The Spear of Athena

Chapter 1

         Earth, the planet that had given birth to the human race, was now the last line of defense for the Galaxium Federation. Being the capitol of the Federation the planet housed the Galaxium Congress, the office of he President and his staffer as well as the headquarters for all of the various agencies that governments need to function. The planet also served as the home base for the Federation Army and Navy. With so many vital functions and the home of so many of the Federations leaders and billions of humans, it was the most heavily defended planet in the whole of the Galaxium. The planet was defended with orbital gun and missile platforms, assisted with planetary based weapons. Space stations that orbited the planet housed squadrons of nimble Vergon fighter craft. Then to add to the already powerful fortifications, all of the ships from the Federation Star Fleet that weren't deployed to Mars took up positions around the planet. Every member of the Federation military were prepared to fight to the bitter end.
         Mars base was created with the discovery of vast deposits of raw materials. Over the course of fifteen years the Red Planet had slowly become terraformed to suit the living standards of human beings. Mars had become home to  the major shipyards of the Sol system. The planet was also viewed as a gateway to Earth itself. With this came the fortification of Mars. In the glory days Mars was also a stronghold of defense, but in these days it was a shadow of its former self. Few soldiers and and whatever ships that could be spared from the Fleet were deployed to the planet. Their mission was simple. Buy as much time as possible so that the civilians on Earth had as much time as possible to evacuate the planet. The forces that were stationed on Mars didn't have long to wait before the enemy fleet had appeared in the system.
          The enemy of the Federation was composed of three races: the Slekans, a race of lizard-like creatures that walked on two legs and had two small stubby arms, Charia, a race of furry cat-like creatures that sported four arms, and the Natarans, a race of genetically enhanced humans who had decided that all other humans were weak and pathetic and had to be eradicated. The Federation and the Nataran nations had been fighting each other for over fifty years. All three races hated humans and their allies with a passion that ran deep through all of their fibers. And they had good reason too, at least to them. Humans had created the Federation, and the Federation had ruined the power of their power or stood in their way of power. Seeing that the Federation was backed into a wall, they pounced into battle without a second thought. But a lion that is cornered and sensing death will fight to the end, and the humans at Mars fought to the last. They managed to buy Earth nearly two weeks of valuable time.
         The Tri-national Alliance Battle Fleet appeared above Earth just before the last of the civilian refugees were able to escape. Despite being outnumbered by over two to one and severely outgunned, the Federation Fleet met the Alliance in battle. The battle that occurred over the Earth lasted for nearly twenty hours. At the end of that time, the whole Federation fleet was gone, nothing remained except for millions of tons of space debris. With the fleet out of the way, the Alliance sent in its ground troops. The ground battle was over in less than five hours. Combined with orbital bombardments and over whelming numbers the last defenders of Earth were easily defeated. With the taking of Earth the whole of the Federation was effectively destroyed. After learning of the fall of the center of government, the planets still loyal to the Federation quickly threw away any connection to them.
          However at the end of the battle on the ground, a lone Federation cruiser was picked up on Charian ships sensors. The cruiser was escorting five civilian transport ships and they were getting ready to jump. Seeing such an easy target, several Charian ships chased after the group of fleeing ships. But before the Charians could get to the ships they were able to jump out of the system, but not before the Charians were able to get a fix on where they were going. The Charia caught up the remnants of the Federation at the Sigma Pi system, which was home to nothing but a large black hole. The Federation ships had been hoping to hide there for a while. The Charia ships chased all of the ships close to the event horizon of the black hole. Seeing his back against a wall, the Captain of the cruiser, known as the Spear of Athena, ordered his crew to abandon ship in the escape pods and dock with the civilian ships and run for it. Thanks to covering fire from the Spear of Athena all of the escape pods were able to escape. Then while the civilian ships started to run those onboard saw the Spear of Athena live up to its name as it charged the enemy fleet. The Athena went straight towards the enemy ships all of its missile and laser batteries firing. Then just before they jumped to safety, they watched that as with one last barrage of missile fire from the Charian ships, the Spear of Athena was pushed past the event horizon, with her brave Captain still on board.
         "And that Boss, is the gist of the legend." said Janus Teneg from his spot behind the weapons station.
         "Could not have sparked it up more than that Janus? We only wanted the basics of the legend, not an overly descriptive one. Don't get me wrong Cap'n, I mean I love finding treasure and all cause it can make us rich, but, ah, how do we know this ship still exists, if it even did at all?" asked Nathan Haspro from his location behind the sensors and engineering station.
         "Well Haspro, our dear employer Mr. Wealock, claims that he has pinpointed where it is thanks to a super-secret contact. Hopefully his contact wasn't lying. After all we could really use the money that he is paying us to fix up the Dawn." explained Leah Julius.
