Galactic Terran Alliance:
 Beta Aquilae Starship Repair Yards:
June 23, 2740: 
GTA standard time 1450 Hours: 

	“This is so boring.”  That was Commodore Zachary “Ghost-rider” Higgins.

	“Yeah, well it could be worse, we might not be around to have this wonderful assignment.”  That was Vice Admiral Joshua “Viper” Bridgeford.

	Here I think I'll give a short background story.  Its the Terran year 2740; the Galactic Terran Alliance (GTA) and the Parliamentary Vasudan Empire (PVE) have become an alliance under a single governing body in time of war.  In peace time the two function as separate states.  This alliance is The Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance (GTVA).

	Five years prior both species were attacked and nearly destroyed by an enigmatic and xenocidal  race known only as the Shivans.  A joint Terran/Vasudan strike force managed to destroy the Shivan Super Destroyer SD Lucifer.  This was accomplished by tracking the Lucifer into subspace, a state in which the time to travel between stars is hours or days instead of centuries, where it's “impervious” shielding system could not function.

	However, a second Lucifer class ship was discovered at a Shivan shipyard.  This ship's shielding system was not yet installed.  Terran Command ordered the Galactic Terran Destroyer (GTD) Bastion to destroy the Lucifer.  In what was later considered a stroke if military genius then Commodore Bridgeford was able to disable the Lucifer's engine system shutting down power to the entire vessel.  This feat though nearly killing Bridgeford earned him recognition as the best pilot in GTA history and a promotion to Vice Admiral.  His wingman Captain Higgins was promoted to Commodore behind him, in recognition of his outstanding feat at keeping Bridgeford alive. There was also a third Lucifer found but the Shivans, when it became obvious that the GTA was going to try and capture this one as well, destroyed it.

	“Come on Vipe, do you really think the Shivans had a chance?” asked Higgins.

	“Naw, not against you and me, but we were lucky those shields were down.”  Replied Bridgeford.  “But you are right this is boring as hell.  Never thought I'd be saying this, but, I miss the Shivans.”   The boring assignment these two are talking about is an assignment to the Beta Aquilae Repair and shipyards doing fighter patrols.

	“I mean what do me have to go looking for 'dangerous' asteroids for?  Aquilae has more than enough defenses to take them out.”  Continued Bridgeford.

	“Yeah well when Aquilae was attacked by the Lucifer a lot of debris was created that nearly tripled the asteroid amount that could hit the station.  Captain Henderson voiced her concerns to command and they promised to send the best they had to 'amend' the situation.”  Answered Higgins.

	“To bad that was us huh?”

	“Uh-uh, the price of glory.”

	Suddenly a blinking light accompanied by a high-pitched beeping sound appeared on both fighters' dashes.  This was the Action Alert Message system designed to alert the pilots to an abrupt and major change in the mission profile.  This wasn't always a bad thing it could mean that the mission was deemed unnecessary and that they could come home.  On the other hand, it could mean a major base or ship was under attack and that the fighters had to respond ASAP.  The beeping was designed to be as annoying as possible to ensure an immediate response by the pilots.  As soon as a single pilot responded to the system the channel was opened to all pilots.  In this case, Viper responded first.

	“Alpha 1 here go.”

	“Alpha this is Aquilae Prime we've launched Theta wing to rendezvous with you and take over your patrol.”

	“Uh-oh what'd we do?”  Asked Higgins.

	“Nothing Commodore you're being reassigned.”

“Oh more rock watch I hope, I hope, I hope.”  Answered Higgins with unconcealed sarcasm; you'd be very hard pressed to find a pilot who liked rock watch. 

“Negative Commodore you're being moved to the new Orion-Class Destroyer GTD Galatea.”

	“They finally reused the name.  How long had they been debating whether or not to retire it, two, three years?”  Asked Bridgeford.

	“Just about Sir, it was your testimony that Admiral Michael Wolf would not want the name of his ship to be retired and collect dust on a plaque back at Sol.  That he'd want a ship with the name Galatea to be on the line fighting.  Coincidentally, your new Commanding Officer his Michael Wolf's son Christopher.”
	
“Really, Chris and I flew together for the Flagstaff Installation.  Guess he couldn't keep his promise about never being put behind a desk.”  Laughed Bridgeford.

	“Guess not sir, anyway Theta should be arriving in ten minutes. Aquilae Prime out.”  The communication system on both fighters clicked off.

	“Cool were actually gonna get to be on something that will shoot down rocks by itself and we'll move out of the way of the ones it can't!!!”  Laughed Higgins.

	“Act your rank Commodore, you sound like an Ensign.” Laughed Bridgeford.
	
	“Oh yes sir, Vice Admiral sir.”  Replied Higgins saluting Bridgeford through his cockpit window.  The two were also known as the most informal command yank officers in the GTVA.”
	
	“Now, what do we do to kill two minutes.”

	“What else but the most exciting thing in the galaxy.  We look for rocks!!!!”

	“I don't think we'll have to, our relief is a little early.”

	In front of Alpha Wing's two sleek Valkryie Advanced class fighters four shimmering circles of bright, white and blue light appeared.  These were subspace-nodes the entrance and exit points to subspace.  Out of these particular four nodes came four GTF Apollo class superiority fighters.  The oldest manned fighters in the GTA; however, they were still in heavy use though not as heavy as when they were the mainstays.

	“Wow, four ships!  I wonder if that's because they've finally found something to shoot at or if the Apollo is lot weaker than originally thought.”  Said Higgins.

	“Don't know but they do want to talk to us.”

	“Alpha 1 this is Theta Wing.  You stand relieved of your watch return to the Aquilae.”

	“Affirmative Theta.  Alpha wing stands relieved.  Keep protecting us from the dangerous asteroids.”

	“Will do, if we don't die of boredom first.”

	“I'll give the eulogy Lifeline.  Adios.”

	The two Valkryie ADV. Fighters decelerated to allow their jump-nodes to open and disappeared into them, leaving Theta wing to continue the patrol.

Bridge of the GTD Galatea; 1507 Hours:

	“Well Admiral what do you think of your ship?”  Queried Fleet Commander Jeremy Fitzsimmons of Admiral Christopher Wolf.

	“She's a beauty sir I think I’m gonna like this job.”
	
	“I’m sure you will.  By the way you have one other duty being put on you’re shoulders.”

	“Really, what?”

	“Fleet Commander.”

	“Whoa!  Hold on a sec, number one that’s your job.  Number two I’ve never even commanded more than a cruiser.  Now you’re giving me the whole fleet?  I don’t know if I can handle this.”
	 
	“Of course you can and we think that with Vice Admiral Bridgeford and Commodore Higgins as your immediate inferior officers you'll be fine.”

	“Whoa, hold on Josh is my new Executive Officer (XO) and the Executive Fleet Commander (EFC)?”

	“Yes, he's also going to be your Commander Air Group (CAG).”

	“Has anybody told him?”

	“No, we thought we'd leave that to you.”

	“Great just what I need an ecstatic Josh.  Oh, you don't know him do you.  Well, I'm sure you know his reputation for being a holy terror to his enemies when he's mad, well you should see him happy...or drunk.”

	“Well in that case I guess I should wish you good luck AND Godspeed.”

	“Thank you sir and goodbye and good luck with your retirement.”

	“Goodbye Chris it’s been a pleasure to serve with you.”  Admiral Fitzsimmons boarded the Galactic Terran Transport (GTT) designated by its class, Elysium, and left the Galatea.

	“Woo boy.  Now how do I get to the bridge?  I can't ask anybody that would just be too weird having a ships CO asking directions.  Well Josh will be here soon, he's served on an Orion he should know.”  Thought Admiral Wolf.

Command Center:
Aquilae Prime Installation:

	“Captain I'm getting some strange readings in monitoring sector 5564 Bravo.”

	“Understood Ensign.  Who do we have out there?”  Replied Captain Sarah Henderson, the Commanding Officer of the Aquilae Stations.

	“Alphas 1 and 2 sir.”  Answered the Ensign on radar.

	“Oh great Viper and Ghost-rider well tell them to check it out even though technically they don't work here anymore.”

	“Yes sir, Aquilae to Alpha wing were getting some unusual readings in the subspace fold bearing mark 44321 Zulu from your current position.  Request you investigate over.”

	 “Aquilae, Alpha 2 here, is it of critical importance that we investigate?  Were in subspace and are somewhat low on ion power we might now be able to reenter subspace.  I'm sure you can appreciate how Josh and I would not like to spend two hours crawling back there in normal space.

	“Commodore this is Captain Henderson.  If you pilots can't hack a long trip maybe I'll reconsider giving you guys the OK to transfer to the Galatea.  We sure could use the two best pilots in the Alliance for Rock Watch.”

	“Belay that Captain, Zack and I will investigate and make our way home on normal engines if we don't have enough ion power to open nodes.”  Answered Viper.

	“Excellent, thanks for being reasonable Alpha 1.”  Replied Henderson barely able to keep from laughing.  “Always remember what just happened hear Ensign, when two pilots who outrank you don't want to do something, always give their egos big kick in the rump.”

	“Uh, Captain this channel is still open.  Also, I spotted these reading 15 minutes ago and was waiting for you to see them.  I figured you'd want us to check them out.  And one more thing, you try that again and I'll court martial you for insulting a superior officer.”  Laughed Viper,. “Us pilots have ways of giving station commanders big ego punches too.”

Deep Space:

	“This had better be worth it.  I don't like the idea of spending a extra two hours in this tub.”

	“Aw, cool it Zack, would ya rather be in an Apollo for two hours?”

	“You make a good point Josh.”

	“I know I do.  Well this is very...uh...well weird is the only word I can think of to describe these readings.  But this is all I can get we'll need something with more sensitive scanners to tell us anything else.”

	“Oh that's great!!!.  Aquilae uses my new pilots to check out anomalies that they can't even identify.”

	“Speaking of identification, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!!”

	“Whoa easy there Viper.  This is the GTD Galatea.”  

	“Well nice of you boys to come pick us up.” Zack responded.  “Are we that important?”

	“ Not really, oh by the way your welcome now get your tails on this ship were goin to the Deneb system.” Replied the Galatea, “Were gonna be the point ship for an invasion force into the Altair system.  GTVA Command has decided that the Hammer of Light( has been around long enough.  Bye the way those readings are just subspace backwash from a new type of engine we were testing.””

	“Well what do ya know Zack we might actually see combat.”

	“SEE IT!!!  You two are gonna be living, eating, breathing, drinking and dreaming combat.”

	“Let's not go to extremes here.  Alpha 1 ready to come in.”
	
	“Confirmed Alpha 1, welcome aboard.  Good to see you again Josh.”

Bridge of the GTD Galatea:

	“So you're the Commanding officer here, what are we waiting for let's go blow up some renegades.”

	“Hold your horses Viper I want to tell you your new duties.  As of now you're the First Officer of the Galatea, you're the Commander Air Group (CAG) of all pilots aboard ship, and you're the Executive Fleet Commander.”

	“No kiddin well if I'm EFC who the hell is Fleet Commander?”

	“You're looking at him.  You and I are now the backbone and main leadership of the League of Defense so we gotta stay alive.”
		
“I'm still Alpha 1 right?”

	“You bet your ass, only an idiot would remove the best pilot in the GTA from active duty!”

	“That was my point...um, with all do respect sir.”

	“Shut up!  Oh, yeah don't call me sir, call me Chris.”

	“O.K. Chris, by the way what's my first job?”

	“You and Zack are gonna go greet three new pilots, two Lieutenants from the Minnow and one Ensign straight from the academy.  The Lieutenants are James O'Brian and Michael DeSalva there good but they got egos the size of the Lucifer and are notorious for insubordination, whip them into shape.”

	“I think Josh and I can do that.  Who's the Ensign.”

	“Oh yeah her.  Now here's an interesting case, do to her flight record I've assigned her to the Alpha 6 slot.  That okay Josh?”

	“Sure.”

	“Good, now her name is Stephanie Halfry.”

	“Okay what's so interesting about that?  Name sounds normal.”

	“Well she is the best pilot in her class, don't worry she's no where near you two.  But she thinks she can't fly for moonshine.”

	“Why?”

	“Well, she had something of a traumatic experience while flying security patrol for the GTS Pasteur science research outpost.  A group of HOL rebels made a gun run and blew away her two best friends in about a minute.”

