Thenos amazed himself with his own stupidity. Even if Teldin, Thenos' main confident in the matter of the many possible assassins that surrounded Thenos, didn't think Karla had set up the sniper, Thenos shouldn't have let his guard down. It had just happened so fast... The news had come in of the murder of most of the Gromov council, and how Karla's father was barely alive. That evening, she had come to his room crying, and... things had... got out of hand. Afterwards, Thenos was worried that he had taken advantage of her, but then he realised that perhaps she had taken advantage of him. However, finding himself alive in the morning, Thenos had left for his meeting with the council about the Gromov incident. Was it him, or had that woman who usually opposed him seemed surprisingly optimistic about the matter? Nonetheless, the meeting had passed with little agreement, as usual, and Thenos had returned to his quarters, when he spotted something as he accidently kicked it across the floor. He carefully reached down and picked it up. A small needle, filled with a clear liquid.

"That bitch won't know what hit her," said one of the more enthusiastic of the conspirators. Ulthaer had never liked the High Psintegrat, and this looked like a great opportunity for some of the action she had missed out on when the High Psintegrat's ship had turned and fled.

"Too true," said the guardsman checking Ulthan's shield-armour's power pack, as she had the new crystal-plate body armour beneath her combats, and so was ready faster, "and she'll deserve all of it. Have you seen the estimates for the casualty for that last skirmish?"

"No, but I can imagine it's bad," Ulthaer replied. The High Psintegrat had returned to her flagship Rapture-class ship. The majority of the High Psintegrat's personal guard were meeting with the other conspirators to prep for the upcoming fighting. Once all checks were complete, the voice of the head guardsman, Dell, could be heard on their radios.

"Remember, guardsmen who are still loyal will be tagged on your HUD. Riddle them with rounds; this new armour can take a beating. You know where we're deploying and when, so make sure you're at your allocated positions on time. As you should know, there are no other regular marines onboard; the new additional security consists entirely of you guys. Let's show her that nowhere is secure after what she's put the Unity through."

"Very deadly, this," Teldin said, "but has to be administered slowly, and makes you itch like hell the moment any gets into you. You're dead within seconds of the full dose entering you."

"Why use it if it's so obvious that you're giving it to your target?" Major Kolt asked.

"It's not a common one," Teldin continued, "but it is commonly used by female members of the Unity's Hand... on male targets... when they're less likely to notice it."

"Ah," Kolt said, as realisation dawned, with a quick glance towards Thenos to see his reaction, "right. So you think this is the Unity's Hand we're dealing with?"

"Most certainly."

"I will confront her about this," Thenos said.

"On your own?" Kolt asked.

"Yes, but with help not far away. I already have a plan."

"Now!" Ulthaer whispered to her team, using words as had been agreed, so as not to alert the High Psintegrat to their intent through the Unity. They quickly ended the few guardsmen standing with them, then moved in the direction of the barracks. If they could pin down the non-patrolling elements of the High Psintegrat's loyal guardsmen there, then the jobs of their allies would be much easier.

As the same procedure was followed throughout the ship, the head of the rebellion led her group towards the meditation chamber, gunning down the few remaining loyal guardsmen before they could figure out what was happening. Eventually they reached the locked doors to the chamber. One of the soldiers got to work on the console.

"Less resistance than I expected," Dell said, "keep a look out."

"Door's nearly hacked!" the hacker shouted, only to suddenly receive a round to the head, as her shields didn't cover the sides. A disturbance in the outline of the walls gave away camouflaged soldiers, who had been slowly moving closer, their adaptive camo allowing them to go unnoticed to the eyes of the rebels, who were searching for other guardsmen.

"Spray rounds, full auto!" someone shouted. They had the remarkable presence of mind to simply fill the corridors with lead in order to fight what they couldn't see.

"Somebody work on the d-aaagh!" cried Dell as a round found its way between the protective plates of her armour. The fight carried on, until only the sound of the rebels' gunfire could be heard.

"Sitrep somebody!" said the second-in-command, Aiyanna, but she didn't really need one. There were several wounded and one dead, that much was clear. Three of her soldiers were healthy, and there was no real way of telling whether their attackers were dead, but the slight disturbances had gone, so it could only be assumed that they had got away. After formulating a plan, she decided to head into the chamber with another soldier while the other two active soldiers guarded the casualties and waited for reinforcements. The door opened, and the two guards steeped into the psychic airlock, taking up positions that would provide cover if they were fired upon from inside the chamber. Once the first doors were closed, the second pair opened. When  no gunfire came, the two soldiers stepped forwards into the doorway, the non-guardsman one turning on her shielding.

"Stand still and put your hands behind your- Sweet Unity!" Aiyanna exclaimed as she saw what the High Psintegrat had done. Some sort of strange, ancient-looking device had been covered in cables and explosives. Then there was the High Psintegrat herself, with a sinister smile on her face, and a device in her hands. The soldiers fired, but there was nothing that they could have done.

The soldiers in the hallway were hurled off their feet, with cries of agony as the wounds of the wounded were made worse through the violent treatment. Eventually, Ulthaer arrived as part of the reinforcement team, and went to check the soldiers who had fallen, and strangely hadn't got back up. She turned one over, and saw the woman's eyes, dull, lifeless eyes that stared blankly at her, even though owner still drew breath. Somebody opened the doors to the meditation chamber, only to find that the second set of doors was no longer there. The meditation chamber was a burned-out shell.

Looks like she went out with a bang, someone joked tastelessly, but it was clear that it was empty bravado. They could all feel the presence of the inert soldiers in the Unity. The High Psintegrat had taken them to a place of living death with her, as one final act of cruelty.

Shall we tell the new High Psintegrat the news? Ulthaer asked.

No, I'm here all ready.

My Lady! said Ulthaer, kneeling in the presence of the new High Psintegrat. The young child nodded to the kneeling soldiers from her chair, which was carried by two of her own guardsmen, a signal to stand.

Well done, all of you, she said, I'm sure you will all receive great rewards, and we will honour your fallen comrades. Now, shall we release news of the tyrant's death?

(Distant Stars)

    "Sir, incoming communication from the UE." a comms officer reports as Roesh and Tim enter the hanger bay.
    "Looks like I'm headed to station command...  Keep me updated on that ship headed our way, Timmy." Roesh says.
    "Will do." Tim yells as he sprints for the nearest shuttle to fly him to the star.
    Roesh walks with less enthusiasm to another shuttle in the bay while watching the first one leave.  "Station command." he says to the pilot who nods and closes the door behind them.
    The shuttle pops up off the ground and slowly exits the Mothership and flies around to the backside of the ship and docks with the drydock structure.  Upon arrival he's informed that the communication is from Gold on behalf of Carbon.  By the time he walks into the command center, reports are coming in about the pirate vessel that has just entered the system.

    The Dubovak, being the closest starbase to the pirate ship now sitting at the edge of the gravity well, is the first to action.  "This is the Dubovka to unregistered vessel, turn on your IFF computer or transmit your registration ID."
    "Or what?" comes the sarcastic reply.
    Annoyed by the response, the Dubovka's commanding officer takes over at the comm station. "This is Colonel Clinton Briggs, if you do not identify yourselves in 3 seconds I'll be left with the tough choice of sending over a boarding party or just outright destroying you."  He then points to the station's CAG and points to the screen.  The CAG immediately orders the station's strike craft to head for the ship.
    "Aw hell, you marines are all a bunch of hard asses when you gain some ranks." comes the reply.
    "Strike craft are on the way." Colonel Briggs states.
    "Well, they're gonna be disappointed.  I'm Captain Heath Murray and I got me a boatload of sailors and marines alike looking forward to having a good meal at home."
    After a few seconds, Captain Murray's information appears on the screen in front of the Colonel.  He mutters something under his breath before speaking up, "We're sending over boarding parties." Colonel Briggs looks at the CAG, mutters some more inaudible comments and walks out of command.  The strike craft are all ordered to hold positions near the Desolator until the boarding parties can reach the vessel.

    Roesh walks into the command room of the drydock facility and approaches the holovid projector.  He presses a button and Gold appears.
    "Hello comrade!  I am Gold from deh Unified Explorers Corporation.  You must be Roesh." Gold loudly says with a thick Russian accent causing Roesh to step back from the projector.
    "I am."
    "I am told dat you have some of my brothders in arms."
    "We do."
    "I am also told dat you intend on giving dem back to us depending on an agreement of sorts, no?"
    "You could say that."
    "What is it you wish to have in dis agreement?"
    "Well, first of all, I'd appreciate not being attacked in the middle of a rescue."
    "I'm not aware of any attacks. I am told you refused to cooperate and then attacked us like naughty shameless dogs."
    Roesh fights back a laugh as he answers, "If, by refusing to cooperate, you mean having our ships targeted with demolition bots and then responding to entry teams forcing their way onto our ships, then yeah, we refused to cooperate."
    "I see.  De official report states it differently.  I will have to make, korectibovkebv...  Uh, corrections."
    "I figured it would."
    "Well, at any rate, I can promise you better lines of communication in deh future so dat a reoccurrence of dis unfortunate event will hopefully not happen again."
    "Good.  Another thing I'd like is assurances of no retaliation for what happened."
    "I can agree to that.  We're not a bunch of uncivilized barbarians like some of deh ohder groups out here.  However, some restitutions are expected to make it a company wide agreement."
    "You're getting your people back.  That should be enough."
    "Dis may sound cold hearted, but people, like ships, can be replaced.  Look at it dis way.  Not giving our people back assures an attack at some point to rescue dem.  Giving dem back means we don't attack your system, however future activities outside of your system may encounter promnebvit, hostilities from dose who are upset with de outcome of that dispute.  Replacement ships makes bosses happy and almost guarantees no ill feelings."
    "Well, you're not getting your fleet replaced.  I lost lives and ships that day too...  If I start handing you replacements, then I cannot extend any assurances that future activities of yours won't be met with hostilities because I might not be in charge for very much longer."
    Gold smirks, "You have fair point, Pahdroo."
    "Who do you work for over there anyway?"
    "As deh fleet supplier, I work for everyone in deh UE."
    "Okay, so who do you report to?"
    "Officially, I report to Iron now."
    "By the notation of officially, I'm going to assume you really don't."
    Gold remains silent and does his best to hold a plain expression.
    Roesh continues, "Don't worry, I'm not taking sides in your little internal struggles."
    "Would dat be your official answer, Pahdroo?"
    Roesh laughs, "Sure, I guess you could say that.  What's Pah-droo mean?"
    "It means friend in my native language...  I looked you up Mr. Roesh...  I've got lots of conflicting information about you from our sources within deh Trader Space.  Some paint you as hero, othders as villain, but mostly as disinterested neutral party."
    "I can assure you that it's all probably true."
    Gold lets out a boisterous laugh, "You and I aren't very different, pahdroo.  We are both suppliers, we both shy away from deh politics, we're both more interested in getting a good value for our products..."
    Roesh chuckles, "Trying to butter me up isn't going to win you any negotiation points."
    Gold laughs, "Well, can't blame me for trying, no?"
    Roesh chuckles, "Not at all, I'd do the same."
    Gold laughs again, "So you're not going to budge at all on deh building me new ships, no?"
    Roesh laughs, "Oh, I can build new ships, and I can build them quickly.  If you want them, you're either going to have to try and take them, or just buy them."
    "Possibilities, but as you are no doubt already aware, deh technology you bring with you from Trader Space isn't quite on par wit whatd is standard out here."
    "I am aware, if you'd like to give me the technology so that I can be on par, I'll build you anything you want."
    Gold laughs yet again, "Now who's the one making unreasonable demands, pahdroo?"
    Roesh laughs, "Like you said, can't blame me for trying."
    Gold nods, "I think some good Vodka could make for some interesting negotiations, no?  At any rate, I have a fleet near your system who I can make sure relieves you of current babysitting duties."
    "I'll need to know who the C.O. of this fleet is and a possible ETA."
    Deh Commanding Officer is Zinc.  I don't have deir exact position, all dat I have available is dat dey are near you already, so dey may be minutes away, or dey could be couple hours.  Anything more den dat I think would be unreasonable."
    "We'll be expecting them soon then."
    "Oh, you may have more visitors den just dem."
    "Figures."
    "I have reports dat Lithium and Platinum are also in deh area, however, you don't have to pay dem any attention since I'm only assigning Zinc to recovery task."
    "I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the head's up."
    "You can repay me with drinks and party girls." Gold nods and cuts the transmission off.
    Roesh taps a few buttons in front of him and Tim's face appears on the screen on the wall. "Updates on that mystery ship?"
    "I'll be jumping to the star in a few seconds, right now all I know is they've ID'd themselves as our MIA's and boarding craft are in the process of docking to verify."
    "Good, we're going to have some..." Roesh is cut off by the screen freezing and showing signs of static while Tim's ship makes the jump.  Seconds later the feed is reestablished. "We're going to have some UE visitors soon."
    "ETA?" Tim asks.
    "Minutes to hours is their best guess.  There will be one to three fleets entering our system, Zinc is the one we're turning the prisoners over to."
    "And the potential other two?"
    "Pretend like we don't know them?  I don't know, fleets and system defense are your responsibility, you handle it.  I'm headed to Finley 1 so there better not be any shooting when I pass through there."
    "Yeah, yeah." Tim states and then turns off his screen.  "Starbase Dubovka, recruit."
    "Yes sir." comes the reply from the pilot.

