Chapter 1

“Captain, we have a report of an attack on a Druse heavy freighter. They report that they are being attacked by a K-Tal cruiser.”

“Location?”

“Twelve hours away at best speed, sir”

“Navigation plot a course and helm make best speed when you receive the coordinates. Communications, inform the Druse captain we are on our way and give him our best time for arrival.”

“All hands, this is the Captain. We are rushing to the aid of a Druse freighter that is under attack by the K-Tal. We may not get there in time to save them but we have to try.

We all know what the K-Tal are like and what will happen to the Druse crew members. I ask you to do your best to help to rescue them. We have all known of friends and allies that have been murdered by the K-Tal and of the horrific way that they kill. I want you to put that to one side for now, I am sure we will do our best to help save at least some of them.

Captain out.”

The heavy cruiser Benar commanded by Captain Ptoll of the Fruze Confederation powered away on its mission of mercy and possibly retribution. A short time later they received a further message.

“Captain, we have a further message from the Druse, they say that a Terran ship was only 4 hours away from them and is making best speed to render aid. They also say that they have retreated to the engine room and the bridge as these 2 areas have been built to withstand assault for several hours.”

“Number one, who are the ‘Terrans’ that the Druse are referring to.”

“Just checking the database now sir.

Sir, the Terrans are a very new race, they had been discovered by the Druse less than 6 years ago. The Druse are their only contact so far with the rest of the galactic community. It would seem that they have only a few ships capable of Faster than Light (FTL) travel. Other than that they are bipedal omnivores from a high gravity world that seem to be very friendly with the Druse, we have no further information.”

“Well, it seems that they have at least one warship so they are not totally unaware of how dangerous the galaxy is. I just hope the Druse have warned them of the K-Tal.”

Four hours later the Benar’s Captain receives a further update from the Druse Captain. Stating that the Terrans have arrived and have engaged the K-Tal. The initial report indicates that they have disabled the K-Tal ship, stopping them from getting away.

“Great news, Now we can make them pay. Number one, get the Marine Commander to the bridge.” Said Captain Ptoll

“Captain sir, reporting as ordered.” Marine Commander Asor stands rigidly to attention in front of his Captain.

“Commander Asor, It seems that the Druse allies, the Terrans, have managed to disable the K-Tal ship so we have a chance to make them pay. They won’t get away this time. I need you to prepare your marines for a boarding action. I need not tell you that it will be bloody and hard but I am also sure that your marines are eager to get payback for all those helpless civilians the K-Tall have butchered over the years.”

“Too right they will, we will make them pay in blood. I will have my marines in full battle armor. We will let the K-Tal know what it’s like to face an implacable enemy!”

“The Terrans have given us a fighting chance so let’s make the best of it.”

A short time later the Druse Captain informed the Benar that the Terrans have boarded their freighter and are engaging the K-Tal. The report continues, saying that the Terrans are fighting their way to the Bridge after clearing the engine room entrance.

“Captain, we are about to enter the system, we have begun a sweep.”

Inform the Druse Captain that we are here and making our way to them now. Any further news on the Terrans?”

“Sir, the Druse Captain reports that all the K-Tal on their ship have been neutralised by the Terrans and they have blocked off access to the Druse ship from the K-Tal craft. The Terrans are unwilling to take on what could be a still larger force on an unknown ship as they have already suffered casualties, they request our aid in clearing the K-Tal craft.”

“By the gods, they have cleared a K-Tal boarding party in less than five hours. Their request for help is to be expected. I would be wary as well.

Any news on casualties, can we render aid?”

“Sir, the Druse report that the Terrans casualties have been recovered back to their ship.”

“Sir, I have the results of the sector sweep. I can locate the Druse and K-Tal ships but I can only find a small scout ship that I assume is the Terrans.”

“They must have left the scout ship behind to keep an eye on things and jumped their main ship back to the home world with the casualties. Very smart of their captain. Can we contact the Terran scout vessel yet?”

“Sorry sir, still not able to talk directly to them, the communication device they are using is unfamiliar to us.”

“Ok, relay through the Druse that we are sending over a company of marines to finish off the K-Tal. We will board the K-Tal craft from the Druse side.”

Later after the Benar’s marines moved to the Druse ship to begin their boarding action.

After an intense boarding action, the Marine Commander reported to the Benar’s captain that the Druse and K-Tall ships are now secure.

“Sir, there is something odd about the damage to the K-Tal ship, ‘‘ reported the weapons officer of the Benar. “It has a hole through it but no sign of laser burns or other energy weapons fire. It’s as if someone just stabbed it through the middle with a long pole, you can still see debris floating around the holes on the top and bottom. If the hole does indeed go all the way through and it’s not another hit, the point where it goes through would be right through the K-Tal command deck.”

Several hours later The Benar Marine Commander is in contact with his Captain.

Sir, we have secured the K-Tal vessel and made the ship’s structure safe. I do however request that you join me on the Druse ship as there are some things I am very confused about and need to show you.”

“On my way Commander.”

A short time later we find Captain Ptal and the marine commander looking over what had obviously been a combat area.

“Sir, we believe that the Terrans boarded the Druse freighter through this lock here, you can see that there was a fight here where K-Tal blood was splattered all over the area and we also found two K-Tal bodies.”

