Vikkron (DISCONTINUED)

Terran

At the time, it had never occurred to the Izal to equip weapons onto their ships when they first started to reach across the empty void of space. There was no point in trying to fight in the "realm beyond", as they had originally dubbed it. From famine to corrupt leaders and year long revolts and crusades, the Izal were, as they saw, done with the constant warfare that they had submitted themselves into.

But before long, after the general of the Irian army had mentioned to do such, multiple protests broke out, some against weapons on the space ships, while others agreed with statements justifying their opinions. "The Realm Beyond is completely unknown," they said, "what if we come to a dispute where we must defend ourselves yet cannot?"

This idea of leaving their home planet without any weaponry made even more think about the choice to go outside their known borders. The ships that they had designed were very geometric, with many angles and few slick curves, as these shapes were considered honorable to the Izal tradition. Such ships were also built using a strong, inky metal that resided on their home planet, possibly adding an additional fear factor to unknown races.

Eventually it was decided that in the future the ships would have weapons built on then, however, these would be underneath a layer of hull plating on larger ones. When going into combat, the layer of plating would fold up and tuck into the ship, showing weapons available for use. Smaller ships such as the fighters would have harder to see turrets on the wings. Combat wasn't a problem currently, so the weapons were never shown.

The Izal went out into space and expanded their reaches, going to habitable planets and collecting resources to better their reign. Each planet had it's own government, which took orders from the higher council.

Yet, as far as the Izal had went, they still had much more to see. Getting to the edge of their galaxy's arm, a void even more vast than in their small sector lay before them. The only way to cross it was to develop better technologies, and so for 50 years they worked on their greatest experiment yet-the ability to theoretically bend space. And, almost 300 years after their first minutes in the "realm beyond", the Izal were heading to the next frontier-a new galaxy to see.

***

The crew of the Genesis had traveled far, but not far enough. Nearly in the new galaxy, they all anticipated the new sights to see, as well to complete their mission-find a habitable planet that more could life on. The Vikkron, an Izal Combat Hauler was perfect; they never built exploration ships but edited a few old designs from hundreds of years back.

Suddenly, the Genesis blasted out of a wormhole, the fastest way to to travel. Opposite matter was a great discovery, but when it came to traveling over large stretches of space, wormhole travel was much more efficient, cutting the time from days to a few hours.

Before the Genesis was a object. Looking at it, it seemed to be one large, rounded oval with two smaller ovals attached to a large thruster on the back. Three arrays stuck out; two by the small ovals, one at the front of the large one.

This surprised the crew. Another species who can travel through the stars? Most of the Izal troops thought. For them, it was an incredible discovery; they were shocked.

Then, the Genesis acquired a reading. It seemed as if it were coming that it was coming from the other ship; it's energy signature was different than that of the Izal's. They accepted the transmission. A voice could be hear, and a brown skinned female with long, black hair appeared. Brown skin! The Izal were bewildered. However, listening to her voice, they couldn't understand anything. The Izal Commander, in her armor and helmet, tried. "Hello, we are travelers from another galaxy," she said.

The alien looked at her, tilting her head. She told another person to her side, an inky black creature with blue eyes and vicious claw-like hands. It typed something down on a terminal and shook it's head.

It was simple, a language barrier separated the two groups. Communication wouldn't be easy with foreigners, but as these were of a different race, it would be much harder. It seemed that they both spoke with words, and symbols of confusion and status were also similar. They were also both of the same structure.

The Izal, not knowing what to do, contacted the Greater Council and were told to proceed on slowly to not provoke the other group. Therefore, the Genesis did. It was obvious to state that the other ship noticed, the female said more words that couldn't be understood. The Izal Commander offered their symbol of peace, the clench of a fist for the Izal culture. Then, the Genesis picked up signatures of priming weapons. The Izal ship stopped, and the forgien ship kept their turrets charged. It seemed as if they were saying "Leave."

The Greater Council told the Genesis to show it's weapons. The crew on board protested, yet they had their orders. The turrets of the Combat Hauler slid out from underneath the tucked-way hull plating and powered up.

The female said a few words, still illegible. The Izal Commander responded. No one wanted this battle, yet the Genesis had to explore. These foreigners of this distant galaxy were the lords of this place, and the Izal were in uncharted territory.

The female looked down, regret on her face. She closed the transmission and fired.

***

The Genesis was still whole, battered and bruised. It had taken a severe amount of damage, if it weren't for it's strong ionic barrier, it would have been demolished due to the sheer amount of turrets and force of the forgien ship.

Which, indeed, the other ship had been reduced to scrap. If it were just the Combat Hauler and it one on one, it would have emerged victorious. Yet, the Genesis had 20 fast fighters in it's hangar bay, all ready to rain bullets. The ship of the foreigners turned too slow,and albeit the extreme firepower, the swarm of fighters were too much for it to handle.

Before the ship was torn to shreds, many small pods launched out of the larger one, opening small wormholes to unknown space, along with a transmitted message.

None of it was supposed to happen.

...and now the Izal couldn't just walk away from their mistake.