TR-108 surveyed her bridge, she was one of the sentient android models the creators had built. She resembled a young girl in her teens, of about average height. She had a modest chest with a small butt and a generally attractive slim figure. The only thing that marked her to be an android was her shoulder length light blue hair. Her sapphire blue eyes glowed slightly on her cute face. Her appearance being so human-like was to help people be more comfortable around synthetics. TR-108 is a command model outfitted with the appropriate software and hardware to serve as a commander. Her bridge was configured a lot like the one on the Enterprise, but instead of people only machines were working the consoles. They were cheaper inferior models to herself that lacked the hardware to support a full sentient AI.

She had been built a few years ago, and really liked the creators and knew why the others were inferior. The reason being more economic than anything else. For the most part the creators had left her rather free to make her own decisions and giving her the same rights they had. She did have a few directives that she had to follow, but she agreed with the directives anyway so they were unnecessary. She had also been equipped with a number of ethical subroutines. She was quite happy with the ship she had been given to command, thanks to the emotions the creators had given her. She could turn them off, if needed but she prefered them on. She was of the opinion that life was dull without them, and it helped her understand why all those machines in the ancient fictions she had found in the creator library went crazy. She had found them on an old data disk that had been gather dust. The file records had showed they hadn’t been accessed in decades, but she had been curious and watched them. Those movies were in part responsible for her current opinion of the creators. That they were good people worth protecting.

She was half lost in thought when one of her crewman, gave her a report.

“Transmission received, 84% probability of being a distress call, origin 3.4 lightyears distant, bearing 44 mark 12. Sensor readings indicate multiple ships engaged in heavy combat,” reported the drone at operations.

“Helm, alter course to intercept increase speed to warp seven. Maintain stealth running,” ordered TR-108. Referring to the fact that the ship, could actually cruise at a higher speed than her standard cruise speed thanks to a device called a subspace radiator. A technology that the refuge figured out while in the storm, thanks to having a vast wealth of data on hyperspace. However activating the device makes them visible on all sensor devices so the ship’s standard cruising speed it the highest speed she can maintain without revealing itself. With the radiator off the ship could cruise at warp seven for eighty four minutes before she started risking damage to the engines. The distance was one they could travel in that time frame, so they would only have to wait a little over an hour to reach the system.

Checking the readings of the battle herself, she noted the signatures matched ships seen by the fleet’s long range sensors before. It was yet another battle between the two forces that were fighting over this part of space. Not much was known about this conflict other than the fact that both sides were evenly matched, one through numbers the other quality. Close range data of the battle would be invaluable, and maybe they would be able to learn more about the powers fighting over this region.

Just in case she did a mental inventory of her Battlehawk class cruiser the Suzume and the two destroyers under her command the Scimitar and the Falchion. All three ships were fully armed and loaded. Her ships were carrying the newer photon torpedoes, over the old style fusion torpedoes. Her own ship had eight squadrons of the SF-1204 starfighter, four squadrons of newer SFH-Eagle heavy fighter, and four squadrons of the equally new SFB-Sparrow Bomber.

The SF-1204 had changed little from the original X-1204, but all her systems had been upgraded. Making it faster, more maneuverable and hit harder. Its four frontal particle cannons had been upgraded. Her four missile launchers were unchanged and neither were her twin micro torpedo launchers. She still carried eight missiles and six torpedoes. Although the missiles were of a new generation, and she now carried photon torpedoes. Armor thickness is unchanged at twelve centimeters, but upgraded to the mark four format. Her engines were upgraded to the latest generation. One thing of note is that she is now equipped with a short range tractor emitter, mounted aft.

The Eagle was designed to supplement the 1204 and is a two man fighter designed to dominate smaller craft like fighters and corvettes. While still remaining a threat to larger ships. Because of her larger size, it is a bit slower and less maneuverable than the 1204. However it makes up for it with by hitting harder and her thicker armor at twenty four centimeters let her shrug off hits that would have wounded the 1204.

The Eagle has eight forward particle cannons, four missile launchers and a micro torpedo launcher. Along with a rear mounted dual light particle cannon turret. She carries sixteen missiles and four torpedoes.

