The captain stepped onto her bridge, feeling a little tired. Honestly she just wanted to be in her bunk, but she pushed those feelings aside. Duty demanded she be here, even if it was the middle of ship’s night. Composing herself, she barked, “Report!” Her mind already focusing on the mention of a contact that her night duty officer had mentioned when he called her to the bridge.

“We detected an unusual energy signature about eight minutes ago. Sensors picked up this image just before I called you,” reported the night duty officer, as he pulled up an image on their main screen.

She could identify the image with ease. Anyone could. It was a dragon, the deadliest known space organism in the galaxy. There were other biological organisms capable of space flight, but none could match the apex predator known as dragons. There were dozens of identified dragon species, but they all had a few traits in common. Powerful natural shields, that defied analysis, a potent breath weapon, an armored body, and claws that could carve through even the toughest ship armor. They were opponents to be wary of, especially since they were also highly intelligent. Not to mention that the older a dragon was, the more dangerous it was.

“A dragon!” she exclaimed without meaning to. She had not expected to see one here. Its very presence was a serious threat to future operations in this sector. Most importantly, this system was the staging area for an assault that would decide the war. They had over seventeen fleets gathered here already for the main assault on Eral. An attack that had recently been delayed for reasons, she did not know. Now that very invasion was in clear jeopardy.

“Has the flag been informed?”

“Yes, ma’am! As per protocol, we notified the flag as soon as the threat was identified.”

She leaned over the sensor console, and asked, “How old is this dragon?”

“We aren’t sure, but we think it is an Ersu Dragon. If it is, then based on size, scale density, and internal temperature then this is a female dragon of nesting age.”

She felt herself pale. Female dragons were the worst opponents, especially those of nesting age. Highly aggressive, and old enough to be a significant threat. Worse females were stronger than male dragons of equivalent age. If it was here, it must be looking for a nest. That wasn’t good. Not that she was entirely surprised that this system had attracted a nesting dragon. It had three life-bearing planets, and dragons tended to raise their young on terrestrial planets.

The worst part was that there was no negotiating with dragons. While they were intelligent, every attempt to communicate with them had failed. Although rumor had it that some of the Elder races had managed rudimentary communication. Running was not an option either, since maintaining control of this system was of vital strategic import. Meaning that their only recourse was battle. She just hoped they had enough ships. Not to mention that the weapons they carried would be enough. Dragon scales were notorious for their resilience and ability to resist most known weapons, and their bio-shielding was far stronger than most known energy shields. The Neku captain was not looking forward to this battle. Personally, she would have made the call to retreat immediately.

Three Hours Later:

The ship shuddered. Over the din of the chaos, someone shouted, “Hull breach decks fourteen through forty! Emergency force fields not responding!”

Before she could shout her order, a bolt of lightning flared off the dragon’s wing and struck her ship. The vessel shuddered, and the lights flickered and went out for a moment. Then the emergency lights flipped on, seconds after a sudden shockwave rocked the ship.

The battle was not going well. The flag had already been sunk, and the new leader of the fleet had ordered a retreat. Now everything was disorganized chaos, as ships were breaking formation and trying to make the jump to hyperspace.

Another voice reported, “Main power is out, auxiliaries have been fried. We are on emergency batteries.”

That was a bad hit, and reports kept pouring in. Shield repairs had been delayed indefinitely, decks fourteen through forty had to be manually sealed. The main drives had sustained irreparable damage, they were permanently dead in the water. The main reactors had been auto-jettisoned when the primary containment systems were fried. Auxiliary reactor seven looked repairable, but the entire deck it was on had been vented to space. All but one of their emergency batteries had been melted, they had three hours of emergency power left and that was it. At least the dragon was attacking other ships.

She glanced at her barely functioning sensor screens. The captain spotted several ships successfully make the jump to hyperspace, but others were not so lucky. One vessel, a dreadnought, had the unfortunate luck of being caught in the dragon’s breath. A stream of blue plasma washed over its shielded hull. When the light cleared the only thing that remained was an expanding cloud of melted debris. A stark display of the dragon’s power, and a visual indication of how lucky they had been not to be hit by the dragon’s breath.

Turning from the screen, she quietly gave the order. The one order no captain ever wanted to give. “Abandon ship.’ Then louder she repeated, “Abandon Ship! All hands, abandon ship.”

With any luck, the dragon would ignore their escape pods. Just like it was ignoring them, but then again they no longer qualified as a threat by any stretch of the imagination. Unfortunately, the pods were short-range and limited to sublight only. Still, they would be safer on the surface of one of the three habitable planets than up here in the void.