It had been no more than three years ago when the Mossfleet of Moss Command had a new addition. It, or more accurately, they, were three ships codenamed the Longhorn, three gigantic interplanetary cruisers capable of sustaining more than a hundred creatures. They were the pride and joy of the Mossfleet. Wherever they went, they inspired awe in the hearts of many.
One of these three was the Intrepid. It was the second of the three, the middle one. However, there was nothing mediocre about the ship itself. it was a state-of-the-art model, capable of carrying a hundred and with enough cargo space to carry a month's supply of food and then some. It was equipped with the latest technology. It was not to be surpassed for another two years. Even then, it was still considered to be the best by many.
The Intrepid had two very special features. The first of these was the environment control system. it was no mere heating and air conditioning unit. Instead, it controlled every aspect of the interior of the ship. This added to the fact that almost all the rooms of the ship had been designed to mimic Mossflower Wood, the wonderful forest which covered much of the Third Planet, or more commonly, Terra Firma. Everything was realistic, you could climb the walls as if they were trees, and in fact, they were. It could even rain, only on demand, of course, as rain could very interfere with the missions which the Intrepid often undertook.
The second of the features was the PlasmaZap. It was a cannon which fired blasts of energy, generated by storing and then releasing energy from plasma pods, in essence a giant capacitor which fired a beam of concentrated energy. This was a definite improvement over the laser beams and nuclear projectiles of previous eras of space warfare. Now Moss Command had an advantage over the reptilians.
The Intrepid had a crew of fifty, each with his or her special talent. There were creatures from every end of the Third Planet. The crew was not quite perfect, however. These creatures were picked for their talents, not their dispositions. They often quarreled about the slightest things, making the ship never operate anywhere near peak efficiency. Instead, there was a constant ruckus aboard the Intrepid and nothing was accomplished properly.
The Intrepid was commanded by two co-captains. One of these two was Cheyenne. She was a cream-white ferret. She was peculiar in that she was incredibly young. She was barely older than three seasons, a mere teen. However, she was incredible. She had the ability to efficiently command the entire crew of the Intrepid. That was definitely an achievement. However, she lacked many of the skills necessary for the job. For one, she had absolutely no self-confidence, nor any confidence in others, for that matter. She also lacked communication skills. Commanding a ship didn't require much, but when it actually came to dealing with others, she was indeed a disaster. It wasn't that she didn't try, for she did. It wasn't either that she was unkind or anything. She just simply happened to be the unfortunate one who could bumble any rendevouz. Nevertheless, she was quite the commander.
Currently, the Intrepid was drifting somewhere towards Alpha centauri from the Third Planet, north, if the standard compass directions of the Third Planet applied. However, due to so many factors affecting north in space, especially the fact that there was no one planet which served as a reference, these directions did not, in fact, apply.
Suddenly, something flashed on the main screen in the command room. It was an alert. Something had been detected on the deep space radar. Co-captain Cheyenne was immediately in the room.
"Seargent, report! What's our status?"
"Ma'am, we have the reptilian vessel Stroviss -- or something with more s-es -- in our sights."
"At last. Fire at will, crew."
The Intrepid crew immediately began to unleash torrent after torrent of plasma blasts at the oncoming reptilian vessel. The enemy responded, but their xenon gas lasers were no match for the Intrepid. The victor seemed apparent.
Suddenly, however, there was a boom.
"Ma'am, weapons meltdown. All plasma-based weaponry has been disabled. Switching to... er... backup."
"You can't mean... but that's worse than their lasers!"
"We have no choice."
"Very well."
However, the reptilian vessel was nowhere in sight.
"But... they were finally winning..."
Then it hit, like a ton of bricks and a ton of feathers simultaneously. It hadn't been an ordinary encounter. It had been a mere diversion, but why?
Cheyenne tapped keys on the main control panel. A face appeared on the wide screen.
"Moss Command, Intrepid reporting, sir!"