The ship shuddered under the impact. The captain gritted her teeth, as she held onto her seat, a previous hit having damaged the inertial dampers. Several other crewmen and women were thrown from their posts by the force of the impact.

“Helm, increase speed, and change heading to one three seven mark four eight. Tactical, return fire all batteries, and Engineering divert emergency power to shields,” barked the captain, rapid fire. Her crew rushing to carry out her orders. She knew the ship was in bad shape. Her shields were failing, and her ship had suffered several hull breaches. At this point it would normally be best to retreat, but she was part of the force defending the homeworld. Retreat wasn’t an option. They could not afford to lose the homeworld.

She glanced at her tactical plot, and noted the changing enemy position. Several vanishing blips indicated ships that had recently been destroyed. Most of which were Erali ships, lost defending the line. She watched the indicator of her ships position, and then barked out new orders. “New heading, one four nine mark two three. Lock torpedoes on the cruiser dead ahead.”

“Aye, sir. New heading one four nine mark two three,” acknowleged her helmsman.

“Torpedoes locked,” came the response from her tactical officer.

“Fire!” ordered the captain. She felt a slight jolt from the recoil of the launch and heard a distinctive popping sound as the launchers fired. The noise reverberating through the hull of her destroyer. A series of red-orange bolts streaked across space and slammed into the cruiser they were flying straight at. A purple light shined as the cruisers shields flared, absorbing the first few in the volley. And then they collapsed. The remaining bolts slammed into the cruiser amidships. Her hull shuddered and fractured under the barrage. The enemy cruiser fell silent, with a gaping hole on her side, and atmosphere venting into space.

“Multiple direct hits. Target disabled!,” reported her tactical officer. At the same moment she heard her operations officer shout, “sir, I’m picking up an unusual energy signature approaching rapidly! It will enter the system in three minutes!” She ordered a new course, and then asked, “Can you identify this signature?”

“Negative! I have never seen anything like it, but it vaguely looks like a warp signature,” reported the officer. The information was so little that she had no idea what to make of it. So she made the only conclusion she could. They were about to have more company, and she had no idea if they would be friendly or hostile. Following doctrine she assumed it was hostile, and ordered, “Alert fleet command that we are about to have company.”

“Command acknowledges and says the incoming vessel is expected,” reported her operations officer moments later. Unfortunately she found herself too busy to think about it, as two enemy frigates engaged her ship.

Her tail swished in agitation. Her ship shuddered as enemy particle beams raked the hull. Nothing serious as the shields had mitigated most of the incoming attack. Then the ship shuddered again as torpedoes slammed into the shields. A couple of the shields buckled allowing the warheads to deliver their deadly payload to the hull.

“Hull breach, decks fifteen, seventeen and eighteen!” reported her engineering officer.

“Helm, hard to port,” ordered the captain. As she watched the screens. Four hostile cruisers closing on her position, and several destroyers. As the ship turned out of the incoming fire she barked for a status report.

“Fore shields at 62%, aft 41%. The number four shield has failed. ESI at 82%, and the comms are down” reported her engineering officer. Her weapons officer than chipped in. Informing her that they had lost three batteries in that exchange. Several other batteries on the port side had lost power. She could work with this. She glanced at the tactical plot, that clearly showed that she was cut off from the main line of battle and surrounded by enemy ships. Her thoughts mostly focused on keeping her ship afloat, and getting back to the main line. The lack of comms was annoying as she couldn’t communicate with the fleet.

“Load burstlight torpedoes in the aft tubes. Transfer emergency power to the engines,” ordered the captain. Her crew rushing to the tasks, and acknowledging the orders.

Once the torpedoes were loaded, she gave the order to fire. A burst of blue streaks flew out behind her ship, and detonated in a spread. The resulting burst blinding the sensors of every ship within a few thousand kilometers. Her helmsman took her cue and kicked the ship into high gear. The ship rapidly accelerating to gain distance from the ships engaging her cruiser. Unfortunately they were also accelerating away from the main line of battle. Good thing that nobody was in this part of the system At least initially.

“Sir, I’m picking up a warp signature approaching rapidly,” said her operations officer. She barely had time to respond before a large ship appeared directly in her path. It was huge, covered in thick armored plates. An elongated saucer shape made up the bulk of the ship’s hull. With a series of indentations along the profiled side dominating her screen. At the rear the hull expanded outward to link with six massive cylindrical nacelles mounted in three distinct pairs. Two parallel to the hull, and the other pairs above and below the hull.

“Identify that ship!” she barked, followed by a quick order to change course to avoid a collision.

“The computer can’t identify it. The hull configuration doesn’t match anything on record!” said her operations officer. A look of bewilderment on her face. Suddenly a bluish beam sprang out from the alien hull and snagged her ship. Her dampers straining to protect the crew from the sudden loss of all momentum.

