And so it began…

And so it would end…

When the time came to make a decision it was much easier than the generations of man had presumed. To live, we left, we left home, earth behind and with our home we left safety, or at lest presumed safety, and certainty. Of course a few stayed behind for resistance to fight or simply because they could not go, we the ones who left do not know what happened to the unfortunate few who remained.

It had started in 2388, 150 years after the dawn of the nano age. The wealth, materials, and abilities nano machines brought man was as close to god-hood as possible: practically invulnerable materials, any thing made at a whim, the ability to control and manipulate matter, and control anything within grasp. Such supreme power yielded many problems: master control was very difficult; restrictions and laws of the Nano Technology Conference of 2250 for example; the limitations of the machines themselves, self replicating, they had to be told when to replicate, when conversions were needed, upgrades, formulas.

When every human was born a nano-computer, a computer about 1/100,000 the size of a pin was implanted in the brain and activated later in life. The human mind controlled the nano-machines in a given area, and the nano techies or the overseers controlled the hoards of nano-machines, but in the end, the nano-machines only postponed the inevitable.

The race known as the Sûne were an aggressive and warlike people, believing that the enlightenment of their race lay in the showing of betterment, their superior strategy and minds, to go against those who would be a heretic to their Shaia, their creator, their mentor, as they try to show that they are the true race.

The Sûne had found the human colonies of Tratas 3 and 4. We had welcomed them, they being the first space-faring race we had come across in our galactic expansion.

The Tratas colonies began trade and negotiation with the Sûne but the colonies were caught unaware when the Sûne fleet blitzed Tratas 4 eliminating the destroyer stationed at space dock in orbit around Tas, the third and largest moon orbiting Tratas 4. The destroyer, the U.S.S. Essex, was the colonies only space defense, for the only protection the colonies needed was from the separatists of the United Space Systems, the pirates. Tratas 4 surrendered in 2 hours, Tratas 3 minutes after. The Sûne sent down shock troops to wipe out air and ground defense that had been hastily made by the humans with their nano-machines in the first few seconds of the fight, although the Tratas, having been relatively new colonies, had not enough numbers to make any significant advances in defense before the EMP cannons and beam weaponry knocked out the defenses along with the ability to control the nano-probes.

Yet even afterward, the 150 colonies couldn't put up much of a fight. The Sûne, having specialized in warfare for hundreds of thousands of years, had advanced technology including Quantum drives that allowed them to "fold" space making it easy to travel between the stars. They also had massive Electro Magnetic Pulse Cannons which used a massive gravimetric generator on which their Quantum drives were powered. Their EMP cannons could atomically shut down any artificial electrical system, even sometimes shutting down the human nervous system for brief seconds causing hemorrhages, seizures, and death.

The human military was caught totally by surprise. Battle after battle was fought, valiant attempts to destroy the Sûne fleet were disastrous. The Lûdún colony used a fission bomb in their planet's core, so that when the Sûne came to their planet they would be destroyed by the planet's explosion. Instead, the Sûne bipassed Lûdún and sent only a light carrier. In their fear, the Lûdún blew the planet killing the light carrier, 5000 Sûne battlers and a number of inversive fighters were lost, thus killing 320,000 humans and an entire habitat planet for a measly 5000 troops of which the Sûne battlers were numbered in the hundreds of millions. And so the Sûne swept across the Galactic Rim, taking hundreds of worlds from the humans and time after time the men from Earth stood valiantly and were butchered valiantly, unable to hold off the superior swarms of the Sûne and after a year of fighting the Sûne approached the third planet of a small system, an insignificant site on Galactic maps, but the human's home-world of Earth nonetheless.

The bridge of the Earth fleet's flagship, The Jupiter Class Battlecruiser, Phoenix, was in chaos, the month old cruiser designed in space dock's Nano-Dock, a full Urilium Carbide hull and a complement of sophisticated shielding and hull reactive design. It was pushing the limits of human/nano design making it the most sophisticated of all Human ships. The shielding even worked to bend light making it partly invisible to some sensor arrays and direct sight. But even a Battlecruiser couldn't stand to a direct assault with the EMP pules and a beam cannon which sliced the Phoenix in half causing a small explosion of oxygen, sending the Nano-probes working to keep the human crew alive. The Phoenix never fired a shot, all 129 men and women aboard were lost. And with the lost souls of the Phoenix was the Earth's last hope.

***

On the bridge of the U.S.S. Exodus, a Saturn Class Cruiser, Captain Isabel Kendridge watched in horror as the Phoenix exploded in fragments of flame and energy, a fireball of nuclear energy disintegrated the aft of the ship, a sight that blinded the sensors. Captain Kendridge got hold of the horror and took command of her ship.

"All hands, battle stations," They know that, they saw that sight, she told herself, the picture of that massive ship exploding flashing in her mind.

"Captain, captain?"

A voice beat against the horrid image. All those people, my God, we can't win! I am afraid, not for myself but for the future of humanity. Earth is lost.

"Captain!"

She snapped back from her thoughts, "Lieutenant, run our ship dark, shut everything down."

"Yes Ma'am."

"All hands, this is the Captain. We will go on zero power, stay on station. Please, also do not operate on Nano frequencies until the clear is given. We will go dark in 30 seconds. All hands, prepare for battle."