The Sparrow was designed to meet the need for a specialized auxiliary craft for engaging enemy starships. The battle in the clouds, would have gone better if the Enterprise had a dedicated bomber and so this was the ship built to meet that need. Equipped with a twin pulse wave engine, she is fairly fast and has good maneuverability for a bomber. Her armor is thirty five centimeters thick giving her far better protection than either the Eagle or the 1204. She is armed with two frontal heavy particle cannons, and an electro cannon. She has two bomb launchers designed to fire shield piercing photon bombs. Unlike the torp version the shorter range photon bombs have the space for a better shield penetrator guaranteeing penetration of enemy shields. Each bomber is designed to carry ten bombs each with a yield of five hundred megatons. A tri-mount light particle cannon turret is mounted on the rear to keep fighters off the bomber.

She gave orders to have her fighters and bombers fueled and readied for standby just in case they got caught in the crossfire. While she ordered the pilots to remain on standby until further notice. She also considered the pilots to be inferior to herself, but they did have the hardware to support an AI matrix. Mostly because the demands of fighter combat required that kind of hardware. Pilots needed quick thinking and adaptability as one wrong move could lead to the loss of your fighter. The M9 pilot drone was the latest in synthetic pilots, and while they lacked the instincts of a trained pilot, they could learn from each battle they fought in. Meaning they weren’t to underestimated in a fight. She had gotten to know the pilots on her ship, as their were only so many sentient AIs on her ship. Their were others of the same type as her onboard, in command positions as well. She had talked with them to, when she was bored.

A little over an hour later the ship came out of warp on the edge of the combat zone. Over a hundred ships were in the area fighting in deep space just a couple lightyears from the nearest solar system. Thirteen of the ships were perfect spheres, twelve clearly of a smaller class with a diameter of 600 meters. The larger one was significantly larger with a diameter of 4800 meters. Thousands of smaller spheres had been launched from theses ships that were clearly some kind of fighter. Engaging them were vessels that weren’t so geometric in design. Their ships narrowed towards the front and widened at the rear, with the top being mostly flat. With a large tower near the rear. Some of the bigger one’s had hanger doors here, and a catapult running the length of the hull. The ventral side of the hull, was typically rounded with the occasional protrusion. The largest of the ships in the second force was only four hundred and fifty meters long.

Looking at the field it was extremely obvious that the second force was escorting a number of transports. They had eight transports on the field, that her scans showed were packed to the brim with people and supplies. The transports were clearly attempting to withdraw from the field, while the other ships held off the attacking spheres. While it was clear that the second force was losing despite TR-108 was leaning towards not interfering in this alien war.

She new nothing about either side, and as such helping either party could be the wrong move. Of course doing nothing could also be the wrong move, but they had also been ordered to avoid unneeded combat. She signalled her two destroyers to stay in formation with her and kept the ship’s signature low.

Over the next few minutes, they watched the battle unfold. When suddenly one of the smaller spheres changed course straight for the Suzume and opened fire. A beam of green energy raked over her armored hull to little effect, and the Suzume returned fire. Glowing blue bolts of light lanced across the void, and impacted against the alien sphere. Nine of the twelve bolts passed right through the ships energy shields and slammed into her reinforced duranium hull. Each one unleashing a force of three hundred and fifty megatons of explosive energy. The ships hull fractured under the barrage and was summarily torn apart by a series of secondary explosions.

The ship shook as one of the cursed machine fighters crashed into the hull. The guns opened fire on a wing coming in for an attack run. The hull taking hits from other fighters firing their beams into the unprotected hull. The deflectors having already failed in a previous attack. Suddenly the wings withdrew as their mothership, suddenly changed course. Heading straight for a patch of empty space, or at least that was how it looked to sensors.

The captain relax a bit, with the let up in pressure. “Report, how much longer before the transports clear the combat zone?”

“Eight minutes, sir. However I don’t think we will make it much longer. That last hit knocked out our weapons array, and the hit before it disabled the engines. We’re dead in space, sir” reported an officer. Before he could respond he watched the machine ship open fire, instantly a ship that was previously invisible appear on the screens. The captain muttering in shock as his brain struggled to compute the fact that a capital ship had been invisible.

What happened next was even more shocking, as the menace destroyed exploded from a single attack. “Deploy, repair teams, and how in the galaxy was that destroyer splashed?”