“Sir! We just lost power to all primary systems,” reported her engineering officer. She suppressed a lump of panic, as she heard that they were defenseless. She knew it would do no good if her crew saw her panic. Silence pervaded the bridge, and in as calm a voice as she could manage she asked the question on everyone’s mind, “how?”

“I don’t know how. Somehow that tractor beam is draining power from all our systems,” said the young engineer. She didn’t like the sound of that. She now had the sneaking suspicion that the ship she was dealing with, belonged to an elder race. She had heard stories of ships caught by one elder race or another losing power.

She fell back into her command chair with little idea on what to do. “Any ideas on disrupting this tractor beam?”

At the same moment the alien ship was visibly getting closer. Which meant the ship was already pulling them in. Bluegreen energy beams zipped past her ship, indicating that the alien ship was firing on someone. It meant little to her given that she could do nothing. Instead she started listening to the ideas of her crew. Which covered everything from the obvious to the obscure. The first proposal was one she doubted would work. The proposal was that they attempt to overload the draining mechanism by maxing out their reactor output. In her opinion that was just asking for a reactor overload. The best solution would be to knock out the beam, but without weapons they didn’t really have a way to do that. Her science officer however had an idea to reconfigure the deflector dish and then shunt as much energy as they could to the system to keep it online. The idea was that a carefully modulated deflector field might scatter the beam. Allowing them to bring vital systems back online and escape.

He stared at the tactical plots. Just five minutes ago, they had been winning the battle. Now his commanders were struggling just to keep his ships from being destroyed.

“I thought this ship had been deemed a non-factor,” he said to his aide.

“It was. However the ship is in significantly better shape than it was just a few weeks ago. Evidently we underestimated their ability to repair the alien technology,” said the aide. “Either that or the ship has its own self-repair ability,” thought the fleet commander.

“Evidently they brought some new weapons online as well,” said the fleet commander as he watched a bluegreen energy stream slam into a battleship. Her shields flared briefly and then the beam ripped into the hull. Entire sections simply vaporized due to the sheer amount of energy packed into the beam. He glanced at the hyperdrive charge indicator. It was at eighty percent, and he idly wondered if they would have the time to make a jump. He had already ordered a general retreat and was merely waiting for the drives to charge so they could escape.

“It's some kind of plasma beam weapon,” interjected the science officer at the nearby sensor station. He had his interest peaked. Most plasma weapons were powerful, but short range. Neku ships used a special containment bubble to keep the plasma contained. Allowing for a longer range. Making Neku plasma weapons into respectable midrange guns. A contained beam had clear advantages over their system allowing for even greater ranges. Something that could clearly be seen as the alien battleship was accurately dismantling ships at ranges in excess of several million kilometers.

“Take as much sensor data as we can get. Command may need that info to devise an effective defense,” ordered the fleet commander. While secretly hoping the data may lead to the development of a similar weapon for the fleet.

“I’m already doing that, but I’m not sure it will help. I have never seen beam weapons so powerful before,” said the science officer. He was concerned about those beams as well. They were dismantling the combined fleet at an astonishing rate. Then suddenly a series of violet bolts ripped across space. Some taking several seconds to reach their targets. Each bolt slammed into ships with explosive results. The screens seemed to say they were passing right through the shields as if they weren’t even there.

“What kind of torpedoes are those!?” asked the fleet commander.

“I can’t even tell you. According to my sensors they don’t exist,” said the science officer.

“What do mean by don’t exist?”

“I mean they aren’t registering. They have been shielded somehow against scanners. The only reason we even know they are there is because of the light they give off. The reading seems to imply that the light is due to particle reactions with some kind of energy field. Don’t ask me what the energy field does, as it barely registers on the scanners,” said the science officer. That was not something he liked to hear. Not only was the ship shooting at them with deadly plasma beams, but now it was launching deadly torpedoes that were invisible to all but visual scanners. Worse they could clearly bypass energy shields.

Erisa stared at the destructive power the ship was displaying. She then commented on the torpedoes, “Those torpedoes are incredible. They are passing through the defenses their using like they aren’t there.”

“In a way it is a lot like they have no defenses. Not even my own shields can block an interphasic torpedo. I have my own active defense system, and special armor projectors instead for protecting against interphasics,” said Megumi.

“Wait! Did you say that your shields can’t block your own torpedo?” asked Erisa.

“That is exactly what I said. To my knowledge no race has devised an energy shield capable of blocking an interphasic field,” said Megumi.

“No one? Why don’t shields work against interphasics?” asked Erisa.

“I’m afraid the exact science is beyond you. By about three hundred thousand years to be exact. According to your science it would be because the torpedoes no longer exist. Your science would mistakenly label the interphasic field as a null field,” said Megumi.