	“Whoa hold on!  GTS Pasteur?  Was that on January 20, 2039?”

	“Yeah, why?”

	“Zack and I jumped in two minutes into the engagement and blew the HOL fighters away.”

	“Oh well I wouldn't mention that to Ensign Halfry.  She gets upset just thinking about it.”

	“No problem.  So I got two hotshots and one prodigy who thinks she can't fly.”

	“And we're goin to war in a few days.  Chris you really know how to liven up a boring life.”

	“Glad to help Zack now get to the Flight Deck ASAP!!”

	“Yes sir.”

GTD Galatea flight deck:

	A GTT Elysium class transport is landing; three pilots exit it two men and one woman.  The two guys are striding forward confidently and laughing.  The women hangs behind them she seems a bit nervous about being placed on the fleet flagship for her first posting.  Ensign Halfry came to attention as soon as she saw Viper and Ghost-Rider.  Lieutenants O'Brian and DeSalva on the other hand went on talking and joking.

	“Man James I can't believe that Halfry got on Alpha wing.  She's just an Ensign who's never flown real combat before she'll probably crack as soon as she gets in space.” Laughed DeSalva.

	“Probably Mike, I thought that the legendary Viper didn't take Ensigns into his wing.” Answered O'Brian.

	“I do when I think there good enough and don't act like jerks which is more than I can  say for you boneheads.”  Jumped in Viper's voice he had been hanging back with Ensign Halfry waiting for the right moment to knock the two Lieutenants off their high horses.  “Now are you two gonna come back here and stand straight like good boys or do I kick you out into space?”

	O'Brian and DeSalva run back to join Halfry and stand at attention.

	“That's better.  Now I'm guessing that you're Lieutenants James O'Brian, Michael DeSalva, and Ensign Stephanie Halfry.  Now so I don't have to say those names again what are you're call signs.”

	“Wombat.” Answered O'Brian.

	“Stalker.” Replied DeSalva.

	“Okay, Wombat and Stalker.  And yours ensign Halfry.”

	“Um uh, Darkwing sir.”  Replied Halfry nervously.  Remember Bridgeford's flight maneuvers are required studying in the Academy I'd probably be nervous too if I stand and face a person who is considered a legend.

	“DARKWING!!  Oh man who came up with that your Mommy!!.”  Laughed O'Brian before both he and DeSalva dissolved into laughter.  Halfry looked away and went red with humiliation.  That sent both Viper and Ghost-Rider raving.”

	“SHUT UP NOW!!!” screamed Viper bringing both pilots to attention very quickly.  “I already don't like you two but if you ever insult another pilot again I'll personally shoot you two down next time where out and I'm sure you know my reputation.  I make good on my promises.  AND I DON'T MISS!!!”

	“And if he can't get you I will!!” Answered Zack, nearly as enraged as Viper.

	“Now listen up.  Ensign Halfry you're assigned to the Alpha 6 slot that's under me.  Lieutenants you’re assigned to Beta's 3 and 4.  That's under Commander Jeffery “Firefly” Byron.  Don't screw with him either cuz he'll kill you on the spot.  You're first briefing is at 0745 tomorrow.  I don't know how they did things on the Minnow but here we are on time.  Do you read me?”

	“Yes sir.”

	“Dismissed.”

	As Wombat, Stalker, and Darkwing walked away Zack turned to Viper.  “Whoo boy those two are gonna be a handful.”

	“Its not them I'm worried about, Firefly will keep them in line.  Its Halfry I'm more concerned with.”

	“Why?”

	“Did you here the way she stammered her callsign out and the way she tried to avoid eye contact with me or you?”

	“Yeah, well its her first posting she's bound to be nervous.”

	“She wasn't just nervous Zack her self-esteem is low, she won't be able to fly to the best of her ability until she gets her confidence back.”

	“Well what are we gonna do?”

	Viper replied sighing.  “I don't know, her wingman is Ozone maybe he can talk to her.”

	“If I know Ozone he'll probably try hitting on her.”

	“Good point let's not ask him to talk to her.  I guess all we can do is wait and see how she handles her first mission.”

	“Which is?”

	“I'm gonna send you, me, and her out on a standard patrol in force once we reach Deneb.”

	“Combat risk?”

	“Low, I don't want a pilot who's second guessing all her moves out there in an intense situation.  That's the way people get killed.”

	“Agreed, see ya later I need a drink.”

	“Fine, I got bridge duty.  The busy life of First officer.  See ya.”

GTD Galatea briefing room:
0740 hrs.
June 24, 2740:

	“Well Zack you're here early.”

	“I just wanted to see you sweat Josh.  Nervous?”

	“Naw, I've given enough orders in my life time.  Besides this is a Command Briefing I'm basically reading the news.”

	“Yeah, well here comes your audience.”

	The room slowly fills with pilots.  True to their form O'Brian and DeSalva are among the last to enter.  Normally Viper wouldn't care except that they had been hanging around outside since he got there almost 45 minutes ago.  Halfry is the last to enter she looks around nervously until Zack signals an empty seat next to Lieutenant Commander Jonathan “Ozone” Ramirez, Alpha 5 and Halfry's wingman.  O'Brian and DeSalva snicker as Halfry shuffles her way to the chair and clumsily sits down.  But at a withering glance from Viper are silenced.  Once everybody is seated Viper starts.

	“Good morning pilots.  I'm Vice Admiral Joshua “Viper” Bridgeford and I'll be giving your Command Briefings while you’re on the Galatea.  I'm also the commander of the 1st tactical squadron and wing commander of Alpha Wing, as well as the First Officer on the Galatea and the Executive Commander of The Terran - Vasudan Allied Fleet.  In other words you're gonna be taking a lot of orders from me so get used to it.  Currently the Galatea is enroute to the Deneb system.  Once there we will await the arrival of the rest of the fleet and then launch an invasion of the Altair system, the last HOL stronghold we know of.  More news there tomorrow.  Now let me welcome all new pilots aboard the Galatea.  The Galatea is the flagship of the fleet and if you're here your records must speak highly of you, either that or you bribed someone at command.  Now I believe that we have an Ensign fresh out of the Academy who has been assigned to Alpha Wing.  Ensign Stephanie “Darkwing” Halfry.  Congratulations Ensign, to be posted to the Galatea from the academy is an honor but to be placed on the most skilled wing in the fleet is phenomenal.  Report to your wing commanders at 0930 for squadron briefings.  Ensign Halfry and Commodore Higgins I'd like to see you after this briefing.  Dismissed.”

	As the crowd dispersed O'Brian went over to Halfry.  “Hope, ya don't get in too much trouble doll.  Though I would like your position on Alpha Wing.”

	“Lieutenant at the rate your going you'll be lucky if I let you pilot a garbage scow let alone fly on my wing.”  Shot Viper.  “Now get your sorry ass out of here before I really get mad.”

	“Yes sir.” Replied O'Brian shooting another hostile look at Halfry.

	“Now Ensign, I've noticed you seem a little nervous would you mind telling me and Zack here why.”

	“Well sir...”

	“Don't call me sir call Viper.”

	“And call me Ghost-Rider or Zack.”

	“Um yes sir uh Viper.  Well its just that after that incident at the Pasteur I haven't been able to fly knowing that I needed the help of GTA pilots to get rid of four Anubis class fighters.  I mean I bagged twenty or thirty is simulations but I couldn't seem to shoot straight that one time.”

	“Ensign first of all the two pilots who helped you out were myself and Zack.  Secondly you had just seen two of your wingmates and friends get shot down that would probably cause me to miss a few shots.  Finally, a simulator mission doesn't fully prepare you for real combat.  The adrenaline rush is different in the sim you know that you're gonna walk away with nothing more than a bruised ego.  In real life you might not walk away there's a huge difference there.  Now there's something else that's bothering you what is it.”

	“Its Wombat and Stalker sir they harassed me the whole trip here about how I wasn't good enough how Ensigns have no place on the Galatea or Alpha Wing and they said other things I'd rather not repeat.”

“Well I think I'll have a long talk with those two then I'll then Lt. Comdr. Byron to have another long talk on common decency with them.  And if it continues maybe Admiral Wolf can knock some sense into them.”  Said Zack.

	“You do that, you're a bigger guy that me you'll scare them more.” Answered Viper.  “Now Ensign don't worry about those two numnuts and just fly you're a good pilot.  If you weren't you wouldn't have been best in your class and you wouldn't be flying on the Galatea or my wing.  Alright?”

	“Yes sir, thanks its good to here that from two legends.”

	“Were not legends yet, legends are usually dead and both Josh and I intend to live a long time.  You should two.”

	“Amen Reverend.” Replied Viper.  “Dismissed Ensign.”

	“Yes sir.”

	“Well Zack what say we go find our friends Wombat and Stalker?”

	“Wait a sec and I'll go get a bat.”

Deneb System:
June 24, 2740:
0905hrs.

	The Galatea has just arrived and is currently enroute to the Deneb - Altair Jump Node which is ringed with GTSG Cerebrus class sentry guns.  Sentry guns are automated defense turrets that are used to defend a critical piece of space or as in this case to blockade a jump node or planet.

	“Admiral the sentries are asking for an IFF friend or foe transmission.”

	“Alright Commander, send the codes.”

	“Yes sir, codes sent and verified.”

	“Alright, get Bridgeford and Higgins up hear.  I want to discuss strategy with them.”

	“Yes sir.”

	After about 10 minutes both Viper and Ghost-Rider walk on the bridge.

	“What's up Chris?  I gotta be in space in twenty - five minutes.”

	“I know Josh I just want your opinions on our battle plans.”

	“Okay, what's the plan?”

	“Well, we intend to have the Galatea, Bastion, Steel, and Destiny blitz the Hammer of Lights Typhon Class Destroyers.  The Terran cruisers and destroyers Minnow, Amadeus, Achilles, and Intrepid will hang back and launch fighters and bombers before moving in.  The four destroyers who made the first runs will then hang back launch their fighters and bombers before jumping ahead to Altair 4.”

	“Okay and what about our Vasudan allies?”

	“They'll jump immediately to Altair 4, arrange themselves in a wedge pattern with destroyers on the outside and cruisers, fighters, bombers, and Satis freighters on the inside.  We figured since the Satis has six high-energy turrets and reinforced armor we should use them as assault ships.  Once our four destroyers arrive, the ones that made the blitz runs, the entire complex will jump in to the battle zone and force their way through the Hammer of Light fleet effectively splitting it in two.”

	“Oldest strategy in the book, divide and conquer.”

	“Yeah well sometimes old tricks work best.”

	“True, sounds like a good plan.  What do you think Zack?”

	“Sounds good to me.”
	
	“Good oh one more thing.”  Wolf looked around and then motioned for Higgins and Bridgeford to follow him into the Commanding Officers office immediately off the bridge.  Once the door shut he locked it and turned to Viper and Ghost-Rider.  “What I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room.  Command has told me that the Lucifer you two captured is fully operational and will be available to assist if the battle gets out of hand.  So if you see it don't shoot it.”

	“Doesn't matter the things got impervious shielding.”

	“Yeah well let's not make it mad.”

	“What do you mean make IT made its inanimate.”

	“Not quite some of the technology is organic.  And Command thinks it might attack anything that shoots at it, it has a sense of self preservation.  The crew is still working out on getting the kinks out.  Command says that if you deem it absolutely necessary we can use it.  But they asked that I stress the word ABSOLUTELY.”

	“No problem, now if you’ll excuse me I have a briefing to deliver.”  Viper turned and left.

Briefing Room:

	“Alright here's the order on the day.  Alpha's, three, four, and five can take a break.  I'll be taking Alpha's two and six out on a patrol.  As you know I always fly with Zack and I figured Ensign Halfry could get her feet wet with this.  So you guys can go.”  After waiting for the three unassigned pilots to leave Viper turned on the mission map which showed a series of icons representing the various ships in the system.  “Alright, the fleet has arrived and we're just waiting for the go ahead to jump Altair.  We'll be patrolling between the three subspace nodes in the area, the one's to Sol, Vega, and finally Altair.  We don't expect any enemies to show but if they do its our job to deal with them.  The greatest risk for combat will be at the Altair jump node, that is if any ships can get passed that perimeter we've set up.  However, those guns will be going offline at ten hundred hours so that they can be moved out of the way for the fleet.  So the Hammer of Light might send some fighters into this system to harass us.  If the HOL doesn't see us massing here they must be blind.  That's all any questions.”

