The story after the first encounter

Their escort is destroyed, the starfighters manage to destroy two enemy fighters before almost the entire carrier's detachment is annihilated. Soon, the only fighter left is the one belonging to the wing commander. The carrier captain orders a retreat through the quantum gate and is forced to abandon his friend and subordinate, the wing commander. The wing commander knows that he cannot safely make it back to the ship in time and so leads several of the enemy fighters into a nearby asteroid field where he manages to destroy and evade his pursuers. But now he is to die a slow death, lost in space since his ship does not have the necessary equipment to perform a quantum jump through the gate. The last thing he looks at is a photo of his pregnant wife and 10-year old son before he left for his tour in space. His son would be turning 21 this year and graduating from the Starforce academy to follow in his father's footsteps. "Dear God, I wish that I had the opportunity to see them again before I leave this life," he prays in silence. Then his ship is locked onto by an alien ships tractor beam and he with his ship is taken captive. The rest of the story follows the wing commander's son. The captain of the carrier manages to make it back to Command HQ and gives a report. Information is scarce: the total size of the enemy, their capabilities, their origin, their purpose, and all other aspects relating to this foe other than their inherent aggressiveness towards the people of Earth remains unknown. While his ship is under repair, other warships are being fitted to be launched. The captain is sent to the academy to receive a new detachment since all of the experienced starfigher pilots have been assigned to outfitted or soon to be launched ships. He is somewhat dismayed at the quality of these cadets, who are mostly hotshots, one of whom is the son of the former wing commander of his ship. He selects several of them and they are transferred to a temporary mining carrier for space combat training. The callsigns of many of these pilots reflect their outlook on life.

Atheist: an able pilot, but vitriolic against anything doing with God or the existence of God.
Chaplain: an outspoken Christian, calm, somewhat reserved, but also a capable leader, frequently antagonized by Atheist.
Hedonist: lives for the pleasures of life, doesn't care about anything other than having a good time and lots of women.
Hotshot: the son of the late wing commander, seeks to follow in his father's footsteps and make a name for himself. Avoids getting caught between Chaplain and Atheist in their debates. Has the best kill score in training, though demonstrated less than ideal leadership capabilities.

While they are on their training mission, they are contacted by an unknown vessel. The captain breaks protocol and permits a meeting with unknown alien ship. The large alien carrier dispatches a shuttle and the captain leaves the mining ship to meet with the commander of the alien carrier. This meeting becomes significant talk amongst the cadets and is seen as violating military code. Unknown to them, this meeting had been planned by the high command and the captain had been selected to be the one to be the ambassador to the alien ship. Upon return from the alien carrier, a pilot from the alien vessel is brought back with the captain to be their new wing commander. This angers the cadets and they protest. The captain is angered about this, but the alien pilot suggests a test of the cadets abilities. He will engage the entire wing to see how well they perform. Also, he will use one of their ships rather than one from the alien carrier. They agree to his terms and stage the practice match. Chaplain attempts to get the wing to work together as a team, but Hotshot, Atheist, and Hedonist split off on their own once they've made contact. It isn't long before Hedonist finds himself shot down, then Atheist. Hotshot manages to evade for a bit until Chaplain and the rest of the wing engage. Under Chaplain's command, the wing gives the new commander a significant amount of difficulty, until the commander identifies Chaplain's ship and takes him out. With their leader gone, the wing falls apart and soon Hotshot finds that he is alone. Determined to not lose to this outsider and to prove that he is just as good as his father, he makes his attack intending to take advantage of a known weakness of the commander's craft, only to be quickly shot down by the commander as he attempts to do so.
Throughout the entire meeting, the new commander never showed his face to the cadets. Speculations as to what these aliens look like traveled around the ship. However, the new wing commander revealed himself to no-one except the captain. The alien carrier stayed with the small mining ship and other alien pilots would come over on occasion to give briefings about the enemy ships and their capabilities. The pilots noticed something odd about these aliens and their new commander. The aliens spoke English, but it was an archaic kind with "thee" and "thou" and word endings such as "saith" and "knowst" while their new commander did not use these forms when talking to cadets but did when talking to the alien pilots. All of the alien pilots wore their space suits and did not show their faces to the cadets.