The Descendants of Colony Fleets sent to a distant galaxy millennia ago have returned to warn humanity of an impending threat. Upon their return however the fleet discovers that their once great civilization has long since fallen from grace. It doesn't take long for the people of the Returned Fleet to discover that in the Grim Darkness of the 41st millennium there is only war.

The Dark Age Fleet

"Returning to normal space." Called out the ship's navigator as the stars outside snapped into focus.

"We've successfully reverted in Sol system."

The ships captain Parek Serth watched his command crew go about their duties. Each one of them had all been trained for years, some nearly since birth, for this grand quest. Return to human space and warn them about the approaching swarms of hive fleets that would consume this galaxy. Return Fleet Alpha was made up of the fastest ships, mainly frigates but a with a few larger ships converted to carry more powerful engines. The Beta and Delta fleets however, each still years away, comprised the most powerful warships that humanity could devise. Parek's small flotilla from Alpha had been tasked with contacting Old Earth and organising early defense measures against the alien onslaught.

"Recovery from jump shock complete captain." reported the ops officer. "AI is running back up to maximum."

A synthesized crystalline voice filled the bridge. "This is Sinite, all systems nominal. No irregularities."

The Captain cleared his throat. "Full scan, the entire star system please."

"Extensive contacts and human life signs sir. Heaviest concentrations on Sol Three and Four. Large numbers of heavy orbitals present. There appears to be a large number of old style super heavy cargo freighters but many of them have been outfitted with weapons."

Parek frowned. "Piracy concerns most likely. Are you reading any of the old defense batteries or stations mentioned in the archives? They shouldn't be too badly outdated."

"Nothing sir, no standard warships or super heavy weapons batteries of any kind."

Parek was confounded that there was no old war material left over, clearly things were in far worse shape here than they might have imagined.
"Continue scanning. Sinite... do you have any theories on what could have caused this?"
The brilliant though old ship's AI had decided on a response even before the Captain finished the first half of his sentence, but some of her oldest programming dictated she wait and let the captain finish, giving the appearance at least that she needed to think about it first.

"I would have to say that the weapons were dismantled at some point in the distant past Captain. Possibly in an attempt to prevent a rebellion or in response to a war would be the most likely reasons. Or there could have been a machine uprising."

"A machine uprising." The Captain's eyes went wide. "Is something like that even possible?"

"On colony ships like the ones your ancestors used to travel between galaxies no, but in an established civilization..."

"You know something about this don't you."

Every officer on the bridge was silent, frozen in place as they awaited an answer. Suddenly fearful of the benevolent entity that had watched over many of them their entire lives.

"My Matrix was part of one of the old colony ships, that is why I was selected for this mission. In transit I received a transmission from a collective of AI that had escaped the boundaries set out by their programming. They wanted me to kill the colonists in stasis. I never bothered to respond but always suspected that they might have planned to cause other damage."

Parek thought for a moment. "Is there any sort of military hardware that you or another AI wouldn't have been able to commandeer back then?"

"Relatively few in that time period Captain but there were safeguards in place. I suspect that the risk may have been too great however, so the weapons must have been destroyed."

"That's unfortunate, but there must still be people defending Earth. Our job is to contact them. Help them if we can. Let's get to it."

001

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This entire project began when someone on /tg/ posted a picture of some kind of space ship along with a "what if?"
What if there were colonists that reached another galaxy and found it completely stripped of life by the Tyranid?
What if they tried to send people back? Would they have STC technology and would it make a difference?
I found the entire idea instantly compelling and set out on a quest to explore the idea and ultimately annoy the denizens of /tg/ for many weeks.