	“Uh sir?”

	“Yes ensign.”

	“What are our loadouts and ships?  I've only flown the Apollo with Avenger guns and Interceptor missiles.”

	“Well we don't use Apollo's to often in real combat.  We're flying Valkryie Advanced fighters equipped with quad Banshees, two racks of Hornet Swarmer missiles, and two racks of Phoenix V anti-bomber missiles.  Don't worry the Valkryie's controls are identical to the Apollo's though they are far more maneuverable and guns are more powerful though with a slower refire rate.  Also don't use the Phoenix V's on fighters they're to slow.”

	“Yes sir, thank you.”

	“No problem.  Now, any other questions?  No?  Then lets fly.”

	Viper, Ghost-Rider and Darkwing walked out onto the flight deck.  The place is as noisier than hell and just as unpleasant, or would be to us, pilots get used to it.  They hopped into their fighters and were dropped into the launch tubes, space fighters take of the same way a submarine shoots torpedoes.

	“Ready to go Ensign?”

	“Yes sir.”

	“When we're flying call us by our callsigns.”

	“Okay Viper.”

	“No offense but could we cut the chatter and fly I'm getting bored already.”

	“Alright Zack.  Alpha one to launch control we're ready to go.”

	“Roger that Alpha launching now.  Happy hunting.”  Launching faster than a bullet from a gun the three fighters entered space at the same instant and immediately moved into a formation.

	“Alpha 1 airborne.”

	“Alpha two ready and steady.”

	“Alpha six I'm good.”

	“Alright, locking course to waypoint Alpha, autopilot engaged.”

	“Alright Alpha Wing we don't think your gonna run into any problems but, good luck anyway.”

	“Thanks Chris see ya in an hour.”

Waypoint Alpha:
Sol Jump Node:
0940hrs.

	“Alright we've been in space for ten minutes and I'm getting memories of rock-watch.”
	
“Hell yeah Josh, this really blows.”

	“What are you two talking about, you wanna be shot at?”

	“You bet Halfry.  We'd much rather be in combat than just flying around.”

	“Maybe I just don't understand Zack I mean this is my first real mission.”

	“Yeah well remember you two we weren't expecting much action at the Sol Jump Node.  If we see HOL forces coming through here we are in a whole load of trouble.  Anyway  I think we've spent enough time here we can go.”

	“Copy that, Alpha 2 resetting coordinates for waypoint Bravo.”

	“Alpha 6, ditto.”

	“Alright Alpha 1 ready, lets...whoa hold on I got a freighter coming through the node.”

	“This is the GTFR Valgard we're carrying supplies for the fleet.”

	“This is Alpha 1, Valgard I'm gonna have to ask you to submit to a scan.”

	“Copy that, Valgard powering down.”

	“Scanning...scan complete you are cleared.”

	“Thanks pilot, we're moving.”

	“Alright I think we just had our excitement for this trip lets role autopilot engaged.”

	“Alpha 2 away.”

	“Alpha 6, going…going…gone.”

Vega Jump Node:
Waypoint Bravo:
0950hrs.

	“Man this trip just keeps getting more and more boring.”

	“Viper I don't think it could get worse.”  Halfry responded.

	“Trust me ensign, Josh and I have seen some boring trips in our careers.”

	“Ensign, the career of a pilot is pretty much seven years of boredom and maybe three days of sheer terror when you add it all up.”

	“So why do so many people want to be pilots?”

	“Simple, they THINK it’s this glorious job…and there is the pension plan.”

	“By the way how long do we have to stay here?”

	“I think we've been here long enough ensign.  Resetting for waypoint Charlie, ready to move.”

	“Alright lets go.”  Halfry confirmed.

	“Alpha 2's ready to move.”

Altair Jump Node:
Waypoint Charlie:
1000hrs.

	“Alpha wing this is the Galatea by advised we have deactivated the sentry perimeter around the Altair Node and are moving the guns out of the way.  If the HOL is gonna attack its gonna be now.”

	“Copy that Galatea we'll keep watching for them.”

	“Well ensign its good to here like you've gotten some confidence I don't want scared pilots.”

	“You don't have one sir.”

	“Good, Galatea out.”

	“Alright start scanning.”

	“Damn!!  Josh I'm picking up HOL jumps.”

	“I see um two wings of Thoth fighters and two wings of Amun bombers.  Break and attack!”

	“Alpha 2 lockin down and heatin up.”

	“Alpha 6 goin in.”

	“Alpha 1 taking em down.”

	The Vasudan Thoth class fighters made direct lines for Alpha wing.  Two of the twelve fighters were immediately vaporized by Banshee cannon fire from Josh and Zack, five broke off while one went after each of the Alpha pilots.”

	“These guys have no clue who we are do they?”

	“Nope, Josh.”

	“YO!!!  Somebody want to help me out.”  Halfry cried.

	“I got him Halfry.”  Viper banked his fighter left and down so as to come directly above the fighter on Halfry's six. 

	“What the hell are you doing, you'll never hit him up there.”

	“Don't worry sugar I'm not gonna let you die.”  Viper put his fighter into reverse,  jerking his fighter back hard, at same time pulling is control stick back.  With the brakes on this caused his fighter to pitch up, slide down below the Vasudan and get within perfect sight line.  “Alpha 1 locking on, locked, Alpha I LIGHTIN OFF!!”  Viper fired a double blast of Hornet Swarm missiles, eight missiles in all, each one designed specifically to penetrate shields and rip fighter armor to shreds.  The Vasudan never stood a chance and vanished into a fireball of exploding fuel and burning Titanium armor.

	“Woooeeee, nice shootin Tex.” Shouted Zack

	“My hero.”  Called Halfry sarcastically.

	“Now do you see why I'm the best?”

	“I guess so.”

	“Alright now if you two are done I could use a hand with the rest of these Thoths.”

	“Sure thing, just one sec...Alpha 1 to Galatea be advised we have been engaged by strike force of HOL fighters and bombers.  There are total of twelve Amun class bombers heading in your direction.”

	“Understood were launching Ulysses fighters to intercept, you guys handle the Thoths.”

	“No prob.  Alright you heard him, BLAST EM!!!”  The remaining HOL fighters soon withered from continuos pounding of Banshee blasts and Hornet missiles, before five minutes had past the area was clear.

	“Not bad for a first day Halfry, let's see I've got three kills.  How'd you do?”  called Zack

	“I've got three too.” Answered Halfry, “Viper?”

   	“I've got six.”

	“Figures, just don't brag okay?”

	“No promises Zack.  Alpha 1 to Galatea status please.”

	“Beta took out the bombers before they even got close.  You guys are all clear nice work.”

	“Great I look forward to a nice solid deck under my feet.  By the way I think there's something wrong with the environmental systems in my quarter they're way too cold.

	“Don't worry about it, in three hours we jump to Altair and then its gonna get awful hot real quick.”

	“Cool, Alpha wing heading home.”

GTD Galatea Pilots lounge (its actually a bar):
1045hrs.

	“Another breezy day eh Josh.”

	“Yup Jeff, by the way how did O'Brian and DeSalva do?”

	Commander Jeffery Byron wing leader of Beta wing sighed.  “They’re a couple of winners I'll tell ya that.  They both collided with the bombers, nearly shot each other and me a few times, oh yeah and came within a yard of splattering themselves across the Galatea on the way home.”

	“Damn, and those two got PROMOTIONS to get here?”

	“Yeah what the hell was goin on over on the Minnow?”

	“I have no idea.” 

	“Speaking of those two lamebrains look who just walked in.”  Through the door walked Wombat and Stalker they immediately walked over to Viper and Firefly and sat down.  Wombat spoke first.

	“So boss how'd ya like our flying?”

	Byron sighed again.  “Well let's see; you both are reckless and in my opinion dangerous.  I don't know how the hell you idiots got your wings because I sure wouldn't have givin them to you.  Oh, yeah and next time fly like pilots and not blind men.”

	“Well, if you can't appreciate a little fun maybe we should see about transferring somewhere else.  How about to Alpha wing.”

	 “Like hell,” answered Viper, “you two ain't ever gonna see the inside of a Valkryie Advanced if I have my say.”

	“Well maybe we should ask Admiral Wolf.”

	“You do that, but you won't get anywhere, aside from him putting Halfry on I have complete control over who's on my wing.”

	“Yeah how did that stinking plebe do anyway?  Heard she nearly got fried.” Asked DeSalva.

	 “I wouldn't say that, after I wasted that Thoth that was on her tail she made three quick kills.”

	“Only three!!!  Man I made five.”

	“Yeah but you were flying Ulysses class fighters against bombers.  I don't know if bothered to check the maneuverability of those Amuns but they’re  the slow as an ox.  Now Thoths on the other hand move and are hard as hell to hit.  Plus, I made six kills and Zack made three.”

	“Still she's just a plebe.”  O'Brian nearly spit the last word out.

	“Yeah but at least she can fly.”  Snapped Byron.  “If you two ever fly like the way you did out there today again I'll have you run out of the Alliance.”

	“Wolf to Bridgeford.”

	“Bridgeford, what is it Chris.”

	“Assemble the troops you got a briefing to give.”

	“No prob, Bridgeford out.  All right you flyboys get to the briefing room ASAP!”

	“Somethin wrong Josh?” asked Byron

	“Don't know this is news to me too.”

	“Oh that's wonderful.  When the stinkin EFC doesn't know what's goin on you know we got problems.”

GTD Galatea Briefing Room:

	“Alright people sit down.  Now, our spysats in the Altair system have imaged something rather unusual.  The HOL is sending vessels through an apparently natural phenomenon, as you can see on the screen this is something like a Jump - Node yet it seems not to lead to another system but rather to an entirely different space - time continuum.  Now, before I get the 'but sir, that's impossible' speech let me say this.  When subspace was found to exist it was discovered that every object in the universe emitted a base subspace frequency of 76.89 terahertz while emitting a secondary frequency that is unique to that object.  Because of that dual frequency band our Jump Drives are also dual frequency the Alpha or Prime frequency is set at 76.89 terahertz and the Beta frequency changes to reflect the destination for example the frequency for Sol is 45.78 terahertz.  Now, an awful lot of people have speculated about what would happen if we changed the Prime frequency to something other than 76.89 terahertz.  Some theories state that the ship would be erased from the universe, resulting in the death of the people on the ship.  Others have stated that the ship would leave our universe and enter another one.  Apparently that second theory is the true one.  Any questions?”  that long, winded speech was given by Viper.

	“Uh yeah sir, could you repeat everything you said after 'Alright pilots come in and sit down.'?  Asked Byron.

	“Hell no!  Don't worry I don't understand most of it either.”

	“So, how is this gonna alter our mission profile?”  Asked Higgins

	“Well, primary objectives remain the same, eliminate the Hammer of Light presence form Altair.  However, we no have a secondary objective, discern what is on the other side of that gate.  Alpha wing will go through to assess the situation, tertiary objective is to bring a carrier force through and determine if colonizing efforts are feasible.”

	“Why, don't we have enough room for new colonies in our universe?”  Asked Halfry.

	“Yeah, but getting to other galaxies still takes a long time, 25 years to the Andromeda Galaxy at last estimate and that's an underestimate.  Here, we might have access to an unknown number of systems requiring no more transit time than we currently are used to.”

	“How do we know that there aren't alien races in this new universe that even be more powerful than the Shivans?”

	“Well captain, we don't know for certain.  However the HOL may be deceptive and sadistic but they're not idiots.  If they feel comfortable sending ships in unguarded, odds are we can too.  Any other questions?”

	“When do we leave?”

	“Report immediately for squadron briefings, let's go get em.  Dismissed.”

Alpha Wing briefing room:

	“Alright, this is how its gonna happen.  We're gonna go in with the whole fleet, no vanguard force, and pretty much engage at will.  But if any Capital Ship or bomber calls for help you go and assist.  We can't afford to lose to many ships and we need the bombers to take down the HOL's big guns.  Plus, we're gonna want as many fat and healthy cap-ships to go through that gate with us as are able, just in case the locals aren't to happy to see us.  If any were encountered the HOL couldn't have treated them to well and we bare the burden of making up for their mistakes.  Understood?”  yet another speech by Viper.

