• "Captain, I think you need to see this..." The voice of the Guardian of Eternity's helmsman rose over Commander Altra'phai's private comm-channel. He opened his eyes, a flash of orange glinting across their feiry red surface. He rose to his feet slowly, striding to the door of his cabin. The door hissed and slid open at his approach, and he didn't need to slow for a moment. He walked out into the corridor, turned sharply and headed towards the helm of the ship.

    The door to the helm slid open with the charactaristic hiss of air and the helmsman looked up over his shoulder. "Greetings, Captian. We've picked up an unidentified vessel, about a hundred klicks ahead of us. We haven't got a visual yet, but its signals don't match anything we've ever seen before."

    The Commander, Alpha, as he liked to be called, stood silently for a few moments, staring down at the screen the helmsman was sitting in front of. "Open a comm-channel, try to contact them."

    "Yes, sir." The helmsman's hands worked quickly over the console before him, a small series of beeps raising from the console. "Done."

    "Unidentified vessel! This is the Guardian of Eternity of the Ma'rutai First Fleet. You have entered Telahi space. Identify yourself at once."

    Humans

    "Captain!"

    A clatter of heavy boots thumped rhythmically up the hallway to the pilot chamber, a tall, lightly-muscled woman with set features promptly walked up behind the man that had called her.

    “What’s going on, Rendez?”

    “Listen to this.” The young man pulled off his headset, handing it over to the tall woman at his side with alarm in his eyes.

    With the headpiece fitting her finally, she held a hand over the earpiece, her brow knit in confusion and concern at what she heard. Someone was talking in a strange dialect, static covered half of the words, but other than that, the tone suggested warning. She listened for as long as the voice kept on, which wasn’t long really, before reaching across the young Corporal and turning the control panel to herself.

    "This is the UPF vessel 1423 HH Stardust, Captain Velquin speaking. If you understand, then be assured that we mean no intrusion. We request that peace-time measures be taken into effect, out of the war zone, we are not heavily armed. Over." She waited for the response, praying it was understandable.

    Praying her stealthed, de-armoured medical ship would not be fired upon.

    Telahi

    Alpha frowned, hearing the seemingly-random babble of a female voice that sounded completely alien to him. He paused a moment, trying to decipher any of the words that came across. Nothing... "Unidentified vessel, I cannot understand you. Turn back, or at least stop. Trespassing any further into Telahi space will result in agressive response from our ship."

    Humans

    The Captain pulled the mouthpiece away for a moment to speak with the crew. "Cut the engine, lift the cloaking. We're in some deep s**t at the moment, we don't need to be attacked." She sighed, getting a slew of " yes ma'am's " in response. She lurched slightly on her feet as the engines ground to a halt, lights blinking green, and the cloaking one red.. Good. It was done. Now to wait. "I can't understand a bloody word, but do not attack. I repeat; do not attack."

    Telahi

    The helmsman looked up at Alpha. "Looks like they got the message. They stopped." He caught a stern glance from Alpha and slowly added, "...sir." at the end.

    Alpha glanced at the screen, noting that the ship had, indeed, stopped. "Unidentified vessel, we are sending a boarding party." The helmsman nodded, accepting the unspoken order and closing the comm-channel. "Will you be leading the boarding party? ... sir."

    Planet Rysula, Circini System, Telahi Cluster
    Human Colony-System "Element"; Sector A51-R, "Air"; Primary Focus: Acedemic Establishments

    Eric Sheilds, a 14-year-old human child, quickly scribbled down notes as the Telahi teacher at the front of the room told of the past, of twenty years ago, the "First Contact", as it was called. When the Telahi and Human races had first met. Of course, he was just one of many young students in the class, which was one of dozens of classes in the building, which was the top young-student academy the system had to offer.

    The teacher paused for a moment, his long, bright red teaching robes settling around him as he stopped his slow pacing. He always paced across the front of the room when he spoke. He turned, looking out across the rows of students for a few moments, then continued. "The First Contact was made between a ship from the Telahi First Fleet, and a Human medical ship seeking sanctuary from an era of fighting. The Human ship, named Stardust, was captained by a female pilot named Velquin, while the Telahi ship, named Guardian of Eternity, was captained by Altra'phai." He paused another moment as a student raised their hand. "Yes, what is your question?"

    "Altra'phai is also known as Commander Alpha, right, sir?"

    "That is correct." The teacher replied, and Eric jotted that down as a note to the side of Altra'phai's name.

    "Both Commander Altra'phai and Captain Velquin have been immortalized as heroes, for bringing together our two races. The unity of our races has brought forth many technilogical advances, on both sides. Within a week of the First Contact, a stable form of communication was invented by a brilliant Telahi engineer, Bymethan, who was, at the time, a crewmember of the Paradox of Duality, the flagship of the Telahi First Fleet. He created a device that could crudely translate the Telahi langauge for the humans, and vice versa. As time passed, this device was improved, to the point at which our two races began to mix our languages into one we could both understand. Afterwards, it was only a matter of time before human colonies began to appear in Telahi systems, and Telahi colonists ventured into human space."

    Something drew Eric's attention away from the teacher's words and towards the window of the classroom. He frowned, noticing a red glimmer, high in the sky, amongst the yellowish-orange clouds that so frequently clogged the sky. He could also, just barely, pick out a faint rumbling, one that didn't fit in amongst the normal sounds of the classroom. Slowly, more of the students began to notice as well, until it reached the point at which the Telahi strode to the window himself to look out and see what was distracting all his students. The teacher stood still for a moment, staring out the window towards the red glimmer, then uttered a swear word that was barely audible. At that moment, Eric knew something was wrong. Teachers weren't supposed to ever swear...

