First draft, and I think I fall within the guidelines - if I don't, let me know and I'll get rid of it. Feedback welcomed! Trying to make a full short story.



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"And so we destroyed them?", Jenna blurted out, surprisingly not putting up her hand first.

"They only attacked one of our scout ships, around a neutral system. And we totally wiped you- er, them, uh, out?"



Her stumble made this particular class more awkward. Teacher Redar's lecture made the class quite uncomfortable, not only because of the macabre subject matter of the subjugation and domination of another sentient space faring race.



It was because Redar wasn't human.





*****



"Dammit! How many are left?!". Peter heard his cry and immediately understood how pitiful it must have sounded to his crew - or what was left of them at least. It was a miracle that his flagship was still together. It had been riddled with Hisho kinetics from at least two, maybe three Destroyers for what it seemed like eternity. He really couldn't tell.



Fleet Alpha was tasked with securing forward systems closest to the Hisho homeworld. There were two systems in particular that were almost a straight line from Terra Victa, the Human homeworld. Since the shortest distance between two points is by way of a straight line, it made sense to throw everything the Armada had at that corridor and prepare it long enough to invade Hisho Prime.



He chuckled at the word "Armada". In history books, he read of navies consisting of dozens Ships-of-the-Line and hundreds of support ships. But that was on water. A space navy consisting of twelve ships would have to do, he guessed.



A warning klaxon broke him out his reverie.



"Ensign! Fire everything we've got at Red Four! Seems to be on... fire?"



From his elementary schooling, he recalled that fire doesn't happen in space. Something about there being no oxygen in a vacuum. Except this Hisho ship seemed to be ablaze in a bright orange glow, yet was still firing volleys of kinetics. He really didn't care. His enemies were on fire, and he wasn't. Yet. Well, at least on the outside.



"Aye Sir! Gun crews notified. Target switching to Red Four."



From underneath his seat he could hear the giant gears groaning, as ten ton cannons rotated and took aim. Looking down at his console, he could see that four of his ships were still operational, against five Hisho ships. Not good odds considering they had stared at five-to-five.



Given the extremely advanced and co-ordinated mixed-unit tactics of terrestrial based forces, space combat was brutally simple. It was like watching two ten year old boys take a turn punching the hardest they could at each other... but in space. Fleet Alpha got the drop on the Hisho's by hiding in the sun's shadow, where sensors were weak. Alhpa came out just as the enemy fleet passed by, all guns firing and strafing their entire formation with ordanance that was larger than a man. That was another thing - the land forces had sophisticated missles and bombs which could hit a man in the eye at 10 kilomters. Peter had to deal with glorified howitzers... but in space.





"Batteries two to four, firing! Pegasus and Hydra confirm target change, full batteries target to Red Four."



Deep thuds and vibrations rocked Peter's head. The entire ship shook as the batteries fired in unison. He followed the bright orange glow of the hot shells as they shot straight into the heart of the enemy formation. Red Four buckled under the impact, and a giant explosion ripped it into two pieces. The back piece crashed into Red Two, and crumpled more than a third of its hull. Seconds later, it exploded with the same anger as Red Four.



Peter smiled. The good thing about Hishos using kinetics was that their shells had to be stored somewhere on board. And shells liked to explode.





*****







Redar smiled at the children's silence. He wished all adults were so naive and innocent. Truth was, Hishos understood that they were conquered, but welcomed as equal members of Human society. The Governor of this Human planet was a Hisho, poetically enough.



"It's okay, children. I won't be upset. The Human Emperor and his Council had their logic correct. The Hisho were dangerous. Can anyone tell me why?"



A quick hand darted up. Even his classmates were surprised by his participation, and he started to stutter. "Because the scout they destroyed found that they had three colonies - Hisho Prime, and the smaller outposts of Orion and Sigma. They also had a fleet with similar weapons to ours."



Redar didn't usually smile this much in class. Or what could pass as a smile to Humans. "You are exactly right! Think about it from the Human side. They had just been in space for under fifty years, and had only barely managed to build an outpost on Polaris. Barely. Then they come across another race no less than three systems apart, with military vessels and outnumbering us by one entire planet?"



"It was clear. If they were hostile, they would win soley by numbers alone. Not even considering the technological or tactical superiority they may have. When they took out the scout ship around Hisho Prime, they let their intentions be known."



Jenna's hand shot up. "But wouldn't WE have attacked a Hisho ship that was prowling around OUR populated space?"



The little boy, Marco, turned his chair. "Well yeah dummy. That's the point! They thought the same as us. They would know that they could make more ships than we can, and then we'd be part of the Hisho Empire, and not the other way around. Right Redar?"



For a boy usually asleep in lessons, he was making quite the show today. Might be due to his lineage, which was relevant in today's lesson.



"Right again, Marco. We know that the Hisho leadership was indeed quite hostile, having been descended from the tribe that united all the tribes of Hisho through force. They were aggressive, and knew how to fight. Their exploratory ships travelled in formations of at least 4, and all Ships of The Line - fully armed. Now, as you can see here, this is where their expansion was directed."



The points appeared on the spacemap. Earth and Polaris were two points up top, and Hisho Prime just below of it, connected by two dots. Below that, were the other Hisho planets and the fleets were well below even them.