    Once Tim arrives at the station, he heads for the command center as fast as his legs can run.  Just outside the doors he sees Colonel Briggs leaning up against the wall.  As he approaches the door, Briggs mutter out, "Squid."  Tim pauses as the doors open, he looks at Briggs and replies, "Jarhead." and then enters the room.
    "Updates!" Tim demands.
    "Main screen, sir." a comm officer states.
    On the main screen is the boarding team's leader. "Admiral, we're verifying everyone here, so far so good.  Several dozen are going to need medical teams immediately.  I have a team extracting the ship's log and looking over the systems so we can figure out what the pirates have been doing in Mercavica.  We also have a present for you."
    Colonel Briggs walks in after hearing that.  Tim asks, "What would that be?"
    "Early indications would be a leaking power core, we're going to need maximum radiation protection to get close to the device.  Right now it's locked inside the thickest walled compartment of the ship with as much scrap material they could find dumped into the adjoining compartments to protect themselves, and jury rigged set up of wires to boost the ships existing power supply so they could make the jump."
    "I understand Commander, I'll have medical personnel over there in a few minutes."  Tim walks over to a comms officer sitting at her station, "Put out a general medical emergency and have all staff make their way to the Dubovka, also have one of the colony ships head this way to accept the crew and take them planet side."
    "Yes sir." she says while getting to work on that project.
    Tim steps to his left to talk to the next person, "Call up captain Powley and have him round up a new bridge crew to drive that ship back to headquarters.  Have Casey and a salvage team on standby."
    "Yes sir." the next comms officer replies.
    "A team of radiation specialists is on their way, commander." Colonel Briggs states.
    "Thank you sirs.  When I have more information, I'll let you know." the commander states before walking away from the screen to issue out some more orders.

    Roesh boards a shuttle again and following the flurry of activity now present in the well heading off to the star.  The panel next to him begins to softly beep indicating that he has a message waiting.  Pressing a button, a message from Casey pops up. 'If Tim get's the Mothership, I call dibs on the Desolator.'  Roesh chuckles. and closes the message out in preparation to make the first jump of his trip.  Minutes later they're rocketing through the star's gravity well and observing all of the activity.  A Kol and a Sova have moved in to offer up support while strike craft make wide circles like sharks smelling blood in the water.  Casey and her salvage team appear on the other side of the well and move into position near the Desolator.  Once they near the ship, it's engines power up and it makes way for Finley 4.  The Sova and Kol form up on either side of it and escort it on it's journey to Fleet Headquarters.
    "Sir. The leak has been contained, but the power core is still considered to be severely damaged.  The tech's say it's not fit for space travel." the Commander on the ship informs Tim.
    "Very well, once you're back at HQ, make sure it's worthy for a trip planetside and we'll work on it from there." Tim replies.
    "Yes sir." the commander states before Tim cuts off the feed.
    "Colonel, I'm told we'll be expecting one to three UE fleet's sometime in the next few minutes to couple of hours.  Have all stations prepped and ready for their arrival." Tim says.
    Colonel Briggs nods and walks over to a comm station to dish out a series of commands.
    "I'll be waiting in a conference room." Tim states as he exits the command center.

(DS RP)

And now the Continuation of Distant Stars...

Shuttles of varying forms clutter the flight deck of the David, people dashing between smaller vessels while taxis move gunships and bombers into neat rows along one side of the deck. Pilots are checking their suits and engineers clamoring over final systems checks and loadouts. Captain Levin approaches a shuttle on the busy flight deck when he is stopped by an officer calls his attention, "Captain Levin."

Levin turns to the officer with eyebrows up, "Yes?"

"Sir, Lieutenant Commander Frishman wanted me to have a marine report to you before your departure," he states before waving over a nearby marine.

Levin's thoughts catch up the moment and he says, "You must be the marine which detonated those explosives aboard the Osiris."

"Corporal Nelson, sir. Yes, it was my call," he responded with a salute.

"Any particular reason you decided to deviate from the mission parameters, marine?"

"Sir," Nelson replies, "I had reason to believe sensitive information was aboard the vessel. I wanted to recover the data while denying it to the enemy if the ship was to be abandoned."

Levin's face remains straight, "I did not authorize any such action, marine."

"It didn't take long... sir," Nelson replies with an uneasy voice.

Levin smiles, "Marine, I think I have a job for you. Suit up."

On the bridge, Alexander sits in his chair. "Lieutenant Commander, are we ready yet?"

"Waiting for confirmation from all captains," Frishman replies.

Alexander nods with a slight frown. A moment later, Paragon Carbon enters the bridge, "Admiral, are we ready?"

"Not quite," Alexander responds. "Paragon, are you willing to take command of the ground forces?"

"Absolutely," Carbon replies.

"Lieutenant Sokolow, would you please see the Paragon to his station?"

From off to one side, a female officer, bearing dirty blond hair tied back into a ponytail and a toned physique which makes up for the generally unflattering uniform, rises and approaches the Paragon, giving him a salute. "Sir, this way, please."

She leads him to a station placed ahead of tactical, her fingers running across the panel in a little dance that raises a host of visuals over the control system. She retrieves a headset hanging to one side and dangles it from two of her fingers, "If you'll wear these, I'll get you acquainted, sir."

Carbon gives a little smile which the lieutenant returns. The two work over the station for some time before Frishman finally announces, "Sir, Captain Levin is aboard the Rebecca and battle ready."

"Alright, we're ready to move," Alexander announces. "Have all vessels form up and prepare for jump."

"Yes, sir," comes from all angles as officers arrive in their final positions and prepare. The fifty-nine capital over one thousand smaller vessels of the combined fleet arrange in a broad capital phalanx and engage their drives, TEC and Vasari vessels alike spreading glitter across space before being yanked into phase space.

In orbit of Kyrene IV, the remaining Advent host continues with local operations. The Progenitors are in close orbit of the planet, dropping search teams to assess the damage and pursue any remaining forces. Three Halcyons remain close to each Progenitor, their fighters and bombers hanging in space. The Revelations and Raptures form a wall between the planet and the phase lane to Kyrene I while the Radiances remain further away from any likely combat zone.

The combined fleet enters the gravity well. The Kols and Kortuls lead the group straight towards the planet, barreling down on the Raptures and Revelations. The two meet, a flurry of weapons fire trading between the two, but where the Advent hold their positions, the TEC and Vasari continue to move forward, tapering off their ranks to file past the Advent front. The adaptive forcefields and shield regenerators take the brunt of the force while the Kortuls strike the enemy's antimatter supply down.

"Sir," Lieutenant Gross calls out, "The Cyrus is having a malfunction with their beam weaponry."

"Is it the upgrade?" Alexander inquires.

"Uncertain," comes the reply. "Captain Strauss is having their engineers address the issue."

"Alright, have the Cyrus fall back to the second line and have the Hagar tone down their acceleration. They're outpacing us," Alexander orders.

The inner ranks have all reached weapon's range, maximizing the amount of fire being traded. The Elisha fires her new missiles with no noticeable increase in targeting due to the system incompletion, but the weapons perform no less admirably than they have in the past. The Aaron makes no use of the new projectiles, their equipment needing much further work before safety can be ensured. The Free Trader engineers react with speed and precision, but the impact of battle slightly rattles their senses, causing wide eyes and stiff jointed movements all around. A Free Trader engineer aboard the Josiah feels an impact and stammers back as a piece of loose plating tumbles across the deck. He looks to a nearby Lion and says, "This is one hell of a ride."

The Lion smiles, "Welcome aboard the Josiah. Just wait until we lose shielding."

That realization causes the engineer's eyebrows to lift.

The vessels continue to strike as they pass the Advent, the cruisers and frigates coming up on the front of the formation, a front which is beginning to turn to face the first rank of assaulting vessels. The Kanrak Assailants near the rear come to a stop, firing off two volleys in unison, totaling eight hundred phase missiles cluttering up the empty space. The missiles converge on a single Revelation, tearing into the vessel and sending it into a drift.

"Sir, the Assailants have brought down a Revelation," Frishman announces.

"I credit that bug with having some sense of his own power. Bring us in behind a Progenitor and have all strikecraft ready," Alexander says.

The Assailants punish the rear of the enemy formation, the flank weaponry of the Advent vessels failing to cause any true concern to their crews. As the main force approaches one of the orbiting Progenitors facing towards the planet, a Rapture falls to the Kanrak barrage. The Advent fighters, previously spread about in orbit of the planet, have mustered their numbers and sweep in from two directions. The TEC and Vasari strikecraft remain docked as the blue drones swiftly approach. Upon arrival, a swarm of small phase missiles rise into space and scatter themselves amongst the enemy numbers. While still making their strikes, many of the small vessels are torn apart by the assault of the Sentinels. What the frigates fail to accomplish, flak, now released in abundance from the surrounding Kols, achieves in doing, truly decimating their numbers. Despite the power of the Dunovs, the attack has cost many of the vessels a bulk of their shield power, putting a great burden on the antimatter reserves, even in spite of the flux fields.

The fleet focuses its fire on the first Halcyon escort within range, the sheer mass of fire tearing into it and sending it into an explosive fit soon delivering it to the underworld. The other Halcyons fare no better, being pushed to death by the overwhelming force. The Progenitor attempts to use their sacrifices as a means of escaping, only to be caught on the edge of the formation and pummeled on its broadside. The tall structure is burnt away on one side, revealing the multitude of decks within the vessel. The assault discontinues as the mothership floats into the planet's atmosphere, accelerating as it approaches the surface.

"Sir, we're in low orbit," Frishman announces.

"Form a schiltrom and dispatch rescue teams. We can only hold the line for a short while, so let's make this quick," Alexander commands.

The formation turns itself inside-out, the cruisers and frigates nestling in the center with the bulk of support vessels while the Kortuls and Kols form a sphere of ships facing outward. From the gut of the formation, strikecraft launch in mass, all heading for the planet's surface. The Halcyons and Progenitors maintain their positions in proximity to the planet. The Revelations and Raptures discontinue their pursuit, still failing to throw off the horde of Assailants continuing to assault their flanks. They turn toward the Radiances near the phase lane to Kyrene III.

High Psintegrat, our forces are under assault, a voice is heard.

I can see that, she thinks while watching a projection of the battle. Have our Radiances cover the fleeing forces. We must maintain a presence until we can evacuate those on the planet.

All four of the Radiances hold their positions, watching as the Kanrak Assailants break off their pursuit, except for a single Radiance which takes it upon itself to approach the engagement.

Why are they attacking? the new High Psintegrat questions.

Unknown, an officer explains.

The High Psintegrat reaches out with her mind and asks, Why have you broken formation?

We remain loyal to the High Psintegrat, a mind responds. She would not allow the oppressors to take this ground from us.

The High Psintegrat desired to engage the unruly crew, but she would be forced to attack those who are already on their way to death and she had no intention of attempting to maintain the planet long enough to recover traitors. She maintained a defensive screen for the others while watching the single vessel fly toward its doom.

The Advent vessel approaches the forces directly. The Cyprus lines up a clean shot towards the tail of one lagging Revelation when the forward beam emitter gives off a flash of light and then does nothing.

"Sir, the Cyrus is suffering a power surge in the forward capacitors. The beam emitter is overloading," Frishman warns.

"Any response from Strauss?" Alexander asks.

Gross turns toward the captain, "Sir, we're getting evacuation orders from his ship. I can't make out the details..."

Onboard the Cyrus, Captain Strauss alerts the tactical officer, "Have all crew evacuate the forward sections."

"Yes, sir," the response comes. "We still have power feeding into the capacitors. Controls are offline."

A beeping comes from the armrest of the captain's chair and he presses on a button, "Ja?"

"Sir, this is forward engineering. If we can't stop the power feed, we could have a fire or worse," the voice cries.

"Ich weiß. Get out of that section," the captain responds.

"Yes, sir," the voice replies.

In the forward engineering section, the Free Trader engineer releases the communications panel and turns to view the flow of soldiers heading out while the room is lit red and beginning to choke with dark smoke. She hesitates before reaching out, grabbing the nearest marine she can.

"I need a weapon and a few more men. Can you do that?" she asks.

The marine looks around, "Yes, ma'am. Marines, form up."

Four marines gather around as he hands the engineer his rifle and turns to one other marine, taking a replacement rifle from the soldier and saying, "Get this area clear, marine."

The man salutes and heads off to conduct traffic. The four armed marines and one engineer head in the opposite direction of the evacuation, the heat of the air growing as they approach. Past a point, the heat and smoke begin to stifle their breathing and any soft material exposed to the hallway is catching fire. The engineer looks along the wall until she finds a large maintenance hatch. She tries to pry it loose, but the temperature of the metal causes her to immediately pull her hands back while releasing a hiss. She drops the rifle for a moment, removing her jacket and wrapping it around her hands. She tries again, this time succeeding in activating the release and allowing the metal cover to fall to the ground. Beneath it are bundles of high voltage lines, the insulation sagging as it melts from the radiant heat. She backs away, recovering the rifle from the ground and orders the marines while cocking the weapon, "Fire on those lines."

The marines hesitate until their commander yells, "You heard the lady, open fire."

The five of them open fire with fully automatic weapons, the rounds pushing into the hot metal wires by the dozens. Thin trails of smoke seep out as they tear up the materials, flames and sparks flickering about the mess. After nearly two hundred rounds are expended, a large explosion of sparks lights up the room, sending the team reeling to the ground.

The tactical officer watches as energy levels drop off on two of the beam arrays, the emergency protocols now ramping down the power feed on the other two, but still relatively high. He informs, "Captain, we're having a drop in power. I think someone initiated emergency protocols, but I have no idea how."

Strauss asks, "Geht es allen gut?"

"No report of casualties or wounded, sir. The area is still being cleared."

The sensors pick up an explosion, pulling everyone's attention toward the holoprojector. The Cyrus suffers an explosion aboard the vessel, blowing out a forward section and causing one of the beam emitters to detach and spin off into space. The Cyrus continues to engage the enemy with their lasers and autocannons. The admiral asks, "What's their damage?"

Frishman replies, "Uncertain. They're not venting atmosphere, but that was not a small explosion."

"I'm not getting details, sir," Gross inserts, "but the Cyrus is continuing to engage."

"I'll trust the captain can handle himself," Alexander says. "Paragon, where do we stand on that extraction?"

Carbon responds, "Dropships are descending under heavy cover. Still waiting for our boys to show themselves."