“What exactly is happening then?” asked Erisa.

“I told you far more than I’m supposed to. If you want to learn more, you would have to figure it out yourself,” said Megumi.

“Somehow I expected that answer,” said Erisa. Then she glanced at the screen, and watched a crippled cruiser enter view. The ship was caught in a tractor beam, and clearly getting closer. She also noticed the signs of a fluctuating deflector field. “What is going on with that cruiser there?”

“I trapped that ship in a tractor beam. She is attempting to use her deflectors to break the beam. In theory it was the right choice. In practice she needs better deflectors,” said Megumi.

“Wait! That ship can actually fight your beam?” asked Erisa.

“Only because I’m letting her. She is far more primitive than the ships that I normally ensnare. I’m still learning her systems, mostly since most of my processing power is actually focused on engaging the fleet and generating a hyperspace inhibitor field,” said Megumi.

“In other words she is so simple that she has you confused,” said Erisa hoping for clarification.

“No, we want the crew alive. I’m weakening the beam because I don’t want to do something like knockout their antimatter containment field. They would be fine for a few hours if I disabled their life support, but the containment field is an instant game over,” said Megumi.

“Why is that a risk?” asked Erisa. Not used to Solean tractor beams she had no idea how they worked.

“My tractor beam drains energy from any ship caught in the beam. This type of tractor beam is highly popular on both military and police ships, as they rapidly disable the target. Making it easier to board the target ship. It also makes a decent offensive option, assuming you can get close enough. Tractor beams don’t have a lot of range though, so they are of limited offensive value,” said Megumi, who then turned her full attention back to the battle.

The Neku fleet had just attempted to make their jump into hyperspace. Most of the fleet had failed however. Her inhibitor field doing its job, having prevented their jump. A handful of ships however, some of which appeared to be command vessels had been just far enough from her to make the jump.

They were not her concern. She still had the majority of the fleet right wear she wanted them. In range of her guns. Honestly if all her weapons were working she would have already destroyed them, but she had only restored fifty of her plasma banks. None of which were her truly powerful heavy plasma beam weapons. She directed another barrage, at a nearby battlegroup conducting evasive action. While ignoring the fighter squadrons conducting attack runs against her hull. She couldn’t really deal with them anyway. Her beam weapons could technically target them, but they weren’t designed for engaging fighter craft and were ill suited for the task. Her tertiary battery contained the weapons intended for engaging fighters and other light craft. Weapons that she had not yet had time to bring back online.

A barrage of plasma and the occasional disruptor beam made short work of the battlegroup. The beams rippled across space and struck their targets with unerring accuracy. Shields flared uselessly as they strained to protect ships from the deadly energy. Each ship reduced to molten slag by the impact. In under a minute the entire battlegroup was gone. Allowing her to shift her attention to the next. A group of about fifty ships making a run for the edge of the field. She fired a volley of torpedoes from launchers along her hull. As the violet bolts ripped across space she shifted attention to a lone ship that was making a run for a nearby asteroid field.

Several bluegreen streaks of energy ripped across space. Slamming into the ship seconds later. Her shields flared and stopped only a small fraction of the beam. The first beam was fired at low intensity and ripped through the engine section. Leaving her dead in the water. The next two also at low power struck power distribution nodes and vented large sections into space. The ship was one of the biggest she had seen in the Neku fleet at nearly four thousand meters long. She suspected a capital ship like that one to be valuable which is why she chose to disable it.

Several more groups took up her attention before, she powered down her weapons array. There were still a few more active Neku vessels but they were engaged with local Erali forces. The Erali had a clear advantage so she wasn’t going to waste energy on those ships. She similar ignored the Neku fighters that were attacking her. Their weapons were unable to penetrate her shields. She calculated they would run out of armaments in another minute in a half, and be forced to withdraw. Not that they had anywhere to go, seeing as she already sunk their carrier vessels. The pilots would then be forced to land on the nearby habitable planet of Eralis. Where she had no doubt they would be quickly captured by local forces.

With the Neku fleet no longer a concern she turned her attention to the light cruiser she had snagged seconds after dropping out of warp. She had just now brought it alongside one of her docking ports, and her beams were keeping its systems suppressed. She didn’t have any biomechs or security drones to deploy, so she was going to board using her neurolite probes and the Erali security forces onboard. The probes were designed to incapacitate a specimen before tagging them so they did make a good substitute in this case for a proper boarding drone.

She sent the probes in first via the airlock. Several Neku marines were guarding the door. Their particle rifles proving ineffective against the light shields the probes carried. Their stun beams making quick work of the forces in the airlock. She sent the alert to deploy to the Erali forces onboard, and they made their way into the ship.