Chapter 1

It was a month after the incident with the mystery red dagger. Since then the Invictus has positioned itself within a debris field orbiting a white dwarf, making the ship hard to detect. Even more when the ship has minimal systems operating. Hiding in this field was now the only option open to Commander Price. Although he didn't like it, hiding here has given him the ideal opportunity to gain critical Intel of his position and the forces fighting for power in this region of space.

Turns out, the entire field consists of destroyed ships. There were ships which looked more like flying cathedrals than anything else. A bit away from them blood red dagger shaped ships from various sizes were floating around. Probably a leftover from a long forgotten war, but now a goldmine for others looking for pickings.

Price ordered search teams to board the floating husks and look for Intel. The Dagger shaped ships were a no-go. Once teams got too close they all started to get sick and develop blurred vision without cause. That left the floating cathedrals, or what was left of it, to be searched.

The CIC was Always the center of activity. Surveillance screens were beeping everywhere and many of its operators were talking and tapping consoles, trying to analyse the data coming from the sensors.

It was during the end of his shift that the ship's XO walked up to the commander.

"Commander Price, got a minute?"

"Sure Howard, what've you got?" Colonel Mark Howard was a tough man, a bit smaller than Price and more muscle. Always straight in uniform standing tall he was an intimidating sight to anyone around. A true image of authority. He was a long time friend of the Commander and served together for years. So when the time came for Price to take command and chose an XO, the choice wasn't hard to make.

"We've got some results from one of the search parties that boarded a smaller ship, the one-and-a-half kilometer sized one. They have found what appears to be recognition charts. The language is unclear still and needs to be decrypted, but if the scale and size of these charts are correct, than we are not the biggest fish in the sea."

"What do you mean?"

"Most of the ships here in this field are between just under one km in length, up to two kilometers. But a few here seem to be significantly larger, and they're not even the largest."

"That may become a problem"

"Indeed, the largest ship here seems to be around 5 kilometers in length. The biggest on the chart Clocks in at around eight to twelve kilometers".

"That's FOUR times our size, and we're the largest in the fleet!"

"I know John, and they are significantly more powerful than anything we can field."

"What have we found out about them?"

"Mostly armed with railguns, same as us, but with a higher calibre. Others seem to be armed with laser based weapons, similar with what should have been added in our upgrade but more advanced. These flying Cathedrals have one thing in common and that is a heavily armored bow shaped like a wedge, possibly for ramming. These ships seem to be extremely durable, some even have power left. Sergeant Horvath got one hell of a scare when an automated defence turret pointed at him and started clicking. Lucky for him the thing was empty."

"Impressive. What about those red dagger ships? Any intel about them?"

"Very little, a few recognition charts, but they're very limited. We did find some navigational star charts. I've given the order to run them through the computers. Lets hope they can decypher whatever language they're in."

"Lets hope they bring something good. Once decryption is done have our navigators examine them. Maybe we can get a fix on our position. Any Intel on the faction?"

"Those ships seem to belong to the Imperium Hominis, whatever that may be. Horvath found some corpses floating around in there. They appear to be human, only not as we are used to. Some have tech sticking out of their body, whatever purpose that may serve. Initial analysis says that these 'Imperials' are fighting those dagger ships."

"Good to know we're not alone. If we encounter more daggers, or gods forbid, more powerful ones we may need to look to these imperium guys."

"Well, whatever they may be, they sure have a strange obsession with skulls. They're just about everywhere on those ships, from doors to consoles."

"Lets hope that is the strangest thing about them." He said as he turned to the DRADIS station. "Operator, any movement out there ?"

"Nothing on scope for the moment sir." The Young man replied. "We did have a faint contact on the edge of the system an hour ago. Observers describe it as a giant fish with a big tailfin and guns on top. It was moving around as though is was trying to sneak up someone before it left the system."

"Very well, keep me informed."

That was one of the so many varied ships that have came through this system. Seems this system is in the middle of some transit route. It's a good thing that they've been recording every bit of sensor data they could get on these ships for analysis. It may help to identify their opponent in future encounters.

"XO, how long is this decryption of those star-charts going to take?" Before Price finished his sentence, Howard had already picked up the Phone and connected to the proper section before relaying the question. "It has a low encryption so it should be done by tonight. With any luck we'll have an idea where we are in the morning. Our message cracker says that if this files encryption level was higher he would have a hard time decoding them. He seems impressed with the code."

"We had luck this time then. Lets hope our luck holds out till tomorrow and no one comes sniffing around before then. Keep the ship silent and continue passive scans of the area. Keep low-power active scans to a minimum, we don't want to attract attention. I'll be in my readyroom."

"Aye sir, I'll let you know once we find anything of interest." His trusty friend replied.

And with those words Price walked off and left the CIC. His opinion of the area he found himself in became more dark with every report he got. Lost, far away from the home that got destroyed, he has the strongest ship in the fleet that isn't even the largest or most powerful ship in this new region which didn't really give a warm welcome. He had beaten the odds before and was sure as hell intend on doing the same thing again. Only this time it would be harder, much harder. After several turns and bulkheads Price entered his ready-room, closed the hatch behind him, unbuttoned his collar and sat down on his leather-clad seat behind his wooden desk, all covered in reports.

He reached down into one of the drawers and grabbed a small glass and a small bottle of whiskey. He poured a bit of the drink in his glass and slowly took a sip at it, just to relax a bit and let the events of the past days sink in. Gods know how many drinks like this he had with Howard, or that old man Adama. The thought of it alone cracked a little smile on his face. It didn't last long however. After finishing the glass he stood up from his seat, walked to the fold-down bed mounted at the wall and fell dead asleep in it without as much as pulling off his jacket. His last thought before he closed his eyes was that of hope, hope that his boys could translate that map so they might get somewhere.