All that had been left was a few scattered modules that still held enough air to keep their few occupants alive. There wasn’t enough shuttles and Valkyries to recover them all in time.

Ultimately only thirty-seven pirates that hadn’t surrendered survived the attack. A nice, neat little statistic. But after the battle at the bridge on Caelypsus, Edward felt a little sick at the images of bodies floating in space, wondering how many of them actually wanted to be in the place that became their final resting place.

He hadn’t decided what to do with the rest of the bodies yet though. The protocols on it hadn’t quite been unified yet as it seemed like the ethics committee hadn’t got round to it yet.

So, while he leaned against the centre command console, his mind swam with those morbid possibilities. To bury them on the planet, to send them off into deep space, or to try and get a transport home for them. All the other officers in the bridge were finishing their work in turn, trying to get it all done like he was doing with his.

But there was only so much they could do with the limited fuel supply they had left. So, for now, they just had to wait for the fuel supply.

12:33, no unfriendly contacts, just debris and some recaptured ships…

But still there lingered another question as well. A question he hoped could be solved by data in all of the computers they had recovered, pointing towards his other objective…

It could also all be nothing though, but he wasn’t quite sure if that would be unsettling or not. One the one hand it would point to them being very far away if they found nothing, but on the other… On the other it would mean they were still lingering in the background, sitting in uncharted star systems with unknown objectives…

12:34…

“Theseus’ Valkyries has reported another recovered computer bank, returning them to their hanger…” Alex mumbled as Eli typed in a few notes into his console.

The fleet was string back out again, with Theseus rotated around and sitting in front of the group, acting as a shield against the debris to protect the injured Vanguard and Zulu.

13:35-

M1, M2, M3, M4, M5-

“S-sir! Five contacts just came out of hyperspace! Bearing X 2-9-1, Y 0-8-8, at three hundred kilometres! They’re burning to bring their orbit into an intercept path with us!”

Edward’s head whipped around, “Alex, what the fuck might they be!?”

“I-I haven’t got any reports yet from anyone, they came out of nowhere!”

“Contacts aren’t anything in our books sir!” Eli cried, “I haven’t got anything that the computer can match it to, I’ll see about a manual check.”

“David-“

“Want the fleet on red alert?”

“Yes.”

The far too familiar klaxon started to sound not soon after it was shut off as the previous air of boredom was torn apart.

“Eli, record everything we’re getting off of these things.” Edward barked.

“Got it sir.”

“Alex, tell Theseus to re-launch all fighters and recall all of its recovery vessels as soon as they’ve finished with their current objective.”

“Sir!” Eli looked back up from his console, “I’d say from these signals M1 is some sort of small capital ship and M2 and M3 are cruisers, the other two are likely small escorts.”

“Theseus is able to launch fighters in three minutes, but the recovery teams are gonna need about ten to finish and get back.”

Right.

His jaw clenched a little as he took another glance at the screen. Still the enemy fleet was burning, and the intercept was looking to be a close one. Though, they’d both be within railgun and missile range long before then. There was also always the possibility of charging up the hyperdrives and getting into orbit of the mining base with the last of their fuel, but if these were Directorate ships…

His mind was set, “Got it. Send the order to form up. I want Theseus in front of us and for the destroyers and frigates to go into a standard screening formation in front of them. Keep the cruisers by our flanks. Keep me updated on the fleet’s fuel situation and send a hyperspace message back to command that we have made contact with several unidentified enemy vessels.”

Amber swallowed, “It will take us a lot longer to charge our hyperdrives again though sir!”

“We should be able to hold them off if they’re hostile Lieutenant. What I need to know now is if we can get a telescope on them.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

We only expended a few of our 1200mm missiles during the battle but we’re down to six cruise missiles. Though any launch from this range would leave them with plenty of time to react if they’re actual military vessels…

“They’re moving a bit too fast for the telescope to track them at this range sir. We’re not going to be able to get a visual on them unless they slow down.”

Predictable…

The fleet was quickly moving into position however, with Theseus rotating around and the various ships huddled behind the two capital vessels slowly moving up along the sides of the line. There was time, but Edward’s head was still wrestling with the potential threat of an ever-familiar missile barrage. But those ships just kept going, with them broadcasting nothing.

That silence… They knew that his fleet was here from their intercept path, and they would be getting pings from his fleet’s radar so both fleets knew where the other was and in turn that the other fleet knew where they were, yet they hadn’t hailed them. There was no point in radio silence! Unless… This might just be seeing how we might react to a situation like this…

He shook his head.

“Sir!” Alex called, “Theseus is ready to launch fighters and is asking for your permission to launch.”

“Call up Diplomat Hill to the flag bridge and try to hail the other fleet, Theseus can keep its fighters on standby. I want to be ready if they don’t take this too well.”

They nodded, “Aye sir, any message you want to send?”

“Don’t we have a first contact one on the books?”

“I’ll do that one sir.”