It took a couple minute for the response, by which time two smaller ships had appeared on his screens, as the mopped up the fighters attacking them. The strange design of the ships indicating they belonged to a race not known to him.

“It appears to have been some sort of shield penetrating torpedo. Whoever these guys are, they have much better toys than we do,” said his officer.

TR-108 listened to the report as the last of the alien fighters were splashed. All of the remaining alien spheres were heading straight for her ships and ignoring their former opponents. She had attempted to hail these alien spheres, but their had not been a single response. She had already had the ships analyzed. Most of the spheres were made of reinforced duranium hulls, but the larger one had a neutronium laced hull that would make it much more difficult to destroy. The alien spheres entered weapons range, and opened fire with their beam weapons, the hull shuddered as the beams impacted the Suzume. The Suzumes own fighters engaged the alien fighters as they came into range.

While her two destroyers opened up on the alien destroyers forcing them to take evasive action to avoid being destroyed. Allowing the Suzume to close on the capital ship. The alien sphere fired beam after beam of disrupter energy into the Suzume’s hull. Her plating absorbed the blasts taking minimal damage from the barrage. At the same moment she returned fire with her own particle batteries. Thousands of bolts of particle fire and dozens of torpedoes repeatedly slammed into the other ships shields and hull with equally low effect.

Her shields being virtually unaffected by the barrage, while her hull was resilient enough that the torpedoes slamming into it merely scratched the plating. After nearly five minutes of exchanging fire, the Suzume entered Electro cannon range. Blue lightning bolts slammed into the alien cruiser and her powerful shields destabilized releasing an electromagnetic shockwave. Leaving the alien capital ships hull exposed, as the Suzume’s guns rained fire down on the ship.

While normally her cannons would tear through a ship’s hull like tissue paper, the cruisers neutronium laced hull proved to be far more resilient. Her hull armor absorbed much of the energy as the plates started to crack under the barrage. The cruiser responded by changing course and accelerating to increase distance. While at the same moment the Falchion splashed the last of the attacking destroyers, and moved to assist the Suzume. As for the fighters, both groups were heavily engaged, but the Refuge Fighters were proving superior. The refuge fighters wings had lost a few fighters, but had splashed more fighters than they lost. As the destroyers moved past the dogfight they opened fire with their flak screens. Focusing on the fighters not already engaged with the Suzume’s fighters.

The cruisers shields finished cycling a few seconds after she managed to get out of electro cannon range of the Suzume. Her beams raking against the ships port plates as she returned fire. At the same moment the Suzume, launched her bombers escorted by the heavy fighters in her arsenal. The cruiser perfectly positioned to shield its fighters as they launched.

“Port hull armor at 63%,” reported a drone at the engineering status display.

“Transfer auxiliary power to the hull plating, load all forward torpedo tubes,” ordered TR-108. The power transfer had an instant effect, increasing the port hull plating to 73%. As soon as the forward tubes were reloaded, she ordered a full volley of torpedoes focused on the most damaged area of the alien capital ship’s hull. Fifty torpedoes slammed into the ship with about forty of those passing through the shield. Slamming one after another into the cracking hull plates, which buckled but didn’t breach. This first volley was quickly followed by a second volley of torpedoes, the Suzume making full use of her rapid fire launchers.

The Suzume managed to get four volleys of torpedoes to strike the point doing significant surface damage to the area, but barely breached the thick neutronium reinforced hull armor. Then the ship managed to rotate the damage plate out of the Suzume’s firing line. The Suzumes bombers, however were getting into range and followed the target. The alien ship fired a few of it beam cannons at the bomber wings, but missed. The beams being anti ship weapons, lacked the tracking to get a proper lock. Forcing it launch what fighters it still had to engage the escorted bomber wings.

Around the same time the two Sabres were entering weapons range of the sphere. While the fighters were mopping up the last of the alien fighter spheres in their engagement area. The two Sabres opened fire with their launchers. Four hundred torpedoes slammed into the cruiser with their first volley. A little under three hundred of those impacted the hull. Each explosion causing microfractures to form in the hull plating. A couple of the plates began to buckle under the repeated barrage from the destroyers. The cruiser switched targets and began firing on the nearer of two Sabres. Powerful disruptor beams raked into the Scimitar, draining significant chunks of the ship’s armor integrity field with each hit.

