Gorath, First of his name. Prime of his clan. Lord of the Ortan nation and High Chancellor to the Supreme Leader of the Kargan Star Empire was not happy. He was not happy at all. In point of fact, he was livid. Barely controlled rage boiled in his veins as his hands clenched and the armoured plates on his back shivered in time with his ragged breathing.
He stood on the bridge of the Imperial war barge 'Glorious'. Six kilometres of armour, guns, power and death. This was the might of the Kargan made manifest. This was dominance looked like. From this ship he led the Kargan armada that brought fear to the subjects of the Empire and the compliance of those who would become part of it, whether they wanted to or not. But not today.
Gorath was not happy because at that moment the Glorious was not living up to its name, quite the contrary. On the various control panels and terminals burned as fire suppression systems failed, main power was offline, and they were crippled, effectively dead in space. The armada that normally stood at his command was smashed, either too damaged to fight, destroyed or derelict.
Gorath was not happy because he had been humbled.
Glaring at the distorted image on the screen before him he wanted nothing more than to sink his teeth into what he saw, he wanted to sink his claws in and tear it apart, feel that flesh shred before him... But that was not likely to happen.
"Times up, reptile. What is your answer?"
Reptile. That is what they called the Kargan, reptiles. His was a formidable species. Taller than most intelligent life forms, thick leather and armoured plates covered most of their bodies, heavy ridged heads with large teeth, perfect for ripping and tearing flesh. Their talon like fingers made them terrifying in hand-to-hand combat. 'Reptiles'. Pfft.
The image on the screen was a human. A pathetic human. Small, insignificant, weak. Gorath would happily tear them to pieces and gorge on the corpse given half the chance, but it was the humans that had humbled him this day.
"What would you have me do, human?" he barked at the screen, his disgust obvious.
"Do? I would have you die, reptile. I would watch you burn where you stand. But I have my orders." The human on the screen thought for a moment before carrying on. "Stay and we will grind you into dust, piss on your ashes and use you as fertiliser for our crops. Or you can go. Turn around, tuck your tail between your legs, leave and never return."
The human on the screen leaned forward in this command throne. "I would love to have you try something stupid. We have already all but destroyed your 'Invincible' fleet. I would take great joy in using what is left for target practice for our cadets. So, go ahead. Do something stupid."
Gorath was livid because this should never have happened. Not even a galactic cycle ago he had been second in command of the most powerful Empire the galaxy had ever seen. 39 star systems formed the Kargan Empire now, more would be taken while Gorath led the great expansionist fleet on its mission. They had annexed ten star systems in the last 20 cycles under his leadership alone.
This was more than a setback though. Facing the humans was not what he had wanted, not yet. The Human alliance was not the biggest. Their time would have come, but not yet. Gorath had wanted to bite off some of the systems in the Pftarr Hegemony. It was an old empire that was slowly falling apart. Constantly bickering in their pathetic senates, councils and forums. No one member had any real control and so nothing ever got done. They were ripe for conquest.
Gorath wanted to start with the outlying systems. two had already fallen before any real retaliation had arrived. What had arrived in time had been swept away. The might of the Kargan fleet had simply been too much for what had been sent. Pitiful. Pathetic.
It was when Gorath had turned his attention on the Artani that it had all gone wrong. The Artani were a small, bird-like species from the third planet of the Ishtaa system and not war-like at all. They had achieved space flight and had joined the Pftarr Hegemony in due course. They were excellent pilots, probably because of their own ability to fly; they themselves would not be much of a boon to the Kargan Empire, they were not even strong enough to be used as slaves in the mines, such a waste, any other world where the populace would simply be slaves and he would have turned his troops loose and allow them to slaughter and feed as they will.
It had always been the Kargan way to make fear run ahead of the battle. Make them think they were going to lose, going to die and they surrendered. Better to take the world whole than risk losing the resources. The Artani homeworld had other benefits though, water and forests. The planet had vast oceans that could be plundered. Water was a commodity that was greatly in need by the Empire. It also had large forests surrounded by vast open savannas, filled with large herbivore lifeforms, in other words, meat.
Gorath hadn't known at the time where the link between the humans and the Artani had come from. At the time it didn't matter. Now nothing mattered. He had nothing left.
The humans had small outposts dotted all over their territory. Several were located near to Artani space, to get to one of the more remote outposts they would have to skirt the border. This is where the incident had happened. three starships had been travelling between the outposts, supplies and families were on board when they had flown too close to an undetected anomaly. It had knocked power out on two of the ships leaving the third to send a distress signal.
The humans, of course would send out emergency ships, but this was out on the rim of their territory, and so it was unlikely that they would reach them in time. It was the Artani that had rescued them. They had also picked up the distress signal and flew as fast as they could. In the end they had lost two of their own ships in attempting a daring move trying to rescue the Human families from the anomaly. Their sacrifice had never been forgotten.
And so it was that when Gorath and the Kargan armada had arrived in-system after days of shield beating and threats over the comm system as they travelled the cold void between stars, there had been a welcoming reception waiting for them.
14 Artani capital ships were arrayed in a defensive formation. Big ships were not where the Artani held their power, it was the almost 200 smaller attack craft screening those capital ships that held the real power. Their sleek design showed off their prowess, not that it mattered. A fast ship would last a little longer, but it would be destroyed eventually. It was only a matter of time.
Just ahead of them were two other ships. Not Artani, Human. Their ships were bulkier. They carried more weapon ports and probably carried a lot more armour and defences. They would be more difficult to kill, but nothing they could not handle.
On the bridge of the Glorious, a comms officer spoke up, "Sire, the humans are hailing us".
Gorath sneered to himself. "Really? They want to talk? Pathetic. Put them on screen"
On the main screen a human sat rigid on a command throne spoke. "My name is High Marshall Kendal. Commander of the 6