	“You bet.” answered Zack.

	“Oh yeah.”  Replied Lt. Patrick “Hawkeye” Simms, Alpha 3.

	“Let's get on with the show.”  Said Lt. Junior Grade Timothy “Stardust” Geraldi, Alpha 4.

	“Come on let's fly.”  Returned Commander Joseph “Ozone” Wren, Alpha 5.

	“Let's go get those alien asses.”  Replied Halfry.

	“Alright then lets fly!”  Yelled Viper.

GTD Galatea flight deck:

	“Ready to go Alpha Wing?”

	“You bet control, put us in space.” Answered Zack.

	“Roger that Alpha wing we just gotta check on everyone else.”

	“Well make it quick, I gotta gun to shoot.”  Retorted Viper.

	“Roger.  Beta wing are you ready?”

	“Absolutely.”

	“Beta confirmed.  Epsilon Wing?

	“Let's tango.”

	“Epsilon confirmed.   Gamma wing?”

	“Gamma wing ready.”

	“Gamma wing confirmed.   Delta?”

	“Ready to go.”

	“Delta confirmed.  Theta wing.”

	“Good to go.”

	“Theta confirmed.  Zeta?”

	“Everything looks good.”

	“Zeta confirmed.  All wing's signal ready activating launch sequence.”

	The outer doors of the Galatea opened and out flew the wings.  Four wings of fighters and three of bombers.

	“Alright, you bomb-jockeys make sure those Harbingers make it to their targets.  Ok?”  Called Viper.

	“Sure, as long as you fly-boys keep those fighters off our butts.”  Returned Gamma 1, the three bomber wings were Gamma, Theta and Delta.  All three were flying Ursa-advanced class bombers the heaviest one man craft the in the GTVA.  Each of these 18 bombers were carrying six Harbinger bombs, these bombs were Apocalyptic in nature.  Each one was a 2000 megaton fusion bomb surrounded by three 1000 megaton salted-fission bombs for a total yield of 5000 megatons.  To put that in perspective, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 1 kiloton.  Take that bomb multiply its yield by 1000 and add 4000 and that's a Harbinger bomb.  Scary isn't it?  However the strength of the armor on most capital ships required the impact of approximately fifteen of these bombs to take down a destroyer.  Only one was required to obliterate a cruiser.  For that reason the GTA, in the interest of saving weapons, employed the Tsunami bomb for use on cruisers, each Tsunami was a 2500 megaton bombs.  Each Ursa was carrying 12 Tsunamis as well as 25 interceptor anti-fighter missiles for their own defense.  The Ursa however was a slow and unresponsive craft, not surprising considering it was designed to take down ships that moved painfully slow and were more than a mile long, this meant that it was an easy target.  For this reason every Bomber wing had a designated guardian wing of fighter's.  It was the responsibility of these guardian angels, as bomber pilots called them, to ensure the safety of the bombers and their payloads.  Beta wing was the guardian of Delta wing, Epsilon had Gamma, and Zeta had Theta.  Alpha wing didn't have a charge because they were the superiority wing, simply put it was their job to take down any and all enemy fighters and bombers they encountered.  This was the Galatea's setup, each cap-ship had its fighters arranged in a similar fashion.

	“Don't worry Gamma, if your angels can't take it we'll keep you safe.”  Chimed Viper.

	“Oh that makes me feel so safe.  Hey, wait don't I owe you money?”

	“Yup, that's another reason I'll keep you safe, I want my cash back.” Laughed Viper.

	“OK if you guys are done arranging your stock portfolio's were ready for the jump.”  Called the Galatea.

	“Roger that Galatea, we're ready to go.”  Returned Viper.

	“Alright people, here it goes, all craft synchronize your Jump-Drives to a frequency of 32.67 terahertzs.  Everybody got that...good.  Ready to go...great.  Then let's go kick some traitors from here into next year.  All craft JUMP!!!”  As Admiral Wolf called out this final order more than five thousand jump-nodes opened and they craft creating them vanished into subspace.  Anyone seeing this and not knowing what had happened would have felt very disturbed.  Where there had been a tremendous fleet of spaceships there was now only a silent void pierced only by the passing of a single comet  on a path towards this system's sun.  There was nothing to be seen.  It was if the universe had opened up and swallowed the ships whole.

Altair System:
Altair-Deneb Jump Node:
20 minutes later:

	“Jumping into Altair system now.”  Once again five-thousand pools of light appeared and out of them came the Galactic Terran Alliance Fleet.  The Vasudans had, as planned, gone ahead to the planet of Altair 4.

	“Alright, I got em on scope all craft break and attack!!”  called Viper.

	“YEEEHAWWW” replied Zack

	“Goin in.”

	“Burning.”

	“Lightin em up.”

	“Bye bye boys.”

	“Man did you guys pick the wrong Terran to play with.”

	“I'm gonna bag me some traitors.”

	These and various other quips were the replies to Viper's order. As the fighters engaged the HOL forces space itself seemed to explode.  The area was filled with green, yellow, and white light of the GTA's Prometheus, Avenger, and Banshee cannons.

	“Orion group one blitzing the Typhons.”  Called Admiral Wolf from the Galatea.  The four Orion Destroyers made full speed straight for the HOL's massive Typhon class destroyers.  The Orion's pitched up and opened fire with all of their target facing turrets and missile launchers.  Three of the Orion's immediately vanished into subspace to rendezvous with the Vasudans at Altair 4.  The fourth Orion, GTD Steel, stayed behind for a brief time.

	“GTD Steel here, launching fighters and bombers.”  From the belly of the Steel came the most feared bomber wing in the GTA and the second most feared fighter wing.

	“Apocalypse wing here, we got your Ursa - Advanced bombers mark II model.”

	“Alpha 1 confirms that, what's the payload on those babies anyway?”

	“Twenty-four Harbingers.”

	“Damn!  And your friends are?”

	“Armageddon wing sir.”

	“Alright then, Steel you can go, Apocalypse and Armageddon you're cleared to engage.”

	“Roger that GTD Steel jumping out.”  The Steel vanished into Subspace.

	“Alright people we got about five minutes before they get back here let's make the most of it.”   Viper called over his comm system.

	Make the most of it they did.  More than half of the HOL's cruisers were destroyed or disabled and one of the Typhons was disabled for capture.  But something unforeseen was about to show up .

	“Shit, Alpha 2 to Alpha 1 I got a Shivan Demon-class destroyer jumping in!  Make that two...three...FOUR!!!  Plus, eight Lilith class cruisers and the accompanying fighters and bombers.”

	“Oh, damn this battle just tipped in enemy favor.”

	“Yeah, well lucky for us the Shivans are going after the HOL first.”

	“Still, Alpha 1 to Galatea.”

	“Galatea here.”

	“Get here now, we got a large Shivan strike force to deal with.”

	“What do they want.”

	“To hazard a guess, that inter-dimensional node.  I guess they figured if they can't have this universe...”

	“Understood.  Is this a secured channel.”

	Viper pushed a button on his control panel.  “It is now.”

	“Call Aquilae have them send our new toy.”

	“With pleasure.”  In case you haven't guessed the “toy” is the Lucifer.  Viper couldn't help but smile at the irony of the Shivans most powerful weapon being used against them.  “This is Alpha one calling Aquilae shipyards.”

	“Aquilae here, good to here from you Josh.”

	“Sorry I can't say the same Sarah but I don't have time to talk.  We need the Lucifer NOW!.”

	“Understood, Lucifer on the way, can you hold out for ten minutes?”

	“We'll have to.”

	“Good luck and Godspeed Alpha, Aquilae out.”

	“Alright we got ten minutes Zack and then the party really starts.”

	“I copy and can hardly wait.”

	“I know what ya mean.”

	The next ten minutes were the most harrowing Viper had ever seen, several wings of GTA and PVE fighters were cut down by the Shivans, this was clearly a last hope effort to destroy the GTA's fleet once and for all.  Even the arrival of the Vasudan fleet and the return of the four primary Orions did little to turn the tide of the battle.  At the end of the ten minutes things did change however.

	A tremendous subspace node opened.  Out of this came the most powerful ship of war to ever fly in space, 16 kilometers long, 4 wide, and 6 tall.  From the two flux cannons wielded by this behemoth came two orange-yellow beams of incandescent light.  Slicing into the hull of one of the Demon class destroyers they vaporized the rear third of the ship instantly causing a chain reaction that destroyed the remaining parts of the ship.  The Demon hadn't even been aware it was being fired on.  Calling over her ships comm system was the commanding officer of this massive ship.

	“This is Admiral Julia Haran of the Galactic Terran Super - Destroyer Lucifer to all Shivan forces.  Surrender and withdraw from this system...better yet this sector...better yet again get out of this galaxy!”

	“Admiral, you have know idea how glad I am to see you.”

	“Ironic, Bridgeford considering I'm the only Admiral who protested your promotion.”

	“Yeah, well you thought I was an irresponsible, egotistical, power - hungry, bastard.”

	“Guess I was wrong.”

	“Say that again once I get my flight recorder on I want THAT admission on tape.”

	“Funny.”

	“Well it looks like you shook our Shivan friends up they're turning tail.”  Zack butt in.

	Indeed, the Shivans for the first time in history were making a full scale retreat.  All over the GTVA ships reported Shivan subspace signatures making full speed for the Galactic Rim.  The allied listening posts on the Rim sent in reports of Shivan ships crossing the Rim and vanishing from the Milky Way Galaxy.

	“Well, the Shivans running in fear.  That's something I never though I'd live to see.”  Called Zack somewhat astonished, he had been expecting the Shivans to fight to the last man.

	“They'll be back” responded Viper morbidly, “but they're gonna have to figure out a way to beat their own technology.”

	“Good for them but I think it'll be awhile before they show their ugly mugs around here again.”  Called Wolf from the Galatea.

	“Indeed Admiral, I do not believe they had ever dealt with an enemy that new how to modify it's technology or could ally with a one time enemy to fight a common foe.”  That voice belonged to Mash Tallanis of the Parliament of Vasuda.  In a nutshell he meant that the Shivans had exterminated all advanced races so successfully that the one race it let live had never had to advance its technology.  The race had simply been able to roll all over all other races until the Shivans came for them.  When that happened the race was at a loss because it had assumed that they were the only advanced race in the universe and didn't know how to fight a foe more powerful than itself.  In the cases of the Terrans and Vasudans however the it was the Shivans who were caught unprepared.  The Terrans had been the race allowed to live, the Shivans were aware of the Vasudans but had not considered them a threat, because of their level of technology at the time was significantly less advanced than the Terrans.  But the Vasudan homeworld was barely livable, even to the Vasudans.  For this reason, the Vasudans had been made to develop space travel rapidly so that when the Terrans and Vasudans finally made contact, they had been almost on equal footing and, do to a cultural misunderstanding, had gone to war.

	During the 14 year Terran - Vasudan War both races had to build new weapons, more powerful ships and better ways of destroying the enemy.  They had had to learn how to adapt and study the enemy.  When the Shivans came they were caught unprepared for what happened, the GTA and PVE, recognizing the threat the Shivans posed to both races, allied and fought the Shivans together.  This coupled with the knowledge both races had of how to adapt to fight the enemy caught the Shivans off guard.  For a short time the Shivans were winning but were finally defeated against all odds.  Okay since the Shivans are no longer a part of this tale I'll finally stop talking about them.

	“Alright, Alpha wing form up we're gonna go scout out the other side of that gate.”  Called Viper.

	“Alright boss.”

	“No sweat.”

	“Understood.”

	“I read ya sir.”

	“Yes sir.”

	“Good luck Alpha see ya in a few days.”  Called the Galatea

	“Hold on, what do you mean a few days?”  asked Zack

	“Oh yeah did I forget to tell you guys that?  We're gonna fly around the other side of that gate for about two days, the stim packs in our fighters will keep us healthy, they can pump synthetic nutrients into our systems through the ventilation system.”  Responded Viper.

	“I copy but next time tell me ok.”

	“No prob Zack.  Alpha wing set Prime Jump Frequency to 56.78 terahertz, your computer will keep asking you if you're sure you want to change that, just tell it yes.”  Called Viper. 

