The prosperous empire among the stars, now had a lance held to it's heart, as the Horde poised to strike the capital world of the Anundari.
Several months ago, a small flotilla arrived at the edge of the Anundari Empire demanding this from our frontier systems
Join or die
The envoy ship was sent away, and any local navies in the area soon set their sights on this foreign armada.
Much to our dismay, this much smaller enemy fleet had outmaneuvered our more heavier craft, and within several hours of combat, our armadas were scattered and destroyed by the more mobile foreign fleet.
In this moment of our weakness, these brutes soon pressed the advantage.
Countless slip-space ruptures emerged in the area, this small fleet was merely a scouting force, as millions upon millions of capital-class ships emerged, advancing further into the Empire. Through our scans we noted that these ships were far more primitive in nature to ours, but they were far more nimble and impossibly numerous.
The frontier worlds were lost, and a savage series of sackings and exterminations occurred, as these invaders desecrated the ancient libraries and looted the planet of all salvageable materials, wealth, metal, weapons, and most disturbing of all, slaves. Those who tried to defy the horde were killed and their planets were reduced to molten slag.
Some planets of nefarious loyalties defected to the invaders in exchange for mercy, burgeoning their already massive numbers.
We called back the remaining elements of our navy and fell back all the way to the Cario line, a 3-dimensional defense array line with planet-sized railguns and plasma cannons which would ensure that the enemy would advance no further into the empire.
Within several days, the horde was upon the Cario line, and every marine in the Anundari Navy stood ready at their stations of battle.
Sporadic raids and small attacks rippled along the defensive line, mere "prodding" strikes to detect any weaknesses in our defense.
We exchanged long rang bombardments with the enemy, spanning dozens of lightyears, and we were indeed taking a toll on them, as battle-statistics showed that we were decimating the enemy by a 5-1 margin. It was believed by High command that we could withstand the enemy long enough to launch a successful sally and finally drive them back to the furthermost corners of the void.
The next reports put pain to these thoughts.
Through a dense void storm field that lay at the far right side of the Cario line, enemy ships were detected jumping in and emerging on our right flank. With the enemy now behind us, our defenses crumpled and began to scatter. Within a matter of hours and after terribly fierce and bloody battles, the Cario line was all but destroyed.
I saw how desperate our situation was, and the very few remaining ships that we had were called back to the capitol world, where we would make a last stand against these invaders.
The Horde took planet after planet, sparing those who surrendered, and exterminating the ones that resisted. Finally they were upon the capitol world of the Anundari, every last suitable being was given a weapon, and we were tasked to fight to the death if need be. Seeing how savage these brutes were, we knew that the loss of the ancient scientific and historical records stored here would be a devastating blow to all beings, and we swore to this matter as well, to defend it to the last.
They gathered from every possible entry point around the capitol planet, and yet they did not attack, and a message was transmitted from their leader to every last ship and person within a 100 lightyear radius.
"We do not have to shed any more blood, your weapons and knowledge are of great importance to me, surrender and you will be spared, and we will assemble an invincible army to conquer the rest of existence."
Seeing how pointless it would be to fight any longer and how few fighting elements we had left, we sent out a lone envoy ship and delegated our surrender.