    "Children, run! Take cover!" However, the warning was futile. There was a flash of red light, an earsplittingly loud screeching sound, and then silence. No screams of fear or pain... just silence. As the red light slowly faded away, the charred remains of the classroom became visible again. Everything that hadn't been instantly vaporized was now aflame. No one in the room, or the entire building, had survived.

    Orbital Station 42651-G37; In Orbit Around Rysula
    Planetary Defenses Commission Meeting Room

    "Four attacks were launched on the human colony-group "Element" yesterday. Each one struck down a major building in one of the group's sectors. The Bymethan Academy in Air Sector, the main stock warehouse in Water Sector, several of the colony's best research labs in Earth Sector, and the colony's defensive system headquarters in Fire Sector. The most important thing now is to find the source of these attacks, as well as to send funding to help the rebuilding of the colony." Colony Leader Ohira Darton's voice trailed off as Defensive Coordinator Rela'talr spoke up. "We're already working on that. These attacks appear to be from a long-range, or perhaps orbital, bomber. However... there's only one such ship in any known fleet."

    All eyes turned towards Rela'talr.

    He paused for a moment, then slowly said, "The Guardian of Eternity."

    Ohira spoke up again. "So you mean to tell us that the Ma'rutai First Fleet is attacking our main colony? That's an outrage!"

    "Calm yourself, Darton. The Ma'rutai Fleet would never attack a human colony. I was suggesting that one of the ships has been stolen; that wouldn't be an easy feat for anyone, but it's still possible."

    A triplebleep sounded throughout the room, and a Telahi face appeared on the main monitor. "This is Deltra'sion, captain of the Paradox of Duality, flagship of the Ma'rutai First Fleet. We've.. made a discovery. One of our pilots went rogue. We believe that he is behind the attacks on your colony."

    Rela'talr turned to the screen. "Who was the pilot?"

    Deltra'sion sighed, waiting a moment then replying, "Altra'phai."

    Rela'talr, Darton, and the several others throughout the room stared at the screen, shocked at what they had just heard.

    "Commander Alpha...?" The Defensive Coordinator repeated.

    "Indeed. We're asking for volunteers for a task force to take him down. It appears... he isn't happy with the humans colonizing Telahi space. He's gathering his own small army... this attack is only the beginning. Coordinator Rela'talr, I'd like you to spread the word requesting for volunteers, and send anyone interested, Telahi or human, to the Teleharr system, Ma'rutai. We'll meet in the fifth drydock."

    Planet Merai, Ter'Merai System, Third Planet from Ter'Merai Star
    Main Continent, Mer'Kala.


    The main continent, Mer'Kala, was covered with a vast, sprawling forest, with a few medium-sized Telahi settlements around its edges, as well as several small, low-tech Telahi settlements amongst the trees, built into the canopy of the deepest parts of the forest. The very densest part of the forest, however, where the trees were close enough together to block out the light... there was a large patch of trees that looked slightly.. off. It wasn't very visible from above, but from ground-level, it would look like a building or some other structure camoflauged to look like part of the forest. Of course... it would be next to impossible to even see the structure until you were right next to it.

    The structure, it would be visible if right next to it, turned out to be a medium-sized steller warship. The airlock was situated at the entrance to a path cut through the forest by frequent travel.

    Xi'nala strode slowly down the path through the forest, winding its way around and between trees, until finally she turned sharply around tight turn in the path and saw the ship that was the resistance's headquarters. She paused, a small grin lighting up her face, then continued her determined pace, glancing slowly at the two guards standing by the door to the airlock. She walked slowly up to the airlock door, glancing up and down over the multiple shades of green that made up the camoflauge paintjob. She watched as the outter door opened with a hiss of air, then stepped through, glancing back as it closed behind her.

    A voice came over the intraship communications speaker in the airlock chamber. "Identify yourself."

    "Xi'nala. Alpha knows me as Xi." She said, her voice cold, emotionless.

    "Step up to the identification panel." The voice said; she nodded, stepping up to the panel. It slid open and she lifted a hand, pulling off one of the light blue gloves she wore, then placed the hand on the panel. A few seconds passed, and the scan was complete.

    "Enter." The inner door slid open and Xi walked through. She looked up and down the corridor she had entered. To the right was the cockpit, to the left was the majority of the ship. She turned to the left, picking up her pace again. There were several lower-ranking Telahi between her and her destination... they were roughly pushed past when they didn't step aside. None of them spoke out, however... they all knew who Xi was, and not to cross her.

    She crossed the navigation room, striding over to a door, roughly jabbing the door control and waiting a few seconds as it slid open. She continued up the stairs that were thusly presented to her, up in a curve until she was facing back towards the nose of the ship, only a floor up. She entered a new chamber, ringed with approximately ten chairs, one of them turned away with someone seated in it. "Greetings, Xi." A voice rose from the man. "How many have you found?"

    "About a dozen. They all know to come here to join us. I told them to mention my name to the guards, to not get shot. And also, our two other recruiting bases have been set up, in the locations you requested."

    "Excellent." The chair slowly turned around, and revealed the Telahi sitting in it to be Alpha. "Now... we wait."