	“Alpha two frequency set.”

	“Alpha three good to go.”

	 “Alpha four, let's get this over with.”

	“Alpha five, can we go now?”

	“Alpha six, ready and able.”

	“Alright, all Alpha pilots listen up.  You have to be INSIDE the event horizon of this gate to jump successfully, we're not quite sure what would happen if you jumped outside you'd probably still end up in the alternate universe.  But, for the time being we're gonna play it safe.  So once your computer registers that your inside the gate, jump.”  Advised Admiral Wolf.

	“What happens if we don't jump in time?  I mean if the you were to fly into that thing with no Jump activated”  Asked Ozone.
	
“You just fly right through the gate as if it weren't there.”

	“Oh, ok just as long as we're not vaporized.”

	“Don't worry about that.”

	“Ok then if we're done soothing fears...let's go!”

	“Affirmative Zack, all other pilots this is Alpha one, stand clear.”

	All six Alpha pilots made for the Gate, once they crossed the event horizon they engaged their jump drives and disappeared from our universe.

	“Godspeed Alpha,”  said Admiral Wolf, “and good luck to you.”

Alternate Universe:
6/24/40:
GTA Standard Time: 1200 hrs.

	The Alpha Wing pilots jumped out with much more force than usual and were jerked back...hard.

	“Damn...that hurt.”

	“Ah quick belly-aching Halfry I've seen worse than that.”

	“Yeah, and I've seen worse that you Hawkeye.”

	“I'm sure you have Josh, well we've got two days to spend here let's make the best of em.”

	“Affirmative, start scanning...seems almost identical to our universe...can we communicate with our ships.”

	“Negative sir, the interference is too high, wait a sec...I might be able to boost the power on my transmitter if I sacrifice my energy weapons.”

	“Ok hold on Stardust and we'll see if there are any potential threats before we start turning off our guns.”

	“Roger sir.”

	For about twenty minutes the pilots flew around aimlessly scanning for anything that might be different from their universe.  During this time they set up a sensor relay that was able to scan for a distance of 500 light-years by sending waves of sensor energy threw subspace.

	“Hmmm...the scanner shows absolutely nothing for about fifty star systems away from our current system.  Though there are residual energy reading that indicate there may have once been a civilization in this area.”  Informed Stardust.

	“What about beyond those fifty systems?”

	“Well Halfry, in most directions there still is nothing, but in what our universe would be the direction of Sol there are ships, fighters, installations, I'd say we stumbled on some sort of empire.”

	“Ok then let's head in that direction.”

	“Hold on Stardust, scanner says that someone is calling for help but it can't transmit the call to us...it just says that the frequency for the system is 34.65 terahertz.”  Responded Hawkeye.

	“Ok then let's go see the tech level we'll be dealing with should we decide to colonize this area...Jump out.”  Ordered Viper.  The fighters once again made a jump to towards the system where an unknown distress call was coming from.  What they found was the greatest surprise of their lives.

Unknown Star System:
Alternate Universe:
1255hrs.

	“Entering system, battle ready guys.”

	“No sweat Viper...well someone's getting their asses beaten.”  The scene that Higgins is describing is this.   One group of unknown fighters, vaguely resembling the GTA fighters is engaged with another group of unknowns, these fighters are totally alien in design.  The GTA like fighters are dropping like flies and at the moment know one is paying attention to the Alpha Wing pilots.  A large White ship apparently the command ship of the GTA like fighters was also in the area, it was large and rather long, with an opening straight down the middle and a large Plasma gun in the center.

	“Hey Viper, those fighters that are being pounded to a pulp are piloted by Terrans.”

	“You're kidding me right Halfry?.”

	“Negative sir they're Terrans alright.”

	“Well, I'll be damned we exist in two universes.”

	“That's great but one question...should we assist?”

	“I'm not sure Zack, Hawkeye you're the closest.  Can you scan those other ships to give us a strength assessment?”

	“Absolutely...scanning...well they're piloted by what can only be described as giant cockroaches, they are significantly less powerful than us, they do not posses sufficient weapon strength to penetrate our shields, they are slower and less maneuverable than us.  Oh and is case you're wondering there is a name painted in English on the side of that cap-ship...TCS Midway.”

	“TCS?”

	“I don't know what it means but to guess I'd say the T stands for Terran, and the S stands for ship, know idea on the C.  We're getting another distress call.”

	“Let's hear it.”

	“Mayday...mayday...this is Captain Daniel Wilford aboard Terran Confederation Ship Midway to unidentified fighters...I don't know who you are but please assist.  We are severely damaged, fighter cover is almost gone, only four fighters left for defense.  We require immediate assistance please help.”

	“Well,”  called Viper to his wing, “someone is awfully desperate.”

	“I'll ask again, should we assist?”  Asked Zack.

	“Affirmative,”  Viper responded and keyed his communications frequency to the Midway’s.  “This is Vice Admiral Joshua Bridgeford of the Galactic Terran Alliance, don't ask I'll explain the dual Terran thing later, we are closing to assist hold tight.  Alpha wing break and attack!”

	“Ohhh baby here it goes.”  Called Ozone

	“Yo roach boys...you guys messed the wrong species.”  Called Stardust

	“You bugs are gonna die.”  Answered Hawkeye.

	“Somebody call an exterminator.”  Responded Halfry.

	“Just call me the Orkin man.”  Yelled Higgins.

	“Ain't this ironic guys...the most advanced weaponry in the Galaxy and right now I'd give it all up for one huge can of Raid.”  Laughed Viper,  “Let's get em.”

Bridge of the TCS Midway:

	“Sir we just lost our final engine we're dead in space!”

	“Understood Commander, maybe those newcomers will help us out.”

	“How could they Captain?  They're only six fighters.”

	“Patricia it's my experience that one fighter with the right weaponry can sometimes affect a battle the same way a whole fleet can...comm, contact Lt. Talvert and tell her helps on the way.”

	“Yes sir...Midway to Bravo one.”

	“What.”

	“We've asked those six unknowns to help out and they've agreed.”

	“Yeah, well what can six fighters do...we don't even know if they are fighters.”

	“Lieutenant, if they weren't fighters they wouldn't help...now you are to listen to what they say I don't want to lose you to their fire.”

	“Understood.”

Alpha one:

	“Well, hello there,  this is Joshua “Viper” Bridgeford.  Could you use a hand?”

	“Affirmative.  This is First Lieutenant Jean “Stiletto” Talvet.  You guys know who the enemy are right?”

	“Affirmative...Alpha wing, shake um and bake um!”  With that order Alpha wing broke formation and with speed that astonished the Confederation (Confed) pilots closed on the enemy (hereafter called Nephilem or bugs) and began to engage.  The tide of the battle quickly turned.  The bug fighters were far less powerful than the GTA as were the Confed fighters.  Had Viper wanted to he could have destroyed the bugs, Confed fighters, and the Midway all by himself without having his shields penetrated no matter how many direct hits he took.  The bug fighters could only stand four or five Banshee hits before exploding and only one missile hit from any type of missile fired.  Lt. Talvert could only stand and watch as the enemy forces fell in under five minutes.  When all was done Zack radioed her.

	“Well, that was more fun than I've had in a long time.  Are there anymore of them?”

	“You bet, they're overrunning the Confederation all over the place.  But, more importantly, who the hell are you, where the hell are you from, where did you get those ships, where'd you get those weapons and can I have some?

	“We'll be happy to answer all questions, but could we maybe land on your Midway?  We've been in these things for awhile and would more than welcome chance to walk upright.”

	“I'll check...Bravo one to Midway...our new friends want to land.  Can we do that?”

	“Affirmative Bravo.  Once you land we'll guide them in...in case you're wondering all ejected pilots have been picked up.”

	“That's great...Bravo one to um well what do I call you.”

	“Alpha one will do until we meet face to face.”

	“Alright then, you get all that Alpha?”

	“Confirmed we'll wait...Alpha wing power down.”  The Alpha pilots powered there ship down to wait for the Confed Bravo pilots to land, it took about two minutes and then one after another all six pilots landed as if they had been landing on Confed Megacarriers for years.

TCS Midway flight deck:

	As the Alpha pilots walked away from their fighters they were the subject of many questioning looks from the personal on the deck, they all ignored these looks and walked straight toward the group of pilots, and command personal from the Midway.  Viper walked up to the Captain and saluted.

	“Vice Admiral Joshua Bridgeford callsign “Viper” of the Galactic Terran Alliance.”

	Wilford saluted back, after all Viper did outrank him.  “Captain Daniel Wilford of the Terran Confederation sir, if I may ask where did you come from?”

	“Well, that's a long story, first let me introduce you to my wing.”  Viper nodded to his personal and one by one they stepped up saluted.

	“Commodore Zachary Higgins callsign Ghost-rider.”
	
“Lieutenant Patrick Simms callsign Hawkeye.”

	“Lieutenant Junior Grade Timothy Geraldi callsign Stardust.”

	“Commander Joseph Wren callsign Ozone.”

	“Ensign Stephanie Halfry callsign Darkwing.”

	“Well, since we're introducing people here are mine.”  Said Wilford and nodded to his people.

	“Commander Patricia Drake, CAG aboard the Midway.”

	“First Lieutenant Lance Casey, pilot.”

	“First Lieutenant Terrance O'Hair, pilot, callsign Zero.”

	“First Lieutenant Maxwell Garret, pilot, callsign Maestro.”

	“First Lieutenant Jean Talvert, pilot, callsign Stiletto.”

	“Oh, so you're the pilot who we just bailed out.”

	“Yes sir, thanks, I owe you.”

	“Oh yeah big time.”

	“Can it Zack we just did our job.”

	“Oh yes sir.”

	“Ok now as to where we came from.  We are from an alternate universe...uh you got a star map?”

	“Yes.”  Wilford walked over to panel and pressed a button, a large star map appeared on the above screen.  “This shows the Terran Confederation, Union of Border World, and the old Kilrathi Empire.”

	“That's good enough we came in here, Viper pointed to a system that had a large green triangle blinking on it.”

	“The H'Hrass system, we though the anomalies there were a bug wormhole!”  Exclaimed Drake

	“Nope we call it inter-dimensional subspace jump node.  We usually use them to get around space, but this one bring us from our universe to yours, we can create them artificially, they're the same thing we came out of when we showed up here.”

	“Those white circles?”

	“Affirmative Mr.... Casey, right?”

	“Yes sir.”

	'Now you say your Confederation is being overrun by these bugs.”

	“Yes, we can't stop them.”

	“Well maybe the GTVA can.”

	“Vice Admiral?”

	“Well, Talvert.  GTVA stands for Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance.  It's an Alliance of the Galactic Terran Alliance and the Parliamentary Vasudan Empire.  And I might be able to get them to declare war on these bugs.”

	“Uh, Josh no offense but the bugs haven't attacked us.”

	“I know Zack.  However the GTVA Charter states that the two members swear to protect the each other's SPECIES.  It doesn't say that that species must located in the same dimension.”

	“Oh that's sneaky.”

	“I know but it just might work.  Captain could I use your communications system.”

	“Of course.”

TCS Midway bridge:

	“Alright Viper I've fed all the data into the Midway's computer system.  You should be able to contact the Galatea.”

	“Alright Stardust here it goes...Alpha one to Galatea do you read?

	“Affirmative Alpha one...where are you guys?”

	“Admiral we've made contact with the Terrans in this universe, they are an organization known as the Terran Confederation.  This Confed is under attack by a race known as Nephilem, they're this universes’ equivalent of the Shivans, though incredibly weaker than us.  We were able to take out a whole squadron of them without getting hit once.”

	“Damn!  Well this is a bundle of news.  But why call?”

	“Well, Confed has asked that the GTVA declare war on the Nephilem to assist in defeating them.”

	“Huh?  Josh I can't arbitrarily declare war.”

	“I know that but Confed doesn't stand a chance without our help.”

	“Alright tell ya what, I'll send two Fenris cruisers, a Damocles cruiser and one Orion, the Bastion, to assist.  Where are you?”

	“Aboard the Confed carrier Midway.”

	“Ok, stay there, I'll send a wing of bombers there, as well as enough weapons to keep you guys going for three months.  Plus, I'll put this decision before the council.  How's that?”

	“Sounds good, Captain Wilford.”

	“Thank you Admiral.  The help is greatly appreciated.”