The bombers reached their target and dumped their entire payload on the site. As they were breaking away to return to the ship for rearming, two hundred and forty high yield bombs slammed into the buckled hull plates. The plates failed completely under the barrage and the hull was breached. The Scimitar drawing the cruisers attention, allowed the Suzume to re enter electro cannon range. Blue lightning like bolts slammed into the ships shields and they collapsed. In a flash of electromagnetic energy.

The Suzume increased speed, and fired her entire weapons array into the ships hull. At the same moment the Falchion used a pulse detonation to close to beam range. She then opened fire with her beam array, firing deadly beams into breach, along with a handful of torpedoes. One of the beams the alien capital ship was firing slammed into the Scimitars hull and it finally buckled under the barrage. Her plating buckled and the beam tore into the hull. Seconds before the cruiser came about and jumped into high warp retreating from the field. TR-108 did not pursue the retreating warship. Instead she asked for a report.

“Hull plating is holding at sixty eight percent. We have used approximately thirty percent of our ordinance. Eighteen fighters have been lost. The Scimitar has taken moderate damage, and has suffered two hull breaches. She has lost power on twelve decks, and her hull plating is offline. She also reports that most of her primary systems are offline, and it will take four hours to restore them,” reported her operations drone.

“Transfer, an engineering team to the Scimitar and hail the nearest alien frigate,” said TR-108 hoping they were more willing to talk. A couple minutes later an ugly alien visage appeared on her view screen. The body looked like a four armed gorilla and it had the head of a donkey along with a pair of horns on its head. Three tails could be seen behind it, and its entire body was covered in fur, that was colored in vibrant clashing patterns.

“I’m TR-108 captain of the Sol Refuge ship, SFS Suzume and you are?” said TR-108.

“I’m Vekra, Captain of the Mydori Union vessel Versani. I must add that your people have an odd naming sense,” said Vekra.

“Maybe, so who were the people that attacked us. I take it you must know, considering they are at war with them,” said TR-108.

“We don’t know much about them. They are called the Cylovan Collective, but to not know of them you must not be from around here,” said Vekra.

“No, we are not. We left our homeworld long ago, on a long range mission,” said TR-108 leaving the real facts out, as they didn’t know enough about this race to trust them.

“Well unless your prepared to fight, I recommend you avoid this part of space. The Collective has no use for diplomacy and is at war with all her neighbors,” said Vekra. TR-108 said she would keep that in mind, before closing the channel. A couple hours later when the system patching was finished, she set course for the fleet. As the Scimitar was in need of repairs that couldn’t be done in the field.

The young alien girl settled in front of the console as the energies of her burst drive dissipated. A wave of radiation rippling off her shuttle into space and even hyperspace. Unlike larger ships her shuttle lacked the systems to hide the resulting radiation pulse, and her recent jump would have registered on the sensors of any ship nearby. Fortunately there was only one group of ships in detection range of the jump and they were the people she was here to see. A minute after she made the jump a group of armored fighters. Her sensors indicated they were manned by machines. The fighters didn’t charge weapons, and instead sent a brief inquiry her way. She responded with an equally brief reply on her purpose here. Almost instantly the fighters took up an escort formation around her ship and sent a message for her to follow. Lead into the field, she soon got an excellent view of the fleet moored in the field. Hundreds of fighters were on patrol, and dozens of small shuttles were flying about. Underneath four of the ship in the area, the frames of four massive carriers were anchored. The ships clearly in the final stages of construction. Her sensors told her that all four ships, while unfinished they were already operational and being used as fighter bases for the local patrols.

Her destination was one of the bigger ships, that was roughly the same size as the carriers, but it was not a carrier. Her ship was led to a small shuttle bay on the upper decks and facing the rear of the craft. The fighters broke away from her when the shuttle got near the doors, a few seconds later her shuttle was caught in guidance beams. Which guided her shuttle into the bay. Which landed gently on the deck, as she swam out of the cockpit and into the rear compartment and grabbed a hydration belt. A device that created a field around her body to keep it moist, while also keeping her gills wet, and aerating the water it gave her. In effect it allowed her to breathe and survive in non-aquatic environments.