On the surface of the planet, a -Ue_ soldier stands at the mouth of a cave on the side of a short, worn mountain watching the distance with a pair of binoculars. He sights a group of footprints in the dirt some distance away, the remnants revealing a group of Advent heading toward their position. Panning a short distance he sights another group, this one less stealthy, approaching from a slightly rockier area. A boom sounds and the lenses turn toward the sky, sighting an elongated form, broken into several flaming parts, approaching the ground. He lowers the binoculars, the large object still quite clear, and calls into the cave. Alkali Braken approaches the mouth with his rifle hanging at his side and looks at the wreckage falling to the surface.

"Looks like someone else decided to show up," he says.

None too soon, two TEC bombers pass overhead, their engines screaming through the air as indiscernible objects fall in trails from their underbellies. The objects fall to the ground, exploding into flames and covering the areas over with thick smoke. Braken turns back toward the cave, "Rescue party is on its way. I need an IR beacon."

The party moves to the mouth of the cave, one holding out a spherical object while the others prepare their arms. Once handed to Braken, he twists the sphere, a small gap formed on one side to expose buttons. He presses a couple of them and then rolls the object out onto the precipice before the cave. He crouches with his men, readying his weapon and pointing towards one of the inclines which leads out of the area.

Above, a couple of Advent drones attempt to duel with the superior number of TEC fighters, leaving the bombers free of harassment as they spot Advent ground forces and swing into place to deliver their payloads. The largest of the Advent forces, near the rubble of the data archive, is decimated quickly, their tight formation leaving them open to such an opportunistic attack. The smaller forces sprawled about attempt to find cover, some more successful than others, but all subdued under the threat of the bombing runs. Transports survey the area from on high, each sweeping methodically for signs of survivors. Onboard one of the transports, Corporal Nelson leans over the shoulder of the warrant officer piloting the craft.

"If we can't make visual confirmation, we'll have to land the transport and survey it on foot," he tells the pilot.

The pilot shakes his head, "No, marine. It's looking a little too busy for an extended drop."

"Well, nice of you to be so concerned, but we're making a pick-up, one way or another."

The pilot sneers at the thought when Nelson says, "You have a spectral scanner onboard?"

"Yeah," he replies while motioning with his head, "the console over there."

Nelson reaches over to the console and has the computer sweep through the light spectrum, the screen changing colors as one range of wavelengths after another are displayed. An infrared image passes, a faint spec appearing in the corner, causing Nelson to switch back to it, "I think I found something. Recognize that?"

The pilot glances over, "Not sure. Could be a beacon or something." He flicks at a switch on the overhead panel and speaks into his headset, "This is S&R Five, I have a possible contact at latitude: 29.7630556; longitude: -95.3630556. Do you copy?"

"Roger that," Carbon responds. "Make your approach and deliver confirmation."

"You heard the man," Nelson smiles. "We're making the drop."

The pilot calls in two gunships, hovering slightly higher in orbit, to form up on either side and provide escort. The three vessels swing around, approaching the cave from one side. As they approach the surface, a sizeable bolt of energy passes the transport's wing, causing the pilot to slightly weave. One of the gunships makes a reply as the turret gunner points toward the origin of the blast and begins rattling off rounds, the hot rounds making a dusty mess of the area which either kills its target or blinds it. The gunships release suppressive fire on any moving target as the transport arrives over the precipice, rotating until its tail faces the cave's opening and the hatch opening up and making the connection to the ground. The two gunships lift off, making a large circular path around the transport's position.

Nelson is first off, followed by a dozen marines taking positions where they can use the vessel for partial cover. At the cave's opening sits the -Ue_ soldiers which relax their posture upon sight of the marines. Nelson approaches the first to step toward him. "Corporal Nelson, David's Lions Marine Corp," he says as he salutes with his left hand.

With a smile on his face, the other replies, "Alkali Braken, Unified Explorers Corporation. I am glad to see you."

Nelson smiles back, "Well, if you want to come up for some cookies and milk, you'll have to get your men on the vessel. I wouldn't be too slow about it either."

Braken looks back to one of his men, "Start getting people aboard. The rest of you give us cover."

Braken's men add to Nelson's, putting nearly twenty men on the firing line. The transport is nearly full when the first beam shot is fired, passing through nothing but air. The soldiers on that side of the transport begin firing off controlled bursts, seeing no target but hoping for the best effect possible. The transport fills up and Braken's man alerts them, "We don't have enough room."

Nelson waves him away before activating the transmitter strapped to his shoulder, "Commander, we have the survivors, but we're going to need another transport."

Another beam carves through the air, this time cutting through the arm of a Lion, causing him to fall over screaming. Most of the soldiers return fire while a medic makes a low dash to the wounded, first stabbing him with a sedative dose, then proceeding to staunch the flow of blood. Nelson yells into the transmitter, "We could really use some close-in support too."

"Roger that, paint targets at your discretion," Carbon replies before switching over to another frequency. "S&R Six, this is ground command. Proceed to the recovery site." He presses another series of buttons, "Gunship wings Bet and Gimel, proceed to the recovery site and wait for a targeting directive."

Nelson yells out, "Who has laser sights?"

No response comes back and Nelson continues, "Really? No one? Geez, you guys are not helping me today. Braken, you have anything I can use?"

Braken turns over, shifting to the ground, "All we have are IR beacons."

Nelson looks at the beacon, quiet and without a visible trace of light, sitting where it landed in the center of the precipice. "I think that'll do," he says. He shuffles over, recovering the beacon and returning to his former position. The soldiers now lie prone to avoid the enemy fire. Nelson waits until he sights a beam fire and tosses the beacon in that direction.

Braken looks back, realizing that the men are firing at more than one node of Advent troops and calls out, "I want beacons painting those targets. If you have them, throw them."

Two more beacons trade hands before being tossed away from the group. A transport appears in the distance, making its approach when two full wings of gunships pass it up and approach either side of the evacuation site. As they make their first pass, the buzz of their weaponry override all other sounds and wash long strips of land with ammunition. The Advent assault discontinues and the transport arrives, turning to receive the men. The wounded is moved first, followed by Braken rushing the last of his men aboard while Nelson and his provide covering fire. A couple more beams fire, this time cutting into the armored sides of the vessel. The gunships make another pass, this time from behind the cover of the mountain and again sweep the area with their weapons. Using the moment, Nelson pushes the last of his men from behind into the bowels of the vessel and orders the hatch up as he takes his last steps in. The vessel lifts off, the hatch closing as it picks up speed and ascends. The gunships form up , the transport now the spearhead of a delta formation.

"Command, we have extracted the men. We're on our way up," Nelson radios.

"Glad to hear it, marine," Carbon's voice replies. "Is Alkali Braken with you?"

"Yes, sir," he says before unclipping the device and tossing it to Braken.

"Braken here."

"Glad to see you're doing okay. I have someone here who wants to speak to you," Carbon says.

A moment passes before Alexander's voice is heard, "Good to see you're alive. Get yourself up here as soon as possible so we can get the hell out of this system."

"Yes, sir," Braken replies. "Thank you for the rescue."

"No thanks necessary, I'm just repaying an old debt," Alexander says before handing the station back over to Carbon and returning to his seat. The ship rocks slightly as he sits. "Lieutenant Commander, what's our condition?"

"Shields are low across the board, sir," Frishman says, "but the orbital vessels are keeping their distance and except for a single Radiance, most of the Advent are fleeing. It's down to their remaining fighter coverage."

"Then let's take out that Radiance and call back our strikecraft," Alexander orders.

"Yes, sir," comes the reply before one side of the schiltrom undoes itself to create a small wall before the approaching Radiance. The Advent vessel reaches weapon's range and is fired upon by a group of Kols. The nose of the defiant vessel lights up and releases a broad beam of energy which engulfs the Josiah, shards of metal flying free as the last remnants of its shielding fall away. The other vessels drift away from the continuous beam, the periphery of the blast shearing off shield energy from a couple other capital vessels. As the Josiah comes back into view, people aboard the bridge of the David pause in wait. The Kol sits still, scorch marks stretched across the plating from end to end. The tension is broken when the vessel continues to fire upon the Radiance, inciting a collective response to bombard the vessel relentlessly until it cracks and breaks up.

The last of the strikecraft and rescue teams make their approach as the contra terrene explosion engulfs the Advent vessel. The glittering debris spreads out, a thin layer of metallic rain plunking against the hulls of the task force.

Lieutenant Gross announces, "All vessels confirm strikecraft are aboard."

Alexander nods, "Then let's get away from this damned planet."

The forces arrange themselves again into a phalanx and head away from the planet. The Advent recall their strikecraft and the fleet departs unabated. Upon arriving on the other side, the David is hailed. The transmission is accepted and an image of the chief engineering of the Esau appears, "Sir, we have good news. The Esau is operational as well as the Osiris's engines."

"Good," Alexander says.

"And one more piece of good news," the engineer states, perking Alexander's attention. "We managed to get the damaged Kortul running, but like the Osiris, the crew will have to operate from within spacesuits and each jump will put strain on the system. I don't know how many jumps we'll get, but the interstellar jump might knock out the engines altogether."

Alexander nods, "That is perfectly acceptable. You did a good job." The admiral has the communication cut and sits back. Assuming the Advent hold up their end of not attempting an assault, the task force would only have to man the remaining vessels and make the short path to Portage.

(Distant Stars)

    At the Finley star it's been just over an hour since Zinc had arrived.  The probes Tim requested had all been launched and pointed at the Afradas system.  On the sensor logs it looked like dozens of very chatty ships made the jump.  On the other side, the probes were programmed to stop broadcasting and crash into the star.  As each probe lined up, they fired their drives one last time and sent back a pair of coded beeps to signify they were deactivating.  After all of the probes had been accounted for, the starbase commanders just sat and waited.

    "Incoming mass phase jumps detected sir." a sensor officer states.
    Within a minute Lithium and Platinum ships start arriving from phase space.  They see all of the activity of the trade and refinery frigates moving through the star and the passing of several capital ships who all stop what they're doing and take up positions near the starbases.
    "Ma'am, requested communication from a starbase identifying itself as the Angarsk." a comms officer reports.
    "Put it on the holovid." she says.  Almost instantly a female face appears.
    "I'm Major Jane Truex, commander of this facility." she says.
    "I'm Superior Halogen Platinum of the Unified Explorer's Corporation.  I hope you don't mind our intrusion." Platinum replies.
    "Not at all, however we are enforcing a strict civilian ships only policy inside the system.  You'll have to board shuttles if you wish to conduct business inside." Major Truex states.
    "No, that won't be necessary." Platinum states.  "We're in pursuit of a potential rogue fleet of ours, we are aware they made a jump to your system."
    "Yes.  A fleet who's commanding officer identified himself as Zinc was here, however after receiving the same greeting you got, he turned his ships and left the system without saying anything else.  Kind of rude to not even say good bye if you ask me."
    "I'm sure, but we'd like to verify that claim for ourselves."
    "You may use any method you wish as long as your ships stay here at the star.  We are very serious about maintaining the security of our system."
    Platinum's eyes narrow slightly. "Stand-by while I discuss things with my counterpart."
    Major Truex nods and Platinum cuts her off and connects to Lithium's command ship.  Lithium appears on her screen, "And they're saying?"
    "They're saying Zinc left shortly after arriving." Platinum replies.
    "I don't know.  They've displayed no love for our company in the past by attacking one of Xenon's groups.  Zinc is far too quick to act to negotiate a treaty of any kind..."
    "I'm also told they refuse to let warships into their system."
    "Yeah, I got that same message from a Major Daniel Delacerda on the starbase Orlov."
    "Should we test their resolve?" Platinum asks.
    "Ordinarily, I'd say yes, but Iron has given us specific orders to track and follow Zinc.  Screwing around here can land us in some trouble if we're told to detain Zinc and we can't because we're too far behind."
    "I agree.  Scan their system and I'll see if I can get any more info."
    "You do that." Lithium says as he cuts the link.
    Platinum reconnects to the Angarsk, "Major, we're very busy and can't linger around here, so if it's possible, we'd like to be granted a temporary pass for just one of our ships to sweep your system and we'll be on our way."
    "I'm very sorry Superior Halogen, the only exception would be in the form of a formal alliance, and I don't think either of our companies are in a position to be considering that.  However, I can offer you a copy of our sensor logs." Major Truex replies.
    "I would prefer to send one of our own through."
    "I cannot allow it unless I have specific orders from my bosses.  Before you ask to talk to them, they're unavailable at this time.  Corporate strategy meeting or something and will be unavailable for a couple more hours at least.  You're just going to have to take what I'm offering you or do without."
    "If that's all you're willing to give me, then I'll take it, but I'll be noting my protest your company's continued unwillingness to cooperate with us in my official report."
    "Duly noted.  We're sending it now.  We've analyzed their jump direction and phase charging time and we put them in Afradas."
    "Thank you, but we'll verify it on our own."
    "Naturally."
    Platinum cuts the connection and re-establishes a link with Lithium.
    She says, "I'm being sent their sensor logs.  They claim Zinc moved on to Afradas, I'll verify it in the logs, and you can head over now so we stop losing ground."
    "Our sensors aren't able to sweep the whole system, but it should be enough to see if they're here.  Don't stay out playing too late, if Zinc is waiting to ambush us, it'll actually be a fair fight until you show up." Lithium says and then cuts the link.

    Lithium's fleet moves to a different point in the gravity well and forms up.  Once all the ships were lined up they began their jump leaving Platinum behind.  Platinum's techs verify that the logs are unaltered and that even though the Star's gravity well is extremely busy, a fleet of ships did make the jump to Afradas.  Her techs then verify that the logs appear to be unaltered.  With no real excuse to hang around she orders her fleet to form up and make the jump to Afradas as well.

    Minutes after Platinum makes the jump from the system an EMP blast rocks the Volkhov knocking out it's sensors and putting a halt to the activity at the star.