"Human's luck was with them that age - Hisho fleets were directed in totally the opposite area. This gave the Armada a chance to mobilize and set up shop one system away from Hisho Prime. AS you can see here, Fleet Alpha and Beta were tasked with securing the two forward systems. This gave them time to prepare for the Hisho fleets, and gained the upper hand."



Marco raised his hand. "Wasn't one of the fleets totally destroyed? Was Admiral Piotyr part of Beta or Alpha?"





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Peter HATED that name.



"Colonel Piotr, I repeat, your orders with the salvage operation?"



It was the way that everyone pronounced it, he felt like an 18th century Russian Czar. He wasn't even Russian.



"Dammit Captain, I told you, it's Peter. Now, are you sure that our sensors ring empty? Nothing left in system?"



"Nothing that we could tell. Truth be told, they could be hiding behind the sun like we did, or even inside that gas giant. Who really knows what they can do."



Captain Luane Davies felt comfortable around the Colonel. They were old academy friends, and she knew that Peter was a very easy-going man. It is a wonder he was in the military at all, let alone so successful.



"Fine. Let the salvagers take only what they need for repairs and for new munitions. I want Pegasus to be on patrol while the rest of us repair. Only god knows when we will have replacements sent our way, and our Hisho boyfriends here are really close to home."



"Aye Aye, Colonel".



Luane saluted and went about to carry out his orders. Communication between ships still took a few seconds, even minutes by regular frequencies, to get through. As she was co-ordinating her orders, she thought back to the fight. It was the first that she was ever a part of, and as far as she knew, the first ever in Human history. The unfortunate incident with the scout ship couldn't be considered a fight. This one was real.



All around her there was debris strewn about. AS she later walked through the corridors, it was common to have to use her PDA to light her way though, as lights and even some walls were scattered much like a house made of cards. She knew that these walls were mostly decorational - the thick Alloy that was the skelton of the ship was strong, and refused to buckle. She guessed that it had to, to stand the violence of its own artillery barrage.



She began to think about their losses. She was lucky that they had suffered only a few perforations in the hull. The Griffin and Minotaur were not so lucky. A massed volley against Griffin in the first few volleys of contact was enough to overwhelm its reactive armour and nano repairers. The first warship lost in the first inter-stellar war. Or so she thought. She could only guess what Fleet Beta was up to.



She had only began to think about her friends in the other fleet, when the klaxons rang anew.









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"Well Marco, let's not skip ahead here. So as you see, Alpha scored a total victory - taking out five Hisho Destroyers. While they did not know this at the time, this was one-third of the Hisho fleet. Beta, meanwhile, had had no contact with the enemy. As you can see on this diagram here, They totally controlled the shortest corridor between Terra Victa and Hisho Prime Prime. We now know that the Hishos expanded in the totally opposite direction, leaving this side totally vulnerable. The Empire back then wasn't totally sure that Hisho Prime was their only planet, let alone their capital. They were hungry for information, and the Admiral of Beta fleet was fairly certain that he could blockade the path back to Terra Victa from either side of the star lane. So what would you do in his place? Stay in place, or take a calculated risk and jump straight to Hisho Prime Prime? Raise of hands?"



Redar was aware that he spoke too much for these children. They were bright, but children non-the-less. He liked to ask them questions to remind them that they should be awake.



Jenna's hand shot up first. Small and bookish, she was the one always prepared. Looking around the room, students in their blue jumpsuits slowly raised their hands, almost embarrassed to offer to speak out. He could see Marco thinking really hard, scrunching his face in thought. Today was indeed a day of surprises; Marco usually never applied himself except during history classes.



"Marco, what are you thinking there?"



Marco straightened in his chair slowly and replied, almost as he was thinking it out as he was saying it.



"Well, back then they didn't could talk back to Earth right away like we do now. So he was on his own. He could do whatever he wanted. I would have gone through. It was a war and he wanted to make sure he got there first, in case the Hisho were making more ships."



Jenna turned around in her seat, craning to look at the back of the class.



"But Redar, Sir, there is a strict Rules of Engagement that must be followed by every commander in the Armada! He can't refuse orders from Command! You can't either, Marco!"



Classmates exchanged smirks and glances. As young as they were, they knew flirting when they saw it. Redar cleared his throat.



"Now, Now, Jenna. Just because he's right doesn't mean you should be upset. You can't be right ALL the time." Redar glimpsed Marco stick his tongue out at her. If he understood it right, this interchanged would be described as 'cute'



He continued. "Back then, it was pretty much... I believe the term is "Laissez-Faire". Anything went. It took days to reach command, and minutes to reach the next ship in your fleet. Seconds if you had a great Comms agent. The Admiral could very well charge right into Hisho Prime - nobody could tell him no. There also wasn't a Rules of Engagement for that particular portion of the war. Earth was scared, and all it knew was that it suddenly wasn't alone in the universe. It had to make sure it came out on top, otherwise it would be conquered."



A small hand shot up, almost by habit.



"Redar, Sir, what if the Hisho were peaceful? Couldn't they just trade, or leave each other alone? Space is big!".



"Well Jenna, Earth didn't know that. They just know that their exploration vessel was blown out of the sky by cannon fire. We've all seen the videos. Cannon fire is a direct result of a violent history and lifestyle. If it was some sort accident or something else, then maybe. But this was a language that Earth spoke well, and it recognized what was said.





"We can and we will kill you".





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Quite impressive



Please feel free to continue, if you like to

Great piece of work!

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send my approval...good novel!