“But this is a small personnel airlock, you could only get eight or nine troops in here at once. Why would they fight at such close quarters and with so few troops?”

“My thoughts as well sir, there is also this.” The marine commander turned over the nearest K-Tal body. These K-Tal were killed at close range in hand-to-hand combat. “See the slash across the chest and the gaping wound that almost took the K-Tal upper limb completely off. This other one has a number of small stab wounds in the upper torso and the head. They have been stabbed with a very small and deadly weapon. There are absolutely no laser burns or disrupter blast marks.”

“All hand-to-hand kills!”

“Yes sir, but note the injuries in detail, think of the force needed to slash through K-Tal armour and then the very tough hides of a K-Tal warrior. See how the flesh and muscle have been cut through with one slice! The weapon that did this must have been exceptionally sharp, perhaps it’s the much-debated single molecule-edged blade that many of our scientists have had theories on.”

“If you will follow me, sir, the engine room is nearby and we can see more.”

“By the gods, it’s a bloodbath.” the Captain looked around at the walls, floor, and ceiling of the corridor entrance of the engine room.

“We moved the bodies out of the area into a store room.” the Commander pointed to a nearby door.

“We have 28 K-Tal bodies here, and like the ones, we saw before they are all hand-to-hand kills. Not one has an energy weapon mark on them. There are a further thirty-seven bodies in a similar room near the bridge all with a similar hand-to-hand kill. There is one further question I have, please look at this Captain.” The Commander pointed to a small hole in the bulkhead that formed between the room and the corridor to the engine room.

“Something pierced the wall, it’s not a laser as there is no burn or molten metal. See how the metal pares back from the impact. If I didn’t know better I would say that this was a micro-meteor impact.”

“There are other things you may be amazed to see near the K-Tal breaching point.” The Marine Commander led the way.

“Sir, we found this wedged in the door to the outer airlock, a woodsman’s axe is the closest thing I can think of that looks like it. Look at the curve of the blade totally unlike an axe we would use, this was made to slash. Look at the other side from the blade, it’s a hammer and the shaft has a wicked point on the end one that I suspect caused those stabbing injuries.

The last and most concerning I will leave for you to assess, could you pick it up, sir?”

At that, the Captain reached down and tried to pick up the axe.

“By the gods, I can barely lift it! What is it made of?”

“Carbon steel and Titanium. I would also like to point out that it’s very roughly made as if someone made it in a hurry.”

“Get a couple of men to move it to our ship, put it in my conference room please.”

“Before we move on sir there is one last thing I would like to show you here.” Commander Assor led the way into the K-Tal ship. Again there was evidence of combat with blood splattered on every surface and gouge marks in the deck, walls, and ceiling.

“I thought the Terrans did not board the K-Tal ship?”

“They say they didn’t but look here sir, this is the first sign of an energy weapon being used. There are blast marks all radiating out from this spot. When we boarded there were several K-Tal bodies here and signs that at least two had crawled away badly injured. I can only surmise that they fired from the Druse ship and hit a K-Tal relief party that was trying to board. That one blast killed so many and injured the rest so much that they did not try again. I would love to see the weapon that did this, as the only ones we have that could do this amount of damage are tracked artillery!”

With that, the Captain turned and headed back to the Druse ship and to the bridge to discuss the action with the Druse Captain.

Sometime later in the Captain’s conference room aboard the Benar the Druse Captain along with the Marine Commander awaited the arrival of the Terrans who had been invited over to meet with everyone.

The Terrans entered and the Captain first noticed how big they were. Not only tall but broad with very large muscles. They walked tall as well, with no fear as if they knew they could kill everything in sight and having seen the result of the boarding action on the druse ship he suspected they could!

“Welcome, please feel at home. We owe your people a great debt. It’s such a pity your mothership had to take your casualties away, I would have loved to meet your Captain.”

The Terrans looked confused and one of them took the lead and asked. “What mothership? There is just us and as to our casualties, it was our Chief Engineer and me who were injured. We had minor bites and scratches.”

“But where are the rest of your boarding party, those that fought the K-Tal?”

“It was just us four plus our chief engineer who is on the ship. Our rules don’t allow us to leave our ship unattended if it’s linked to another non-Terran vessel.”

Waving his hand in a distracted manner the Captain paused in thought.

“Sorry, please excuse my manners. May Introduce everyone? This is Marine Commander Asor. I am Captain Ptoll and I think you already know the Druse Captain. May I have your names please?”

“Certainly Captain, I am Clair Summers, My main roles are Geologist and ship Captain, this is my First Officer and Biologist Tom Parker. The big guy at the back is Simon Thomas, our Astrophysicist and the last one is Sally Tombs, our Medical Doctor. Trevor Bole is our Chief Engineer and is still on the ship.”

“So to be clear, the five of you were the only Terrans in the system, you five and you five only boarded the Druse ship and killed the K-Tal raiding party.”

“Yes Captain, just us five. We could not allow the Druse who we have come to respect and trust, to die in such a horrible way without trying to help. When we heard the call for help Trevor and Tom put together some boarding weapons and with the two handguns we had. We agreed to board and engage the K-Tal.