- "USM Freighter Pioneer, you have clearance to docking bay 12; set course for 275-25-18, set speed to 50kph, and bring her in steady."

What was once the cold bleak dark of space around the Pluto satellite, Charon, had now become a beacon of one of humanity's greatest achievements.

The absence of light could not hide the two-kilometre orbital station whose blinking lights lit up the sky like artificial stars, while the sun's tame rays attempted to reflect the metallic hull from the satellite's shadow.

Man had not conquered the stars, but they had embraced the sol system.

The station provided logistics and support to the mining operations down on the ice planet for the fearless miners that were enticed by the pay relative to its hostile environment. Built to gain resources for propulsion systems in some of the most technologically advanced warships, its stature was small, but its importance was not.

The station's skeleton bridge crew of three were tasked to oversee the various automated systems while providing a human voice to those arriving from their long trips from other hubs around the Sol and Alpha Centauri systems. Their jobs, though, were normally trouble-free and mostly unsupervised.

As he placed his feet next to the console where he was working, a nonchalant young man gave the final instructions to the escort fighters."USM Freighter Pioneer coming in on final approach, Osprey 2 and 4 return to patrol pattern delta."

Ignoring the screens with various displays of data, he turned to one housing images of different cards. Looking at them, he sighed before staring at the ceiling." Anytime now!" he grunted.

A young woman from across the room looked up at him. Unlike her counterpart, she was trying to make an effort at looking like she was interested in her work. "I am working, you know. It's not as if I come into work every day with the idea that I will be playing gin rummy."

Turning to her screen which consisted of her card selection, she placed her hand on a card and swiped it onto the top of the pack.

The guy chuckled to himself "Yet every single shift you do."

"I'm surprised the boss hasn't commented on us playing this game." The woman replied, returning to the various consoles she had around her.

Still looking up in the air, the man nonchalantly swiped his hand over the card game taking the next card into his pack. Despite not appearing to be interested in what was going on around him, he'd already planned the move in advance. "He's more interested in his reports. Besides, I doubt he even knows what goes on in the bridge. Not that anything happens here anyway."

Shaking her head, the woman just smiled at his comments. She looked longingly into the blackness of space, drawn in by the void left by Charon as it blocked out the sun. She embraced the feelings of peace, serenity, awe and terror, as how only a few metres of metal and glass stood between them and the various forms of death space provided. The fear mixed with the joy of watching the unknown brought an adrenaline rush like no other.

Yet the adrenaline was short-lived, pulled down like the weaning off a narcotic when remembering that in all her time on the station, the closest she came to death was slipping up in her bathtub. Rarely anything would happen in this part of space.

Bringing herself back to reality, she sighed "Yeah you're right, nothing happens. This place is rather boring." She said exasperated.

The guy looked over at her with a wide grin on his face. "You are joking aren't you?" he replied, "I could have worked on the command deck of any space station and I was even offered a position on Io."

"Then why would you work here if that were true?" she mocked him, knowing for sure that Charon was nothing like the high pressure and changing environment of the United Solar Military's main prison colony.

Resting his head back on the chair he looked towards the ceiling. "What's better than getting paid to do nothing?"

She shook her head in disbelief but smiled in the process; perhaps, she thought to herself, this was part of the reason why she had accepted this role a couple of years ago.

Turning towards the main screen, she noticed something had dropped 100'000 kilometres out of faster than light travel (FTL) and was heading directly towards the station.

As with most military stations within the solar system, they housed interdictor sphere's which automatically pushed a ship out of FTL travel some distance from the station. This provided ample time to evaluate the ship's intentions

Flicking her hand across the screen, she brought up a list of all the ships that were expected to arrive today. She had memorised the list but due diligence called for her to double check.

Confirming her suspicions, she immediately barked orders at the new arrival "Unidentified vessel, this is USM Space Station Charon, you have entered military-controlled space and are requested to send an immediate IFF response."

Her counterpart looked towards her, instantly sitting up correctly. His concern became increased as she shook her head indicating no response from this new vessel.

"Unidentified vessel, this is USM Space Station Charon, please provide IFF acknowledgement immediately. Your vessel will be scanned and escorts will be launched if you do not comply." She frowned as once again, no response was forthcoming

Turning towards her counterpart, who was completely focused on the escalating situation she called to him, "You might want to get the boss in, and perform a scan on the ship."

Switching her communication link to inside the station she gave clear and precise instructions as her training dictated. "Inbound unidentified vessel refusing IFF request, Osprey 2 & 4 placing target coordinates into your nav computer, potential hostile 80 clicks from home base. Escort until further notice."

"Osprey 2, copy that, nav coordinates received, on intercept course."

Repeating the request for identification, she hadn't noticed the shift manager step onto the bridge. Unlike the members already on the bridge, he was of a military background and wore his uniform proudly. His stern and determined posture expressed his desire to deal with this situation expertly.

His professionalism, however, was instantly betrayed by his words, "What the hell is that?"

