Unfortunately, it looked as if the bastard was taking no damage.

The pilot drifted around to line up with the hangar and straight into the slot. "We are inside, get us out of here!" I screamed into the communications with haste.

Immediately I heard the roar of the Battlecruiser and thought we were safe. That was until I heard some unfortunate words from the Captial ships speakers, "Warning Critical Framehsift failure, All hands brace! I repeat, All hands brace!" The ships shook violently, and this time it wasn't just the dropship. with a sudden jerk, everyone and everything not attached to a wall or sitting down was thrown to the floor. "Requesting Vice Admiral Wolfe to the deck immediately. I repeat, requesting Vice Admiral to the deck."