June 9th 201X, ESC Robert Schuman

>"Sir, we are about to drop out of hyperspace" the helmsman's report interrupts Colonel Hanssen's thoughts.
>"Major O'Malley, sound "battle stations", I want to be able to fight our way through the combined fleets of the Wraith and Goa'uld the second we drop out of hyperspace if we have to" Hanssen orders his XO, it would make for a very sad ending for their mission if they were attacked by a superior force immediately after dropping our of hyperspace in their destination, a newly discovered galaxy which they had been ordered to explore.
>"Dropping out of hyperspace in 3...2...1...Now!" the helmsman counts down as the Daedalus -class space cruiser drops out of hyperspace. The trip had taken exactly 31 days, having started on Europe Day. Hanssen could still hardly believe this was possible; it was only two years ago that the UN Security Council had informed the World about the fact that not only was there intelligent life outside of Earth, but that Earth had been at war with a number of hostile species for two decades & caused three of them to go all but extinct.
>The various reactions of the 7 billion+ people who had been in mortal danger God knows how many times without knowing it had been predictable: outrage that five nations had had access to alien technology, including devastating new weapons, for years without sharing it with the rest of the World, the accusations that Americans had endangered the entire planet while pursuing their own interests, religious nuts preaching about how the war against the alien species was the final proof of the approaching Armageddon (so far over a hundred cults with a total of 10 000+ followers had attempted mass-suicide, some of them succeeding while most others had failed), and especially in Europe the fear of Russia using the acquired technology to conquer Europe & establish their Eur-Asian Union with Russia holding the reins.

>Now with all of this in the open, Americans, the French and the reluctant Brits had forced a resolution that all of the acquired technology was to be shared with EU, starting with the construction of two Daedalus -class space cruisers & delivery of 80 spaceflight -capable F-302 -fighters for the European Space Defence force, "Schuman"had been the first to be commissioned with "Brussels" entering service a month before the start of this mission.
>Russians hadn't been too happy with the idea of EU receiving two ships when so far they had only been delivered one & that one had already been destroyed, the British were content with their "Winston Churchill" as were the Chinese with "Sun Zu" & couldn't care less about Russia's grief, the French however insisted that one of the two was supposed to belong to them alone & were trying to get "Brussels" staffed with an all-French crew.
>Because of these reasons this mission had been kept under wraps until the last possible moment, lest Russians or Chinese might try to interfere or even rush to explore this new galaxy first, when the mission was finally revealed the opposition wasn't limited to Russia and China either; the EU parliament was debating the mission until the very minute the mission was supposed to start.
>Yet here they were, in another galaxy only a minute behind schedule (the green light for the mission came precisely one second after the original launch time & "Schuman" entered hyperspace exactly 59 seconds later.)
>"Scan complete, we are orbiting a Mars-sized planet with an athmosphere, the visuals show seas and what looks like vast grasslands spotted by forests and what might be settlements" an analyst, an airforce lieutenant, reports.
>"Very interesting and all, but what I'd like to know the most is if there is anything of military importance in the vicinity" Hanssen responds.
>"Define "of military importance" O'Malley asks just as something hits the ship.

>"Something like that" Hanssen responds as he turns his attention to the tactical display. There are two large, gray ships approaching from five o'clock, high.
>"Hard to starboard, military thrust! Captain Müller, give me a firing solution for those ships, I want to be able to blow them to pieces the second they fire again! XO, damage report!" he starts giving orders.
>"All systems functional, shields at 100%, either they have a habit of firing warning shots at a reduced power level, or this is going to be a very one-sided fight should they fire again" O'Malley reports.
>"Incoming transmission!" the signals officer interjects.
>"Audio, video or hologram?" Hanssen demands, annoyed that the lieutenant didn't include this piece of information to her report.
>"Unknown sir, our systems can't make heads or tails of this signal!" the signals officer responds.
>"Figures, send the standard hailing signal on all bands, maybe we can find a way of communicating with them" Hanssen orders as he takes a look at the main screen where a larger image of the two ships is being projected. The ships seem to resemble those from Star Wars...
>Just as Hanssen is finishing this thought one of the unidentified ships starts making a hard turn & exposing its' superstructure to them, revealing the arrowhead -shape of the hull.
>"Are you fucking kidding me? I suppose they have a Death Star as well?" O'Malley voices everyone's thoughts, the ships look exactly like Imperial I -class star destroyers, up to and including their size: the computers state their exact lenght to be 1600 meters.
>"Should we launch fighters?" the onboard fighter squadron's commander asks.
>"Against those things? If that maneuver is what I think it is we are about to receive a swarm of enemy fighters and bombers" Hanssen shoots down the proposal.
>"'That maneuver'?" O'Malley asks, fucking normies...
>"It's called Marg Sabl in Star Wars saga, using your hull as a screen while deploying fighters/bombers."

