Episode 1: First Day's are a Bitch

While Comeau was busy ordering the opfor ships to leave the engagement, the tactical officer was busy singling out unique ships to get an accurate count of vessels. Although it took some effort on his part, he was able to accurately identify six individual unidentified hostile ships.

"Sir, I've managed to identify six hostiles of unknown origin. They have some sort of stealth technology that's baffling our sensors and some kind of energy shield. I was able to track them using the em field the shields let out. They're all about the size of our basic fighters. Maybe slightly larger."

Meanwhile, helms was busy avoiding incoming fire and salvos of Missiles streaked towards the enemy hostiles followed by blasts from the ships pulse laser turrets. Pulses of bright light around the targeted ships gave away the existence of an invisible energy shield which protected the small hostile vessels.

Comeau was puzzled.
"Commander, with six of them, and what I can only assume to be superior technology, why are we not dust yet?"
He turned to communications, "Still no respond to hailing attempts? Have you tried extending the frequencies? Perhaps they simply aren't picking up our signal."

Ryan shrugged. "You almost sound disappointed they haven't wiped us out."

Tactical looked up with an answer for the captain. "The hostile came up on the fighters first. We were the last line."

"Still no response sir!" I've tried every frequency our Com systems can cycle through."

Comeau sighed. "I was hoping for a peaceful resolution to this. Fire at will, hold nothing back."

"I think that went out the window when they opened fired on us first." Ryan said with a casual sarcastic tone that ignored the fact that they were being shot at.

The opfor fighters took the command to heart and began to streak past the Tenacious in an attempt to escape. Meanwhile, the Tenacious began taking more fire, only through intense evasive maneuvers was the Tenacious able to avoid any major damage. However, there were direct hits on the hull to minor areas.

Comeau turned to Ryan.
"While this may not be part of the training mission, we are still being monitored. We have to play by the book, as much as possible. That means attempting a diplomatic solution first. For all we know, this may be some crazy alien greeting. Now we know for certain that it is not, so we blow them out of the sky. Clear?"
He turned from Ryan. "Damage report."

"Aye Aye, sir. I suppose we have to cater to the audience." When Comeau orders them to blow the ships out of the sky he smirks to himself.

Unfortunately, the unidentified ships are not only for more maneuverable, but their advanced electromagnetic evasion systems and shielding systems were making the Tenacious' attacks almost ineffective.

The operations officer glanced up from his console. "Sending a report to your station now, sir. Looks like we've got minor damage on the outer decks. No major systems damage."

"Aye Aye, sir. I suppose we have to cater to the audience." When Comeau orders them to blow the ships out of the sky he smirks to himself.

Unfortunately, the unidentified ships are not only for more maneuverable, but their advanced electromagnetic evasion systems and shielding systems were making the Tenacious' attacks almost ineffective.

The operations officer glanced up from his console. "Sending a report to your station now, sir. Looks like we've got minor damage on the outer decks. No major systems damage."

Comeau looked at Ryan. "Superficial damage is allowed. It seems to me that we are being toyed with, wouldn't you agree?"
He turned to Sensors, "I want as much intel on those ships as you can muster. What are they made of, what are they capable of, anything you can find."
He turned back to Ryan. "Interesting first mission. Let's not make this our last."
"We're going to stick to our previous plan. If they take the bait, we fire everything. If not, it was worth the try, and maybe they'll get cocky. How soon until we can launch the disguised probe?"

"Sir!" the coms officer shouted excitedly. "We have a priority one message coming in from Earth. I'll patch it through!"

The audio only message wasn't anyone the crew could recognize, but from the town in her voice, it was clear something terrible was happening."This is a call for all armed ships to set course for Earth. Earth is under attack by an unknown force! I repeat, this is a call for all armed ships to set course for Earth and aid in defense."

The crew turned to Comeau with a look of confusion and fear.

Comeau frowned. He didn't like the idea of abandoning the fight, but orders were orders.
"Turn us around. I want that signal traced. Continue firing on those pursuing us, and move slowly towards earth until we have confirmation of that message. Make it look like we're going there, but we're holding back because of damage, if we can.

"Its coming from Earth, sir. It clears all security checks. Orders are direct from the office of the President."

Helms acknowledged affirmative and set a course for Earth. The tactical officer turned all weapons towards the pursuing vessels. Although, there was little impact their weapons were having. With the Tenacious less able to maneuver away from incoming fire, the ship rocked with direct hits.

"Sir were taking direct hits to the hull. No major systems damaged yet, but we can't take much more!" The young operations officer shouted excitedly. "We gotta get them off our tails."

Ryan turned to the captain. "There's one way we can try and get out of here quick..."

