NYCTON EXPEDITIONARY VESSEL "DAWN'S REFUGE" - EDGE OF OORT CLOUD - DAY 366 - 3:47 AM EARTH TIME
Commander Nyctor of the Nycton Expeditionary Force gripped the command chair's armrests hard enough that his knuckles turned pale against his black skin, his red eyes fixed on the viewscreen showing the wormhole collapsing behind his damaged vessel with a mixture of relief and dread churning in his gut.
Relief because they'd made it, had actually escaped the Kreth'mar battlecruiser that had been hunting them for three brutal days of running combat across two star systems, had survived when eighteen other ships in their expeditionary fleet hadn't.
Dread because he knew—knew with the certainty of someone who'd fought the Kreth'mar before—that this wasn't over, that those savage bastards didn't leave survivors, that it was only a matter of time before they cracked the wormhole coordinates and came hunting again.
