Commander Perez was not a happy man. He sat alone in the cold empty bridge of the TTA Military Frigate 'Irata', gravely contemplating his current situation. Up until now the mission had run smoothly - his platoon had all but wiped out the renegade death squads of Proxima Centauri in an intense ground battle and they'd reclaimed a previously captured warship in the process. It had looked as though it would be medals and cigars all across the board for his surviving troops on their return to Sol - but not any more... From assessing the ship's log it appeared that one of the mechanics had left a 3D skin-flick playing in the training holo-deck whilst Perez and his crew were stored in suspended animation on the long trip home. Unfortunately, playing the movie repeatedly over several millennia had completely drained the ships primary battery banks dry. As a result of this, the ship's computer followed emergency protocol, cut life support down to a minimum and jettisoned all expendable personnel - basically everyone except Perez himself. Somewhere out in the cold vacuum drifted his entire crew, floating in their survival suits, catatonic and completely oblivious to the danger they were in. To make matters even worse, the ship's navigation system had apparently failed during the crew-dump procedure. Perez had been awoken deep in uncharted space. "Computer!" Perez barked, "Where are we? Give me a nav report!" There was no reply. Perez leaned out from his chair and swivelled the navigator's VDU round to face him. The screen was blank, empty except for a row of 8 bombs and what appeared to be a cursor in the shape of a bumble bee. Unfortunately, as part of a military cost-cutting exercise the majority of the Irata's previously cutting-edge computer hardware had been replaced by vintage (yet serviceable) 68000-based systems. Perez had in fact signed the authorisation papers permitting the changeover in return for an extra week's paid R&R. "What the frakk is this?!" Perez roared. He furiously stabbed at the buttons on his terminal and initialised a mid-range radar scan on the bridge's main display. The top of the screen was a chaotic blur of echoes and the ship was flying on a direct collision course. "What the frakk IS THIS?!" Perez roared (again). He pulled a lever and the ship launched a probe out into the cosmos ahead. It survived about 50 seconds before impact, but not before it had relayed a short burst of video information. "Computer! Give me full manual control and initiate evasive protocol Delta-Nine-Zero. Lock down all external apparatus and raise shields NOW!" Commander Perez began to grind his teeth nervously, his brow beaded with cold sweat. The mother of all meteor storms was heading straight for the Irata. Source: The Developer Website.