1 ANDROMEDA

"Shelly would have loved to see this " were the last thoughts on the young trooper's mind,as he slowly faded away into darkness and ablivion. He felt his hold on his dory slip ,his knees buckle and give way underneath. Just then did he notice the tip of another dory protruding from where his heart should be. So it was true what they said, "you really don't feel it coming ". The tip of the Andromedaen dory was made of excitable matter , and could vibrate so fast that you don't notice it's penetration. He hit the ursae face down with a thud, with a final desperate attempt to admire the rising of the binary stars, out of the corner of his one good eye, he noticed a bright explosion in the cosmos , the blue giant had gone supernova. With his final breath he thought, " I was right" and a smile lit up his lifeless face .

CONTESSA V

It was a three days to the centenary anniversary of the discovery of the impulse engine. Humans now had the technology to travel across galaxies and became a multiplatery species . Several exploratory missions later and they had colonies across the milky way, the canis major and the Andromeda, (being the furthest in their reach at this time ) CONTESSA V was the 5th planet in the CONTESSA sector of the Andromeda, with a blue giant for a star, it was a beautiful planet, with a short lifespan.

"My studies show we'd go supernova in the next couple of months " Screamed general Fargus of the 'contessa space troopers' "we should proceed with protocol 6 as earlier recommended. This is no time for politics or humanity, we must act , and swiftly too. Relinquish your command, step down as consul, allow the military ensure the salvation of all fifths ( as the citizens of CONTESSA V were referred to) before it's too late to do anything."

" I strongly object " screamed councillor Hermia " you and your military touts would exploit the wisdom of this great council, and seize power over the V as you've always intended. we did our own research and it's been predicted, we have another century to prepare for the supernova, enough time for us to find another suitable planet , possibly inhibited , and have adequate diplomatic relations before our evacuation. protocol 6 is a hundred years premature consul varga . we will not so easily return the V to military regime as we all know all to well how it went for our forebears before they rediscovered civilization"

The council chamber exploded into chaos . Voices screaming at each other from every side some pro military and others against.

"we should set aside these matters and focus on preparations for the centenary celebrations" councillor Hermia exclaimed. " these distractions could resolved by sortui, and then we proceed to the more pressing issue for today"

" you call the survival of all fifths a distraction" asked general Fargus. " I don not believe we ought to leave the fate of our colony to uninformed sortui. These decisions are made from facts not emotion as Hermia would have us."

"And this is exactly why we doubt your intentions general" retorted councilor vhang. " you would take away our right to decide by votes in favour of an enforced decree to have over power to you"

"what does she have on you vhang" Fargus replied. " your science institute seems so conviniently reluctant to review my military research .How on V could the councillor for science dismiss factual research in favour of sentimen..."he was cut short by the consul's raised hand.

Varga said " sortui has been called. The council will now vote on the proposal of the military to take over command. Those in favour will now activate their homing beacon"

General Fargus tapped the tip of his left thumb with his index finger three times and a pulsing red light from beneath his thumb where the chip was implanted indicated his beacon was activated. The council chamber's steps converged at the bottom like an amphi theatre and in the middle was a large hologram screen visible from every corner of the dark lit room. on that screen the numbers of activated beacons kept rising till it got to 99. They were 200 councilors and one consul(who didn't vote unless there was a tie) Fargus waited eagerly for his two extra votes as he watched the 5 minute timer run down to 0.

"The council's decision is clear" started consul varga " councillor vhang and the science institute will return to their research, and the council expects a definite timeline on the supernova in three months. Now we will proceed to the other matter, the centenary celebrations. End sortui"

The hologram turned off and a mumble of exicited voices filled the hall. Fargus stormed out

THE PERSEVERANCE

The human ancestors of the fifths arrived the planet CONTESSA V on the monster class spaceship, the perseverance. she was one of the very first Models of moon sized Faster than light(FTL) giants with a state of the art 4th generation engine . she was large enough to house 100 battle class starships which in turn had 200 explorer class ships in them for planetary decent and landing.

"commander stigs, prepare the battle ships to disembark." general Fargus bellowed towards the trooper beside his captain's chair. "we would take this planet before her binary stars align tomorrow"

"Aye General" stigs replied ."All aboard the perseverance, this is your captain speaking , all civilians should now get strapped in their assigned explorers and military personnel to their assigned battleship stations. computer initiate protocol 7, countdown 30 minutes"

the shrill voice of the artificial intelligence rang ship wide " initiating protocol 7...

- perseverance entering standby mode

- all battle ship blasters set to search and destroy

- explorers entering safe mode

- all weapons set to lethal

- perseverance disengaging thrusters. impulse engines turned off. standby mode activated .

- calculating final approach vectors, battleships prepare to disengage."

The loud sounds of 100 battle ships ejecting from the hold of the perseverance was deafening. captain stigs and General Fargus were in battleship 1, and they led the approach as the colony arrived at the Cordia segment of the Andromeda. The PERSEVERANCE had scanned this segment and found only one Minshara class planet , Cordia ii. That was where the colony was headed and their approach was a hostile one. No communication could be reached with the dwellers and original planetary species were commonly referred to.if the planetary system had any form of exo defence the battle ships had enough fire power to disintegrate them.

"you have arrived at your destination" went the AI

The planet was beautiful. almost as green on the surface as CONTESSA V and more importantly the system had two suns, both rising and setting at different times, but on this day according to the ship's prediction were going to rise together as seen from the surface. Tho only downside to this planet was the longer days with very brief nights. There were signs of intelligence although said intelligence declined all communication measures hence the brute approach by the general .

"all battleships in position. Running final sweep of the sector for signs of exo defence. explorers prepare to lunch in 5 minutes" the computer continued , and started a countdown.

At the 3 minute mark a large particle injector ray approached the battleship 1 position. it was so fast the ship could only emit a weak deflector ray as she manuvered out of its trajectory. not enough to avoid total damage but just enough to deflect most of the beam to battleship 2 which expanded for a few seconds and then imploded with a very loud sound like that of an antique rocket burning and soon there was nothing but space where battleship 2 should have been.

meanwhile on battleship 1 much of the hull had disintegrated due to the stray injector rays. everyone was scrambling to the nearest explorer and within minutes 200 explorers were racing towards the surface of the planet CORDIA ii. As they entered the atmosphere captain stigs looked to the general who seemed so enraged he was about to explode,and knew he had to explain how an injector ray had hit them despit the absence of exo defence on their scans. He knew the ray had come from the adjacent planet CORDIA iii but what he couldn't explain was how these Aliens where able to setup exo planetary defence within a gas giant .

As they made final decent to the surface, captain stigs saw, to his dismay only about 20 battle ships where a hundred should have been.

To be continued...