the lotus dragon.

A tall asian woman in a dark-green dress uniform with a red collar, adorned with dozens of medals and wearing her hair in a thigh bun held in place with chopsticks appeared on all screens.

"I am Mey Fung Li grand Admiral of the eternal empire's fleet on board of the Lotus Dragon." She told in a strong but accented voice.

"All must bow before the Jade Empress , divine holder of the celestial mandate, may she reign 10000 years in grace and felicity! You foreigners are not welcome here." She recited.

"Surender now or be destroyed! You will submit either way. You will be used according to your skill as decided by our immortal leader. The strong will work the field and mines to further the glory of the Eternal Empire. The most lucky of you will join the Forbidden Citadel and serve the Jade Empress as concubines or eunuchs." She declared, not blinking once and only ever smiling when she refered her leader.

"Mei Fung Li out! All fleet unleash the fury of the Dragon and free the Verdana system of these intruders!" She ordered, cutting the transmission.

Those ships were big and strange of aspect. They aslo had something only a small empire leaving in an isolated autarchy could have.

The liberty of not embarking the support necessary for long term deployment. No space was wasted on hyperdrives or fuel for interstellar travel, no need for room for the crew to relax, these ships didn't even need to waste space on recycling of limited resources. Instead these were ships of war that had but one purpose.

The ships opened fire. And they did it with far more weapons an UTF ship of that size could embark.

"Williams, evasive maneuvers!" You shouted as the space filled with laser beams, plasma, flakk , torpedoes and railgun slugs. "Smith, more power on the shields I'll boost propulsion!"

"Yes Sir!" Shouted your crew in the same breath.

The two worked then without a word to make your ship survive the onslaught.

The scanners were going wild as the sheer number of the readings was threatening to overload them.

The Acheron's shields failed and it took some damage.

The flagship Lotus Dragon illuminated on your screen. The reading, one that shouldn't be.

"Who the fuck builds an anti matter canon that could....." you screamed.

The Acheron was gone! The large beam out of the sculpted Dragon head disintegrated it.

Worse a torpedo was coming directly at the Gorgon.

Your trajectory was going to send you directly at the fourth planet after the impact. If you survived the impact.