Chapter 3

Kortegas was sitting in The Lounge, a bar aboard the council ship, enjoying a drink with a few of his friends.

"So Will, how'd it go?" asked a captain in black and blue, this was Captain James Butte, Kortegas' long time friend, also a high ranking captain in the Lambda clan

"How did what go Jim?" replied Kortegas, acting as innocently as possible

James grinned, "Come now Will, we all know about your promotion as captain of that beast of a ship" he motioned to the Viewscreen and at the Ironclad on the other side of it "Or is that an illusion and your promotion a pack of lies?"

Kortegas grinned as well, only the high rankers knew much about the Ironclad, it had been built in a stable pocket of Highspace, artificially created and hidden to all but those who knew where to find it, the only way in or out was through the Megagate station, the last relic of old Earth

"The maiden voyage of Ironclad was a success, we destroyed a Toallian assault transport. Do you know where it was headed?" he said, finally deciding to break his silence

A Xenos captain, captain J'ul Rath'r, entered the conversation, "no, where?"

Kortegas was silent for a moment, letting the tension build, "It was headed towards old Earth"

There was a collective gasp from the other captains as the news sunk in, James was the first to break the resultant silence, "They obviously don't want to let go of something that cost them so much to gain", everyone else nodded, remembering the battle for Earth, they all regretted that they had failed to protect Earth, they all hated the running, they all wanted revenge.

An alarm sounded and a voice came over the intercom, "All Captains and personnel, report to your ships, the fleet is making the jump in 10 minutes, this is your 10 minute warning, thank you"

The Captains finished off their glasses and took them back to the bar, "Looks like I'll see you after the jump then Will, then you can show me around your ship" Said James as he left for his shuttle, Will Kortegas returning to his shuttle, flying out to the Ironclad and taking his seat on the bridge as the five minute warning came in over the ship to ship comms system.

"Everyone hold on, Navigation, lock us into Fleetnav, get us the co- ordinates and slave the hyperdrive to Fleet control" Kortegas ordered, settling back into his chair

"Aye Cap'n, Navigation out"

Everyone felt the hyperdrive whine into life as Earthfleet began to make the jump to Highspace, the Megagate opening for the smaller craft with no hyperdrives, the massive Hypergate creating a backwash that made the fleet's jump easier.

Kortegas watched the ship, himself and his crew become transparent as they phased out of normal 'Low' space and into the overlaying dimension of Highspace, everything becoming solid once again as the molecules straightened themselves out, the ships were now 10 times smaller than they had been, but almost three times as fast and the distances they had to travel were shortened by almost 40 times.

This is how Earthfleet had survived; they had been running from the Toallian advance, jumping into the unknown, one such jump had discovered the Xenos clan.

### Flashback ###

Earthfleet dropped out of Highspace and scanned their immediate surroundings, these co-ordinates had been on the most ancient maps discovered, maps from before the fall of the Human Empire when the clans had lost contact with each other in the silence of civil war within the sol system.

No one knew why these co-ordinates were marked but they were away from the Toallians so that made them a good place to jump to.

Kortegas had been stationed on one of the newer Lambda frigates, a class 8 Ramhead frigate named Drumhead, and was part of the Earthfleet scanning net, the sensor capacities of the Drumhead were pushed to max to help the fleet survey it's location.

"Captain, we've got something on the scanners sir" came a voice from the sensors officer

Kortegas drifted over to the sensors manager, there was no gravity on the bridge, the generator couldn't produce the amount needed for its influence to reach the bridge.

"Is it Toallian?" he asked, unlikely but you never knew

"No sir, its like nothing I've ever seen," replied the sensors officer

Kortegas drifted to the centre of the bridge, "Show me," he said

The floor in the centre opened and the holographic tactical display (HTD) rose from the hole and the projection appeared above the machinery.

"Where's the anomaly?" he asked, the display selecting an area and highlighting it, zooming in it displayed two blips moving towards the Earthfleet, "Inform fleet control, and give me any info you can get on the unidentified craft and display it on the HTD" he told the sensors Officer, Comms sending the message and data to fleet command, all the others craning round to look at the tactical display as the scanner info on the craft was displayed. It was a strange shape, there was a long part at the back, probably an engine exhaust, that ended in a large thick section with a short tower rising from the top, from the bottom of this section was a curving section that dropped down, curved forwards and up and ended in a forwards facing point directly in line with the large section the curve sprouted from. The ship appeared to be the same size as a Ramhead frigate, maybe smaller.

"Captain, we got a transmission from Fleet command, we get first contact" come the Comms officer's shout

"Lucky us, OK, Navigation, give me an intercept course with the craft, power the weapons but keep them sheathed, we don't want to panic them, go at a speed of blocks 2 and 3 at 2/3, block 1 at 1/3"

"Aye, Aye Cap'n course laid in"

The Drumhead peeled away from the fleet and headed off towards the unidentified craft at a reasonable speed, again so as not to panic the other craft.

"Comms, broadcast this in all languages to the craft" ordered Kortegas, at a nod from Comms confirming broadcast Kortegas resumed speaking "Unidentified craft, this is Captain Kortegas of the Lambda clan frigate Drumhead, please identify yourself" he said to the ever growing shapes of the unidentified craft. There was a pause and then.

"This is Captain Rath'r of the Xen Clan, the ancient writings foretold that the clans of old Earth would find us again, we expected the ruling Clan Terra to be the first, yet it is the clan of Lambda who finds us, stay there man of lambda, we will bring a representative, Rath'r out"

The two ships turned and departed as Kortegas ordered the conversation to be relayed to Earthfleet, the Xen clan Captain's remark about Terra clan would certainly ruffle some Hydra feathers, they had campaigned long and hard for an equal council of clans as opposed to a ruling clan.

Sensors piped up again, "Sir, I'm picking up a new ship, it seems to be another Xen one, but it's the size of a foundry ship sir"

The new ship appeared on the HTD, it had a main body that was shaped like a shield, the blunt end facing towards Drumhead, there were two curves, like the shape of the earlier ships, sprouting from the sides and two smaller ones protruding from the rear. There was a tower that hung down from the front and a closer scan showed row upon row of smaller curving craft hung along the bottom. On the top of the craft was a symbol, like an eye formed by two curving blades.

"Turn around, show it the way to Earthfleet" ordered Kortegas, they had received an order from Fleet Command to escort the Xen craft to Earthfleet.

### End Flashback ###

The Xen ambassador had decided that the Xen would join Earthfleet, indeed the Xenos Clan are the only clan that still have a Homeworld, a much- resented fact. When they joined Earthfleet the Xen labelled themselves Xenos clan, the Alien clan, as the looked strikingly different to the rest of the humans with their grey skin, long fingers and compound eyes, the black and deep purple of their robes is there label, along with the eye of swords mark on most of their products.

Two days later the fleet dropped out of Highspace at their destination, an asteroid field the size of Jupiter of the old sol system. The fleet appeared outside the field and sent the harvesters in to carve up the raw matter and return it to the foundry ships, gigantic ramscoops were dispatched to harvest nearby hydrogen pockets for fuel.

Something flashed from Highspace faster than the sensors could detect, it crashed through a lambda corvette, destroying it and smashed into the side of a large, type 12 frigate, an experimental design of frigate codenamed the Drumhead class as a tribute to Kortegas' old ship that had made first contact with the Xenos clan. On first glance the object appeared to be an asteroid, it was assumed that a wayward asteroid had destroyed the corvette and imbedded itself in the side of the frigate.

It was not.