Zebra Station Alpha

“Sir, I have three incoming targets from sector zebra-19. No transponder signal and the computer does not  recognize the designation. Two of them are approximately the size of our scout vessels, but the other appears to be approximately the size of a Samurai destroyer leader.”

“Ensign Murray, double check those signals, that is directly from Entomolian Space. I do not want to be surprised here. If these are Entomolian ships I need to know now.”

 “Captain, I have double checked, these ships are strange, they do not reflect a normal signature. If these are Entomolian vessels they are a new type of ship all together.”

“Understood, Murray. Lieutenant Neismith, are we picking up any communications traffic?”

“I am not sure, sir. I am picking up some isolated signals, but they are jumbled. I am running it through the computer, give me a second.”

“Until then, Ensign, let’s go to alert level two, man all weapon stations, but let’s not launch fighters yet. I want to make sure of their intent before showing our hand.”

Captain Hamilton looked around the bridge at his small crew. The Zebra station was a small outpost, designed to watch the Entomolian border and patrol the sector. He had one small flight of light fighters and a dock for two armored pursuit ships, it was not much but the sector was quiet and it was considered the perfect place for new command staff to get their command legs under them.

“Sir, I have the basics back on these new ships, they do not appear to have any atmosphere on board. The internal structure of the ships appears to have the consistency of seawater. I am still running scans but I am having trouble picking up a consistent reading on the ships hulls.”

“Murray, I want all of this recorded and if this starts to go south, I want you to immediately send all of your records to headquarters.”

“Captain, you are going to want to hear this and you’re not going to believe it.” Lieutenant Neismith threw a switch to broadcast through the bridge:

“Terran Station Commander, this message will repeat until we are forced to leave this sector. I am Commander Hurlaxx of the Aquarian Alliance and I bring you important information. During one of my normal scouting missions, I discovered a large Entomolian force heading in your direction. I estimate that you have 3 hours at best to recall your scout ships and prepare to defend yourself. We will help as long as we can, but we are also outclassed by the sheer size of the forces advancing on your outpost. I strongly suggest that you alert Zebra Headquarters and have them prepare to defend against a large Entomolian force with at least one Super Galactic Dreadnaught. Again, I repeat. Terran…”

“That has repeated at least twice so far, there is other traffic being transmitted on a narrow beam into uncharted space. The beam is tight and scrambled, I cannot intercept much, but I am working on its destination”

“Murray, contact our deep sector probe, let’s see what we have out there. Neismith, contact our scout ships, have them return here at top speed. This is either a serious trick and they are going to return to our wreckage or we are going to need every gun we can get to defend this station.”

“Sir, Zebra-19 long range probe is gone. Not unresponsive, Sir, but gone.”

“Murray, Neismith, combine all of the data you have collected, encode it and transmit it on a narrow beam to headquarters and be quick about it, then man your battle stations. We will hold this station for as long as possible.”

Thus ended the final bridge records from Zebra station Alpha and began the Entomolian-Terran Zebra Conflict.

Source: Aquarian Alliance Fleet Book