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Passion's Wrath: A Shadow Darkens

By Psion

All Rights Reserved

The Zinnibar system was a non-descript system like many others in the known universe. A handful of planets in orbit around a single red dwarf, each of them largely barren and uninteresting in terms of biological life or mineral wealth. One light of many in the endless sea of stars, only its convenience as a stopover point into the Earth Hegemony made it important enough to warrant a name on star charts. A stopover for ships like the one that was just about to exit subspace.

As the fabric of reality rippled and briefly tore open in a blinding flash of light, a single starship emerged into the system. An elongated gray oval with two engines connected to the main body of the ship by a pair of sturdy struts, the DCS Loremaster was a proud exploration vessel of the Dar'Rek Confederacy charged with seeking out new life and new civilizations by boldly going where no citizen of the Confederacy had gone before. At least it was until Fleet Command ordered it to undertake an urgent investigation.

The bridge of the Loremaster was a flurry of activity as Captain Foxann walked onto the bridge. The cries of “Captain on the bridge!" were briskly acknowledged as he sat down in his command chair, his uniform creaking ever so slightly and his bushy tail flicking casually as he made himself comfortable and requested status updates from his bridge crew. All systems were green and the sensors weren't registering anything unusual outside of the ship, so far so good to the Vulperion's ear.

“Captain! Subspace signature detected!" Rayonna, his science officer, called out from her console. “G'Luc frigate transitioning to normal space in T-minus ten!"

The G'Luc Republic… Foxann's eyes narrowed. Just what he needed first thing in the morning. Maybe he would get lucky and it would be a Republic captain and not a Magi. He was not in the mood for one of those bathrobe wearing mystics and their glowstick plasma katanas when Fleet Command was breathing down his neck to find out why the humans of the Earth Hegemony had gone silent all of a sudden.

“Captain, the G'Luc vessel is hailing us." The comm. officer called from his console.

“On screen." Foxann replied as the ship's screen was filled with the stern visage of a Worlong… wearing the trademark robes of the Magi of the Third Eye.

“Greetings, I am Warlock Vron of the Third Circle. I did not expect to encounter a Confederacy vessel on my way to the Hegemony. Don't you have some undiscovered alien civilization to probe?" Vron greeted with a smug smirk. The feeling of disdain was very much mutual between the Republic and the Confederacy. Were it not for the humans of the neutral Hegemony constantly stepping in to broker peace treaties, the two of them probably would have gone to war years ago. Speaking of the humans, he did not have time for this…

“I am Captain Foxann of the DCS Loreseeker, we are investigating the sudden communications blackout from the Earth Hegemony." The vulpine lifeform replied matter-of-fact, deliberately ignoring the barb about probing alien civilizations. His species was infamous for their sensual pursuits and Foxann was no exception to that stereotype.

Vron's smug expression promptly fell at the mention of the Hegemony. “Indeed, the Magi had sensed a disturbance in the cosmic balance emitting from Earth. I was sent by the Republic to investigate. And now I encounter you on the edge of human space… I have a bad feeling about all of this."

Vron was not the only one starting to have strong misgivings about what was happening when Foxann's science officer called out again.

“Captain! I'm picking up multiple subspace signatures heading into the system; all signatures have the Hegemony sensor profile. I'm seeing at least two military capital ships and multiple civilian craft!"

Outside in the cold depths of space, at the opposite end of the system from the rival vessels, multiple human ships dropped out of subspace in a rough convoy formation and started traveling through the system on sublight engines. Foxann promptly entered the command prompts to bring up his science officer's screen on his own console. Three military vessels, destroyer, carrier, and troop barge, and over several dozen civilian vessels ranging from massive bulk freighters and passenger liners to small private pleasure craft. Sensors registered all civilian ships being filled past their intended capacity and several had suffered visible battle damage. There was only one thing this could mean but Foxann needed to be sure.

“Comm., open a channel. Hail their flagship." He ordered then began to speak into the microphone built into his armrest. “This is Captain Foxann of the Dar'Rek Confederacy to the human fleet. Do you require assistance?" He hailed. Meanwhile Vorn had closed the channel between their two ships and was likely doing the same.