>As soon as he had said it, Hanssen realised he had been careless: he should have taken pre-emptive action as soon as he realised what was happening.
>"Hard to starboard! Get us away from that ship! All railgun batteries prepare to fire along the edge of that ship! Main batteries are to take aim at those radome-like objects at the ends of that tower and wait for my command!" he starts giving orders in a frenzy, hoping he's wrong.
>"Armory, prepare two Mark IX -warheads for immediate delivery, set the timers to ten seconds and wait for my command! Engineering, be ready to beam two payloads inside the base of the towers on both of those ships!"
>Just as he finished issuing orders he saw it: a swarm of small craft appearing from the other side of the closest star destroyer.
>"Railguns open fire! Main battery open fire!"
>The railgun batteries across the superstructure of "Schuman" erupt as they open fire, tracers sweeping across the edge of the enemy ship & taking out those small, black ships trying to get close, but the wall of metal spewn by the railguns doesn't let anything through, after charging for a few seconds the main battery fires a bright white beam at each one of the radomes, effortlessly penetrating the shields and destroying the radomes, upon seeing this the other ship opens up with all it has while the wounded ship seems to have been crippled by the loss of the radomes.
>"Engineering, do you have delivery coordinates?"
>"Yes sir, ready when you are!"
>"Armory, status of the Mark IX's?"
>"Ready and waiting."
>"Armory: timers; Mark!"
>"Engineering: delivery: Mark!"
>"Payloads delivered!"
>"Helmsman, get us away from those ships, emergency thrust, all power to aft shields!"

>The anxiety of everyone on the bridge could be cut with a knife as the countdown approaches zero, what kind of effect would the warheads have on ships like that? The second ship keeps barraging "Schuman" but it seems they aren't deploying fighters, which is good as the railguns had expended all of their ready ammunition in that first salvo & needed to be reloaded.
>"...Zero!" O'Malley finishes the countdown.
>"Lieutenant Diaz, report!"
>"The second ship has ceased fire, the first ship has lost all power!" the officer in charge of external sensors reports.
>"Incoming transmission! Nature still unknown!" the signals officer reports.
>"Keep hailing them on all bands, helmsman, bring us around but keep our distance, I want to see their next move with my own eyes!"
>Minutes tick by as the signals officer tries to establish communications with the surviving ship, then the sensors officer reports:
>"Contact, one unarmed ship escorted by four fighters!"
>"Launch two fighters to meet them, they are to hold their fire unless fired upon!" Hanssen orders. Maybe they are sending negotiators?
>The enemy fighters break off and return to their ship as the two F-302s pass the shuttle and come around.
>"Full scan on that unarmed ship, how many crew and passengers as well as are any of them armed, you know the drill."
>"Already on it sir, three people in the cockpit, one of them carrying what seems to be an energy-based pistol, six passengers, five of them humanoid, four of them armed with energy-based carbines, the sixth being seems to be a robot."
>"Very well, have the fighters escort them to the port hangar, send a security detail to port hangar and have everyone else vacate it, XO has the bridge!" Hanssen orders as he gets up and heads for the ring transporter with two armed marines.
>"This should be interesting" he says to himself as the transporter activates.