"Helm, get us to Earth, as fast as this bird will fly."
Comeau turned to Ryan, "Let's hear it. I'm open to suggestions."

The helmsman gulped. "The slipstream drive. But we've never tested it in occupied space....Hell, we haven't tested it period!"

Ryan smiled and sat upright in his seat ttugging against his straps. "No time like the present."

Comeau looked between the two. It clicked that Ryan was serious, and Comeau liked the idea.
"Might even make those bastards out there shit a brick if we just... Disappear. Make sure we don't overshoot, but do it. Now."

The helmsman muttered something and began calculations for a slipstream jump.

Ryan tightened his straps. "And who said you can't be a cowboy in the Navy?"

It wasn't long until the calculations were done;then again that was all relative. Suddenly, every light on the ship disappeared and they were engulfed in darkness. Outside, a crackling hole in space appeared, tendrils of white reached out and crackled against the hull of the ship and the ship fell forward into the hole.

The lights returned and the forward cameras on the ship showed a silvery white slipstream that swirled past them and whipped them to their destination. When they finally emerged it was only minutes that had passed, but despite tthat earth loomed in the distance.

As the Tenacious emerged from the slipstream the helmsman had to dodge the debris that littered eearth's orbit. Before them was the chaotic madness of a mass space battle and the Tenacious was smack in the middle of it.

Comeau looked about, "I want identification on all ships. Friend and foe, find where we can be the biggest help. Take us into the thickest. Find our closest target, lock on, and fire at will. I want Damage Control teams at the ready, and I want our weapons going steadily. Now."
He turned to Ryan. "Hard to tell who's the Cowboy and who's the Indian, but I sure hope they show up in history books along Custer, and we don't."

Ryan suddenly became far more serious than he had been when his life was in danger and the ship was alone under direct attack.

On the viewscreen, a horrible sight awaited them. Earth ships were being blown out of the sky with impunity. Ripples of purplish energy ripped from manta shaped predators and tore the earth ships in half, literally.

On Comeau's tactical screen, dots of red were far outnumbered by green, but the number of green dots was decreasing rapidly and the number of red were staying steady despite the focused onslaught.

Comms glanced at the captain. "Sir, looks like the battle groups are splitting up and focusing on individual ships. Apparently, that's the best tactic to get past their shields. I don't know where we fall into that."

"Find ships that are distracted. Blindside them."
Comeau looked at the destruction. "We are not a fleet, but we are one hell of  a force. We assist anyone we see in trouble, and destroy anything we see not watching us. I want constant updates, and I maintain, fire at will. Earth will not fall."

Ryan's demeanor ssuddenly became serious and his care free attitude under fire disappeared. Data flew across Comeau's multifunction display at light speed. The hostile fleet was large, not as large as the earth defense fleet, bit they were ten times as formidable as anything Earth had.

"Sir, permission to fire the main gun at will... It will drain our power stores, but we need all the firepower we can get." The tactical officer asked.

Comeau nodded to tactical. "Granted. Let's test Earth's finest weaponry."

Tactical and helms stations worked together to maneuver the ship through the debris and oncoming fire while maintaining the ability to fire at as many enemy vessels as possible. The tactical station targeted the larger of the vessels and fired a focused salvo of fire on the enemy vessel including fire from the main gun. At that moment Comeau realized what the tactical officer meant as the lights momentarily dimmed as the weapon fired.

Unfortunately, the vessel seemed to shrug off the attack with little damage. However, the Tenacious had not yet sustained any major damage as the enemy vessels hadn't begun to focus their fire on the smaller of the defense fleet vessels.

MMeanwhile, a number of enemy vessels broke off from the hostile fleet and began to move toward earth.

As he noticed the blips on the screen moving away from the morass, Comeau grit his teeth. "Plot an intercept course toward those ships. We've got to stop them from getting to Earth. Focus on that group and fire at will."

Tactical and helms confirmed their orders and the Tenacious began to tear towards the breakaway vessels. The tactical officer fired the main cannon at will, forcing the main lights to dim then disappear.

Other vessels joined the Tenacious, but unfortunately the focused fire of all the vessels was seemingly doing little damage. Just as all hope seemed to be lost, one of the largest hostile vessels had their protective shield shimmer than disappear. It wasn't long after that focused fire tore through the vessels armor and it soon exploded under sustained focused fire.

Sadly, that was one vessel among many. Still, it was enough to bolster moral of everyone that had seen that glorious bright red plane of the hostile vessel exploding.

Comeau knew that the destruction of one ship was no real reason to celebrate, but it would certainly offer Humanity a renewed vigor. "It would seem we are leading the charge. Focus on one ship, and hope the rest will follow our lead. Fire at will. Helm, take us in close. Communications, send out notice to the ships who follow to fire on the same ship we do."