For a second there was nothing then his speaker replied with the crackly voice of one of the Hegemony officers. “This is Captain Elizabeth Harrington of the EHS Defiance to friendly military vessels, we are being pursued by an unidentified enemy dreadnaught. You two need to get out of here before they manage to track us to this system."

Foxann hesitated for a second before responding, there was something about her suggestion that made the fur on the back of his neck stand on end but he had his orders. “Captain Harrington, I'm afraid I can't do that and I imagine Magi Vorn is telling you the same thing. We are here to investigate the communications silence from Earth."

For a moment there was silence from Elizabeth Harrington's end. “Earth is gone." She began at last. “Mars and our colonies on Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri are also gone. I am joined by Colonel Jonathan Hammer of the EHS Victory and Captain Marcus Bass of the EHS Valor, this fleet is very likely all that's left of the Hegemony military and civilian population."

“Sixteen billion lifeforms… there can't be more then six thousand of them in that fleet." Rayonna estimated solemnly. A sobering amount, Foxann could only hope that her phenomenal ability to crunch numbers on the fly was grossly off for once. There wasn't much time to voice his thoughts on the matter as Rayonna's display suddenly began screaming all manner of alarms and warnings.

“Commander, what is it?" Captain Foxann shouted, fully aware he still had a line open with Captain Harrington.

“We have another subspace signature inbound. Captain it's huge! It's appearing right behind the Hegemony flotilla!"

“They're here… friendly vessels, this is your last chance. Run while you still can." Harrington interjected over the open channel. Foxann watched as the human carrier and destroyer turned to face the incoming threat. All other Hegemony ships started moving away from the impending battle with speed. Within seconds, They arrived and the Loreseeker's sensors were starting to construct and display a visual image of the ship that terrified the humans so much. The hologram of a perfectly spherical ship appeared on a projector built into his other armrest. Painted a pure white, as pure as a white dwarf star, and highlighted with faint amounts gold or some sort of gold-like metal, Foxann was immediately overcome with a feeling of intense coldness in spite of the bridge's climate-controlled atmosphere. Despite having the color of white plasma, the unidentified dreadnaught projected none of the warmth. Whatever was on that ship, the Confederacy captain was convinced it wasn't anything good.

“Captain, the unidentified vessel is broadcasting on all open frequencies."

“Put them through, on screen." He ordered calmly, he needed to maintain an image of calm despite his stomach currently tying itself into knots.

A sharp female voice that caused the captain to automatically flatten his triangular ears against his head filled the room as the face of an elfin humanoid alien appeared on the bridge display screen before the feed was split to include Vorn and the G'Luc vessel into the conversation. “Ignorant beings, we are the Sojus! We have awakened and come to wipe the galaxy of your arrogant, bigoted existence. We will replace you with-" The dreadnaught captain ranted on seemingly oblivious to the fact that Foxann had already stopped listening.

“Anyone have the slightest clue what she's talking about?" Foxann asked his bridge crew and Vorn over the Sojus's rant. The G'Luc warlock and all officers present shook their heads as the female warlord stared daggers at him.

“How dare you interrupt me you Vulperion pervert!" The elfin female snarled.

“I'm sorry, I forgot I was supposed to be polite to genocidal sociopaths." Foxann replied curtly staring back despite feeling a sharp chill run down his spine. Was it just nerves or did this new species possess psionic powers that even Vorn's order couldn't hope to match?

Leaning back into his cushioned chair, Foxann dismissed the holographic images haloing his chair and pushed aside the command console to unblock the view of his appearance. He was a Vulperion, what he once heard a human describe as a “fox person" whatever a fox was. Both genders of his species were considered extremely attractive by other species and their insatiable sexual appetites were infamous both inside and outside of the Confederacy. Foxann himself was typical of males of his species, black fur with a white underbelly and “socks" on his hands and feet, slender physical features, and a pronounced, disproportionately large member suggestively protected by a large codpiece that his posture proudly put on display. “Let the humans go and we will not interfere." He stated simply, studying his opponent intently.

