Chapter 1

“Erm, excuse me Emperor, we have a problem”

“Do, we ever not” Greeny mumbled under his Breath.

“Sir?”

“Sorry Lieutenant, What is it?”

Greeny hated being woken up.  He hadn’t had a full nights sleep since he became Emperor.

“We have Admiral Aragon on the communicator, he says that he needs to speak to you urgently Sir.”

 “Very well, give me 5 minutes to get dressed and then put him through here”

“Yes Sir” As the Lieutenant left Greeny pulled himself out of his bed.  His living area was spacious, but it was nothing compared to the Imperial Palace on Earth.

Greeny activated the command console in his office.  It currently displayed a completely unflattering image of himself, his award levels in various military skills.  Several of which he had earned the highest honour in, the current status of the mines and colonies that had been placed under his immediate control and his personal mineral stockpiles and bank details.

He switched the screen the communications channel and activated a channel to the Command deck. 

“Put him through Lieutenant” He said.  His crew had been hand picked personally due to their efficiency, skills and experience, but he still found the efficiency of that particular lieutenant unnerving.  He was a shy young man, but none the less very good at his job and could make it across the ship in remarkable time.

“Yes Sir”.

“My Lord” Said Aragon with a slight bow as he appeared on the screen.

“What is it Aragon” Said Greeny, slightly more angrily than he had intended to.

“Sir, we have just received a communication from the Hive, they want to see you immediately in Betelgeux”

“Do you know what about?”

“No Sir, you know the hive” Said Aragon leaning back in his chair slightly “They keep most things to themselves”

“Ok, thank you Aragon”

“See you later Sir” He said bowing his head again.

“See you” Greeny replied, shutting off the communicator.

“Commander, set course for Betelgeux” Said Greeny as he walked onto the Command deck.  The Pride of Terra was no ordinary Invincible class Battlecruiser the cargo bay had been completely converted to house his expanded living area, several high class guest rooms, a conference room, and several extra features that weren’t normally included on a Battlecruiser such as greatly enhanced shields, a long range transporter and several more weapons, including a second Super heavy laser.   However all these extra systems require a lot of power and so an extra Antimatter Reactor had to be installed.  This meant that the ship was quickly picked up on sensors as it had one of the highest outputs for a ship in the galaxy.

“Yes Sir”

“Now if you will excuse me” Said Greeny “I am going to catch up on some shut eye.  How long until we arrive Commander?”

“Approximately seven hour’s sir”

“Good.  Alert me in five hours then Commander, thank you” he said as he walked of the command deck.

Greeny was awoken with a start, he suddenly felt weightless.   But that sensation ended as soon as it had started, but the gravity wasn’t restored the way that it should have been, he was shot across the room and straight towards the door leading to the corridor outside his living area.  He hit the door with a loud thud and then it opened and he fell through but fortunately he managed to grab the doorframe and swing himself to the other side of the corridor which had apparently become the floor.

“Commander?”  He said angrily “What the hell is happening?”

“We aren’t sure Sir” said the commander over the communicator that was just in front of Greenys feet “Artificial gravity, weapons and hyperdrive as well as several secondary systems are offline and we are being pulled towards the Wolf359 system.

“What?” Greeny was becoming increasingly worried about the situation “How far are we from the Wolf star?”

“We aren’t nearly close enough to be affected by its gravity Sir”

Greeny managed to run and crawl his way to the command deck, bashing his shins several times on door frames.

“Sir” shouted a small Ensign from the back of the Command deck “We are about to restore artificial gravity to the ship, you may want to lean against something”

Greeny felt odd in his night clothes on the command deck, with the entire crew with their backs to the floor which was now the wall.  Yep, this was defiantly going to be a strange day.

“Restoring artificial gravity in five, four, three, two, one” Said the Ensign.  And then as the artificial gravity came back there was a tremendous crash as everything that wasn’t held down flew back across the ship.  Greeny stood up.

“Report Commander” he shouted through the noise of the ship.

“We are approaching Wolf Sir, we will be within the wolf system within 15 minutes”

“Concentrate on getting weapons online and see if you can find out what’s happening”

“Sir, I may have an explanation” Shouted a young engineering Lieutenant “I think that we may be caught in some sort of artificial gravity field”

“Hmm, I remember being given a report about something similar to that several years ago, but all our tests were failures” Said the commander.

“Not all of them Commander” Greeny said “There was one successful test.  The engineers managed to stabilise the gravity field long enough to capture a ship.  However the gravity was stronger than anticipated and the ship was crushed under its own weight.  The remnants of the ship were super accelerated and were pulled straight into the gravity generator destroying it, and the ship it was built on.  The entire event was classified and the Council decided that the technology was too unpredictable to spend more resources on.”

“Well Sir” said the Commander “It appears someone has perfected the technology”

“Five minutes until we are within the system”

“Go to battle status,”

“Ready available weapons,”

“Activate shields”

“Sir we are entering the system” Said the commander.

