Wandering
We arrived at Epsilon Eridani. There was already a group of ships there. A Coalition Admiral had run with his entire fleet. He asked me to join him. I thought it over. There would be safety with him, at least in the greater numbers. He had a more powerful assemblage of warships than we did. I was concerned about placing these people under the command of a Coalition Commander. I didn't have a good impression of the commanders of the major powers. I found them as oppressive as their empires. I declined.
He insisted a bit more strongly and I decided it was time to leave. We accelerated toward a random jump point counting on him being unwilling to engage in a fruitless battle at a time like this. Thankfully he must have decided he had nothing to gain and he left us alone. We jumped out. A ship had entered the system just before we left and it followed us through the next jump.
The ship was the Churchill, an Atlantic Federation vessel under the command of Joey Bellamy. He had heard our transmissions and followed us. He had been in the fleet which had been destroyed by the chaff field the intruders had released. His ship was damaged, but functional and once repaired it was one of our finest. The heavy cruiser was as modern as they came and we put it to good use over the next two hundred years.
Incidentally, the fleet we encountered at Epsilon Eridani seems to have survived. Current intelligence estimates support the theory that they later settled in the region which now is home to the Outsiders.
We began our wanderings. We didn't want to go back to Earth. The planet itself would be uninhabitable for generations and the intruders, who we began to call The Marauders, already knew the location. We searched for a place we could settle and restart human civilization.