>As Hanssen arrives in the Port hangar the security detail is already waiting for the shuttle, 12 men in black nomex & wearing plate carriers with dual-purpose inserts providing protection against energy blasts as well as shrapnel, four of them are armed SCAR-Hs, another four with SCAR-Ls and the last four with prototype plasma carbines, each one of them also carrying a zat'nik'tel as a back-up.
>"Put the SCARs away, zats are more than enough & do less collateral damage, if more firepower is needed the plasma carbines should the very least buy us the time to use projectile weapons" he says as the shuttle escorted by the F-302s comes around for final approach. In the end it seems the shuttle is too big to enter the hangar & seeing this the pilot brings the shuttle to a full stop alonside the cruiser.
>"XO, this is Hanssen, beam our guests to Port hangar, including the shuttle's crew" Hanssen says to his earpiece & a few seconds later there's a flash as the beam transporter brings the guests onboard.
>The four armored soldiers acting as a honor guard waste no time surrounding the man who seems to be the negotiator along with a human-shaped robot & taking aim at the security detail who in turn raise their weapons.
>The presumed negotiator looks around as if being beamed onboard a strange warship without warning was business as usual for him & says something which Hanssen doesn't understand.
>"Welcome aboard, I am Colonel Erik Hanssen of Royal Danish Air Force, captain of European Union Space Cruiser Robert Schuman" Hanssen introduces himself in English, hoping that the negotiator brought some kind of translator with him.
>The negotiator turns to the robot and says something, after a short exchange the robot turns towards Hanssen and says something which seems to be an attempt to translate the negotiator's words into English.
>"We seem to have some difficulties finding a way to communicate, in the mean time I must ask your guards to lower their weapons."

>To get his point across Hanssen gestures at the guards, mimes holding a weapon and putting it down, to which the negotiator responds by saying something followed by the guards shouldering their carbines.
>"Close enough, I take it you are an interpreter?" Hanssen addresses the robot.
>"Yes, I am-" the robot suddenly says, apparently having gathered enough information to start translating, this particular technology should come in handy...
>"With all due respect I am not interested in knowing what or who you are at this time, I would appreciate it if you could translate my words to your officer" Hanssen interrupts the robot.
>"Certainly colonel, would you be so kind as to repeat the very first thing you said?"
>"Very well, "Welcome aboard, I am Colonel Erik Hanssen of Royal Danish Air Force, captain of European Union Space Cruiser Robert Schuman", I take it you are here to negotiate?" Hanssen repeats and adds a question.
>The robot starts translating Hanssen's words to the negotiator & after the robot finishes he bows at Hanssen before replying.
>"Commander Sturm of Imperial Navy, first officer of Imperial Star Destroyer Obediense expresses his pleasure on making your acquaintance, he regrets the circumstances which have brought him onboard your ship" the robot translates the commander's words.
>"Likewise, may I inquire as to what exactly it is that has brought him here?"
>"Commander Sturm has been instructed to offer you terms of your surrender" the robot says.
>"Please tell commander Sturm that our show of force was but a small glimpse of the capabilities of this ship, our sensors show that while "Obediense" doesn't seem to have suffered much damage, same can not be said about the other ship, also remind him of the fact that our main battery penetrated the other ship's shields and destroyed it's shield generators with ease while the barrage we received from "Obediense" didn't even dent our own shields, as such it's you who should surrender."

