On August 22nd, 2027, the survey ship Heroina 003 registered a thermal contact in the Sigma Draconis system, of strength 1600, with an observed speed of 5442km/s. She attempted to reach the jump point, but was overrun and destroyed. 124 survivors made it to the life pods. The entirety of human military force, consisting of two destroyers, the Tigris and the Euphrates are en route to the Sigma Draconis system. These ships are nearly obsolete, dating more than 6 years back, and were the only ships constructed after the Unification War, as the horrors of that conflict were still fresh in many minds. It may be that humanity will come to regret this pacifistic stance, with an unknown hostile force a single jump away from Sol, and no more than two destroyers capable of a mere 2647km/s, barely half of the enemy contact, with thin armor, no antimissile defences, and only 6 launchers per ship. The force will reach the jump point in slightly less than 20 days. In the meantime, designs are already being laid for a total reboot of the shipbuilding program.
Although the two ships of the Sol defense force were horribly outdated, they still performed admirably. The enemy ship was discovered to have substantial ECM systems, reducing the effective range of the destroyers to 78 million kilometers. However, it appeared that the enemy ship had sacrificed striking force for speed, ECM and PD. The Tigris and Euphrates launched at 75 million kilometers, and the captain of the Tigris gave the order for rapid fire until the magazines of both ships were empty. This put out a total of 134 Striker-9 missiles in 11 volleys, compared to four volleys of 64 size-3 missiles from the enemy ship. The first 2 volleys either were intercepted by enemy CIWS, missed, or impacted on armor. The third wave impacted, and the enemy ship lost speed. From this point on, there was a consistent intercept rate of 5 out of the 12 missiles of each volley. As the fourth volley impacted, the enemy ship suffered a significant reduction in thermal signature, and the enemy missiles disappeared from sensors, indicating that either their targetting control or active sensor had been damaged or destroyed. From this point on it was simply a matter of wearing down their armor. With the impact of the 6th volley, the enemy ship detonated. No life pods were detected. A salvage ship was deployed to recover the wreck, and the Tigris and Euphrates were recalled to Earth for resupply, refueling and rearmament.