All eyes now descended onto a holographic image in the centre of the room as the completed scan of the vessel was now visible.

Whatever this husk was, it was certainly not human.

"Osprey 2 to Osprey Nest, coming into visual range... Um... Osprey Nest, are you getting this?" the pilot of the lead escort fighter reported, confused.

As the feed from the pilot's ship displayed the vessel, all three members of the bridge watched in awe as the eerie scout ship came into view. Its glistening smooth hull reflected the lights beamed from the escort fighter. It was so smooth that it appeared to meld like a darkened shade of quicksilver, while its three taloned shape wings converged to the front of the vessel like a bird grasping on its prey. It was equally as beautiful as it was menacing.

No one spoke, but everyone thought it. This was the first encounter with an alien race.

The woman eventually regained her composure, ensuring that she could remain professional in this unprecedented time "Osprey Nest to Osprey 2, maintain escort pattern but keep your distance."

As the alien vessel continued to move towards the space station, the military officer on the bridge contacted the onboard liaison officer, the closest person they had who could perform diplomatic duties.

"Sir, we have a potential diplomatic situation here which requires your immediate assistance."

The liaison officer looked less than impressed. "Major," he sighed "I do hope this is not one of those, 'the miners are complaining about working conditions again'" he waved his fingers to his side like inverted commas. "That is a union problem, not something that I need to deal with."

The military officer was not going to rise to his bait, the situation was far too delicate to respond in kind. "Sir, we have an unidentified extra-terrestrial vessel heading towards this station..."

Before the officer could finish his report, the liaison officer had already cut across him. "An alien, here? My God, this is unbelievable. I'll be the first person to be in contact with alien life. I could even start the process towards the first inter-galactic alliance. This is huge! Get me a shuttle prepped immediately, Major."

As the call was abruptly disconnected, the officer looked on in disbelief.

"First inter-galactic alliance or first inter-galactic war?" the nonchalant young man chuckled to himself overhearing the conversation.

For five numbing hours, all focus was on the alien ship as it floated a few kilometres from the station. Despite the liaison's officers' attempts, there were no noises made from the vessel and all readings from the ship appeared dead.

As a precaution, all weapons crews and all pilots were now at battle readiness and the station commander was on the bridge overseeing the whole situation. Though understanding that this was an opportunity of a lifetime he was also a very cautious man, preferring to be prepared just in case this ship had far superior technology than that of the fighters within their own hanger.

As per the military's protocol, the president of the Human Confederate had been informed of what was going on, however, it was unlikely that they would be able to provide an official diplomat for another 8 hours. They had no choice but to stick with their makeshift liaison officer, and even after the first 30 minutes, his temper was running short.

"How long do I need to keep hailing them, this is getting ridiculous?" He complained.

"As long as it takes, Colonel!" the station commander responded less than impressed with his lack of patience. "Until an official diplomat can relieve you if necessary!"

The thought that someone else could take the credit for first contact seemed to have spurred the liaison officer into life and once again he was hailing the alien ship frantically.

With the liaison officer continuing to do his part for humanity, the young woman on the bridge of the station returned to her consoles. As her attention was drawn to it, a huge energy spike erupted from the small alien vessel. Ensuring that there wasn't a problem with the computer systems she instructed it to do a quick diagnostic. True enough the scout ship was doing something extraordinary.

"Sir, something's happening. The ship's giving off some strange readings, I can't quite make sense of what's going on.

With quick reflexes, she placed the information on the screen. All eyes stared on in disbelief and the computer was struggling to make sense of the data being presented to it.

"Is that... Is that even possible?" said the military officer as the spikes of data bounced around frantically.

The station supervisor looked on in disbelief before reaching down to the communication link that was sat next to him. "Launch all fighters immediately, bring the liaison shuttle back, battle stations, all hands on deck, this is not a drill!"

Before order could be established in the situation, the eruption of chaos took hold.

Emerging from the darkness of space behind the scout vessel, three metallic prongs appeared from nowhere and edged forward like talons grabbing at its prey. As they pushed forward, they grew in size and diameter proving that whatever was appearing from the void was completely dwarfing the scout vessel.

The three talons converged towards the centre of the emerging ship, producing a large reflective hull housing all its main systems, including the bridge, and as the last few metres of the ship came out of nothingness, its four powerful engines pushed it slowly past the scout ship and towards the space station.

Considering its approximately five hundred metres long hull, and its aggressive posture, this was likely a destroyer class vessel.

Before anyone could react to the new threat, its gun ports opened and fired a concentrated beam of energy toward the liaison officer's vessel.

It was instantly torn apart, slicing in two like a knife through butter. There was no way anyone could have survived that attack.

The constant barrage of alarms around the station and the commotion outside of the bridge was nothing compared to the turmoil the station bridge crew were now facing.

After seeing the liaison officer's ship disintegrate in front of them, they watched in horror as two more similar vessels arrived behind the first in formation, each opening their gun ports and focusing a barrage of energy on the space station.