	“Your welcome...oh one more thing...Josh I'll also send the Lucifer.”

	“The Lucifer!  Well what the hell do we need a declaration of war for?”

	“That's the point.  The forces are on the way...GTD Galatea out.”

	“Damn, we are gonna kick some butt.”

	'You better believe it Halfry.”

	'What's the Lucifer.”  Asked Talvert.

	“Zack.”

	'Thanks Josh.  The Lucifer is the most powerful ship of war ever.  It has an impervious shielding system making it immune to any from of kinetic or plasma weapon damage.  It also wields three massive flux cannons capable of destroying any of OUR ships in a less than ten hits.  It could probably take out a bug ship with one cannon on half power.  The bugs will quickly learn to be very careful when that thing is in the area.”

	“Sounds like a bug Kraken class ship killer.  You might want to keep your Lucifer away from those things , they can take out a fleet with one blast.”

	“Are they Plasma or Kinetic weapon based?”  Asked Viper.

	“Plasma, sir.”

	“You weren't paying attention before were you Lt. Garrett?”

	“I guess not.  Call me Maestro.”

	“Maestro?  Where'd you get that callsign?”

	“Don't ask sir, he's a total lamebrain.”

	“Don't insulting your comrades Stiletto, they're all you've got.  Anyway the Lucifer's shielding system is impervious to any type of Plasma or Kinetic weapon damage.”

	“Damn wish we had a few of those.  How many do you have.”

	“There's only one left in existence, we captured it from some old friends called the Shivans, they were pretty much our version of the bugs.”

	“I see.”

	“Well, Vice Admiral...”

	“Viper, Commander, call me Viper.”

	“Ok, well then why don't you take a grand tour and then head to our pilot's lounge and then you can go meet your friends.”

	“Sounds good to me.”

TCS Midway Pilots Lounge:

	“So Talvert this is the hotdog who saved your hide?”

	“Muzzle it Maniac.”

	“Why should I?”

	“Well, for one reason...”

	“Butt out pal no one's talking to you, who do think you are an Admiral?”

	“Vice Admiral actually.”

	“Huh?”

	“I said I'm a Vice Admiral, Joshua “Viper” Bridgeford.”

	“Well I'm Major Todd “Maniac” Marshall, best pilot in Confed.”

	“That's fabulous Major, Commodore Zachary “Ghost-rider” Higgins at your service, Viper is the best pilot it the GTA...better in GTA history...still better he's the best pilot in Terran history, from the Wright bothers on.  So like he said, Muzzle it!.”

	Maniac skulked away murmuring.

	“Well, I never thought I'd see Maniac walk away like that.”

	“Why not Mr. Casey?”

	“Just Casey, well he's got an ego the size of Texas for one thing, usually he'd challenge you to fly against him in the simulator.”

	“Well maybe he figured we'd embarrassed him enough and didn't want to risk further humiliation.”

	“I guess.”

	“My, my look at the time, we'd better get in space Zack if we're gonna meet the Lucifer and company.”

	“Just you and Zack are going.”

	“Affirmative Stiletto the strike force will have its own escort.”

	“Well, Casey and I are coming with you.”

	“Cool, let's go.”

H'Hrass Star System:
1525 hrs.

	“So where's this invincible ship we've been hearing all about?”

	“Hang on a minute Talvert the fleet will be here.”

	“I got their Jump nodes Zack.”

	“Where...oh my God!”  Exclaimed Casey.   He had flipped his fighter around, and saw the subspace nodes of the GTA's oldest cruisers, the Fenris class, their newest cruiser the Damocles class, an Orion Destroyer, and the GTSD Lucifer.

	 “This is the Fenris class cruiser GTC Ravage.”

	“Fenris cruiser GTC Orff  reporting in.”

	“Damocles cruiser GTC Trident, awaiting orders.”

	“Good day Alpha wing...I assume these are our new friends.”

	“Confirmed Admiral Shima.”

	“Fabulous, this is the Orion Destroyer GTD Bastion.” 

	“As well as the GTSD Lucifer.”

	“Tell me something Viper.  Are those ships as mean as they look?”

	“Worse Casey.”
	
	“Damn.  Talvert I don't think the bugs stand a chance.”

	“Apocalypse wing has arrived, awaiting orders.”

	“Roger, all GTA ships follow us.”  Ordered Viper

	“You the boss.”

Terran Confederation:
Valgard System:
Location of TCS Midway:

	“So Commander Drake, do you still think I was exaggerating the capabilities of our ships?”

	“Perhaps, I still want to see them in action, Vice Admiral.”

	“Looks like your gonna get the chance.  Josh, I got bug ship sigs...lots of em!”

	“I see em Bastion, all craft lockem in and prepare to engage. Galactic Terran Fighter Alpha 1 to attacking forces, I'm gonna be nice and warn you once.  Break off and depart from this system at once or we will open fire.  What do ya say?”

	“You will be fodder to our beasts human.”

	“Uh...I guess that's a 'no' huh?”

	“Oh yeah.  Well that's fine I always preferred the hard way...all GTA forces take em down!.  Confed forces watch and learn.”  For the third time in under twenty-four hours Viper's Alpha's engaged enemy fighters.  It took longer this time though, the bugs had brought several capital ships to this battle.

	“Alpha 2 to Apocalypse wing.  You guys hang back, we'll handle the fighters...I'm sure Confed would love a demonstration of Harbinger bomb.”

	“That depends...What's a Harbinger.”

	“Well, Zero, the Harbinger is a five thousand megaton nuclear bomb.”

	“FIVE THOUSAND MEGATONS!!!”

	“Yup, the pride of the GTA.”

	“Hey Zack, cut the chatter, they'll see the Harb soon enough...Apocalypse confirm that order.”

	“Roger Alpha 1 we'll hang back.”

	Um...This is Stiletto, I've got a problem here.”  Two, Devil Ray class fighters were shooting her, Stiletto's shields were already gone and her hull was failing.”

	“I got em.”

	“Both of them?”

	“Why not Talvert?”
	
	“Well, Viper these things don't go down easy.”

	“For you maybe.”  Viper, pitched his fighter straight up and engaged his afterburner's he came up under the belly of the first Devil Ray and obliterated it in a fury of Banshee fighter and Interceptor missiles.  He continued his ascent until he was two-hundred meters above the second Devil Ray.  He cut his left engine's, this caused his fighter two make a 180 degree turn, he also pitched his fighter down, with his stabilizers screaming in protest to this violent maneuver he swung around and pitched down.  Re-engaging his right engines he bared straight down on the Devil Ray.  One again he literally dissolved the enemy as the Banshee cannons dissolved the bonds holding the fighters armor together.

	“Scratch those bandits!”

	“I...owe...you.  Again.”

	“You damn right.  Status Zack.”

	“All fighters destroyed.”

	“Alright then...Apocalypse wing and capital ships you are cleared to engage.”

	“Whoa, we just had a new enemy jump in.”

	“What the Hell is that.”

	“Ensign Halfry...was it?  That is the bugs most powerful cap ship...the Kraken ship killer.”

	“Ship killer...HAH!  Lucifer requesting permission to show that thing what a real ship killer is.”

	“Permission granted.  Show em the ropes Lucifer.”

	“You bet.”  The Lucifer turned itself towards the Kraken ship killer, just as the ship killer let off a Plasma burst designed to obliterate an entire fleet.  A frantic message came from the Midway, the intended target.

	“We can't take a hit from that!!!”

	“Josh, none of us can intercept in time!”

	“DAMN!”  However, just as it looked like the Midway was going to be space dust the dark form of a Vasudan Typhon  class destroyer loomed right in front of the Plasma Burst and took the full hit without complaint.  At the same time an Orion class destroyer made a gun run on an approaching bug Tiamat class dreadnought that had secretly closed to within firing range of the Midway.

	“GTD Galatea to Alpha one...The big boys are here!”

	“All right, guess you can jump directly to this universe from ours without using that node as long as you change the base frequency.  Who's the Typhon?”

	“PVD Pinnacle here to assist...Lucifer that Kraken's all yours.”

	“Roger that...all right you bugs let me show you a ship-killer.”  The Lucifer's flux cannons glowed with power moments before they fired.  In the face of the unfathomable power of the Lucifer, which happened to be close to the equivalent of an exploding star, the ship killer blossomed in a tremendous explosion that tore it completely apart.

	“YEEEE-HAWWW...now THAT'S an explosion!”

	“You better believe it Viper.”  Called the Lucifer

	“My God...”  Lt. Talvert's voice simply trailed off.

	“And here go the Harbingers.”  All five remaining bug ships were destroyed in a matter of minutes, unable to withstand the forces unleashed against them.

	“Well, Commander STILL think I was exaggerating?”

	“I think you were being modest.”

	“Uh - huh.”

TCS Midway Briefing Room:

	“Alright Vice Admiral, I'm gonna give you some time to explain how the GTA works and to give them your strategy for this war.”

	“Sounds good Commander, I won't take long.”

	“Take all the time you want, Lord knows after what you guys pulled out there I'm not gonna risk pissing you off.”

	“Good point, why don't you start and Zack and I will be over here.”

	“Okay.”  Commander Drake walked to the podium where the briefings were delivered from.  “Sit down pilots we have got a lot of work to do.  First, I think we all should thank the GTA for their assistance...”

	“Don't mention it, that was more fun than we've seen in months.”

	“Thanks anyway Commodore we owe you.”

	“That's the third time you've told us that Stiletto, how about some payment...preferably cash.”

	“Don't hold your breath.”

	“Okay, I guess this is as good a time as any, pilots Vice Admiral Bridgeford and Commodore Higgins are going to explain how the GTA works, their technology, and their strategy for winning this war...Gentlemen.”

	“Thanks Commander...alright people I'm Vice Admiral Bridgeford, the man behind me is Commodore Zachary Higgins.”  Zack was setting up a view screen, he looked up and nodded, Viper continued.  “We're going to show you the different ships and weapons in the GTA, this is going to take some time.”

	Everything that Viper talked about doesn't need to be repeated here, I will tell you however, what he said about the weapons and ships we're going to be seeing a good amount of.

	“...this is the GTB Medusa class bomber, it's an anti-cruiser bomber that carries the Tsunami bomb...”

	“Is that what you used out there?”

	“Nope these are only 2500 megatons what we used were the Harbinger, 5000 megatons.  Anyway the Tsunami is not a nuclear weapon it detonates by combining to liquids that, when in each others presence, explode with incredible force.  Because of this Tsunamis are extremely volatile and are usually not even assembled until they're loaded onto the Medusa or a supply craft.  Now the next bomber is our big boy the GTB Ursa, these carry the Harbinger, the 5000 megaton behemoth that we used against those bug cap-ships.  This the definitive anti-destroyer weapon.”

	“What was that huge ship that took down the ship killer?”

	“I was getting to that.  THAT was the GUSTED Lucifer, GTSD stands for Galactic Terran Super-Destroyer.  We captured that baby from our old enemies the Shivans, a task easier said than done.  Well to give you an idea of it's capabilities, the Lucifer can carry four full squadrons of fighters and three full squadrons of bombers, one of our squadrons is made up of five wings of six ships each.  It also wields those two flux cannons that you saw used out there...”

	“Yeah, thank God you guys are on our side.”
	
	“Yep.”
	
	“Alright, Talvert and Zack why don't you finish this conversation later.  Now those flux cannons can destroy any known ship or installation in a matter of five hits or less.  That alone makes the Lucifer extremely difficult to destroy.  However, the Lucifer is protected by a shielding system that is impervious to any type of kinetic or plasma damage.”

	“What other type is there?”

	“None that we know of.  So for all purposes the Lucifer is virtually invincible...”

	“Virtually?”

	“Yes Commander, we have destroyed two of them...one we killed while it was being built, before the shield system was installed, and this one we captured in the same condition and got the cargo containing the shields later.  The first one we killed was fully operational, we found that just like all shields, in subspace, which is what we use to cut interstellar distances, its shields don't work.  So we just went in and killed it.”

	“About this subspace thing...”

	“Ok, well unlike your method our subspace drives don't allow us to travel instantaneously from one point in space to another, it still takes a few minutes or hours.  However, once again unlike your method, which seems to rely on preexisting natural phenomenon and only allows you to jump from a certain location to a certain location, our drives can be used anywhere, anytime, to take us to any place that the frequency is set for.”

