Black Blood

[Cptn Corizon 0]

Commander Notez, House of Haradrium, stood atop the bridge of his flagship Black Blood. The streaming stars around the dagger-shaped black-hulled ship slowed to a relative stop. From the viewer, his pale eyes watched as brilliant pink-purple rays filled with anti-gravitons struck their targets, exploding them on impact. On the wings of the Black Blood, the two smaller Hunter-class escorts opened fire on the offending Scorpiad transports.

 

A thin smile crossed the pale lips of the Commander as he watched the explosions of the Scorpiad transports and their attendant escorts. They'd never seen it coming. Then just as quickly as they'd came, bringing death on their wake, the sleek black ships under his command jumped back to warp, leaving a trail of fire behind them.

 

“Another success, Commander,” the tactical officer Lieutenant Jonal said with satisfaction. “The bastards didn't even have time to raise their stingers...”

 

Notez, though pleased, was more muted in his response. “In deed, a great victory for our people. Keep us on course for our next target.”

 

The attack marked the fourth for the raiding group led by Notez. It was part of a much wider campaign the Rebel forces had begun in an effort to cripple the Scorpiad militarily. Though they'd had some successes in direct combat, notably the major victory over a Scorpiad sector fleet at Kahin, the Scorpiads swift, deadly response at Salin had shown them that direct combat needed to be limited. The Scorpiads had kept many of their most deadly toys in reserve during the Dominon War, but now that the Al-Ucard and Eratian threatened the stability of the Empire as a whole, the mostly deadly venom of the Scorpiads was being brought down on the insurgents.

 

That had left them with little choice. They could not win a direct fight, yet, but they also had to find away to slow the Scorpiads down. The answer was obvious—deprive them of the fuel for the war machine. That was the only hope of victory, Notez just hoped it worked or the lives of billions would be lost to sate the lust of the Scorpiads.