Chapter Sixty-Six

His Glorious Aspirations. Fallout Universe.

In science fiction combat between space ships in the void is often very dramatic with the fighting vessels getting into close range as they blast each other with advanced weapons and sometimes there will be fighter craft as well just to add the display of CGI effects. I was now discovering that the space combat is actually done at a great distance as energy weapons have ranges in the hundreds of kilometres maybe more and if anything exploded then I didn't see it. Instead what I got were members of my bridge crew shouting out numbers at each other as we did battle with two alien space craft.

This time when we'd come out of The Warp and into a new universe we'd done so much closer to the systems primary, its sun, than we would normally, possibly because I'd been too confident when using the drive, and before long we'd ended up fighting some aliens. We knew that they were xenos because they called us up and shouted something very inhuman sounding before moving to attack.

Which was insane because both of the alien motherships, the scanners, or auger as the Imperials called them, informed us that we outgunned both vessels to the point that this battle bordered on the comical. These aliens even had to lower their shields to fire and their support craft were already getting blasted apart by the point defence weapons.

"So these xenos have armour that might as well be paper when compared to ours, shields they have to drop in order to fire, only one weapon worthy of the name and that is limited to the kind of energy required for a nuclear strike were as we our weapons can reduce most of a continent to ruins with a single salvo" I said to my First Officer "and they charged right at us".

All aliens were mad, it was the only explanation.

"It is possible that their augers did not warn them of the danger of entering combat with us" speculated the experienced navy man "These xenos are clearly very primitive".

Or desperate to defend something.

"The mind of an alien can never be known to humanity" stated Archmagos Del Arx.

The magos didn't normally venture to the bridge, but since I was making an effect to get the Ad-Mech more on my side I'd invited him here. So far he hadn't gotten involved in the battle, rather he simply observed.

"The alien ships are opening fire" I was warned.

There was no shaking or anything like that. If I hadn't been informed I might not even have noticed that anything happened. There was a slight strain on the void shields according to the readout I had access to thanks to me sitting in command throne, but the defensive barrier held strong.

"Return fire!" I shouted.

Given the aliens had moved into close range my cruiser's forward facing weapons had a decent chance of hitting something.

"We have crippled one of the alien motherships" reported the Master of Etherics.

Since the two big saucers had spat out passed for fighters and shuttles it seemed clear that there were motherships.

"Do you wish to use the light lance to finish off the enemy ship?" enquired the Master of Ordnance.

A light lance could easily destroy the crippled mothership by directly hitting what passed for a power core.

"No reload the Marcocannon and focus on the second xenos vessel" I ordered "We don't want them trying to escape".

While we had them outgunned and our defences were vastly superior I had no idea what kind of FTL drive, if any at all, they made use of or what kind of slower than light engines they might have. Best to finish this fight quickly so as to avoid alien inference later on.

"The other vessel is crippled" I was soon informed.

These aliens, the Zetans I think they were called, proved to be total pushovers. Their technology was very impressive in some ways, I knew that they had teleporters and ray guns, but when it came to ship to ship combat they were wussies. I wondered if they had ever faced an enemy with the technology to fight them in space. If they hadn't encountered other space faring species that might explain why they were so unprepared to fight us in the void of space.

"Finish them off" I commanded.

Given the extreme xenophobia of the IOM I didn't wish to be branded a heretic for showing interest in alien tech. Just destroying the motherships was a huge waste of resources, but I had to be careful with so many powerful organisations watching me. Besides I'd come here for the tech on Fallout Earth not to mess about with the impure xenos.

"Praise be to the Emperor for our swift victory!" shouted the First Officer.

"Ave Imperator!" everyone shouted.

Since I didn't do any yelling and someone might have noticed I decided that I would soon need to start giving out some orders so as keep everyone's minds on some task.

"This world I have brought us to seems to be a human world" I told my officers as reports started flooding in "There appears to a number of transmissions coming from this world that suggest humans with a level of technology much greater than the feudal world that we brought into the Emperor's light during our last expedition. We will travel to this world and brings the Emperor's light to it if they are ignorant of his Imperial Majesty and if the aliens threaten this world we will be there to defend it. I want this ship placed to defend this planet and to explore its surface".

I had more to say.

"The support craft must be prepared to fly and the regiment made ready for war" I said "Do not lower your guard as the aliens may return with a large fleet".

I turned to the Archmagos.

"We need to learn as much about this world as quickly as we can" I said to him "I trust you can begin an investigation".

The red robed figured bowed before departing and since I knew that it would be many hours before the Archmagos would be starting a briefing so I had time to rest.