Pearl
Against the stunning backdrop offered by two enormous gas giants, the Pearl of the Stars limped back toward the space dock. The battle had been brutal and of the seventy vessels sent out by the Council of Planets, only the Pearl remained.
One may be forgiven for assuming the reason only she remained was due to her shying away from battle, however this could not have been further from the truth. The Pearl had been first into the fray and the fact that she had returned was testament to the fact that she had fought until the end.
The Fleet had faced odds of four to one against and yet still they had won the battle, although the cost was far too high to comprehend. Thousands of sailors had lost their lives to defend what was essentially a backwater system, the only thing of any value there, other than the space dock, were the mineral rich moons that orbited the gas giants.
The Pearl herself had suffered a great many losses. Before the battle her crew numbered four-hundred and eighty-one, but as she crawled agonisingly slowly towards the dock, less than one hundred remained.
Her crew had gone above and beyond, and had avenged each lost ship, each lost life. The Pearl’s captain, Gerhard Thomas, died during the early stages of the engagement that itself lasted for mere hours shy of a week. Lieutenant Grace Ifhans reluctantly assumed the captaincy upon the death of Thomas and she had survived until the end.
As one of her too few subordinates engaged the clamps that would enable the Pearl of the Stars to dock safely, Lieutenant Grace Ifhans made a silent vow. She would make the remainder of the enemy fleet pay, along with those that commanded the fleet, the League of Otherworlds, so called because centuries ago when they originally broke away from the Council of Planets, they were known as ′The Others’, and the title stuck.
The black box carried by the Pearl, and all other Council of Planets vessels for that matter, would show the Council that neither Lieutenant Ifhans, the crew of the Pearl nor the Pearl herself, could be held in any way accountable for the tragedy that had occurred over the past week and as soon as her repairs were complete, Lieutenant Ifhans intended to do everything in her power to ensure that the League of Otherworlds paid for what they did, and she would do that the only way she knew how; by obliterating the enemy on the battlefield.
“Welcome home, Pearl of the Stars,” the transmission originated from the space dock, and was indeed very welcome. “It’s good to have you back.”
