The Bastet glided silently through a dark matter cloud in a system beyond Sirius' borders. The cloud, chock full of antimatter particles, parted as the massive carrier plowed through, it's hull almost glowing as it fought off the barrage of radiation being thrown at it from the dark matter.
Third shift crew entered the bridge to relieve the second, saluting Aki as they approached their stations. She was focusing intently on the cloud ahead, they had been flying through it for over an hour now and there was no sign of a break in the 'weather'.
Aki directed her attention to the third shift tactical officer, "Tac, how are our shields holding up against this cloud?"
He studied his console for a few moments before responding, "Looks good, Admiral. Might burn off the paint but no signs of hull damage so far..."
He was cut off as the control officer raised his hand and spoke up in a raised tone, "Scanner Contact, bearing three-seven mark two-six-five, unknown transponder."
Aki stood up, "What the hell could be following us through this mess?" She barely finished the sentence before the ship shook as an explosion seared across it's hull, "Damnit, con, who are they!"
The con officer kept his attention focused on his console, but reported, "Single contact, unknown ship classification, gunship sized, bearing is now two-two-five mark eight-three."
The tactical officer turned to her, "That thing is dancing circles around us, turrets cant target it, shields at sixty seven percent Admiral!"
Con spoke again, "Hostile is coming about for another attack!"
Aki turned to the helmsman, "Helm, hard to port, slide the ship around at full speed. Tac, fire all portside and dorsal turrets at that bearing."
The carrier slid, maintaining it's course but turning about to broadside the attacker, opening a firing path for as many of the ship's turrets as possible. As they came about, Aki stared out the bridge viewport trying to get a visual on the enemy. Visibility was less than ten percent in the Dark Matter cloud, but by chance an split in the cloud caused by the carrier's wake revealed the attacker.
The ship was small, roughly the size of a gunship, but arrow-shaped and sleek. It's hull was smooth and black, like obsidian, with glowing green lines running across the surface like cracks in a planet's crust. It deftly dodged the Carrier's turretfire and opened up again with it's own guns. Two of the green cracks on the front of the craft lit up and projected solid beams of energy at the Carrier's hull, slicing through it's shields and cutting into the armor.
The tactical officer looked to Aki in a panic, "Shields are down, our turrets cant hit it!"
They couldnt launch fighters in the cloud, they would be disintegrated by the Dark Matter radiation. Aki hated feeling helpless, especially with such technology at her command, but there was nothing they could do against the assailant.
The craft came around for a final pass, straight at the bridge. As it closed to firing distance, the ship unleashed a barrage of purple, plasma-like rings at the Carrier, across it's hull and to the bridge. Oddly enough there was no explosion, no hull damage, the Bastet was seemingly unharmed as the rings passed right through it.
Aki felt the last ring hit the bridge, it moved through her and in seconds the world dimmed to black and she hit the floor with a thud, along with the rest of the bridge crew. The attack hadnt damaged the ship because it wasnt meant to, it was a stun weapon, and now the entire crew of the Carrier had been rendered unconcious.
Commander Mathews groaned in pain as he came to, the bridge of the Bastet was fuzzy at first, but slowly came into view. He picked himself up off the floor, the grate markings sticking to his face from the hours spent unconcious. His entire body was wracked with pain, and despite having a fairly clear view of his surroundings, everything felt like it was spinning.
Moments later, the other bridge crew began to shrug off the effects of the stun weapon that had been used against them. Mathews climbed into his XO chair and began to take count of the other crew on the bridge. Everyone was here... except Aki. He fumbled with the console controls on his chair, bringing up the ship's internal scanners; there was no sign of Aki on the ship, but all other crew were accounted for.
Lieutenant Morris looked towards him, "Commander, where is Admiral Kimura?"
Mathews slammed a fist down on the console, "I dont know, she's not on the ship. Check scanner records and see if we have any idea who was flying that ship that hit us."
"None, sir, it wasnt any recognized human, nomad, or phantom design."
The Commander sighed, "Where are we? Anything on the stellar charts?"
The Lieutenant shook her head, "No sir, we're not far from where the attack occured, it seems we've drifted out of the Dark Matter cloud, but we're still in uncharted space, no stellar objects detected."
"Do we have any good news, Lieutenant?"
She turned to her console, "Pulling up a damage report now, Commander..." she paused for a moment before turning back, "All of the K'vosh technology we had onboard is gone, the jump drive has disappeared, only thing left behind is the power cables. Cloaking device is missing, the K'vosh sensor array is absent, all the weapon capacitors are gone... everything that wasnt put on this ship by the Order has vanished."
Mathews grumbled under his breath, "Who the hell could have done this... how long were we out Lieutenant?"
"Records show that it's been roughly seven hours since the attack, we've drifted about twenty kilometers in that time."
Mathews stood and started to head for his quarters to file a report, before exiting the bridge he looked back to Morris, "Lieutenant, you have the bridge. Set a course for Omicron Minor... we're going home."
She nodded hesitantly, "Without the jump drive it will take several days to make it back to that side of sirius..."
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