Dreadnought

Orion Arm, Milky Way, year 2010 AD by Earth reckoning.

The Galaxy is a dangerous place. Filled with races of all shapes and sizes, some friendly, and others hostile, those who develop interstellar travel quickly learn that they are not alone.

While there is indeed a great deal of empty space, there are also many stars similar to Sol, capable of sustaining life and habitable worlds, and some of them do. And the nature of many sentient races tends towards distrust of everything alien.

Distrust leads to wars. Wars lead to diplomacy. Diplomacy can lead to peace, or more war. Such is the nature of politics.

And in the vast expanse of space, massive armadas of warships preserve peace, and carry out wars. The flagships of these space armadas are known by many as "Dreadnoughts".

"High Superior!" A junior officer chittered, his iron mandibles clicking together at seemingly random intervals. Garn Tutora, High Superior of the Rz Clan, sat atop a platinum throne on the HomeCore Ship's bridge, his encoded mind downloaded into a platinum governing unit. "What is it?" He chittered back, obviously in an aggrevated mood.

High Superior Tutora had three moods; neutral, aggrevated, and near-insane rage. The officer hesitated, shuffling his feet before speaking. "Sir, we've detected a vessel near K'Etra 5. The design is unfamiliar with the Clan Database, most likely a rogue Acheneran ship that's had a bit too much customization." Garn growled, which would sound more like a gurgle to onlookers. The HomeCore Ship was on a visit to K'Etra 2, but the fifth planet in the system, while strictly uninhabitable, did have four industrial space stations orbiting it, and the loss of those would result in the loss of a considerate Council of Superiors investment.

"Send a MCS there, at once!"

(You asked for it with that...)

Jack Jaimeson deactivated his active scanner. So, the robot-men had built a brand new industrial center, all for him. And so lightly defended, too... not that he was concerned with the primitive weapons of these people. Lasers couldn't even dent quality shields, after all. Interesting that their flagship was present... the pirate lord considered the pros and cons of engaging the super dreadnought, but decided even a fluffy bunny could be dangerous if it was big enough. Regardless, the slow engines of the Homecore would leave it out of this fight.

"Start our attack run," said Captain Jack. "Let's make off with what we can."

On that signal, the rest of the stealth ships quickly became visible to the Kz as they began their attack run, rapidly destroying any sort of defenses that the stations might have without destroying the stations themselves.

"Sire, estimates indicate the Minor Core Ship will reach K'Etra 5 within the hour, as long as her engines remain on full blare." Came the ringing voice of High Officer Wek Brosatun. The High Superior practically exploded. "Not fast enough! Tell it to go into warp to reach the planet faster!" He chittered, fuming with fury. The High Superior was indeed a powerful man, and his military tactics were strictly indoctrine, but very few say him as a sensible man.

"Sir... the MCS is still within the K'Etra's gravity well. Countless errors could occur, with the failure of the hyperfriction reducer and outright breakdown of the ship's warp engines at the most likely of these."

The pirates wasted no time in boarding the station, quickly loading up their cargo vessels for transit back to someone willing to pay.

"So, that giant monstrosity is heading our way, are they?" commented Jaimeson, "We'll be long gone by the time they get here. Unless it wants to try its warp engines... then they'll just be easy prey when they arrive."

A large number of fighters were launched from some of the pirate vessels, armed with antimatter missiles capable of destroying the largest warships ever built in a single shot, should they manage a direct hit. However it was unlikely that the primitive Kz had the necessary point defense tracking systems to shoot down the gravity-drive equipped missiles.