First Contact

As we were approaching Obraxis I've started getting nervous. There were odd radio anomalies emanating from the system in a particular pattern. Big brains from ISEA didn't think it was natural so instead of sending one ship they're sending a whole fleet and assigned me to lead it. I still remember the board meeting where they decided that I should be the one who will lead the operation. Gladly, I've got the job instead of Sara Tsu. She was pissed about me getting the job but deep down all of us knew that she just isn't ready for this.
"Admiral Zimmer, the fleet is gonna be ready to drop out of FTL in high orbit above 6th planet in the Obraxis system in few minutes." sounded through the intercom in my office. A voice of young girl manning the capital ship's helm, Katarina, has a really good voice for this and makes all the announcements sound pleasant and professional.
"Understood, I'll be on the bridge shortly. Zimmer out." was my response as I was standing up from my chair and heading out of my office. Thankfully The intercom is advanced enough to pick my voice from across the room.
As I arrived on the bridge the captain of ECSEV Adrian was already on her post and ready for the usual command transfer procedure. A tall blonde woman in her 40s standing proudly in the middle of the bridge, overseeing the helm stations Infront of her. You could also see the Slingshot tunnel on the viewscreen covering almost all walls of the bridge for full 360 visibility. Of course, this was deep within the ship so all the image we see is just projections being fed to a computer that stitches the image in real time and displays it on the dome.
"Ah, Admiral Zimmer on a bridge. All systems across the ships are operating within normal parameters. The command is yours." said Captain Forcienne. "She's purring like a kitten, Teresa." she added quietly. We are close friends for a decade now and if it wasn't for the code we would be couple by now.
"Thank you Captain." I responded as I sat into the command chair and Marionette sat next to me. "Communication I wanna talk to the whole fleet." was my first command for the day. The whole fleet is consisting of over 100 ships ranging from military battle cruisers ready to obliterate the surface of a planet to science vessels without any weaponry, together being manned by 325 330 crew members. As why we're tagging along so many people along for this mission is beyond me and no-one at high command could give me a clear answer.
"Fleet announcement ready Admiral." said the young man behind the comms station.
"Amazing, patch me through" I responded and a small ding sounded, notification that I'm on every announcement speaker across 124 ships.
"This is Admiral Teresa Zimmer speaking. We're now approaching the Obraxis system and will arrive within minutes from now. This system is crucial to our superiors because it contains a source of repeating signal that we could not determine the source of, so be ready for anything. Remember to stay focused on your position and follow commands to your best. Zimmer out." I nodded to the young man at comms and another small ding sounded, meaning the broadcast ended.
"Helm, put the remaining time in FTL on screen." I said as I looked outside. The endless very deep tunnel was hypnotizing to look at, hence why most people avoid looking at it for too long. A timer appeared on the screen.
-FTL speed - time remaining: 00:54-
"I can see you're nervous." said Marionette.
"You can bet, I have no clue what we'll find there. Might be a whole lot of nothing." I hoped it was nothing or just some weird natural phenomenon. I looked at the timer: 30 seconds remaining. As it counted towards zero I clenched the command chair and my heartbeat was through the roof.
"Disengaging Slingshot drive, now." said our helms man.
As we left the FTL tunnel we were greeted by view of a Terra class planet with 4 moons. At first there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary but then I started noticing artificial structures on the surface and the orbit of the planet.
"All ships to Amber alert." I issued as was the protocol and all accent lights across the bridge turned form blue to amber. "Jim, I wanna send intelligence test but I feel it's not necessary." I said to ship's advisor.
A small man stood up from my side and went to science ops and looked at the output of the panel there. He looked puzzled for a second and then replied:
"Unnecessary Admiral, they seem to be intelligent enough for us to assume intelligence and attempt contact."
"Understood, any other opinion?" I asked around. Only thing followed was silence and the odd shake of heads. "I'll take that as a no. Comms perform the First contact protocol." I followed.
The young man nodded his head an started working on his console to perform the command. "Signal sent Admiral" he announced as he finished his task.
"Admiral we might have a problem. I'm detecting multiple energy surges across the surface of the planet and launch of dozens of objects from the orbital structure." said helms man seconds later.
"Understood, raise the -" I started issuing a command when suddenly a ray of light hit a ship nearby, causing what I could guess a core breach, which flash vaporized the entire ship.
"Shields up and battle alert fleet wide. Give me fleet-wide broadcast." I commanded immediately.
"All ships are already raising the shields Admiral." said navigation officer.
"Fleet-wide communications ready." followed coms.
"This is admiral, all non-military ships evacuate immediately. This is an emergency. End of broadcast" I said as soon as the ding sounded and was followed by second ding.
"Admiral, dozens of rays are coming our way." said weapons officer.
"Understood. Target the incoming vessels with Gamma burst fire, protect evacuating vessels. Target the sources of the rays with missiles, yield set to 10kTs." I responded
As I said that I noticed a lot of rays hitting the evacuating ships, cutting straight through their shields, destroying every single one they hit.
"Admiral, our weaponry doesn't have any effect on incoming vessels and missiles are being intercepted by the enemy." said weapons.
"I want nuclear missiles set to close detonation at maximum yield." I commanded. "And to every remaining ship to evacuate the system."
"Missiles fired" responded weapons, followed by blinding flash of light and the rays stopping. Our ship started to turn around and our Slingshot drive was audibly engaging.
"Ships are engaging their Slingshot drives as well admiral" said helms man.
"Great, the sooner-" I tried to respond but was interrupted again by a massive ship suddenly appearing next to us, firing rays again.
"Fire everything we have!" I ordered but it was too late for dozens of ships. It was a massacre.
"The ship is not being affected much by our offense admiral." said weapons op.
"We just need to last long enough to escape, jump ASAP." I responded.
"Admiral our fusion core has been damaged. We're unable to engage our Slingshot drive." said engineering officer. I grabbed Marionette's hand. "Plasma is gonna leak out o-"