Till I Breathe My Last
My name is Morgan Nocte, Captain of the Luna Deia, an Incendia Class single crew Battleship with a fully sentient, super-intelligent A.I. named Artemis. She is the first and most likely last of her kind. Together we serve in the Imperial Terran Navy as a role-model pairing for the peoples of the Terran Empire.
However, this is not as glorious as it seems, for the Empire angered a foe far more powerful than we dared imagine. The Orthane. A race similar in many ways to the goblins of myth, mixed with ants, a bloodthirsty, extremely warlike,, yet oddly honorable race. They stand at roughly 2.3 meters for their basic warriors, 2.6 meters for their captains, and oddly enough 1.75 meters for their generals. Do not be fooled however, an Orthanian general is capable of taking a direct hit from a 35mm armor-piercing fletchette rifle at nearly point-blank range and laughing while moving nearly Mach 2 with unenhanced armor.
Now, the reason I say oddly honorable, is that the Orthane despite being one of the most prolific species, as well as one of the more powerful in our part of the galaxy did not attack us as they do not attack those weaker than themselves, we in our ignorance attacked a lesser colony of theirs and so have wrought our doom upon ourselves.
The reason for this is the Orthane believe in honorable combat and will gladly kill each other all day long, unless they are angered that is. The Empire, believing the colony to be the only one of its kind ordered an overwhelming attack that wiped the Orthane off the face of a planet we deemed should belong to us. In our hubris, we touched upon the ultimate Orthanian taboo, the murder of a Youngling Queen.
To the Orthane, death in battle is the most glorious and sought after end. However that end is meant only for those capable of bearing arms, not the young and weak, nor the old and infirm. To kill royalty is fine, as long as they bore weapons and fought. To kill a Youngling Queen that was not capable of fighting, only speech because, as she stated "as long as I live the fight can continue". A standard Orthanian greeting to a powerful foe given by all Orthanian Royalty when their forces have been defeated. It is also a warning. A warning that was ignored by the Commanding Officer of the breaching team when he blew her head off. The scene was transmitted to the Orthanian homeworld instantly, and our destruction was set in stone.
Friday, April 13th, 8:59 PM 3462 638 P.D. the time and date the Youngling Queen was killed, a mere 4 months, 8 days, 16 hours and 21 minutes ago. In this short period of time, over 140 billion soldiers and countless civilians have been killed while more than 150 planets and countless ships have been destroyed.
All that remains of the once mighty Empire is Sol, our birthplace, 40 decrepit ships more than 100 years old and the Luna Deia.
This is my story, one full of strange turns, battle, and an adventure I want to share.
Once again, My Name is Morgan Nocte, Captain of the Luna Deia, and I will fight for humanity
Till I Breathe My Last
Fallen_Nephilim · SF