Greeny sat in his chair and activated the command console and selected the tactical screen.  Pirates.  He sighed.

“Three Kerensky class Destroyers, an Aurelius class Cruiser, 2 Battlecruisers, a Zealot and who knows how many cloaked ships” Said the commander.

“Sir the Aurelius class cruiser is emitting power levels well above those that are expected for a ship of that size”

“Ok, lock weapons, we will need to destroy that if we want to escape”

“Emperor Greeny, how nice of you to join us” Said a figure over the communications channel.  His features were hidden by a cloak, but from the build Greeny guessed that he was probably a Genus.

“Oh, great another overdressed cliché bad guy.  Well what do you want” Greeny said slightly bored.  This clearly annoyed the Pirate, who had obviously expected his attire to have more of an impact.  But he composed himself before he spoke.

“I want you.  You and your crew would be worth a large amount of money to the Terran Empire don’t you think”

“I am going to enjoy collecting the bounty on your head” Greeny replied as he shut off the communication.

“What are our chances Commander?”  Greeny asked.

“Well they clearly want us alive, or you at least” The commander said and Greeny could hear the slight amount of fear in his voice.

“If those Kerensky class destroyers are still fitted with the original shields and weapons that they have when they are built then they pose no threat, they could be destroyed in a single volley” Said Greeny “I doubt that the Aurelius class ship is factory standard, but with that gravity generator running I doubt it has much power for weapons and shields. However those Invincibles and that Zelly could be a problem, not to mention there are probably several cloaked ships within firing range.”

“We tried communicating with the Terran Navy but our communications are being jammed, however the hyperdrive is now online”

“Sir” a lieutenant shouted “Two energy readings to starboard and three to port”

“Cloaked ships?” The commander asked.

“Most likely Sir, however we can’t say what type of ship they are”

“Thank you lieutenant.  Commander, what is the status of the weapons?” Greeny asked

“All operational except torpedo tubes 5 and 7”

“Good, prepare to open fire on the Aurelius cruiser”

“Aye Sir”

“Firing Starboard Super Heavy Laser”

“Firing Distortion cannons one and three”

“Launching all available torpedoes”

It had taken the pirates a split second to realise that the Pride of Terra had opened fire, but they had responded in kind.

“Shields at 93% Sir”

 Greeny had been correct when he had said that the Aurelius cruiser wouldn’t fire, but the Kerensky class destroyers had significantly upgraded weapons.

“Aurelius shields at 23%”

“Good, I think that…” But Greeny couldn’t finish that sentence as the ship was suddenly rocked by a huge explosion.  “Report” He shouted as several ensigns grabbed fire suppression devices to put out the blazes that were tearing through the back of the command deck.

“Shields down, all starboard weapons are down, reactor two is offline, engines down to 34% efficiency.”

“By the Emperors crown, what happened?”  Shouted the Commander.

“Unknown Sir.  However reports from reactor control indicate that, well Sir, they indicate that we were sabotaged”

“Status of the Hyperdrive” Shouted Greeny over the noise of the flames and suppression systems.

“94% Sir”

“Is the gravity generator still online?”

“Yes Sir, but the shields on the Aurelius ship are down”

Greeny exchanged a glance with the Commander and then they both started to issue orders.

“Roll the ship, bring the Port weapons around”

“Seal off the area around the reactor and dispatch security teams, we need to find the saboteur”

“Shut all unessential access ports, I don’t want any more systems to be sabotaged”

Then another explosion rocked the ship.

“All weapons are offline”

“Sir, that was one of the docking ports being blown, we have been boarded”. Greeny could fell the fear in the room, although no one showed any signs of it he had been a leader long enough to recognise it.

“Send all available security teams” he didn’t have to shout anymore, all the firing had stopped.

Then there was an eerie silence across the command deck broken every few seconds by the sound of small arms fire and a door being exploded.

“Ok, everyone ready your weapons” Said the Commander, drawing his Pulse Rifle and kneeling down beside a console.

All the bridge crew drew weapons of various sorts, for most it was a simple bolt pistol, but a few had more advanced weapons.

Greeny could hear the screams of the security team outside the Command deck door and then a silence before a large explosion which knocked him back.

“FIRE” he shouted but most of the crew had already started.  The attacking force consisted of 6 preservers, all of them clearly damaged, 3 Orfine and a Genus.

“Commander!” Greeny shouted as he watched his faithful friend be torn apart by one of the Orfine.

“Damn Dog” he shouted as he unleashed several rounds into the Orfines head.  He then suddenly felt very strange and then realised that he had been hit on the head.  He spun round and tried to elbow the attacker in the face, but realised too late that elbowing a robot in the face would do more damage to him.  The Preserver grabbed his arm and snapped it with a crunching sound between the elbow and wrist.  As he fell to his knees he heard a synthesised voice but he was to delirious to understand what it said, then he blacked out.