Caroline Karthon was somewhat irritated. Sure, she was the youngest captain at this system, but it still rankled. But, she had to admit, things were peaceful enough as long as the ork scourge was kept at bay.

  In her patrol of the outer system was her cruiser, a light cruiser, and six frigates. While on paper, they were formidable, they would last as long as a piece of paper thrown into the engines if the orks came in force.

  But, for better or worse, the ork incursions had been slowing up. But, like all things, good came with bad. The Dark elf bastards were at it again. They had decided that burning and killing as many craft world elves as they could was a good idea. Now they were sitting in Coalition territory, hiding.

  She didn't blame them. While she didn't know much about either faction, she had gotten the Dark elf briefing. It was... gruesome. From the briefing to the pictures they had... ya, no. She preferred orks. They wouldn't torture you for fun, only blow your ship up beneath you.

  But that wasn't likely to involve her. She was stuck in the void doing patrols. But, she liked the view from the bridge at least.

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  She was awoken from her rest by an alarm. She immediately jumped up and rushed to the bridge, still in uniform. "Report!" She barked.

  "Sir, multiple ghosts on sensors. It was my judgment that something is stalking us, so I ordered general readiness." Her second in command stated.

  She nodded, then sat in her command chair. The ship's ai was trying to parse what they saw, and was having a time of it. The other ships in patrol tightened, while the light cruiser lagged back, prepared to retreat with all relevant info.

  "Comms, signal command. We may need reinforcements. Signal 1 and 2 to group up and lead us ahead. Find us what is out there." She ordered. Perhaps, in retrospect, she shouldn't have thought about the dark eldar. Bad luck, that.

  As they sat and waited, suddenly, the comms station came alive. "Captain, incoming communication. Location unknown." He stated.

  "Bring it through" She called. And a second later, a voice emerged. It spoke slowly, deliberately. It's deep, metallic tone came with a clearly artificial note, with a clear accent. To her, and her crew, it sounded ominous.

  "Greetings, Captain Caroline Karthon, leader of patrol group 61-477-A. I wish the stars blessing upon you and your house. I am to inform you that in 2 days, our lord is to aproach this system with... diplomatic intent. He expects proper greetings. Good day." And the voice cut off.

  Suddenly, from the scanners, a blip popped up, then was gone. She stood there, silent for a while. She should have kept her mouth shut.