The Sojus captain scowled, visibly insulted as Foxann intended. Her disapproving frown framed her pale-skinned face, long locks of black hair, and ice-cold brown eyes that currently stared holes into Foxann's body. Her physical features appeared sculpted, like she was carved out of stone instead of born of flesh. Her figure was slender, almost ethereal, and draped in white robes worn underneath golden armor. Foxann was almost immediately reminded of a creature from human folklore called an elf. This particular “elf" had a look of disgust that told him what her reply was going to be seconds before she even opened her mouth. “Do you really think you are in a position to make demands?"

Foxann looked down at the sensor report before replying, the humans were almost in position. “No but it looks like I don't need to." He smiled as Vorn and he closed the channel to the Sojus warship. The battle was about to begin.

Outside, in the silent vacuum of space, the insignificant Zinnibar system was about to bear witness to the might of the Sojus fleet. The spherical Sojus dreadnaught began to chase after the pitiful human flotilla like a haunted moon as the EHS Defiance and Victory finished turning away from the Hegemony fleet to face the threat head-on. Klaxons blared aboard the Victory as pilots raced through the maze of metal corridors in an organized rush to the launch bay. Colonel Hammer exhaled as he sat on the carrier bridge and watched the ship's full compartment of combat craft was deployed. Two wings of Apollo-class fighters, a wing of Liberator-class fighter-bombers, with that he was confident he could handle anything the G'Lucs or the Dar'Reks could have thrown at him yet it felt like it wasn't even enough to scratch the paint on the leviathan looming in front of him.

Back outside, as the human ships continued to deploy fighters or move into weapon range, the Sojus planet-destroyer responded in kind by deploying wings upon wings of fighters. In a matter of seconds, a giant metallic cloud formed around the moon-shaped Sojus ship before the fighters charged headlong at Harrington's destroyer and Hammer's brave fighter pilots… then rushed right past them and left them unscathed. Even the most brainless sapient could see what their true target was, Apollo squadrons broke formation and dived into the cloud, determined to mow down as many drones as they could while the halls of the Defiance and Victory echoed with the curses of gunnery crews determined to mop up what the fighters missed. Silent pyrotechnics shone where the humans found their mark and slowly whittled away at the enemy fighters.

It was still not enough; the Sojus commander had considerably more fighters at her disposal and seemed content to sacrifice dozens to drown her foes in bodies. The majority of the Sojus fighter swarm continued to fly past the human defense unmolested to chase after the unarmed civilian ships. Civilian communications were flooded with the panicked chatter of ship captains desperately trying to coax just a little more power into their engines to stay ahead of their impending doom. As stupid the Sojus tactic was on paper, it was successful at forcing the humans to hesitate just a second too long deciding whether to protect the refugee fleet or go after the seemingly exposed dreadnaught. The situation was becoming increasingly dire.

Aboard the Loreseeker, Foxann was silent as his sensors finished compensating for light-lag. Exhaling he looked squarely ahead at the synthetic diamond viewport on the bow of the ship, he did not dare make eye contact with any of his crew less he broke the illusion of being perfectly calm. “I've seen enough. Helm, can we intercept the Sojus fighters before they reach the civilian vessels?"

“Aye sir, easily."

“Then lay in a course and sound general quarters. Power up weapons and raise shields. Drone Control, is the interceptor drone hive ready?

“Yes sir, we'll tear through that fighter swarm like tissue paper."

“Should tear through Lieutenant. We only finished developing the technology as the G'Luc Republic overthrew the Zlith Empire. But if not our shields should allow us to just plow through the Sojus fighters like a comet." Foxann reminded the drone operator, calming himself as he came up with an alternative solution in case the drone hive failed to perform. They could do this, they WOULD do this; the honor of the Confederation depended on it.

“Captain! We're receiving a message from Vorn's ship, audio only." The comm. officer called from his station.

“Put him through." Foxann ordered, smiling despite himself.

Soon the bridge was filled with the already too-familiar voice of Warlock Vorn. “Well Captain Foxann. It appears we are both of one mind on this. Regardless of what else I may think of you, I cannot deny that you are a being of integrity." The warlock complimented then signed off.

Outside, the DCS Loreseeker positioned itself to shield unarmed human civilians from the armada of a genocidal psychopath. The G'Luc vessel joined its old rival in kind. With shields raised and weapons firing, the two feuding stellar powers joined forces in the face of an enemy that threatened to destroy everything both of them held dear. The Sojus War had begun…