The computer counted down the seconds as the crew waited anxiously knowing their last minutes of life waited ahead.

The monotone female voice of the Computer reached 5 and the crew was silent waiting. The Captain was braced, running over the image of a Sûne Káráhan slicing the Phoenix in two. Anger and frustration amid hopelessness raged through her.

"Four, three, two, one… dark is engaged--off line."

The ship shut down, dark encompassed the ship. The only thing from which power was generated was the small nuclear reactor that was for emergency only. Glow lights were dimly lit casting a grave shadow on a doomed ship. Silently, the Exodus drifted, watching the Earth Protectorate Fleet move into the overwhelming mass of Sûne ships.

"Captain Kendridge, permission to speak freely?"

"Of course Lt. Marcus," a fixed stare rested on the main screen.

"Ma'am, we can't hope to flank the entire fleet, we are only one ship Ma'am!"

"I know that, but all we have to do is make them think they are being flanked, that will give the Admiral time to evacuate earth."

"Evacuate? I thought we would fight or die."

"We will Evan, we have to fight but not by risking the remainder of the human race. We have to survive, fight another day. We will have much time to die Evan, we should have more time to fight than now."

"You're right Captain, I just can't imagine not having a home."

"I know, but for now this is home but Earth, Earth will always be humanities place, our real home, and we shall return, with sword and vengeance!"

The image of the Sûne fleet firing on a helplessly out numbered and outgunned Earth fleet. She waited for the Sûne to notice a ship drifting behind their lines, to turn and fire while the Exodus was useless, vulnerable, but the moment never came, running dark; the Sûne engaged in a battle frenzy didn't notice a ship flanking them and still hadn't noticed when the ship powered up.

A hard look came to Captain Kendridge's face looking for a weakness to expoit, trying to forsee her own death. Yet nothing came. And then for a second.

"Lt. Maximiee, zoom in on that ship, 45 degrees off to the center."

"Yes Captain."

The view showed a gap between the Sûne fleet. That's not just one fleet, there are more than one, they aren't attacking from another point. They must have known we didn't know where they would come! They will be totally vulnerable to a massed assault! But they must have a reserve fleet somewhere else? We must divide their fleets and force them to bring up their reserves so that our fleets can destroy them on their way in!

"Lieutenant, bring us out of the dark!"

"Yes Ma'am." The Lieutenant sighed glad to be out of the blindness of running dark.

Overhead a voice rang out, "Computer online, systems fully engaged."

"Lieutenant, send com to fleet com…"

"Captain, I'm reading a massive gravity well, it's huge, bigger than a black hole, it just came from nowhere."

"Isolate it, bring it on screen."

On the main screen was a massive spiral of blue and red edges, a wormhole. Suddenly ships spilled through like a hole in a dam, a never ending stream of ships. Suddenly, little blue/red spirals popped out all over, sending mammoth ships the size of moons through. The sight erased the image of the Phoenix.

"My God, those fleets were just scouts!"

"Captain, orders?" The Lieutenant was getting hysterical.

"Fold to Earth now, let's help in the Evac."

"Yes Ma'am, fold sequence initialized."

"Captain," the sensor pilot said urgently, "Three ships out of the Sûne armada have turned our way and are preparing to fire!" He looked toward her in despair.

"How long till fold Lieutenant?"

"10 seconds, 9, 8, 7, 6…"

"Everyone, ready yourselves for impact!"

"5, 4, 3, 2, - fold sequence initialized!"

"They're firing EMP cannons Ma'am!", the Ensign shouted.

"Brace!" The Captain's face went flush screaming.

"Impact!" The Ensign screamed feeling the last minutes of his life close in the chaos of war.

Eternity passed in the silence which came at the end of that word. Captain Kendridge spoke first.

"Damage report Lieutenant."

"Sir, no damage?!"

"What?"

"No damage Captain."

"No injuries, no shut downs, all is well Captain."

"Captain, the Sûne are firing their beam cannons."

"Are shields still online?" She wondered if this was a new Sûne weapon, they wouldn't even know they were hit until it was too late.

"Shields are online and fully charged Captain."

"Alright, fold engines?"

"We are ready to fold on your order Captain."

"Good, fold to 38 degrees under the Sûne destroyer Sha'ha'rûne's deck and have the antimatter torpedoes and mines ready to fire."

"Yes Ma'am, folding now."

"Good job Lieutenant."

"We are entering fold space Captain."

"Shields?"

"Captain, shields are at 93% and charging."

"Keep the shields on high charge Ensign."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Coordinates are locked Ma'am."

"Bring us out Lieutenant."

"Exit fold space in 5, 4, 3, 2 - we are in normal space."

"Ensign Cooper, ready?"

"Locked Cap'n"

Captain Kendridge smiled and thought, yes, we've got 'em.

"Fire!"

"Firing full spread, ion pulse cannon ready!"

"Fire main guns, all forward guns, now - FIRE!"

The Sûne destroyer Sha'ha'rûne showed an aurora flowing, melting around the ship like oil in water and suddenly flame poured from the deck and the ship exploded in a miniature supernova showing a chain of explosions blowing apart each deck as the gasses trapped, ached for release out into the unreactive void.