    Captain Ellis of the Assailant jumps on the comms to the Kushva, "What's going on Colonel?"
    "I have no idea, the Volkhov's communications are down." Colonel Horner explains.
    Colonel Briggs joins the conversation, "Marshal Ellis, we'll lock down things here, go investigate what happened to my other starbase."
    "Aye Colonel.  Just trying to get a heads up before we jump." Captain Ellis states.  Now looking at a comms officer, "Fleet wide please."
    "Connected sir." comes the reply as the screens on the wall fill up with the other cap ship captains.
    "The Contender, Fulcrum, and Firebrand are staying here, the rest of you, on my six."
    The Assailant jumps immediately to Finley 4 to evaluate the Volkhov while over the next ninety seconds, the Affliction, Pioneer, Abettor, and Advocate jump in to assist.  The Assailant positions itself close to the Volkhov ready to fire on anything until the station's sensors can be brought back online.  The Affliction launches all of it's strike craft and drifts with the Pioneer long the debris trail leading to the planet.  The Abettor and Advocate both immediately start restoring the shields of the Volkhov incase another blast happens nearby.  Moments later, a bright flash of light occurs near the ocean moon.  Captain Ellis orders fleet wide comms again, only this time he's joined by Tim who was just notified of the situation.
    "Captain Stormer, take the Affliction and the Pioneer over to the moon and find out who the hell is doing this." Marshal Ellis states.
    Tim adds, "I'm sending the Crux over as well, the Foe Hammer is staying here with the UE fleet.  Who ever it is, we have them trapped, if they resist capture, don't hesitate to kill them.  No one leaves the system."

(DS RP)

A series of flashes occur around the Portage star, announcing the arrival of two fleets, one TEC and one Vasari. Upon arrival, one of the battered Vasari vessels, a Kortul, begins to drift, it's navigation lights going dim.

"What's the problem?" Alexander asks over a vocal communication link.

"Looks like the engines gave out as we got home. The system's going to need refitting before we can get it any further in system," the engineer replies.

Alexander nods, "Alright, get the Vasari up to speed and leave it to them. We got it this far. I think they can handle it in friendly space."

"Yes, sir," the response comes before the link is severed.

Alexander looks over to Lieutenant Gross, "I want Green Fleet to head directly to the Finley system. Everyone else can rendezvous at Portage III to assess their damages and make appropriate arrangements. The Vasari can pass on through as far as I'm concerned and I'll leave the fate of the Osiris and Phoenix up to the their boys."

"Yes, sir," Gross says.

The ships begin to break away from one another, each group crossing the star's gravity well to suit their own needs. Before making the jump out, Xenon enters the bridge of the David. "I was informed that one of your men detonated an explosive on board my vessel."

"Yes, he did," Alexander says in a matter of fact tone.

"Why was he allowed to do such a thing?" Xenon asks.

"As I understand it," Alexander explains, "the vessel had sensitive data on it and was expected to be abandoned. Surely, you wouldn't want the Advent to get a hold of the information."

"Perhaps not," Xenon retorts, "but I would not have been so quick to consider the vessel abandoned."

"It was a fair assessment at the time," Alexander says. "If it would make you feel any better, we saved the data for you."

"It is a small consolation, but yes. May I have it?"

"Lieutenant Commander," calls Alexander, "where is the data we retrieved?"

Frishman wastes no time at all recovering the data chip and crossing the bridge to deliver it into the hand of Xenon. Xenon looks at the small device and says, "Thank you. I trust it was safe in your hands."

"As safe as the White Impulse was," Alexander says.

Xenon nods and exits the bridge. Alexander looks over to Frishman, "It's good we keep backups of everything. Men, let's get this vessel into drydock."

The Red and Blue Fleets, with the two non-Lion vessels following behind, move towards the phase lane to Portage III. They make the jump in unison and soon arrive in orbit of the green world. Upon arrival, they watch as a long missed vessel, the DLS Isaac, gently drifts from the folds of the capital factory. A hail comes from the reborn vessel and a Lion's face appears on the holoprojector.

"Sir, we have the Isaac running again. She's not quite up to speed, but give her a little time and she'll be running like she did before," he says.

Alexander smiles, "Good. I'll have her manned and checked out. In the meantime, the Esau needs a complete overhaul on her engines and be prepared in case we take on other responsibilities. We have quite a bit of damage to deal with."

"Should we queue up another capital factory, sir?"

Alexander nods, "That might be useful. See to it."

The Lions settle in their den with their guests and passer-bys moving one way or another, if at all. The fleet now remains silent, the continuous work of its crews causing no notice or disturbance around the large orb.

----

Blue Fleet --

5 Kols

DLS David - Fleet Admiral Alexander Draakjacht

Tactical Officer - Lieutenant Commander Frishman

Communications Officer - Lieutenant Gross

Bridge Officer - Lieutenant Sokolow (F)

Senior Helmsman - Ensign Karlin

Senior Engineer - Lieutenant Batson

Marine - Corporal Nelson

DLS Elijah - Captain Robert Ermler

DLS Job - Captain Halevi

DLS Isaac - Senior Captain Borovsky

3 Dunovs

DLS Jacob - Captain Feldman

DLS Judah - Captain Oliver

DLS Solomon - Captain Perlman

2 Sovas

DLS Moses - Captain Cohen

DLS Noah - Captain Dershowitz

1 Akkan

DLS Rebecca - Senior Captain Walter Levin

Second Officer - Commander Maxwell

1 Marza

DLS Samson - Captain Adler

Red Fleet --

5 Kols

DLS Adam - Senior Captain Aronoff

DLS Abel - Captain Palatnik

DLS Daniel - Captain Ornstein

DLS Esau - Captain Mandel

DLS Jeremiah - Captain Leibowitz

3 Dunovs

DLS Jonah - Captain Kisling

DLS Joseph - Captain Jacobi

DLS Joshua - Captain Hyman

2 Sovas

DLS Esther - Captain Heine

DLS Sarah - Captain Greenberg

1 Akkan

DLS Eve - Captain Neuhaus

Second Officer - Commander Finkelstein

2 Marzas

DLS Isaiah - Captain Eliad

DLS Ishmael - Captain Berkowitz

Green Fleet --

3 Kols

DLS Aaron - Senior Captain Siegel

Second in Command - Commander Landauer

Tactical Officer - Lieutenant Commander Harari (F)

Communications Officer - Lieutenant Pollock (F)

DLS Cyrus - Captain Strauss

DLS Josiah - Captain Flohr

2 Dunovs

DLS Elisha - Captain Bar-Lev

DLS Bathsheba - Captain Liebermann

1 Akkan

DLS Hagar - Captain Richard Zuckermann

Other Vessels --

DLCC Envoy EMC 2704 Mk 1 - Junior Captain Shor

- KIA -

DLS Samuel (Kol - Battle of Portage III)

Captain Sandler (Battle of Portage III)

DLS Isaac (Kol - Battle of Portage III - Raised)

DLS Jericho (Marza - Second Battle of Eras VII)

DLS Abraham (Kol - Battle of Kyrene I)

(DS/RP) 

                                                      Rendezvous: Finley

                                               Part 2

The gravity well lights up with the brilliance of a star, though much shorter lived.  The shock wave spreads out rapidly as the light dies down.

+0:00:1

As the Trade port administrator looks on in horror as the shockwave approaches, he orders crew, staff, and visitors to emergency stations and brace for the impact of the energy wave, the computer automatically drops the shutters over the viewports at the command center as the Trade port is rocked by the wave, various conduits behind bulkheads explode from overloaded EMP's which the provide main power through out the station. Shrapnel scatters and impales in walls and flesh alike, people are lying about with various degrees of injuries, some will survive while others are bleeding out with major arteries pierced or just severed in two as large pieces of metal cleaves them in half. Unfortunate men and women, who were next to the large view ports which gave some of the most beautiful visages of the ocean moon are now the fastest way to death as the transparisteel shatters and shards hit the unprotected people, and to add insult to injury, are blown out into the void of space. Fires break out on all decks of the Trade port, deep in the interior of the station, fires cascade through the decks and catch anything combustible into a searing inferno.

Charred remains are scattered through the passage ways. Suddenly, a crew member appears engulfed in flames, screaming in agony as his final few seconds are spent trying to put out the flames in a futile attempt to save his life. Back aboard the command center, the administrator covered in black soot, his duty uniform is torn with visible injuries, multiple scratches from flying debris looks around to see the condition of his staff. Some are dead from power surges from their duty stations, or knocked unconscious with fractures in legs, arms or traumas to their heads. He staggers to his feet trying to access computer control and check the status of the station. He only gets a partial read out, the computer has loss control of the majority of the station, sensors read fires on all decks, loss of main sub-space comms, and the  computer is also reading the outside of the hull of the Trade port temperture has increased. He thinks to himself,  'the shockwave has past us so why is the temperature climbing outside.'

He manually activates the shutters which protect the viewports in command, as light pours into the darken smoked filled command center, he learns the horrifying  reason for the temperature increase. The Nuclear shockwave from the blast has pulled the Trade port down into an lower orbit and the friction with the atmosphere is causing the temperature increase, it's just a matter of time before the Trade port enters and crashes through the atmosphere and hits the oceanic planet below. He franticly begins to access emergency comm channels to the surrounding area, unfortunately the transceiver is out, so he begins a last ditch effort and programs a probe to broadcast on all frequencies that urgent help is needed before Trade port enters the and crashes into the oceanic moon. He launches the probe and hopes help will come before it is too late.

+0:00:25

Aboard Volkhov starbase, all hell breaks loose, Captain Johanson inside the command center turns to his TAC officer and screams out, "What Now?!""We're reading a Nuclear detonation around the oceanic moon sir." Johanson's eye's widen in shock and he yell's, "Confirm with what you just said."

The TAC officer's hands whirl across his panel and speaks, "Confirmed sir, there WAS a nuclear detonation." Johanson stares at his TAC officer, speechless. Everyone inside the command center stops what he or she is doing at hearing of the news. Only the sounds of various systems can be heard and the background chatter of strike ships launching.

Then Johanson begins to give out orders, "I need every available ship to that moon now." He pauses as beads of sweat begin to form and run down his weathered face, "Contact CIC and the old man. Code it, shit has hit the fan." He pauses again to reach for a glass of water at his command station and takes a rather large sip, he continues, "I need for all of you to remain focused at the task at hand, you are the best crew there is, please, don't make me a liar. Now please,  FIND OUT WHO DID THIS COWARDLY BULLSHIT TO US SO WE CAN SLICE OFF HIS NUTS, FEED THEM TO HIM, SHOVE A NUKE UP HIS ASS AND FIRE HIM INTO THE BAMNTUH BLACK HOLE!"
The command center roars to life as everyone now has a purpose and focused at what they must do.

On the TAC officers control panel an audible beep comes forth and the officer toggles various icons on screen and yells, "SIR, receiving emergency signal from a probe in orbit of the oceanic moon."Johanson yells, "Pipe it through, NOW!"

As the TAC officer runs through his panel to play the message through the overhead speakers, static booms through the speakers followed by faint male voice coming over, "To anyone who is receiving this message, the Trade port will fall into the moons atmosphere, I have no timetable on when it will happen, the computers have lost control over most of functions including station keeping thrusters that keep us in a geo-sync orbit. Many dead, some survivors, we need help ASAP. The blast came from a Vasari refinery vessel that closed within 5km of the station. Please send help before it is too late." The message repeats from the beginning.

Captain Johanson yells out, "What's the status of the ships inbound to the moon?" TAC officer comes back, "Less than 3 min, multiple frigates answering the call to aid sir.

 Admiral Hodgkins is sending in two Sovas and an Akkan to take down who ever is responsible."

 
The TAC officer calls the captain, "Sir, receiving a live feed from the probe!" Johanson yells, "Put it through, on main screen." He turns to look at the main screen, the image that appears on screen brings the whole command crew to silence. Some of the crew begin to cry in disbelief of what they see.

Johanson falls back into his seat as his face turns white, one of the crew screams out that their boyfriend was at the Trade port, and to add to to the overwhelming loss that is at hand, screams can be heard through the audio channel, the Trade port administrator was able to link the internal comm channel from the port to the probe. Deathly silence spread through out the command center, with the exception of standard background noises, some crew members crying, the pep talk that Captain Johanson made moments before had the life sucked out of it as the sounds of co-workers, friends and love ones screaming to their deaths as the image of the Trade port plunging through the atmosphere into the oceanic moon appear on the main view screen.



+0:01:01

On the starbase Kushva, a team of engineers report their analysis of several recent sensor anomalies to the station's commander, Colonel James Horner.

"Sir, we've concluded that there is a definate pattern to the erroneous readings we've been getting with the ships jumping into and out of the system." one engineer states.

Colonel Horner takes the report from the engineer and looks it over. "This is quite troubling if it's true.  That would mean we've been invaded on multiple occasions and didn't even know it, and considering our current situation, it's quite likely that we have been."

 
"Yes, sir." another engineer states. "However, we believe that with an upgrade to the detection software our sensors should be able to pick up and track the anomalies."

"Good, I want your team to get on those upgrades immediately, I want to know if these ghosts are real or not." Colonel Horner belted out.

The first engineer straightens up, "Sir, we've already completed the work, we just need your authorization to shut down the Kushva's sensors so we can install the upgraded software."

"Hmmm.  We're in lockdown and you want me to kill our sensors..." Colonel Horner says before walking over to a communication's terminal. "Control, I want you to notify the other stations that our sensors are going to be temporarily offline."

"Yes, sir." a comms officer acknowledges.

Colonel Horner continues, "Get on those upgrades now, the clock is ticking."

+0:01:25

On board the Gloval, Vulknor and his team have set up a mini receiver to bypass the damage done to the transceiver that happened earlier when the Gloval  and Or'Kut collided and have been keeping track of the events that has transpired since they boarded the trade ship, Vulknor, thoroughly satisfied with himself begins to laugh maniacally. He says to his troops, "The seeds we have planted today should bare some incredible yields in the future in the order of chaos, fear, distrust and death. Yes, when it is all said and done, everyone in the region will fear the Vanguards."