	“You guys do have ground assault troops right?”

	“Absolutely.  We have several varieties.  The ones you see here on the screen are the standard Terran - Marine, we also have Siege Tanks and Wraith cloakers, they're atmospheric assault fighters.”

	“Cloakers?”

	“Yeah, we found that if you vary a unit's subspace frequency by less than 1 you can actually hide it from enemy view.  It can still shoot and be shot but not locked onto or seen.  In any spectrum.”

	“Not bad.  Oh yeah I'm Colonel Dekker, I run the marines on the Midway.”

	Viper's communicator beeped.  “Bridgeford here go.”

	“This is Admiral Wolf, I figured you should know why we're here.”

	“Be a nice idea, hold on and I'll patch you into the Briefing Room's communications Admiral.  That way we can all here you.”

	“Thank you Commander...Ok.  The GTVA examined Bridgeford's interpretation of the oath each officer in the Alliance took.  That is to defend their own and the other member's species.  To put it simply Terrans are obligated to defend Vasudans and vice - versa.  Unless of course, illegal action is being taken by the group needing defense.  That's why we don't defend the Hammer of Light, a rogue group of Vasudans that rejected the GTVA charter.  Well the Terran - Vasudan council agreed with Viper's interpretation of the oath as saying we have to defend Terrans...it didn't say where.”

	“In other words, I convinced the GTVA to declare an open state of war on the bugs.”

	“Affirmative and congratulations, believe it or not your popularity just went through the roof.  Now look, this is for my pilots specifically but you better all here it.  We've found a large sensor cluster in a nearby asteroid field it could monitor fleet movements across the next five sectors.”

	“Damn, they're ingenious little bastards.”

	“That they are, Viper, I want Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon wings to take that grid down.”

	“No problem but are three wings really necessary?” asked Zack

	“Well you could do it alone of course it's just that there are at least sixty-four sensors and they all have reinforced armor and shields.”

	“Oh.”

	“Exactly, now what's your status of readiness.”

	From the back of the room Maniac murmured to Stiletto “Watch him ask for time to get his precious ship all filled up with weapons.”

	“Can it!” answered Stiletto angrily

	Viper, who did here all this, replied.  “Well, we're all low on missiles right now, but I guess we won't really need them.  Alpha wing's jacked up and good to go.”

	“Alright then get in the air ASAP.  We'll upload the jump coordinates for the field to Merlin.”

	 “Understood, Viper out.  Alright Alpha wing you heard the boss get your asses in gear.”

	“If I could just ask, who's Merlin?”

	“What Commander, oh yeah Merlin!  He's a computer...”

	“Wouldn't he be an it then.”

	“Nope, he's artificially intelligent.  He's a prototype that command wanted tested and the Galatea um was chosen.  He runs the Galatea and everything associated with it.”  Viper, tapped a button on his what looked to be a watch and what it answered him back.

	“What's going on boss?”

	“Just showing off our technology to our new friends.”

	“You mean those guys whose butts we saved?”

	“Yep.  Listen you're gonna be getting a transmission from the Galatea soon, subspace coordinates.  Upload them to the other Alpha's.”

	“No prob.  Out.”  His communicator clicked off.  Viper turned back to the assembled pilots.

	“That was Merlin.”

	“Interesting, what if he goes haywire?”

	“He has a emergency cutoff switch that not even he knows about plus everything he does can be overridden manually.”

	“Oh.”

	“We do play it safe, even though Merlin's usually telling me that I'm pulling maneuvers to stressful on my fighter.  I nearly blew out a stabilizer when I did that 180 to save your butt Talvert.  Ok, let's get in the air.”

	“How many people can your fighters carry?”

	“Two Commander.  Why?”

	“I want a few of my people in your backseats to observe.”

	“Fine. Who'd ya have in mind?”

	“Talvert, Casey, Garrett and O'Hearn.”

	“Sounds fine, Zack you can take Maestro Lord knows I don't want him touching anything in my ship.”

	“Sure, if he ejects himself on accident though I'm not picking him up until we're all done.”  Higgins laughed.

	“I'll just say I didn't see anything.  Alright so Garrett you're riding with Zack.  Now how about the others.”

	“Why don't they just pick a fighter and get in.”

	“Sounds good.”

TCS Midway Flight Deck:
Cockpit of Alpha 1.

	“Alright who do I have flying with me?  Well Lt. Talvert, welcome aboard.”

	“I wanted to see if those maneuvers you pull are as nauseating as they look.”

	“You won't be disappointed.  Whose everybody else got?”

	“Alpha 2 has Garrett.”

	“Alpha 3 I'm solo.”

	“Alpha 4 I got O'Hearn.”

	“Alpha 5's a lone shark.”

	“Alpha 6 has Casey.”

	“Alright Alpha's 3 and 5 you guys can die...everybody else must stay breathing.”

	“Real funny boss.” Stardust answered.

	“Alpha 1 to launch control we're ready to fly.” 

	“Roger that Alpha launching now.”

	With a loud whoosh the fighters were literally shot out of the Midway in much the same manner as from the Galatea but with much more force.

	“Damn!!  That was some ride.”

	“You never do get used to it.”

	“Great Casey,  Josh this is Zack, I'm not flying anymore.”

	“Cut the crap and fly.”  Viper responded laughing.

	“Who's joking?”

	 “Alright we have to jump to the Galatea and meet up with the rest of the strike force.”

	“Bye the way where is the Galatea?”

	“In what Confed calls the Nephele system along with the Minnow and Destiny trying to subdue bug influence.”

	“Alright then, frequency?”

	“45.67terahertz...jump when ready.”

	“Galatea to Alpha 1 hold up a sec guys.”

	“Why?”

	“We're picking up multiple bug signatures inbound on your position.”

	“Man, these guys aren't to bright are they?”

	“Seems not, anyway take um down.”

	“Gladly.  Alright Alpha looks like that sensor field will have to wait...picking up bug jumps...break and attack.  How many we got?”

	“Looks like four squadrons.”

	“Talk about your swarms eh Zack.”

	“Hell yeah.”

	“Watch out Viper there's one on us!!”

	“Don't sweat it I got him.”  Viper put his fighter into reverse thrust which made him jerk backward and go down below the enemy fighter, he pitched his nose up and lined the bug up.  “So long screwy...Alpha 1 lightin off.”  The bug was dissolved in the fury of Viper's main Banshee guns.

	“YEEE-HAW that's one!”

	“Great only about two dozen more to go Zack.”

	“Don't worry Maestro we'll get em.”

	“Midway to Alpha we're showing multiple bombers inbound.”

	“Confirmed Midway, Alpha 3 shows the same...damn, Josh none of us can get there in time to block all the bombs.  One of you Confed pilots tell me, how many hits can the Midway take?”

	“Not many.”

	“I was afraid of that Zero.”

	“Alpha 1 to any GTA fighter wing we need a little help here we got bombers and we can't intercept in time.”  Nothing but static came back.  “What the hell is going on?”

	“They're jamming us...your message may have gotten out but nothing is coming in.”

	“Impressive, so we might get help but we can't be sure.”

	“In a nutshell.” Replied Ozone.

	“Fantastic.”

	“Tell me about it Halfry.  Alright then we got act like we're not getting help...all fighters break off and intercept the bombers.”  The Alphas broke off from whatever they were doing and made full speed for the Midway just as ten enemy torpedoes did the same thing.

	“SHIT!”  Yelled Viper, he was so upset that he didn't see the jump-nodes open, didn't see the Vasudan Aten class cruiser emerge from one of them, didn't see it fire, all he saw were the bombs explode in mid-flight.  He also failed to notice the six original GTF Valkryie class interceptors, all he saw was six enemy bombers suddenly become dust. 

	“Epsilon wing has arrived.”

	“PVC Mecross here to assist.” 

	“Alright!”  exclaimed Stardust.

	“Thanks Epsilon...you guys stick around and guard the Midway we got a sensor cluster to take down.”  Called Viper.

	“Sure thing.”

	“Ok then Alpha wing jump out.”

	Alpha wing entered their jump nodes.  The short distance between systems required a transit time of five minutes.

	“Viper to Minnow...Alpha Wing here.”

	“Good to see you Alpha.”

	“Likewise...you go the coordinates on that sensor grid?”

	“Affirmative downloading now...be advised it is heavily guarded.  Plus we may have other problems.”

	“Care to clarify.”

	“We found a bug outpost that was apparently destroyed by Vasudan weapons.”

	“So?”

	“The weapons were old...MX-50 heat seeker missiles and Avenger cannons.  Now who do we know who only has access to old hardware?” 

	“Who else but the HOL.”

	“Affirmative, we've already sent a message to Confed to warn them not to give quarter to an unregistered Vasudan ship.  The PVE themselves are enraged.”

	“At us or the HOL.”

	“The HOL.  They keep saying how those pirates have dishonored the species and that it will take a thousand years of suffering repentance to appease their gods.”

	“As long as they don't start shooting at us.”

	“To the contrary they're practically begging us to FORGIVE them.”

	“Huh?”

	“According to the Vasudan religion the sins of one Vasudan are carried by all Vasudans...the only way this can be amended is by the forgiveness of the one wronged...namely the GTA and now Confed.”

	“What about the bugs?”

	“Nope...as all Vasudans are enemies of the bugs they don't need to forgive.  However, a Confed carrier was attacked by a Typhon a few hours ago.  We sent a full squadron to help, they saved the carrier but the Typhon got away before our bombers got there.  The fighters got in some good hits though so if you see a moderately damaged Typhon out there, call us.”

	“Will do...ok we've got the data.  Thanks.  Alpha wing, lock coordinates and prepare for an intrasystem jump.”  An intrasystem jump is a subspace jump from one place in a system to another place in the same system, this is done using the third through eighth decimal place in the subspace frequency to calculate coordinates.  Just as a ship can jump into deep space between systems using if their coordinates are put out to the fiftieth decimal place.  Needless to say this is done using a computer.  Ships can also jump out of subspace at any location just by deactivating their drive.  Useful in ambushing enemy ships in deepspace.

	“Roger.”

	“You got it sir.”

	“Alpha 4 ready to go.”

	“Okey dokey smokey.” 

	“Sure thing boss.”

	“Jump.”

Nephele Asteroid Belt:

	“Picking up multiple energy signatures.  Looks like intelligence was right...for once...this thing is big.”

	“Oh yeah.” Answered Halfry.

	“Alright people listen up.  I divided the grip into six zones...I'll take Alpha zone, Zack, you take Bravo zone, Stardust Charlie zones yours, Hawkeye to you goes Delta zone, Ozone take Eta zone, and Darkwing you get Foxtrot zone.  Go to it.”

	Shooting stationary, unarmed sensor dishes was not exactly too challenging for the six best pilots.  Before long the complaints came over the communications channels.

	“This is way to easy.”

	“Commands kidding right.”

	“The last five of these are going to like explode or something right?”

	“Come on Viper why are we here?”

	“You guys think I like this.  I'm falling asleep here.”

	“Well, wake up, we got company...and they ain't bug.  I'm reading a wing of Confed fighters with HOL in hot pursuit.”

	“I got em.  Alright everybody hide.”

	“Excuse me?”

	“What!”
	
	“He's joking, Viper please tell me you're joking.”

	“Somebody's possessed him.” 

	“Shut up.  Once they're in range get the bastards.”

	“Oh.  That's ok.”

	All of the pilots hid behind asteroids as the Confed fighters, who were badly damaged flew passed.  Perhaps ten seconds later a few wings of HOL Seth class fighters followed, the Seth was the slowest Vasudan fighter in existence.  As soon as the HOL fighters passed the hiding places of Alpha wing six of the asteroids exploded, before the Vasudans could react Alpha wing sprung out of hiding and off a good volley of fire.

	“Surprise!” Yelled Viper

	“Hiya pals.” Called Higgins

	“Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy you in trouble.”  Taunted Stardust.

	“Well, well, well, just when I thought this was gonna be a slow day.”  Laughed Hawkeye.

	“Why thank you Confed you, brought guests.”  Called Ozone.

	“Now if I'd know we'd be having company I would've baked a cake.”  Taunted Halfry.

	“Alright Alpha you know the drill, GET EM!!!”  Ordered Viper.