>The robot turns to Sturm and translates Hanssen's words to him. Sturm gives his reply which the robot then translates:
>"Commander Sturm is aware of this, he informs you that reinforcements are on their way as we speak."
>"Considering any reinforcements that would warrant negotiating our surrender would have to be commanded by an officer senior to a Captain, I am afraid that I can not take both Commander Sturm's authority to negotiate and this information about reinforcements seriously" Hanssen replies. After another exchange between the two the robot replies:
>"Commander Sturm explains that precisely because of those points the offer of surrender with no further bloodshed expires the moment the reinforcements arrive & rear admiral Pellaeon takes personal command of the Imperial forces present in this system."
>"In that case we have nothing more to discuss, seeing how the hostilities are about to resume I must advice you to return to "Obedience" before the reinforcements' arrival as I can't guarantee your safety once the shooting resumes" Hanssen replies and salutes, Sturm and the other officer who seems to be his adjutant return the salute clumsily.
>"XO, beam our guests back to their ship" Hanssen says & after the negotiators are gone continues:
>"Charlie Foxtrot 3 is in effect"
>"I must have misheard you, say again" O'Malley undestandably asks: CF3 is short for "Clusterfuck number three", a scenario where the enemy is expected to strike with such a force that all of the normal safety precautions regarding storage of munitions are discarded from the start: if the enemy bombers get through it won't matter whether the munitions explode in the turrets or in the shielded magazine, so might as well have as much ammo in the turrets to maximize the sustained fire.
>"Charlie Foxtrot 3 is in effect" Hanssen confirms his order & a split second later sirens go off all over the ship to alert the crew to the fact that safety precautions just went out the airlock.

additional information: Daedalus -class cruiser has two hangars and has a complement of 16 F-302 fighter-interceptors equipped with a hyperdrive and armed with two railguns plus four "Goa'uld busters": modified AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles with 1000 megaton -yield warheads/alternatively a total of four Mark IX -warheads (yield of at least 10 gigatons per warhead), in addition "Schuman" has two "Puddle Jumpers": small transports with room for a crew of four plus 6-8 passengers, equipped with cloaking devices as well as a number of drone missiles capable of penetrating any shield humans have encountered with the possible exception of the shield of an Atlantis -class city ship, standard "Jumpers" don't have hyperdrive or shields.



>"Müller, have all fighters prepared for immediate sortie, class 1A loadout" Hanssen issues orders to the commander of the fighter squadron as he proceeds to the briefing room where the pilots are already waiting.
>"Allright gentlemen, the situation is this: we have two hostile capital ships, designated Dreadnought one and two, in the system, #1 has lost its shields as well as sustained heavy damage caused by a Mark IX warhead, #2 survived the attack and has ceased firing on us, whether that is because of sustained damage or as a sign of their will to negotiate I don't know, for the time being #2 is to be considered undamaged" Hanssen opens the mission briefing.
>"The hostile forces call themselves the Imperial Navy, their negotiator Commander Sturm has told me that a relief force commanded by rear admiral Pellaeon, whoever that is, is on its way & that once the relief force arrives the ceasefire will expire, before that I want you all to sortie, show the hostiles your missile armament and then jump out of the system and wait. We will relay you the positions of the hostile vessels as the relief force arrives & designate targets for you, upon receiving specific orders to do so, you are to jump back in at specific coordinates, fire one missile each at your designated target and jump out of the system again to wait for new orders." he continues before pausing for a moment to let the information sink in before finishing the briefing with
>"You are to attack only your designated targets and only when ordered to do so, follow your orders to the letter, no questioning orders, no independent thought required, if your wingman is in trouble and you are ordered to jump out of system, you jump out of system and let us worry about getting your wingman out of trouble, any questions? Good, dismissed, and Godspeed!"

>"You heard the man, scramble!" captain Müller bellows as the pilots get up and rush to their fighters.

>Few minutes later as the munitions crews finish arming the fighters with four Goa'uld busters each the fighters start taking off, they form up by flight, approach Dreadnought #2, break off once the launch of interceptors is detected, showing their bellies to the enemy as ordered & jump out of the system.
>"What are your orders sir?" O'Malley asks as the last F-302 jumps out of the system.

>"All our pieces are in place, now we wait for the enemy to make the first move" Hanssen replies while looking at a picture of his family. According to the clocks on his display they should be having breakfast just about now, just like that time in Afghanistan, why do these things seem to always happen to him around the same time of day?

>"Multiple contacts! Two, no, three more Dreadnoughts, designating as #3 through 5, accompanied by five smaller vessels, 900 meter class, designating as Cruisers #1 through 5, moving to surround Dreadnought #1, Dreadnoughts #3 to 5 forming an inverted wedge between Dreadnought #2 and us!" Lieutenant Diaz reports.