"Now, begin the upload of the communication viral worm into their database, the next time the ships computer sends it's packet information, the virus will upload itself and spread through out the communication network and eventually to all the factions in the Distant Stars realm. From the UE to the David's Lions, all of their secrets shall be ours, and most importantly, we can strike at our hearts content, but first we need to know more info on the artifact responsible for the Phase space shockwave, then we can move on to reestablish the glory of the Vasari Empire."

+0:01:50

The remaining orbital structures begin to take damage from the debris left in orbit by the former trade port.

 
+0:02:00

Henry, after receiving confirmation that the system has been invaded and the detonation of a bomb near a tradeport causing it to destabilize and crash it into the moon, orders all traffic to halt immediately until security can be re-established and an investigation into what just happened can immediately begin without interference.

+0:03:00

"Report!" Boomed Vulknor.

 Captain Ve'Lar, head of his special covert ops team, turns to his leader and speaks, "Mi-lord, we exited phase space and currently holding in the Finley's star gravity well, they just received orders to lock down the entire system.

"As expected, I thought it would have been sooner but no matter. What about the humans on this ship?" he asked."My technical specialist is giving them false information via their computer that all is normal despite our presence here mi-lord. However, if they decide to send someone to check is another story."

"Well then," he begins, "we should be ready to entertain company if they should come and visit us." He laughs.

 
+0:04:48

A few minutes later the sensor systems on the Kushva are reactivated.  For the time being, nothing appears on the screens.  Just as the engineers feed old sensor logs back into the system, the station's automatic alert kicks on.  Crews sprint to their battle stations not knowing what's going on.  Colonel Horner looks at the sensor panel and then at the video screens showing the area of space right outside their station.  The sensors are showing an unidentified scout ship, whereas the screen is showing nothing at all.

 Communications come in from the other three stations curious as to why the Kushva is in emergency alert condition.
"Are the sensors malfunctioning?" the Horner asks.

"No sir, the primary and backup systems both agree, there's something there sir, almost right next to where the trade ship Gloval is." a sensor technician reports.

"Tell the other stations to stand-by...  I'm firing one of my lasers at that pocket of space...  You engineers better pray there's something there or you'll be up all night replacing every sensor relay by hand." Horner barks out.

The Dark Scout remains motionless listening into the broken communications as best as they can.  The Kushva charges up one of it's laser banks and fires blindly into the pocket of space that the sensors are reporting a ship.  As the bright read beam instantly extends from the station, the view screens all show a blue bubble appear where the beam stops.

"We've been spotted, return home." the Dark Scout's captain orders.

"TARGET THAT SHIP!" Colonel Horner screams out as the station turns into a frenzy of activity.

"Feeding all sensor data to the other stations." a sensor officer reports.

"Scrambling all strike craft!" the hanger reports.

The Kushva opens fire with everything it has on the now fleeing ship.  Every time it's hit, the only sign of it's existence is the blue bubble of it's shield protecting it as it absorbs the damage.  Alarms go out on the other stations as their data is updated and they as well scramble all of their available strike craft.

The Gloval, unbeknownst is right next to a cloaked Varsari scout, begins to take stray weapons fire from Starbase Kushva. Captain Sayegh is screaming to his crew, "What the FUCK!!! What are they doing, is our comms back up?"

"No sir! We are taking heavy damage because our shields were down."

The captain turns to Jack and before he can say anything, the ship dives and rolls to avoid weapons fire from the starbase.
While below decks of the Gloval, Vulknor's team are rocked into the bulkheads and fall to the deck plates of the ship. Vulknor stands and screams out, "Why are they firing on their own ship? I want answers Now!!"



+0:04:58

"All stations fire!" Colonel Horner orders over the internal comms.  All of the weapons batteries from the Kushva and the Orlov open up on the new sensor ghost exposing the cloaked ship as well.

"By Vrongs shadow?!" Vulknor yells out.  "How did they know they were there."

"Unknown?" Said Ve'Lar, "But the He'sulk is pulling off and fleeing to edge of the star mi-lord."

+0:05:24

"Alright ladies, this one's a different one, we've gotta trust our sensors since we can't see this little prick." the bomber wing leader says over his radio.

"We'll see her when she pops." one of the other bomber pilots replies.

A third just yells in excitement, "YEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!"
"Shut it!" the wing leader commands. "We're closing in on the target fast, form up and launch your ordinance on my order...  ...  NOW!"
"Bomb's away!" one of the pilots says.
"Package sent." another responds as do several other confirming good shots.
"We're not going to make it." the Dark scout's pilot informs the captain.
"Yes we will...  Yes we will..." he just repeats to himself still being somewhat shocked that they were spotted somehow.    
The heavy torpedoes fly fast and true.  Guided by the Kushva's sensor readings, repeated strikes hit the shields and eventually the hull of the ship knocking out it's cloaking system.

"We've lost our shields and our cloak." a damage control officer reports as another blast rocks the crew almost out of their seats.
"There she is!  All craft, break formation and hit it hard!" the wing leader orders.

Dozens of other strike craft from the other stations join in on the flurry of weapons fire now surrounding the exposed scout.
"Open a channel to command." The Vasari captain orders.  "Somehow we were spotted...*static*......."

The communication breaks apart just as the ship begins to break up.  It vaporizes in a little fiery puff of light only a few hundred meters from the edge of the gravity well.

Vulknor watches the small monitor his tech specialist has set as the battle unfolds in the distance. "Those fools got careless and gave away our only advantage!  If they were not already dead, I'D KILL THEM MYSELF!!!" he screams out in pure fury and punches the wall and dents it as his troopers watch in awe of their leaders strength, as the strike craft and capital ships still in the well, begin to reform up next to the starbases, Vulknor, visibly upset by this turn of events begins to issue new orders, he turns to the specialist and asked, "How much damage did this ship take?"

"Moderate sir," the tech replied."And the engines?" The dark one asked."Phase and sub-light are functional mi-lord."

"Good, this is what you are going to do specialist." The dark lord smiles as he looks down at his subordinate.

+0:09:24

The engineering team aboard the Gloval has informed the bridge the they manage to get communications up and running again, dispite the friendly fire they took from the Kushva and the Orlov. Captain Sayegh is furious and contacts the Kushva as soon he learns that the comms is up running.

 "What in the hell was that, can't you retards see we were right there, I mean, what the fuck? Look at my ship, you assholes could have killed us."

Colonel Horner's face appears on screen and begins to speak, "First Captain Sayegh, I do apologize for the firing on your ship, it just so happened to be right next to a Vasari cloaked ship, and took some erroneous fire as we were trying to take it out, and second this is an open channel, turn down your language and volume, and..."

Before the colonel could finish his thought, Sayegh yells again in pure frustration, "FUCK!!!"

 
"Again Captain Sayegh, you were next to an unknown identified vessel which has breached our defenses, I'm not going to explain myself to you any further, if you have a problem with it, file a report."

 
Sayegh makes an incredulous face and says, "What vessel, we had nothing on our scanner?!"

The colonel speaks, "If you had been paying attention, the station you just left from has been destroyed."

Sayegh crashed into his command chair upon hearing the news, "Survivors?" he asked.

"None." Was Col Horner's response.

 
"We just left from there, I was joking with one of the attendants before we launched. We had plans, a date."

 
"I'm sorry for your loss, captain." said Col Horner.

But before the captain can begin, all the bridge lights go out and replaced by flashing red lights, klaxons begin to sound, and strobe emergency lights begin to flash, the captain turns around and says "now what?"

The Chief Engineer comes over the speaker, "SIR, We are losing containment in the engine room. The main computer was damaged from the attack is it's losing control of containment. I don't think I can fix it sir, not enough time, recommend we drop the cargo pod and send the ship out of the system so it can blow up harmlessly."

The captain wipes the tears from his eyes and says, "Very well," he presses the ship wide intercomm to speak,"to all crew, abandon ship, ships computers are damaged and containment is failing, the engines well blow the ship apart, so please make way to to the escape pods, Captain Sayegh out."

"Jack. Drop the cargo pod and set the ship on a course to jump to the closest uninhabited system."

"Yes captain." As Jack input commands into his console, the ship jerks as the cargo pod is released and the Gloval makes a slow turn toward the edge of the star's gravity well. "Course set Andre, we got less than 3 min before the ships jump, lets go by our qurters, get our belongings and get off this tub. And when we get over to the Kushva, we can toast are friends with a lot of drinks."

"My lord, they are evacuating the ship like you expected, they've set the nav computers to jump to the closest uninhabited system.""Override it and set the destination to Helon once the escape pods have ejected." Lord Vulknor commanded.  "This ship is now mine!"  

Jack and his friend, Captain Andre Sayegh, make their way off the bridge, to their quarters and eventually to the escape pods and jettison themselves for pick-up by the various frigates and capital ships now doing recover and rescue for the crew of the Gloval. The ship limps toward the edge of the grav well, and one last time, phase particles form and dance around the hull of the ship as it slips away from the Finely system faster than the speed of light.

To Be Continued.....Part III

The bridge crew of the -Ue Nabatieh was nearly asleep from the time spent monitoring alongside Yellow Fleet (hope you don't mind Draakjacht). They had been stationed on reserve in the Poass system while the main Red, Green and Blue trio campaigned elsewhere. The long hours after long hours of checking reports from the border of any emergency made Superior Halogen Radon sit up from his command chair again.
     "I'm going in the fencing program again. Halogen Smith, Ulaun, whoever, you have the con."
     "Yep." H. Ulaun said under his breath, while cycling through a handful of family photos.
     "Oh sir, Superior Halogen Radon sir, could you get me some more of those Izzidian nachos sir?"
     "The badge says no." the S.H. said smiling, pointing to his rank insignia.
Aluxi was almost at the pressure door when Smith's monitor flashed red and emitted a shepard tone warning. Smith at first looked at the monitor with confusion, but then realized the urgency of the situation when a number of objects highlighted by circles appeared on the viewscreen.
     "S.H., I'm reading 5416 megagrams of Vasari ships jumping straight for us! Velocity classification IS!"
Radon rushed down the corridor into the bridge.
     "Re-check your readings. The Vasari would never attempt an attack this deep, never."
Smith re-scanned the fleet but to no avail. The ships were definately Vasari. Radon moved away from the monitor, still in disbelief.
     "Activate shipwide red alert. Get everyone to battlestations. Transmit this information to the rest of Yelllow Fleet."
The warning klaxon sounded throughout the entire ship; the bridge crew shot up and attended their terminals, although strangely didn't ask what was happening. Radon sat in his command chair.

[Continued eventually. ]

(DS RP)

//stardate: 2.5 years from last jump point. Location Proveva System - Star of Proveva
Captains Log: Particularized
    Our scouting parties have returned!  Three parties were sent out, each with 3 navigators, and an Excursion force with a class 4 Marauder, 5 Skirmishers, 4 Sentinals, 2 Oversears, and 3 Subverter has also returned.  They have recorded all their expeditions and will be uploading their findings within the hour.  I'm pleased to say they have been able to avoid detection by the other major factions in this zone, due to our staggered jump timings, strict non-system communications policy and use of our subverters to detain and memory wipe any ships we may find.  Our selective phasing technology also provide great detection avoidance for our scouts. 

I am eager to see what our "Midnight Cricket" campaign has uncovered!


<<<<<<<<<<<<


"Midnight Cricket" Log: Part 1 of 6

>> Mercavica Nebula
    Completed map loaded.  Local name - N/A

    Occupied - Pirate base.
    Contacts - Pirates only ~~~ NO threat to Operation
    Points of interest  
        Military - 1 Pirate base
        Economic - 4 asteroids, 5 asteroid belts, 1 Dark planet
        Anomalies - A dark planet with unusual gravity anomalies.  Recommend science and artifact discovery mission.
    Scouting Details -
Pirates on patrol caught our Beta squad of scouts while they were traversing a Magnetic cloud.  The cloud interfered with our phase space clock.  They made it to the next system, which happened to be their pirate base.  They immediately phased out and waited for help. The Excursion force was nearby in an asteroid belt.  The Marauder "Gryllus" Jumped in and flew down and away from its jump point to pull the pirates away from the scouts escape path.  Beta squad made a run for the asteroid belt and jumped safely away.  The pirates continued to pursue the Gryllus, which used its speed enhancement abilities and jumped out the other side of the gravity well into another asteroid belt.  By this time, Alpha and Charlie squads had finished their mapping of the the system except for the only other phase lane exit of the asteroid belt.  The Gryllus jumped to this unknown well, and found it was a harmless nebula.  The Excursion force regrouped back on a white star near the main star, ran some repairs and system checks, and jumped out of the system.

    Recommendations -
        No Occupation necessary.  Only light science mission to planet.  Will need defense from pirate raiders if any long term missions are undertaken.

~~~~~~

"Midnight Cricket" Log: Part 2 of 6
>> Eulica System
    Completed map loaded. Local name - The Eulica Arrow

    Occupied - multiple independent residents
    Contacts - Pirate protection force, local system militia, ~~~ Minimal threat to Operation
    Points of interest  
        Military - 1 Pirate base, local militia
        Economic - 3 Huge planets, 8 standard planets, 3 gas planets, 3 asteroids
        Anomalies - A dark planet with unusual gravity anomalies.  Recommend science and artifact discovery mission.
    Scouting Details -
Alpha squad reported moderate comm chatter, and discovered that there is a pirate protection agreement between the locals and the pirate base located right off the main star. We were able to Drop down to a secondary blue star that was not used for any local ship traffic and sent the scouts out to map out the system.  No contacts were made, and our presence appears to have been undetected.  Many refinery ships travel out of the main star to unknown location...

    Recommendations -
        High Occupation recommended.  Very resource rich worlds with natural terrain to gain high tax rates from locals.  Defense in the system will be difficult however.  The main star has 4 phase lanes, and cannot all be covered effectively.  There is also a wormhole that traverses the system from top to bottom.  The multi-star refinery ships also go to some unknown location, and could pose a problem when they stop delivering goods to this unknown system.