         "Shut up all of  you dammit! I'm not paying you to jabber to mouths! Get back to work!" snarled Emelius Wealock, the man that was currently employing Leah, Janus and Nathan. Emelius looked over the three humans working in the cockpit with disgust. He hated humans, all of them. But he was able to tolerate these humans for only one reason. They were the best at this kind of work, and for this job he needed the best. It was just a cruel irony that his future financial stability was depending on three humans. Emelius was not human, rather he was a Karon. Karon were by no standards - except for their own - easy beings to look at. Not even the Monks of Purism, who found beauty in everything would find any beauty in a Karon. Karon were tall, gangly  creatures covered in a rough leathery skin that ranged in colors from a dark brown to light green. What really did it for the Karons ugliness were their faces. The face of a Karon is covered with the same skin, but is incredibly wrinkled, with wrinkles nearly covering their small black eyes and their two holes for a nose. Then mouths were full of small sharp teeth.
         But what the Karon lacked in physical beauty, they made up for with an uncanny business sense. They were master merchants, business owners and debaters. Their love for money in all of its forms outranked that of even a humans love of money, which is no small feat. If there is anything that can a Karon can be guaranteed to do is find a way to make a quick buck. They would even sell their own mothers into slavery if the price was right. Emelius lonce again looked over the crew of the Paradise Dawn, a freighter ship that was owned and flown by Leah Julius. Through them he would make his fortune. Not for the first time that they had left the space station that sat just outside of the asteroid field near the planet Erakan, he wished that he had been able to hire a different crew and ship. Not only was the crew impossible to manage, the ship itself was a wonder as to how it was still flying. The ship was held together with bolts, patches and even heavy duty tape in some places. Leah would never, ever, admit that her ship has held together with tape. As Emelius looked around, his eyes first settled on Janus.
         All that Emelius knew about Janus was that he was a good fighter capable of handling many different types of weapons and that he was also a decent fighter pilot. But the thing that made him unique and valuable was that he was an incredibly talented archaeologist and historian. His knowledge about legends, myths and other tales and ability to work with several ancient languages made him very useful to the crews chosen profession. Well, one of their professions. 
         The wandering little black eyes then settled on Nathan Haspro, a brilliant young engineer. Nathan was one of two reasons that the Dawn was still flying and not sitting in a scrap yard to be used for spare parts. If there was one thing that he loved more than hunting for treasure and the occasional thieving job, it was fixing things, particularly ships. The biggest problem that anyone had with Nathan was his ego. Nathan was smart and he knew it. He wouldn't hesitate to tell anyone who he is and how smart he is. This led to more than one bad encounter. Haspro was also a womanizer, and it was rare that whenever they docked at a station that he would come back to the ship without a large grin on his face from spending the night with some lady that he had met. No woman was safe from his charm and good nature.
         To Emelius Wealock, Leah Julius was an enigma. She was easily one of the best pilots in the galaxy, of that she had few doubters. It didn't matter what kind of ship it was, she could fly it. She was a born spacer, having lived for most of her life in space. The Paradise Dawn had been her fathers ship and was left to her when he died. That was about all anyone could get out of her about her past. Compared to the other two crew members, Leah rarely talked. It wasn't that she was loner, but more that she could never get a word in edge wise when the other two were talking. While she seemed to be a very calm and collected and kind person, all of that would disappear in an instant when either her life, the life of one of her crew members or the well-being of her ship were threatened. She would not hesitate to kill someone if they threatened them.
         "Captain Julius, how much longer until we reach the black hole?" Emelius asked after he came out of his pondering mood.
         "Well Mr. Wealock, we should be there after one more jump, which we'll be making in a few minutes. Our jump well put us about twenty-four hours from the hole, give or take an hour. So we'll be there tomorrow."
         "Alright then. inform me when we get there. I'll be sleeping, so don't bother me unless it is important."
         "Will do Mr. Wealock." said Leah as he left the cockpit and went to his quarters. "Janus, is there anything else that you can tell me about the legend that would be helpful?"
         "Well, there's not much left of the tale. There won't be any survivors from the original crew, but it is rumored that the internal defense system is active, but I find that hard to believe. Besides no one's been on the ship for a thousand years, so there is no way for that to be verified. Other than that I've got nothing. Sorry"
         "Well, then, we'll have to make something up it looks like. So, how can a ship be trapped in a black hole and be reduced to very tiny pieces, or piece, I wonder?"  Nathan asked out loud.
         "I can't say. Besides I'm no astrophysicist, just an archaeologist." Janus said.
         "Yeah, a gun slinging archaeologist."
         "Hey, at least women find that attractive!"
         "Hah! That's funny, you and a woman! At least I can get women, emphasis on the plural nature of that word. I've never even seen you speak with a woman, virgineo."
         "Sure, if that's what you call prostitutes and call-girls."
         "Why you snot-nosed, whoreson piece of ...."
         "Oh, threatened by the tiny spiky haired devil himself!"
         "Oh, that's it....."
         Leah closed her eyes and shook her head and even let a smile appear on her face. Listening to those two argue was almost always entertaining. The insults to each other were always very colorful.
         "Alright you two, sit down and shut up. We are going to jump outta here on my mark..." She paused to let Janus and Nathan settle down, "3...2....1....mark!". With that the Paradise Dawn jumped to the Sigma Pi system.