>"So, the "Obedience" took some damage after all" Hanssen says with a smirk.
>"Sir?" O'Malley asks.

>"Those smaller ships are probably evacuating survivors from the disabled ship while trying to look intimidating, the fact that #2 isn't joining what is quite clearly an offensive formation intended to catch us in a crossfire even though we have already proven our ability to stand our ground against the barrage of two such ships suggests they can't use it" Hanssen explains.
>"Maybe #2 is held in reserve in case we have friends of our own joining the party?" O'Malley suggests.

>"If that were so, wouldn't it be the admiral's own flagship that would be held in reserve so that he and his crew can focus on monitoring the situation? Unlikely though not impossible, launch a Jumper with a commando team & have them sneak past the formation to stand by within striking distance of #2, as for our game plan, here's how we'll carry out the first wave..."

>"A shuttle is leaving Dreadnought #2 and heading for #5 under fighter escort" Diaz reports as she puts the shuttle on screen.
>"Incoming transmission from #5, video and audio!" the signals officer reports.
>"Put it on my screen"

>After flickering for a few seconds, the screen finally produces an image of a middle-aged man in the same grey uniform as Commander Sturm had been wearing, only this man had more colorfull squares on his chest, apparently serving as his rank insignia.
>"Admiral Pellaeon, I presume?" Hanssen asks, trying his best to remember to use his "for people who outrank me" -tone instead of his everyday one.
>"Indeed, Column commander Hans' son" Pellaeon responds, butchering Hanssen's name & causing everyone present on Schumann's bridge to visibly cringe.
>"_Colonel Hanssen_, actually, but nevermind that, I understand you are here to take personal command of the Imperial forces in this system?" Hanssen replies with very much the same tone he had used with Sturm.
>"Yes, your arrival in this system has triggered a special containment protocol which mandates your immediate quarantine, attempts to resist will be met with full power of the various weapons at my disposal", Pellaeon states in a calm manner one might use to discuss weather.
>"Ignoring my doubts regarding your ability to overcome our shields, left alone survive an all-out exchange between our forces, for a moment, I find quarantining explorers making First Contact with representatives of your government a rather hostile reaction."
>"Indeed, to tell you the truth it is only because of a First Contact with another new arrival to what we call Known Space, as this other group isn't only hostile & extremely aggressively expansionist, but also fights through use of biological warfare and terraforming, that makes enforcement of absolute quarantine where-ever an unknown forces are encountered a necessity", Pellaeon explains.

>"I see, supposing I were inclined to agree to this in principle, what would the terms regarding this quarantine be like?" Hanssen asks, already forming an educated guess based on how the same situation would be handled on Earth.
>"You are to call your attack craft back, power down your weapons, lower your shields and submit to full scans followed by sweeps by a boarding party, everyone onboard will be required to provide blood- and tissue samples & the contents of your computers will be copied for analysis" Pellaeon lists demands before continuing:
>"Following this, depending on the results of a threat assessment based on our findings, you may be permitted to move about accompanied by a cultural liaison for the duration of your stay in Imperial space."
>"Begging your pardon, admiral, but this is starting to sound less like a quarantine than it is an attempt at coersing our military secrets out of us by using an alleged intrusion by a hostile entity as an excuse."
>"While I can see why it might seem like that, I assure you it is not the case, in fact I do have the authority to let you go right now with no strings attached should deem it necessary, however your immense firepower poses a serious threat to us, not to mention the fact that you managed to punch straight through not one but three interdiction fields that should be impenetrible to any hyperdrive", Pellaeon responds.
>"You mean those gravitational anomalies were artificial? No wonder they seemed to be identical in strength and span, we used to have problems with such anomalies in the past but have since managed to overcome them."
>"So you can see why I cannot allow you to roam freely in our territory."
>"While I do sympathize with your dilemma, I cannot allow you to copy the contents of our computers, the best I can offer is lower our shields so you can scan us remotely for signs of the enemy you created this protocol for" Hanssen responds.
>"However our weapons stay online."