~~~~~~

"Midnight Cricket" Log: Part 3 of 6
>> Vertra System
    Completed map loaded. Local name - The Pirate Factory

    Occupied - Massive pirate force
    Contacts - Pirate protection force, Pirate fleets, ~~~ Moderate threat to Operation
    Points of interest  
        Military - 1 Pirate base, 1 Pirate City world, 2 Pirate Industry moons
        Economic - 2 standard planets, 6 gas planets, 4 moons
        Anomalies - A wormhole exists off the back of the main star.  It connects to a back route around the main pirate base.
    Scouting Details -
We followed the refinery ships to this system.  It looks as though they are providing resources for the pirates of this quadrant.  We were detected once we entered the star, and according to the comm info, are the first ships to discover this system outside the pirates and locals protected under the pirates.  And they have the main star built up with 3 starbases - one from each of the main factions in this Distant Stars area, even an Orky!  We were pursued back to a wormhole in the system.  We passed through and waited at the edge of the well for them to follow, only the did not.  Not a single ship passed throgh this wormhole for 5 hours.  Commander Nin`Jie decided that the pirates have not yet developed wormhole travel, and ordered our 3 squads of scouts to explore off the sides of the system.  They discovered a toxic moon that was being used as a dump for the pirates, and Charlie squad equipped their ships with addons that made them appear like pirates.  There was little comm traffic behind the main defensive line in the system, so Charlie squad was able to scout the rest of the system very quickly.  Charlie squad also docked at the Pirate city world of Puedai.  The Captain told the guards that they were friends of our pirate system lord, and they let them into the city.  We have gained a trust here due to the fact that our befriending the pirate lord has increased his dues that are paid to this city.  We could leverage this to our advantage... see the recommendations.  The Expedition force was able to pass freely through the system, and docked at one of the industrial moons of the system.  The Gryllus was upgraded with some modified systems from the pirates, and it appears they have access to many more techs than we were aware of.  We stayed a week then departed with recommendations to go to the Urmal System.

    Recommendations -
        High Diplomacy/Occupation recommended.  These pirates are very organized, and have access to techs that we could use to further our advantage against the Darkness.  It is recommended to gain as much access to the pirates as possible.  The city and industry worlds would make excellent occupation worlds, but the main populations here will not join us outright, I fear.  These humans are very short sighted, and only look to the next big thing.  We would need a very large fleet to take on this system, so it is recommended to simply use the system as a means to gain technology and spread our mission against the darkness.

========================================

Parts 4-6 to be continued....

(DS RP)

Now the rest of the Cricket Campaign...


"Midnight Cricket" Log: Part 4 of 6

>> Urmal System
    Completed map loaded.  Local name - The Crossroads

    Occupied - Tec Occupation, Pirate base.
    Contacts - Tec, Pirates  ~~~ HIGH threat to Operation
    Points of interest  
        Military - 1 Huge Military Planet, 1 Huge Production planet, 1 Pirate base
        Economic - 4 Huge planets (1 Major Industrial with multiple connections), 3 standard planets, 1 moon, 1 gas giant, 1 asteroid belt, 2 ship scrapyards, 1 ship storage
        Anomalies - A dark planet with unusual gravity anomalies. Ship storage area may be ripe for technology recovery.  Recommend science and technology discovery mission.  
    Scouting Details -
We were warned from our last mission in the Vertra system that the Pirates had control over this system, but has recently lost it to TEC forces.  They request that we aid their besieged pirate base off the Gas Giant if we can scout a way to get to them.  What ensued was a very risky operation that Commander Nin`Jie has labeled "Phase Hopper."  After this operation we proceed on to the Astrysius System.


    Recommendations - Careful consideration is needed here.  The TEC factions in this sector get their LRMs and missile armament supplied from this system.  If they lose this system, it will most likely be a declaration of war with the TEC factions.  We do not want a war here, the threat is the Darkness, not the locals.  However, if we can negotiate a trade alliance, the benefits to our own technology could be very rewarding.  We could also aid the Pirates in the region, they are still not happy with loosing the system.  More intelligence in this area is needed first.
        
Addendum >>>>>>

"Phase Hopper" Log:
    Mission Objective: Shuttle aid to the besieged Pirate base in the TEC controlled system of Urmal.
Mission brief:
    Scouting of the Urmal system was quite difficult due to TEC occupation.  However, this system has only recently been occupied, and therefor has little defense past the first military world.  The Pirate Council requested we take supplies to the besieged Pirate base in Urmal.  With the lack of major, mobile defense and no substantial defense fleet, Commander Nin`Jie decided to proceed with delivery.  Alpha and Bravo squads both jumped in to the military planet and proceeded to jump into the systems core worlds.  The defense fleet chased them into the center worlds, leaving the fledgling starbase and few defensive structures in the military world.  The Marauder "Gryllus" Jumped in and activated its interstellar phase drives and quickly got to the edge of the well and jumped to the gas giant. No fleet was present at the Gas giant, the scouts had pulled them into the core worlds to assist.  The Gryllus jumped to the pirate base and begain ferrying supplies to it.  The remaining Expedition force was left at the sun and picked up new phase signatures coming in, so they moved back to the red star to remain undetected.  
By this time our scouts were back to the swamp moon behind the industrial world, and began their retreat back to the main star by way of the outer relic world and asteroid belt. Charlie squad scouted ahead of them, and discovered a ship storage area off the dark planet.  It many frigates and cruisers, and a few capital class ships.  These ships could be crewed and used to further the fleet, but we lacked the personnel to crew them.  So Alpha, Beta and Charlie squads convened on the gas giant and awaited the Gryllus to join them for our trip out.
However, an unexpected TEC fleet jumped to the Gas giant and our scouts jumped back to the pirate base for protection.  This left us with in a difficult position.  
The TEC forces had 30 LRMs, 10 Flak, and was lead by a Cleo command cruiser.  We only had 9 scouts, 5 Skirmishers, 4 Sentinals, 2 Oversears, and 3 Subverters.  Nin`Jie had our Excursion force jump back into the main sun and line up to jump to the military world.  The Gryllus would have enough antimatter to make one last phase warp speed surge after it made the phase jump to the gas giant.  So the scouts and Marauder jumped to the Gas giant, and bee-lined to the military world.  The TEC force began firing immediately, with no hailing or provocation.  While under fire, the defense force that was after the scouts jumped to the gas giant.  Now we were outgunned and outflanked.  But Commander Nin'Jie had a plan already worked out with the pirates.  As we jumped to the military planet, the Expedition force also jumped to the military world.  Commander Nin'Jie gave the order while in phase space back to the pirates to begin an attack on the TEC forces that would be following us to the military planet.  When the combined Expedition force regrouped at the edge of the gravity well, the TEC force phase jumped in.  Our 3 Oversirs were in position behind their jump in point, and immediately disabled the entire fleet.  Jin'Jie noticed that the TEC fleets moved very tightly together to provide strong fighter protection, but could be easily exploited.  The Pirates warped in right when the Oversears phase space lock wore off.  The TEC force retreated to the safety of the planets defenses, and we proceeded to the main Star and jumped away.  A thank you was sent before we jumped from the now retreating pirates.  Hopefully our aid will prolong their survival for a few more months.
    Mission Outcome: SUCCESS
    Losses: NONE
    Mission Notes: The Sivtherim emblem will most likely have been recorded.  We must assume the TEC now know of our existence.  Hopefully the do not have access to any ancient texts, or they may realize that we are a royal clan.  They may target us as a high priority target.  We must remain as invisible as possible.

~~~~~~

"Midnight Cricket" Log: Part 5 of 6

>> Astrysius System
    Completed map loaded.  Local name - Oasis

    Occupied - Advent outcasts.
    Contacts - Advent locals  ~~~ NO threat to Operation.
    Points of interest  
        Military - 1 Production moon, 1 unknown space structure.
        Economic - 2 Huge planets, 2 standard planets, 1 industrial moon, 2 asteroids, 5 Huge asteroid belt rings around one huge planet
        Anomalies - An unknown structure that is classified by the Advent.  Unknown in origin or design.  
    Scouting Details -
Due to our hasty retreat from Urmal, the entire Expedition fleet jumped at once to this star.  All stars have been lightly defended, if at all, up to this point.  However, the Astrysius system star was very much fortified.  4 star bases ringed the perimeter of the sun, and small birdlike cruisers lined the edge of phase space all around the system.  Immediately after jumping in our fleet was repulsed towards the closest starbase.  We were hailed and asked what we were doing here.  The transcript was recorded...
^^^
Advent Base - Do not attempt to move or fire.  Your ships will be disabled and destroyed if any hostility is engaged.  State your business here.
Nin'Jie - We are an expedition force on a scouting mission for the Vassari Prince Si'V.  We are not hostile.
A.B. - We are not aware that the Vassari had any royalty left.  If this is a trick it will not work, we can read your very thoughts.
Nin'Jie - That is our mission!  We come seeking allies in battling the darkness that claimed our home galaxy.  We can show you, we were there!
At this point our fleet was surrounded by the Gardian ships, but they stopped pushing us any closer to the looming, circular starbase.
A.B. - Maintain your position and standby.
Nin'Jie - Very well.  I suppose we don't have a choice.
A.B. - That is correct.
A few minutes pass before we are contacted again.
A.B. - Our chancellor has agreed to see the captain of your ship.  Send one of those scouts with our escorts to meet him on our homeworld.  He will then determine the validity of your quest.
Nin'Jie - Thank you.
^^^ end recording
Commander Nin'Jie boarded one of Charlie squads ships and headed into the system.  We were told not to try to scan any systems while we traveled, but Commander Nin'Jie has mastered the technique of Qui'Escence, which can negate any mind reading or interrogation technique.  He had his Special forces command the scout ship, whom all had mastered Qui'Escence as well.  The map was subspace transmitted back to the Gryllus.
Once Commander Nin'Jie reached the home world, we were escorted into a conference room and met with the Chancellor.  It was strange, the Advent are rumored to be a mostly female race, but the vast majority of people we saw were males.   

personal log:
The Chancelor greeted us, "Good Morning, Sir. I am Chancellor Patine.  My apologies for the harsh treatment upon entering Asrysius space.  It is necessary to maintain a high level of security here.  I hope you understand"
"Yes, of course.  Why the high level of security?" Nin'Jie inquired.
"we here at Astrysius are the outcasts of the Advent society." Chancellor Patine answered. "When the advent first began their campaign to exact revenge on the TEC, we voiced strong doubts about the motives for revenge.  We were reprimanded and put into lower level manufacturing and testing jobs, with all access to the Unity cut off.  I and my colligues decided enough was enough and we parted ways with the Advent Unity.  But enough about us, what is this darkness you spoke of?  And please be honest, I can tell a lie before you even speak it."
"Of Course, Sir." Nin'Jie began. "The darkness is a species of creature that hunts our kind down.  I brought a holotape with some footage..."
The room darkened as the video played.
"This was one of our testing facilities.  Notice what phased into the gravity well right here." Nin'Jie pointed to a small swarm at the edge of phase space.
"It looks like a swarm of small ships." Patine observed.
"No, that is the Intemperatitus." Nin'Jie corrected. "This creature consumes and bonds with any creature it finds. It is enhanced with a biological nanite and can function as its own space faring species.  It is quite basic in its understanding, but multiplies quickly and strikes even quicker.  Our vessel, seen here was the only one able to make it out of the system.  We captured one Intemperatitus and keep it on the Homeship for study."
"This, Intemperatitus is the darkness then?"  Patine asked.
Nin'Jie nodded, "Yes. It follows us wherever we go.  Our Vassari bretheren have been trying to stay ahead of it, but they do not know what it is.  We do, and  we have a plan on stopping it."
Chancellor Patine frowned, "So why then have you come here?"
"We need allies and supplies to fight them." Nin'Jie continued, "We have a plan on stopping them, but we are too small of a force to do anything about the darkness."
Chancellor Patine thouht for a moment. "Well, from what I have seen, you make a compelling point.  I will convene with the Counsel and get back with you in a few hours.  You are free to stay across the hall in the tea galley.  Help yourselves to some refreshment."
Commander Nin'Jie bowed, "Thank you sir."

While waiting in the galley, Nin'Jie noticed a computer terminal on the far wall.  He decided to plant a "silverfish" nanite bug.  This bug could infiltrate computer networks undetected and siphon off intel for our use.  The only downside was that it had a very limited transmitter.  We would only get information transmitted to our scout ship docked nearby.  But it paid off.  We were able to get a completed mapping of the system and the capabilities of the Advent here.  It also found a classified jump location.  No information was able to be gained from it, but perhaps in time we can discover what it is.

When the Chancellor returned, he had 5 other people with him.
"I hope you enjoyed our blue tea." Chancellor Patine smiled. "The council has unanimously agreed that we should aid you in any way possible.  Our Seers have sensed this darkness growing closer, but had no idea what it was.  That is the reason you were detained upon entry.  Now that we know what it is, we can help fight it."
Commander Nin'Jie beamed, "Thank you all, we welcome any help we can get."
One of the council members asked, "will it be possible to get a close observation of this Intemperatitus creature?  We would like to tap into its memory and see what its mental capabilities are."
"Of course," Nin'Jie reassured, "in time we would be happy to show you.  Maybe you can discover a weakness that we have yet to find."
Chancellor Patine clasped his hands together, "Very good, we must finalize this alliance as soon as possible.  When can we meet with your leader?"
"Prince Si'V would be honored to meet with you as soon as we return from our scouting mission." Nin'Jie stated. "However, we have been ordered not to send any transmissions across star systems, in order to maintain hidden to the war that is going on out there.  You understand, yes?"
Patine nodded, "Of course, the less attention we get here the better.  We look forward to meeting the prince.  Until then, we will prepare to help you in any way we can."
Commander Nin'Jie bowed, "Thank you."
end log
We departed the home planet and headed back to the star.  We continued our scouting mission and jumped to the Tarkunus system.


    Recommendations - Prince Si'V will need to meet with the Chancellor of Astrysius to negotiate an official alliance.  Very high potential for technology and reinfocements here.  The Advent here are not part of the war, and appear to be on board with the helping us defeat the darkness.  We may also want to aid them in resource gathering.  There is a large planet with multiple rings of resource rich asteroids that the Advent have no way of exploiting. If we are allowed to colonize the large planet, we could set up a very lucrative refinery hub.