250 kilometres now… Still on the same course, but it seems like they’ve stopped accelerating…

Alex cleared their throat, hands balling on their console before they took a deep breath, “Unknown vessels, this is a fleet of the International Federal Commonwealth hailing you. We mean you no harm and our civilisation would like to greet you.”

Silence. No reaction at all. Then-

“Sir, the other fleet are seemingly starting another acceleration burn and is adjusting their intercept to be less aggressive. However, they have sent no reply yet.” Eli barked, the sensor displays showing their orbit start to rise slowly, the intercept point moving further away and their relative speeds decreasing.

“Still no radio contact?”

“Yes, but they’ve certainly received the message it seems.”

“No locks?”

“None of them either.”

“Try again with the telescopes again once they’ve finished their burn to see if we can get a visual.”

“Got it.”

Bloody creepy shits… It seems like they’re increasingly more likely to be the Directorate given that they seem to have understood part of the message…

The door to the bridge was wrenched open, a burly marine letting in a slightly dishevelled Elliot who rushed to Edward’s side as his eyes flicked to the sensor screen, “W-wh-what is going on uh- sir!”

“We,” David responded, “have been pounced on by an unknown fleet who isn’t properly responding to any messages we send them while being on a direct intercept path with us, T- thirty minutes and increasing.”

“Why-“

“They’ve started another acceleration burn.” Edward replied simply.

“Wouldn’t that do the opposite!?”

“No with how orbital mechanics work. Being in orbit means throwing yourself at the ground and missing. So right now, these people are trying to throw themselves harder, which is pushing their path further away from the planet which means they will get into around the same are we are later-” He saw the confusion in the poor diplomat’s mismatched eyes, “I’ll explain it later.”

“The important part is, olive branch boy, is that we are still not out of the briars yet and the wolf still might pounce on us, if a little later” David said, his eyes moving back to the sensor screen. “Ah, they’ve stopped accelerating…”

“Telescop-“

“Already on it aaand…”

A slightly blurry picture flickered onto one of the display screens at the front of the room. The picture showed a line of five vessels, all of differing sizes but all with the same design language.

Claws.

Each of them seemed to be made up of three components. A central body that was then sat between two long blade like bodies that extended in front and behind of the central body.

One of them, clearly the capital ship, had both its reverse, and main engines attached to the central body, with what seemed like rows of turrets lining across its two blades.

Noticeably smaller than that, were what seemed to be the two cruisers, with their engines mounted on each end of its blade. Along them also seemed to be various smaller vessels docked to its outer edge.

Then the escorts had a much more understated set of blades, with the three bodies somewhat merged together and lacking and sign of large turrets.

All together interesting designs to say the least, but yet again, a little creepy.

Then-

“Sir, the fleet is finally hailing us in return… They say that they welcome the IFC in return and wish to speak to any representatives of it we have available.”

Edward nodded, “Elliot, you can take David’s phone and Alex, put them on speaker and get recording. Did they say where they are from?”

“Not yet sir. They’re awaiting a representative’s response.”

“Right…”

He breathed in, giving a quick glance over to Elliot who nodded back, the warmth from his eyes reassuring him as he picked up the phone.

“This is Rear Admiral Fletcher of the International Federal Commonwealth. Who might you represent?”

The line remained silent for a moment.

Then the reply came as a gravely, deep voice echoed down the line, “This is Second Admiral Agricous Lavar hailing you on behalf of the Awakened Directorate of Humanity. We have come to rid ourselves of a pirate force, stand aside.”

“Greetings Admiral. We have already destroyed this pirate force over an hour ago. Any survivors are already being taken into our custody.”

The line crackled as nothing came back for a moment before that gravelly voice returned.

“We commend you on your kills. I want you to send a message to your nearest diplomatic representative to ask them to start a formal meeting between our states. I will do the same.”

“I am a diplomat sir,” Elliot said, “I can send the message directly to my superiors within the foreign and diplomatic department.”

What seemed to be a chuckled came, “I like efficiency. Good to see your commonwealth saw the sense in having someone ready to talk for cases like this. Our attaché will arrive in nighty-six hours aboard their own vessels. I hope yours will not leave them waiting.”

Then the line cut-

“Sir! We have-“

“More bloody contacts!” He almost spat as three new vessels appeared on radar. Three hundred and sixty kilometres out.

“And… They’re already hailing us!”

“What!?”

“They are asking both us and the directorate fleet who we are and saying…”

“Saying what!?”

Alex nearly scoffed, “That they’re the “Interstellar Union of Soviet Republics” apparently and have also come to deal with a pirate threat.”

Edward wasn’t quite sure where his jaw was supposed to be at this point. To be honest to himself he wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to be thinking either.

“Alex, send them a welcome message back and inform them about the status of the pirates. Elliot, I think we need to get on a hyperspace line with the highest person we can get into contact with and inform them of the double first contacts we have had today.”