DCLXVI (part 1)

Eifer.

How long had we been floating here, staring at the light blue mist that seems to hang like a shroud over the floating wreckage nearby? Its funny how you can never remember some things, yet never forget others... or how unimportant either of these extremes feel during times like this, when the thermal shielding has finally cooled and you realize that your crew are possibly the only living human beings within six parsecs of nowhere; and the dying, sparking will-o'-wisp that was once a fine compliment of 450 cadets straight off the dock from State War Academy now fades against a backdrop of frozen biomass, contorted tungsten alloy and pyroxere dust.

"What the hell were they doing out here?" I called down to the engine three crew chief. His response over the comscreen interface was little more than a static whine (damn these Matari electronics components!) but I could make out the distinct "negative" before we cleared transmissions. This would mean that the scanners turned up nothing. No intact cargo, no munitions, not even a stinking mass of burned logic circuits to show for their loss. Those navy warheads aren't cheap, and the don't seem to pay for themselves these days.

The frigate's corridors darkened as the roaring of hardened shock plating suddenly dropped to the low hum of our secondary thrusters... infrared and carbon black and a million trillion cats purring in our overdrive manifolds brought a renewed comfort to the crew, as we rapidly distanced ourselves from the grid sector under fully operational cloaking systems. I flicked on the bridge console encryption channel and hailed gunnery with our usual salute.

"Oh-seven, corporal. We'll be setting coords for point Alpha-plus-one-niner-niner. Get those reloaded and primed... let's be waiting out this global at full ready."

His response seemed relieved somewhat, as none of us were particularly looking forward to the long journey back to Metro. We would remain here for a bit longer, enjoying the emptiness for a little while longer.