~~~~~~

"Midnight Cricket" Log: Part 6 of 6

>> Tarkunus Gate System
    Completed map loaded.  Local name - Vassari Gate

    Occupied - Vassari Monta Clan
    Contacts - Vassari Monta Clan  ~~~ NO threat to Operation.
    Points of interest  
        Military - Main wormhole back to Vassari controled space, 1 Military Planet
        Economic - 1 Huge volcanic, 1 Gas Giant, 1 standard planets, 2 moons
        Anomalies - Very dangerous pulsar star. Avoid if possible.  
    Scouting Details -
The Monta Clan controls this space for the Vassari.  Once we identified ourselves, we were escorted to a small system out of the main nebula.  The Monta clan had a mining operation here, as well as a large ship manufacturing operation.  We met with the clan leaders, explained our situation with the darkness, and updated our star maps with their help.  The clan leaders were interested in our plan for defeating the darkness, but would like to meet with Prince Si'V first.  We agreed and departed to come back home.

    Recommendations - Prince Si'V will need to meet with the Monta Clan leaders to discuss further cooperation.  This link to the Vassari main space will aid us greatly with creating a large enough fleet to conquer the Darkness.

OCC: Some interesting developments for you Tec folks out there.  Make sure to read the "Phase Hopper" Log.

For the Advent of Distant Stars, it had been a strange few weeks since the death of the High Psintegrat. The usual covert power struggles had played out, but ultimately the Flames of Vengeance simply had a new High Psintegrat. Their allies and enemies stayed the same, but mainly because the enemies didn't know of the presence of the new High Psintegrat. However, the High Psintegrat was rapidly making moves to make herself popular with the people, which was where the formal message to Knight-Reaver Thenos Garr came in.

In his quarters, Thenos surveyed the contents of this message. It worried him. After all, he had no idea who this new High Psintegrat was. Most of the members of the Seer Council, who the High Psintegrats were drawn from, were the same as the old leader, but without the guts to seize power. Thenos shook his head. The method of succession in the higher ranks of the Flames of Vengeance seemed convoluted, but it simply boiled down to coming from the right background and being smart enough to not get assassinated. Thenos knew all too well those dangers...

(Three Weeks Ago)

You tried to kill me, Thenos stated, rather bluntly. He and Karla were in a medical room, where her father was attached to numerous medical devices. The smell of disinfectant that pervaded all medical establishments was particularly strong in this room; perfect for an interrogation.

What are you talking about? Karla replied, looking affronted. A nice act, but Thenos wouldn't be fooled by her faked attachment again, I lo-

Ditch the act. We found a syringe full of a deadly poison in my room, with your fingerprints all over it. I know that you're Unity's Hand. I know you just came here to kill me.

I- Karla began, but a twitch of one of her hands prompted Thenos to level his plasma pistol with her forehead.

Unity's Hand never work on their own. Who else is with you? Thenos asked.

Why would I try to kill you? Karla answered with a question.

I should have seen it coming. You arriving, me being your perfect man... Bullshit, the lot of it. I know that I'm a sort of psychic pariah, I know that being a strong male sets me apart. I was desperate, because deep down I knew I was alone. I won't be fooled again.

But I-

No buts! Thenos psychically shouted, and unleashed a vicious psychic attack on Karla's mind, who else here is trying to kill me!?

A sudden burst of pain shot through the small of Thenos' back, as he was thrown to the floor by a sudden crack from the direction of the hospital bed. A second resounded, and Thenos saw Karla fall, a bullet wound just below her neck. He sensed the presence of the Duke, no longer comatose, no longer a stupid aristocrat. His mind emanated cold purpose, his mind like one of the bullets that was now embedded in his daughter. Only one mind he had sensed before had been quite like that. A flicker of memory, that burnt-out skull of the Intelligence Officer, came to Thenos. Was this man with -UE_ Intelligence? Was he an agent replacing the duke or had the duke been hired? This train didn't continue much further, as the duke had removed the various tubes which were meant to be keeping him alive in his faked coma, and was now walking towards Thenos. What he didn't expect was for Thenos to kick his legs out with a telekinetic blow. As the noble hit the deck, Thenos was already getting to his feet. The close-range, high calibre impact had hurt, but the crystal-plate armour that Thenos was wearing underneath his captain's uniform prevented the blow from being too serious. Thenos, as he rose, grabbed his plasma pistol from the floor, and fired once at the Duke's head, which was no longer there. The Duke had risen just as fast, and with a lightning blow, knocked the pistol from Thenos' hand. If Thenos had kept up his Ship-Killer training, he would have had an adequate counter-measure for that, but taking the relatively far less strenuous path of a naval officer, Thenos had lost many of his old skills. However, he was still able to parry the driving punch of the attacking noble, bringing a telekinetically-assisted fist up into the man's face, rewarded with the unpleasant feeling of jawbone cracking with the force of the blow. However, the man took advantage of this to slip past Thenos, scoop the plasma pistol from the floor, and aim it at Thenos' head. The man continued this smooth motion all the way to his trigger finger, and-

Thenos' mind felt as if it were exploding, when the blinding hot pain of a combined psychic/telekinesis mine was used by the soldiers on guard outside to bust the door open. It turned out that the Duke, by remote control, had magnetically sealed the door with a TEC device. The duke attempted to fight the soldiers, but with his brain full of static, he only succeeded in pulling off one missed shot before he was taken down with precise marksmanship from one of the soldiers.

Karla had already been dead by that point, and Thenos had stepped over the body on his way out appearing emotionless. Of course, Thenos was filled with conflicting emotions. Was the love real? Could they have worked it out if her father hadn't intervened, in a sick twist on many love stories? Or was she just the assassin she had been accused of being...

(Present)

Thenos made a decision. There was going to be an official ceremony on Rebirth, where the High Psintegrat would arrive in order to forge the first bond between the Collective and the Unity with Thenos. Then, the bonds all of Thenos' people had had before they left the Unity would reform very quickly. Of course, there would be some complications, one of which was the RFT. Thenos started creating his own message, warning Roesh that, depending on how liberal this High Psintegrat was, trade between the Daros and Finley systems may have to cease in the near future, though Thenos would negotiate for continued co-prosperity between the Advent and the RFT.

Having finished the message and saved it, he encrypted it, and sent it to the Temple of Communion to be transmitted to Roesh.

(DS RP)

Captain Siegel faces a holoimage of Admiral Draakjacht, "Sir, we're positioning our fleet elements in their previous arrangement for servicing. The Free Traders have experienced quite a deal while we were gone."

"Anything important?"

Siegel nods, "There's been an incident. Someone set off a nuclear device aboard one of the trade ports here."

Alexander quirks an eyebrow, "Casualties?"

"The station was a total loss," the answer comes. "Other structures have sustained damage, but they've quarantined the area against incoming ships."

"That's a lot of losses. Make sure Roesh knows I send him my condolences. Any idea who did it?" Alexander asks.

"Not exactly. The vessels involved were Vasari and we've attained a fair bit of data about how they pulled it off. Beyond that, we don't have specifics."

Alexander sneers, "The Vasari are becoming a liability. We might have to further separate ourselves from them for our own safety."

"Further, sir? I thought we were in general agreement to discontinue our relationship with the J'kar Clan?"

Alexander nods, "Yes, but we might have to discontinue relations with TEC elements we know to be communicating with the Vasari. This is twice we've seen them involved in human casualties outside of outright combat. We can't count on any degree of separation buffering us against these acts, outside of total alienation from them."

"That would greatly disrupt our dealings here," Siegel says. "Are you sure it would be prudent?"

"If I sense a threat, I will not hesitate to protect my men, even at the cost of every relationship we have in this sector."

"Understood, sir. We were also given word of an alien artifact. No details, but it's leaking radiation. We didn't pick up anything we could understand as being specific to it, but the Free Traders were very open about it," Siegel reports.

Alexander rubs his fingers through his beard, "I'll keep that in mind. If you can, try to get details on the Vasari and artifact both. No need to pull teeth, but a gentle push in the right direction might loosen some lips."

Siegel smiles, "Yes, sir. They should be forthcoming about the Vasari, but I'll keep an open dialogue concerning the artifact. There is one more thing. The -Ue_ have moved fleets through this system."

Alexander turns his head a little to the side and gives Siegel a longways look, "Why would they be moving fleets through the area?"

"As I understand it, one fleet is resting well within the system and two others have passed through with potential to return," Siegel says with a chipper tone rising as the sentence comes out.

Alexander slowly nods, "I understand. Are there any suggestions concerning your place if they should return?"

"They haven't requested us to be ready for combat, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were called for a defensive engagement."

"It's starting to feel like Eras all over again," Alexander quips. "Hold your position and maintain alertness. If an engagement starts, act at your own discretion, but my general experience is that being outnumbered is good cause for a withdrawal. Just try not to take anything on board."

Siegel nods, "Yes, sir. Should I be expecting you anytime soon?"

Alexander looks away from the holoprojector for a moment before answering, "Things are still pending here. We're mobile, so our status may change any moment. I'll let you know for sure before we leave."

"Understood. Siegel out." The image disappears.

(Personal / DS)

(Before the explosion)

    Tim stands in the front of a room with several holoprojectors and a large table with an image of a star system in Trader Space projected above it and grand stand seating full of people from the UE fleet observing.  Zinc is up by the table with a few of his top commanders and they're looking at the info displayed before them.
    Tim starts, "This is Hupthas System in Trader Space.  One of the first to be invaded by the Vasari, one of the most active in fleet production due to the close proximity of major shipping systems that were frequently raided by pirates.  Intel suggested that this system was hit early on to cripple the ability of the Traders to respond with any kind of force before the Vasari had a chance to dig in.  They hit Baljib first as a distraction to get the fleet to mobilize a small task force.  Once that task force arrived, more Vasari jumped in and wiped them out.  This of course prompted the full fleet to move and engage the enemy and ultimately led to their defeat.  Anyone care to explain why?"
    An officer yells from the audience, "They left their assets in the rest of the system vulnerable to attack."
    "Exactly." Tim continues.  "Further intel shows that after the full fleet marshaled up and countered the invading force, a much larger one jumped in from behind and cut them off from their support.  The planetary defenses were easily overcome and the shipyards were destroyed.  The main fleet returned to their main planets being bombarded by ships greater in numbers and power.  What should they have done?"
    Another officer yells from the crowd, "They should have left fleet elements behind to support the stationary defenses."
    "And you still lose." Tim states.
    Zinc interrupts, "They should have done exactly what they did at the beginning.  When the second task force jumped in they should have scouted for the source of the ships and responded there, essentially doing to them what they were doing to us."
    "And you still lose." Tim states with a smirk.  Zinc looks at him with mild amusement.  Tim continues, "It's good practice to know your enemy and the smart move is to find out where they're coming from, but any attack at this stage of preTEC development results in a loss for our side."
    One of the commanders speaks up, "So if it's a no win, why are we looking at this?"
    Tim looks out across the room, "When you win, you get to improve upon what works, when you lose, if you survive, you get to come up with an alternative plan.  Mind you we have no capital ships and cruisers...  At this point in development, all large scale production is limited to civilian fleets for commercial purposes.  My alternative is simple.  Pay off the pirates and overwhelm the enemy."
    "No one would go for that." a ship captain in the audience states.
    "Absolutely correct, which is why it didn't happen, which is why we lost." Tim states.  "Facing an unknown enemy, we should have turned to a well known enemy and make them work in our favor.  Give them every ship in the sector full of goods and tell them to fight this new threat.  If they do or if they don't doesn't really matter, they'll be busy for weeks going through their plundered goods and we pull valuable ships from surrounding systems to help prevent the attack and prove we're much more capable of responding to a threat then they think."
    Zinc adds, "This then gives us the time we need to find them and get some intel while they regroup and come up with a plan B like we are right now."
    "It also puts the shipyards on high alert and we start pumping out more frigates to bolster our ranks." another commander states.
    "Precisely. Watch the holovid for the scenario without the interference of pirates." Tim says. "We still have the initial invasion at Baljib, we still have the task force being sent and ultimately being destroyed by the second enemy group.  Now we have the Trader fleet giving up Baljib, as well as Wallas and Balmoa.  None of these planets have capacity to match the production of Bandle, Konsh, or Alibard combined.  We could even stand to lose one of the main planets and still outpace the enemy in production.  The enemy divides into four groups, three main groups assaulting the main planets and the fouth a loose grouping of ships holding their new assets.  We outpace their production three to one and we match their reinforcements with our own from surrounding systems.  Eventually we win since we can build up much faster."
    "And what if the pirates interfere?" Zinc asks.
    "Two scenarios play out." Tim answers.  "The first, they interfere and continue to raid the shipping lanes which slows our outside reinforcements.  We still outmatch them with ship production but the battle rages on for a week, maybe more and the Vasari are given plenty of time to adapt their strategy as are we.  Marzas and Dunovs are still likely re-purposed on an emergency basis and we enter the fray with capital ships much sooner since we know we can fight and win rather then just losing system after system after system before we figure out we can make a stand.  The second scenario is the pirates actually hold up their end of the bargain and we learn what we know about them much sooner, that we can use them as mercenaries, as well as getting valuable intel on the Vasari since it's not like a pirate to not try and risk it all to capture a ship and sell it to us for an absurd amount of credits.  We learn where the Vasari are coming from, we get a good idea about their fleet strength, and we shift into military production of a better design of capital ships and cruisers much sooner since we'd have a much better idea of how to counter them from the information mined from their captured ships.  The Marza and the Dunov never get re-purposed to fight in the war, and the large civilian fleet stays completely intact providing us with huge amounts of resources allowing us to build up and respond faster allowing us to skip over systems that we otherwise have to take to keep our supply lines healthy."
    Murmurs can be heard in the crowd when an officer shouts, "What about the Advent?"
    "Yeah, they're a pain in the ass aren't they?  They take advantage of the weaknesses in our defenses courtesy of the Vasari and make a play for systems too weak to defend themselves without fleet support.  They are the wild card in all of this.  If we don't lose as bad as we did early on, do they even bother attacking?  Do they come to us with missionaries instead of warships believing that we can defend ourselves adequately enough, or do they just attack all out anyway hoping we can't fight a two front war.  Eventually they find out the we can, but not until after we've lost a massive portion of the region to both them and the Vasari.  I will say that one benefit of us losing as badly as we did forced the Vasari and Advent to clash and turned this into a two front war for everyone, not just us."