The station's shield system fluttered as the beams of energy bombarded it indicating its ability to withstand the alien weapon systems. As the station's weapon systems came online, there was a continuous percussion of loud booms as each gun fired its volley in anger.

The shots were precise, the focus consistent, but as the energy dissipated into a blue cloud, mere metres from the ship, it appeared that they had energy shields too.

Fighters had now been scrambled and were heading towards the destroyers at lightning pace, only to be greeted by a number of similar size vessels that exited the belly of the enemy.

Another scathing volley was launched by the destroyers, this one stronger than the last. The shield fluttered once more, but this time warning alarms were starting to be triggered. There was no way that it could maintain a sustained attack of this magnitude for long.

Engineering crews were scrambled, ordered to do anything they could to keep the shield up as long as possible.

With help light-years away, and the station only designed for skirmishes, the battle was not in their favour. It was down to a matter of survival.

The station commander ordered for the shields to focus within a small arc, designed to take the brunt of the attacks while allowing the shields to remain strong.

An excellent strategy, if it wasn't for the fact the alien forces anticipated as such.

Hope turned to despair as each of the destroyers separated from their formation to concentrate their firepower on three different aspects of the station. Focusing shields on one location was now no longer an option.

With the bombardment of the shields proving to become a huge strain on the station's generators, the enemy started to launch smaller vessels from the belly of the destroyers. Given the data that was available, it was likely that they were personnel carriers. It appeared that their focus was to capture rather than destroy the station.

The station commander instantly took action. Pressing a few buttons on his control panel in front of him, a holographic image of a person in full body armour appeared before him.

"Chief, we've got incoming ships on approach vector. Trajectory suggests docking on levels 5 west, 8 west and 25 south. Ensure that all non-essential personnel are evacuated immediately. Make sure as many people get off the station as possible."

The soldier looked around, studying his skeleton security team. He did not doubt their ability as competent fighters, but facing an unknown alien invasion had him on edge. Still, he knew his responsibilities, he and his team would stop at nothing to save as many civilian lives as possible.

"Yes sir, we'll get as many people off this station as possible. I'll send a security detachment to your location in 5."

"Negative chief, we'll make our own way at our earliest convenience."

The security chief felt compelled to express his displeasure at the order but knew best to keep his thoughts to himself. Considering the potential threat that he was about to face, it was likely that he needed everyone available.

"Aye sir."

As the holographic image disappeared the station commander looked up at the bridge crew. The young man and woman that had overseen the whole debacle were staring directly at him, their faces white with fear.

The station commander had allowed his training to take over, organising the defence of the station as well as could be expected. During that whole time, he had forgotten that they were civilians, completely unprepared for the realities of war.

"Team," the station commander spoke, "I know this is not an ideal situation to be in, and despite all our training, nothing prepares us for this moment. It is imperative that we remain focused on the task at hand."

"This enemy force outnumber and outgun us. And despite everything we have tried, we are simply are not prepared for such a task. The station will fall, that is for certain, so we need to make sure that we prepare Military High Command for when they come to rescue us; and I can promise you that High Command will come."

With his words, his team relaxed, with a small sense of serenity returning to the room, it was time for orders.

"We need to make sure we send all our scan information to high command before the bridge is compromised. We also need to purge the system of any classified information. We may sacrifice metal and territory, but we will not lose anymore than that. I know you're all scared, but let's make sure our actions count."

With renewed vigour, there was a flurry of action from the three bridge crew members. Typing in various commands, the orders of the station commander were executed with precision.

Then the unexpected happened. As an energy bolt hurtled away from the station, what would normally have been absorbed by the energy shield of the destroyer, impacted ferociously on the hull. As the hull was left with carbon scoring, its trajectory turned away from the station. This was the opportunity they needed to press the advantage.

The station commander eagerly pressed the button to speak to the fighter support, but as no connection was received, he was left with a sense of dread. Slumping into his seat he realised that all the human fighters had been eliminated.

Before allowing despair to take hold, the station commander attempted to contact the security chief, but there was no response. Doing a quick diagnostic of the communication system his worst fears were realised. There was no one to answer.

How could it be that the enemy had been so ruthless and efficient that all of their security forces were now gone?

As the station commander attempted to hail the security chief once more, the door burst open leaving everyone on the bridge in a state of fear and anxiety.

Each of them had hoped that it would be the security team preparing for their extraction, instead, they were greeted by four towering figures that were clearly not human.

They were covered, head to toe, in gleaming blue metallic armour. Their helmets covered their faces with only a black triangular visor in the centre. As the humans looked at their faces, it felt as if they were looking into a void of emotion. Three long extruding bones swept behind their heads similar to that of an antelope and as they swung around studying the room, it seemed just to intimidate the humans further.

To the side of their carefully fitted armour, each of them held a small metallic rod within their three-pronged claws. Their grips were strong, as if what they held, their lives depended on it.