SDD 01 Decatur

Note: This is something that I threw together one night for a GM to base her game on.

Too bad the game never materialized and the GM vanished.

We didn’t discover faster than light travel first. No, that was the reptilian I’eTa’ja. We were not the most aggressive race in the galaxy. No, that was the insectoid Elq. Nor were we the smartest race in the Galaxy. That prize went hands down to the mouse-like Mahhhquo. No, we were not the first, the best or the smartest. We were not even a semi-important tactical or strategic system. What we were... We were the luckiest. We were lucky because it was a l’eTa’ja warship that tumbled into orbit between Earth and Luna. We were lucky because every creature on it was long dead from radiation poisoning. We were lucky because no one was following a dead ship.

And we were lucky because it was still pretty much more or less functional.

So that was it. It was why we were not run over, crushed, enslaved or simply wiped out as a possible enemy. It was why our planet wasn’t going to become just one more molten radioactive ball of lava flying through space. It would turn out to be all three races greatest mistake. You see, their war had been going on half a thousand years when that ship arrived in Earth orbit. From the records we eventually cracked it was discovered that of the habitable planets that had existed when that war started, two thirds no longer were, or ever would be again. Some of those worlds, like our Earth, had simply been in the way as one force chased another. Wiped out simply for ‘what if’ or even just for target practice.

Earth was damn lucky.

We were damn lucky.

Skylab was in its third month of operation when that near two mile ball of blasted metal & ceramics skimmed Earths atmosphere. Skimmed it and dropped tens of thousands of tonns of junk all over the planet. It also splattered Skylab across its hull like a fat bug across a Studebakers windscreen. It certainly wasn’t something the Military could classify as ‘swamp gas.’ Then a couple months later that massive ship slammed into the moon, leaving a long gorge that pointed to its remains like an arrow. It simply wasn’t something that humanity could ignore. At least, not the INTELLIGENT humans.

Though the religious nutcases tried too.

Only two countries had space capability at the time. Oh I don’t mean ‘getting a ball of metal into low orbit for a few hours.’ I mean hauling a crew up and able to dock with another craft and only one, the United States, could still reach the moon. The resulting revitalized space race bankrupted Russia, darn near did the same to America. By the time I was a gleam in my parents eyes we had learned. We had cheap sustainable Earth to Luna transportation, we were building our first real ships and had already built two battle stations.

Earth would not go down without a fight.

So here I am, twenty seven years old and third in command of a star destroyer. Hey, we swiped designs from dozens of shows. Star Wars had a couple of good ones after all. So did Battlestar Galactica. Why waste time designing something when you already had such a deep pool of neat stuff available that worked with the alien technology. Too bad the Star Trek stuff wouldn’t, it was beautiful. Anyway, like I said here I am. Third in command because space battles were not an old mans game. We were moving, moving fast towards Jupiter because one of the stealth probes there had spotted something. Something not natural. Our orders were shoot first, ask questions of any survivors.

This now is Earths story.