    Before Tim can continue the alert lights are triggered in the room.  Captain Powley and Colonel Plumer join Captain Steinbock at a communications terminal to find out why.  They're informed about the EMP detonation near the Volkhov, so they call Tim and Zinc over to inform them of what's just happened.
    "So I guess that means class dismissed?" Zinc asks.
    "Probably." Colonel Plumer states.
    "We're headed back up to our ships." Captain Powley says as he follows Captain Steinbock out the door.
    Zinc returns to the table to address his top commanders who all share the same concerns about returning to their ships.  Zinc approaches the middle of the room in front of the grand stand, "Saddle up kids.  We may need to move."
    The room begins to empty out as the alert tones begin to sound sending the group into a faster pace to get back to the shuttleport to take them back to their ships.  On the way Tim is informed of the nuclear detonation and pulls Zinc aside.
    "This wouldn't happen to be your friends looking for you would it?" he asks after relaying the new information.
    "Don't know, but I doubt it." Zinc says.  "They're more inclined to destroy all of your starbases and ships  and leave the civilian stuff intact until someone from the UE has had a chance to show up and claim them for ourselves.  Easier then rebuilding."
    "You probably should stay put until we know who did what and can plan accordingly." Tim says.
    "Don't need another Beljib, right?" Zinc asks jokingly.
    "See, the class works, you learned a valuable lesson." Tim says with a smirk causing them both to laugh.

    As each shuttle fills with personnel, they're launched into orbit and docked with the appropriate ships to transfer the crews over.  Zinc's fleet holds it's position in a defensive formation until it's decided that they need to leave.  Tim stays down below to coordinate the activities of his fleet and the civilian corps as well as putting in a rush order and prioritizing which ships need to be completed first.



    "What?!?" Casey yells out after hearing Henry tell Seigel what was going on.
    "Look for yourself." Henry replies bringing up external station cameras from the trade port replaying the grim sceen over again until they fail to transmit data as they burn in the atmosphere.
    "Holy shit...  Do we know who did this?" Todd asks.
    "It was a J'Kar refinery ship, but the reports indicate they were severely late arriving for their scheduled pickup."
    "So J'rah just waltzes in here and makes nice then sends us a present for us trusting him...  
Very nice."  Casey states.
    "It could be exactly that, or it could be more then that.  Check this out Todd." Henry says pointing to the screen.

    A video plays of the recovery of several pieces of debris, one of which shows the image of a diamond on a stand and the rest of the symbol cannot be figured out.  Several people can be heard talking about it in the background before Henry cuts the video off.

    "This is the result of a ship we destroyed that was hiding from us using phase space and sensor jamming technology that a couple of bright minds aboard the Kushva discovered and overcame.  I've sent orders to Colonel Horner to assign them a team of researchers to refine our sensor technology fleet wide so that this doesn't happen again.  You should probably pay them a visit in the very near future Todd." he says.
    "Will do, chief." Todd replies.
    "Casey, I've got two choices for you.  This bombing is no doubt going to have some serious consequences around the system so I'm telling you now to avoid coming back to Finley 1 once you leave today or landing on Finley 2.  The original inhabitants here aren't playing very nice with outsiders right now and I expect it's only going to get worse as time passes.  Normally I'd say avoid Finley 3 as well, but it's being built up at such a rapid pace now that there's easily ten times more space then people there now and growing.  That being said, here's your choices.  Stay with Tim at Fleet Command or board one of the warships or starbases and work from there for now.  The other option is a little more cloak and dagger.  Roesh hasn't checked in and we lost contact with his shuttle near the star.  He was in the immediate area of the bombing so he may have left to follow who ever was responsible, he may have been taken, or some third option that we don't know yet.  You could 'disappear' as well and track him down for us..." Henry states rambling on.
    Casey sits back in her chair thinking while Todd stands up and walks over to the monitor. "I've seen this before...  I know I have.  I'll have to get back to Trader Space and talk to one of my old colleagues to be sure."
    "The symbol?" Henry asks.
    "Yeah.  Old research documentation about the early clans." he replies.
    "You can't just call him up over the comm network?" Henry asks.
    "Nope.  He's the reclusive type.  Got pissed at the TEC during the Envoy project since he wanted to wipe the invaders all out and packed up all of his research and notes and took off.  Went home, cut all ties and went underground." Todd says.
    "So you want to hunt for him?" Henry asks.
    "Don't have to.  I know exactly where he is...  More or less.  I just have to check a few places." Todd states
    "All right...  The colony ships are just sitting around, you could take one of them unless Tim is willing to release one of the other ships that are in production right now." Henry notes.
    "Great...  I'll stop by the Kushva on my way out to check up on the sensor project and see what I can borrow from Tim.  Send that Colony ship to the Kushva just in case." Todd says on his way out the door.
    "And you, young lady.  Have you decided?" Henry asks of Casey.
    "I have." she replies. "I'm gonna go find Roesh."
    "Don't do anything crazy, if you find a good lead, come back here and let me know right away.  If he's in trouble, don't take it upon yourself to be a one woman extraction team." Henry says.
    Casey stands up and salutes, "You got it temporary new bossman."  She grins widely and runs out of the room leaving Henry to get back to work on fielding call after call about the recent events in the system.


    Roesh jumps into the pilot's seat of the shuttle after removing it's ID and locator beacon while in extremely close orbit to the star.  He looks back at the recruit lying on the floor that he had put into a sleeper hold not long ago to make sure the kid is still breathing, then returns his focus to what's in front of him.  Reprogramming the jump software he sets a wide jump angle and takes a deep breath.  After he exhales he states, "I hope I don't miss..."  After a few seconds he throttles up to full power and heads straight for a point he chose to jump from.
    A sensor officer aboard the Angarsk reports, "Sir, unknown contact headed for the edge of the gravity well, confirmed by the Dubovka."
    "Task a squadron to intercept."
    "Sir, all craft are too far away."
    "Station batteries?"
    "Too far for anything besides missiles.  They're reporting lock."
    "Fire..."
    They watch the sensor screen as the missiles close in range only to see the craft disappear sending the missiles harmlessly out of the gravity well to detonate.
    "Another Vasari?" the two wonder aloud while the sensor officer types up his official report and enters it into the logs.
    Roesh appears at the extreme edge of the gravity well of Finley 1, far from the Sorsk that would normally be protecting it's access.  Pushing full power on the shuttle again he head's straight for the planet.  The Sorsk scrambles it's strike craft in response while activating the planet's defenses.  Roesh exhales again knowing he can make it to the planet before the strike craft reach him, but he'd have to fly right through the guass defense cannons.  Having no other choice, his eyes narrow as he prepares himself for quick evasive flying.  As the target lock warnings begin to sound, he watches the fronts of the cannons for signs of light, as soon as he sees it he takes advantage of the fact that the cannons have to fire their thrusters and lock themselves in place before they fire their main guns, he banks the craft hard spiraling out of the way of the shot being aimed at him and avoids the hit.  He avoids the shot from another cannon in the same way, then a second shot from the first cannon again then a second from the other cannon.  Passing by at top speed, crews stationed on the orbital defenses only see a blur fly by, the shuttle slams into the atmosphere of the planet.
    Glowing brightly on it's way down, Roesh does his best to hold the ship in an upright orientation until it's backup computers activate and begin firing it's retro thrusters to slow the shuttle down.  Roesh sends it into a wide roll aiming for an open swath of land.  The shuttles gravity plating gives to the planet's own gravitational field sending everything not locked down flying around the ship, including the unconscious recruit.  "Sorry kid!" Roesh yells as he pulls the shuttle out of it's wide roll and banks it hard in the opposite direction as it approaches the ground forcing the backup systems to kick on once again and take over for the rest of the landing.  The shuttle hits the ground hard and digs in cutting a scar into the ground as it slows to a rough stop.  Roesh removes the restraints holding him to his chair and checks on the now injured recruit.  Assessing that he'll live, Roesh slams his body against the exit hatch popping it free and sending it falling to the ground outside.  Jumping down on top of it, he surveys the landing site.  The now severely damaged fuselage now lies half buried in the dirt while the rest of the shuttle is nothing more then scattered debris strewn across the entire site.  "Any landing you can walk away from..." Roesh mutters to himself as he begins a hurried sprint for the treeline.
    Within minutes, Roesh has reached his destination.  A short time later SAR teams arrive on scene to assess the situation.  They report the shuttle's ID number and find the recruit inside.  Henry receives the news about the discovery of the shuttle Roesh was supposed to be on and that the pilot was recovered and is being treated for injuries.  He updates Casey with the new information sending her on her way to the crash site as well.  Roesh watches from the trees for a few more minutes as they load the recruit onto another shuttle and it heads for the closest settlement as fast as they can.  "Good kid, I'll make sure you get promoted." he thinks to himself before standing up and heading deeper into the forest.


    Todd arrives at the Kushva and is directed to the room where discussion is going on concerning adaptations to the sensor arrays.
    "The current detection software needs an overhaul." a tech says as Todd walks into the room temporarily halting the discussion.
    "Don't stop on my account." Todd says as he grabs a chair and takes a seat.
    Slightly flustered the tech continues his thought. "It's currently a patchwork of a main program and several hundred updates added on making it bulky and inefficient.  Even slow.  If we just sat down and took the time to rewrite it and clean up the mess and make a new base program, we could speed our systems up and greatly improve the reliability of everything that's attached to the sensor network."
    The room stays silent, intimidated by Todd's presence.  He stands up, "Okay...  Who was aware of the sensor glitch?" Todd asks.  When no one responds, he rephrases his question.  "Who was aware that something not normal was happening with the sensors prior to the events of earlier today?"  A few hands were sheepishly raised prompting him to move on with his questions.  "Who made the discovery that it was actually a ship causing the inconsistency and not just a sensor glitch?"
    One man kept his hand raised. "I did... Sir..." Dave said with a slight hint of fear in his voice.
    Todd measures him with his eyes for a few seconds.  "Good job...  All of you should have reported your findings sooner.  We might have been able to prevent this if we could see it coming."
    Slightly emboldened by the accusation of failing to do his job, Dave speaks up.  "We did, Mr. Degroff, every single one of us turned in maintenance reports."
    "And what happened?"  Todd asks.
    "Maintenance checked the systems, told us nothing was wrong and left." another person states.
    "And then what did you do?" Todd asks.  The room stays silent prompting him to continue. "Do you guys like what you do?  Are you happy with the way things are right now?"  The room continues to be silent.  "These aren't rhetorical questions.  I am where I am today not because I'm one smart son of a bitch...  I'm where I'm at because I refused to be satisfied with where I was at until I had everything I wanted and more.  You're all sensor officers or in training to become sensor officers and sensor techs and sensor maintenance personnel!  I'm a fleet engineer...  I've worked on black projects within TEC R&D...  I helped design a ship that's in use today by thousands of different organizations...  ...  We're all roughly the same age.  If you're as pissed off about being kicked in the nuts as I am, then you're going to do something about it, and it's going to get done TODAY!  I have to head out of the system for a couple of days, but when I get back, I expect you all to be working on version five of whatever needs to be done to protect us from this shit...  And version one had better be good enough to do the job.  Rewrite the sensor software, design new antenna arrays, build an entirely new system, I don't care!  Just get it done!!!"  Todd throws a chair on his way out of the room hoping his display of anger is enough to motivate the group into working their hardest.  Colonel Horner is waiting outside in the hall for him.
    "You'd make a good Marine Seargent." Horner states.
    "Some people like to be feared, some like to be respected, I don't mind being both." Todd says with a smile as they walk down the hall.
    Colonel Horner chuckles and slaps Todd on the shoulder, "You definitely should have been a Marine."
    "To what do I owe the pleasure Colonel?" Todd asks.
    "Oh no reason.  The colony ship has arrived, and I have a message from Tim for you saying you can take one of the new Hoshikos if you'd like." Horner says.
    "Hmmm.  Slow, poorly armed frigate, or nice shiny pretty new cruiser with lots of little goodies I can play with...  I think I'll take the Hoshiko." Todd says.
    Colonel Horner laughs some more. "Good choice.  It'll be here in a few minutes."
    "Nice.  Have it pick me up at airlock 3." Todd says as they hit an intersection and he turns to head down a  hallway leading away from command.
    "Yeah..." Colonel Horner says and he continues on his way.
    When the Hoishiko arrives, it docks at airlock 3 and picks up Todd.  Once on board he tells the captain to head for Ryes and jump to Trader Space.  Once there, he'll give more instructions.  The Hoshiko heads for the edge of the star's gravity well and get's their journey under way.  In a flash, it's gone.