The Empires: Saga of the Empires Volume 1

4.First Fight

I
The Dre-Nada nebula had a purple hue to it, so magnificent and bright spacers could see it from lightyears away. Towards the end of the nebula was vast open space. And in this vastness of space was Meiji Fortress, which served as a halfway point between the Inner Empire and the Outer Empire. Beyond Meiji Fortress was the border planets of Ishvak, Mankala, Corrigador, Terrus and Azure. All had been main battlefields for the first war and would most likely become major battlefields again for the current war.
The nebula was unnavigable and many ships had disappeared trying.
Even if you tried flying straight through, the radiation and severe storms would cause malfunctions with automatic nav computers and charts. The poor navigation computer wouldn't know up from down.
The most famous disappearance was also the most recent. The Imperial Experimental Star Ship Hornet was the most technologically advanced ship the Imperial Federation had produced. Like the Darklon Base-ships, the Hornet was a perfect mix of a battleship and a career. It was also said that the ship could exceed star jump 400. The fasted the ship before the Hornet-class was the Vesuvius-class ships and they could only reach jump 300 safely. The Avenger, during the IshVak war pushed its star jump drive to 320, the fastest any ship has ever gone at that time.
However, during the last jump test, the Hornet tore into the space time continuum and disappeared near the Dre-Nada nebula.
Due to millions poured into this endeavor just to see it fail led to the project cancelled along with any other plans to make installations in the Avalon-class.
The beautiful yet dangerous nature of the nebula is probably what drew Darklon the great towards it almost 3,000 years ago.

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Though unnavigable, there laid a path that ships could safely navigate .
Through the Aristotle corridor, a Darklon trident-class base-ship emerged from the darkness of space, followed by the massive fleet of 1,700 war ships behind it.
The trident-class was a three pronged base-ship that was bigger and stronger than the standard bident-class base-ships.
The Trident-class ship leading this fleet was the Darklon Imperial Star Ship: Drakana.
Aboard the ships bridge gathered the 3rd and 11th fleets Admirals and commanders.
The bridge had a 180° visual range, allowing the commander to see more of the battle than just on a single view screen. It looked like they were just on a deck promenade aboard some extravagant space liner. The only difference between the space liners and a Military vessel was the sour smell of artificial air mixed with recycled carbon dioxide air.
Standing around a hologram table that showed the battlespace, the fleet commanders watch as Rear Admiral Willibad O'Bert points towards the knowm enemy positions.
"At the moment, we are at a stalemate. The attack on Port Diamond and Capital planet left them surprised and shocked.We were hoping to do the same in other areas, But we were unsuccessful." Before he could finish, Rear Admiral Augustus Kahn spoke.
"Not to mention that their main careers weren't even there."
It was Commodore Paul Von Streisel who responded.
"That's irrelevant. We got their attention. We should keep pushing the federals until they themselves can't push back"
"Enough." O'Bert said. He didn't yell or even raise his voice, but this single word and his tone of voice was able to quiet down the officers.
"This is not a debate." He turned back to the hologram. " Grand Admiral Sydock has engaged the Imperial Federation In the Azure Stellar Region, but there's been no real outlined victory. Currently we have no major land, or space offensive.Thats why We're attacking Dre-Nada.
"Our attack group was able to pass through undetected through the Dre-Nada Corridor before,
Establishing a foothold there would allow us to easily launch more offensives against our enemy."
Captain Rupert Bulcher responded.
"With all do respect, your Excellency, but shouldn't we attack Meiji Fortress?" He zoomed out of the Dre-Nada battlespace and changed it to Meiji Fortress. A spherical fortress sitting in complete open space. O'Bert sighed.
"You fool. Thats open space, The Federals would have an easy time picking us off. No, we must be offensive and Defensive." He turned behind him. Sitting upon the ships command throne was a  figure of a man.
"Isn't that right, Admiral Vangence?" O'Bert said.
Vice Admiral Jack Vaungence sat with his legs crossed and his head leaning against his fist. He wore a porcelain mask to hide the battle wound that mortally disfigured his face, His mouth was left uncovered.
"I most certainly do agree." He said with a grin. Standing dutifully next to him was his aide, Lieutenant Paul Von Whittenfeld.
"Tell me, what is the current position of the enemy fleet?"
Vaungence asked.
"Currently, they've split their forces in two. Their 3rd fleet is located to our right, and the 5th is located to our left." Captain Bulcher said.
"They seem to be trying to surround us." Streisel said.
Vaungence starred at the hologram with a calculating gaze.
"They outnumber us as one combined fleet?" He asked.
"No, sir. They number 800 ships." O'Bert said. Vaungence smiled.
"Then we to will split our forces and attack them one on one."
The officers stood back shocked.
"Sir?" Rear Admiral Kahn said. "We have the numerical advantage, why not attack them in force and completely wipe them out?"
"Because, Rear Admiral Kahn, they won't expect it. We shall keep with tradition and add a little bit of modern tactics." He replied. The officers looked at each other now confused.
"The plan is very simple. We will attack their divided forces, and with our superrior numbers combined overwhelm them and destroy them. Unlike in the first war, where our fathers would boldly confront the combined enemy head on like the days of Napoleon, we'll surprise our enemies by attacking each separated fleet before they can rejoin." He explained. "It sounds simple gentleman, i know, and im sure many of you are questioning my plan, but not only do i want to give our brave spacers this victory, i want to fully destroy our enemies moral."