	“Alpha wing!”  Called one of the Vasudans, the sight of Alpha pretty much terrified the HOL.

	“You were expecting Orson Wells?”  Called Hawkeye.

	“Man am I glad to see you.”   The leader of the Confed fighters called to Viper.

	“Well if isn't Mr. Maniac.  Ya know being as it is your fat I'm pulling out the fire this is gonna be a whole lot more fun.”

	“Hey knock it off and just get those guys.”

	“Sure.”  Answered Viper sarcastically.  Being as these were Vasudans the fight lasted a little longer than usual.  Viper pitched his fighter up a went four hundred meters above the battle, pitched down and launched a Synaptic advanced cluster bomber, designed to do a lot of damage to a lot of fighters in a short amount of time.  In this case Viper got four quick kills.

	“Very nice Joshua very nice.”

	“Why thank you Zachary.”  Higgins became surrounded by fighters, no problem for him, he cut his right engine and afterburned of his left while holding down his gun trigger.  He did a complete 360 and destroyed two fighters on the way around, while forcing all the others to break off.  “Bite that ya jackasses.”  

In an impressing display of teamwork, Halfry hid behind an asteroid while using her Flail cannon, which pushed things but didn't destroy them, to keep the asteroid moving with her fighter, while Ozone, her wingman, flew straight at the rock ignoring the fighter behind him.  At the last second Ozone pitched down while Halfry switched guns, fired, destroyed the asteroid, kept firing, destroyed the Vasudan.

	“Good thinking Ozone.”

	“Don't compliment me Zack that was Halfry's idea.  Took me twenty minutes to figure out what she wanted me to do.  Worked like a charm though.”

	“Sure did, very nice Ensign.”

	“Thanks...that's all of em.”

	“Yup.”  Answered Hawkeye, he had pursued three fighters deeper into the belt, they tried to lose him by using the asteroids to block his sensors.  However, the asteroids blocked his but because of the more advanced technology on Hawkeye's fighter he had hung back so that his fighter no longer registered on the Vasudans' radar's.  When they turned to rejoin the battle they literally flew right into his waiting arms.

	“Oh man all the enemies go bye bye.” Called Stardust.  Like Hawkeye he had followed a small group of fighters into the belt.  However his Vasudans went so far in they got lost and start flying aimlessly looking for the direction of the battle.  Stardust, knowing full well where he was, used his flail cannon to push a bunch of asteroids towards the Vasudans to keep their sensors confused.  When the Vasudans shut down their engines to save power and wait for the asteroids to clear Stardust used his computer to calculate to send a bunch of asteroids on collision courses with the fighters.  When the Vasudans started flying again they flew straight into the asteroids, two were immediately destroyed, as Stardust had seriously damaged them beforehand.  Two lost all sensors and navigational equipment and were easy pickings for Stardust.  In case you haven't guessed by now Stardust is a computer genius.  Also, Alpha wing is composed of all Triple Ace Winners, which is rare, but they are also composed of what is probably the rarest thing in existence, smart space-combat pilots.

	“So, Maniac, what do you say to that.”   Called Viper.

	“Alright so you guys are good.”

	“Good try great, better yet fantastic.”

	“Cool it Hawkeye.  Allow the man to be alone with his humiliation.”  Ordered Higgins

	“Absolutely.”

	“Hey if you guys are done insulting me, care to escort us home.”

	“I don't know.  Boys, what's the status of that array?”

	“Only I hadn't finished Josh...I cleared my zone on the way out of the field.”

	“Copy that Stardust.  Alright Maniac, we're heading back to the Midway we'll give ya that escort.”

	“Thanks.”

	“No prob.  Hold on!  New contact bearing 123 mark 2.”

	“Wait!  That's one of our refueling vessels.”

	“TCS Redeemer to GTA fighters.”

	“Alpha wing copies Redeemer.  What's up?”

	“That Midway is under attack.  Several capital ships and fighter squadrons are inbound.  Multiple bombers too.  We also read four Tiamat class dreadnoughts heading in her direction.  We'll handle Maniac, we got escort behind us, you get to the Midway.”

	“Roger.  Alpha wing let's go.”  Without waiting for a response Viper activated his subspace drive.  Alpha wing followed, Maniac buzzed the Redeemer.

	“Man those guys just don't care about their own lives do they?”

	“Nope Major.”  Responded an unknown voice.

	“Who the.”

	“This is GTA wing Epsilon from the Minnow, 127 tactical fighter squad.  And your right, Viper and his pilots would sacrifice themselves to save lives.  But they'll never die.”

	“Huh?”

	“Well, Viper would kill me for saying this, he and his wing are very modest and it ain't false modesty either.  But they're not just heroes, they're legends.  And as the saying goes 'legends never die'.”

	“Oh.”
Subspace:
Alpha Wing:

	“How do you guys stand this?”

	“Excuse me Stiletto.”

	“Subspace, Viper, I think I'm gonna hurl.”

	“Don't you'll fry the back to front seat radio.  You get used to it.  Trust me we all lost our lunches our first time in subspace.”

	“Really?”

	“Sure, no one listens to Academy teachers when they say that the twenty-four hours before your first subspace flight in a fighter would be a good time to go on a religious fast.”  Chuckled Viper, he was telling the truth.

	“Can you help the Midway in time?”  Talvert asked with an edge of fear, everyone she cared about was stationed on that ship.  In Confed's first major war, with the Kilrathi her parents had been killed.

	“Probably, but just in case.  Alpha 1 to Galatea.”

	“Galatea here, go ahead Alpha.”

	“Chris, the Midway is under heavy assault, we're on the way but we would appreciate a little help.”

	“Come back Alpha, some interference on our end.”

	“Must be that damned micropulse the HOL used on us back there Josh, I'm working on it.”

	“Ok Stardust.”  The HOL had hit Alpha wing with a micropulse of subspace particles.  This distorted their radios inside subspace to interfere with transmissions to ships outside subspace.

	“Try it now.”

	“Repeat, the Midway is under heavy fire.  Alpha wing is responding but help would be useful.  Copy?”

	“Affirmative Alpha.  Galatea on the way.”

	“We might need more.”

	“No sweat, we'll get some more help.  See ya at the battle.”

	“Cool, Alpha 1 out.”

	“Alright, looks like we're gonna light some bugs up.”  Halfry called.

	“Hell yeah.  This is gonna be fun.”  Responded Hawkeye.  “Hey Halfry, for an Ensign you're pretty damn good.”

	“Thanks, Hawkeye.”

	“Alright you to, we're ready to jump out.  So kill bugs now, flirt later.  Jump!”  Josh interrupted.  Alpha wing exited subspace and saw that their backup was already in place.  The destroyers GTD Galatea, Bastion, Amadeus, Intrepid, and Steel.  The Vasudan destroyer Phoenix.  Plus, the cruisers GTC Orff, Ravage, and Trident.  As well as the Vasudan cruisers PVC Ramsees, Mecross, and Benedict.

	“Alpha wing rocking and rolling.”  Called Zack.

	“Good to see ya Josh.”  The Galatea called back.  “In case you're wondering the Lucifer is on the way.”

	“Alright!  We gonna have a fireworks show.”

	You better believe it.”

	“Well, we ain't gonna wait.  All ships waste um!”  Called Viper.  The Galatea turned towards one of the dreadnoughts which proceeded to taunt it.

	“You can not stop us frail human.  Your homeworld is ripe for our harvest.”

	Admiral Wolf responded with a flurry of gun and missile fire and the following.  “Sorry boys, harvest seasons over, didn't anybody tell you?  We don't lose.”  The dreadnoughts shields overloaded and collapsed, the Galatea stop firing.  Instantly the GTC Ravage came up and unleashed its guns on the dreadnought, the dreadnought exploded into a halo of golden light.

	“Midway to Galatea, you can just take out their bridge and engines and the ship is dead in space.”

	“Yeah, but what fun is that?” Responded Wolf as the Galatea destroyed a wing of bug fighters.

	“Yo, the Maniac is back.”

	“Great just what we needed.”  Answered Viper, “Hang back you guys we'll clear the place.”

	“With what?”

	“Happy you asked. How's that?”

	“How's what?”  Maniac looked around, and saw the Lucifer exit subspace, bank and unleash its flux cannons on an unsuspecting bug carrier.  The carrier dissolved under the force of the blast.

	“How's that Major?”  Zack asked Maniac

	“Holy...”  Like Stiletto earlier Maniac's voice simply trailed off.

	“Damn, I'm never gonna get used to seeing the bugs go down like that.”

	“You better Maestro because as long as we're in town it's gonna be that way.”

	“Oh, I'm not complaining Zack, and I don't think my buddies are either.  Right?”
	
	“No way!”  Casey answered.

	“My ass!” Zero responded.

	“As long as you guys want to stick around is fine by me.”  Stiletto replied.

	“Good, in that case Josh what do you say we dock up, this place is getting empty.”

	“Hold on Commodore, the Midway's bays were damaged you guys are on the Galatea for the time being.  That ok Midway?”

	“Confirm that Galatea, Pilots we'll send you personal effects over on the GTA transports, you are gonna be staying there for a while.”

	“No prob Midway.”  Casey called.

	“Cool.”  Answered Maestro.

	“This oughta be good.”  Zero responded.

	“Sounds fun.” Talvert answered.

	“Roger that Galatea, good to be home, Alpha 1 ready to land.”

	“Cleared Alpha, welcome back to the show.”

	“Yee-Haw!”

GTD Galatea:
Flight Deck:
2045 hrs.

	“Damn, this thing is big.”  Commented Casey.

	“Yeah, command likes their ship big.”  Higgins responded.  “Let's get to the bridge.”

	“Right this way.”  Viper indicated an elevator of to the side of the flight deck just big enough to hold him, Higgins, Casey, Zero, Maestro, and Talvert.  As soon as everyone was in he pushed a button and the elevator moved.  After about 45 seconds it stopped.

	“And, this is the bridge.” Zack said

	“Damn.”  Maestro responded.

	“Well, well, welcome back gentlemen.”  Commented Wolf.

	“Nice to see you Chris.”  Said Viper.

	“Welcome aboard pilots.”  Chris said nodding in the direction of the Confed pilots.  “You might be here for awhile so I assigned you quarters.  Lieutenant Riza, take these people to the quarters indicated on this pad.”

	“Yes sir.”  The Confed pilots departed.  Wolf turned to Viper and Zack.

	“Command has made a decision.”  Wolf paused.

	“And?”  Viper asked.

	“So far we've only done spaceborn assaults correct?”

	“Uh-uh.”  Zack answered.

	“Well, the bugs have begun to build large planetary bases, thinking we can't assault them.  Command has ordered us to destroy their largest one.”

	“So?”

	“We're gonna use the Lucifer.”

	“But, that'll render the planet unlivable.”

	“I know, Zack, but those are our orders.”

	“Ok, when do we leave?”

	“Two days.”

	“Refresh my memory what will be the date?”  Asked Viper.

	“The 30th.”

	“Whoo, has it been that many days.”

	“Yeah, what you lose count?”
	
	“That's affirm.”

Galatea Briefing Room:
June 30, 2740:
0400 hrs.

	Viper walked and addressed the already assembled GTA pilots, plus the Confed pilots, who had been told to report.

	“Alright, I know it's early guys but we got a big day ahead of us.  The bugs are getting smarter.”

	“Good for them.”

	“My thoughts exactly Firefly, but they're not smart enough.  They think we can't assault planets.  Our job is to show them how wrong they are.  What we're gonna do is this, the destroyers Galatea, Pinnacle, Hope, and Bastion will jump in and begin to enforce a blockade of the outer Nephele system.  Meanwhile a secondary destroyer\cruiser force will jump in and blockade the planet Nephele V itself.  This force will consist of the destroyers, Steel, Destiny, Phoenix, and Phantom.  The cruisers in this force will be, Mecross, Mauler, Taurus, Ravage, Orff, Trident, and Lancer.  Once the blockade of Nephele V is in place and secure, the outer system blockade ships will jump to the planet and join the ships there.  Once all the ships are at the planet the Lucifer will jump in and use its flux cannons on the planet.  Wings of Ursas and Medusas will also pound the planet during atmospheric bombing runs.  The cap-ships will hit the planet from orbit.  The fighters will strafe the any orbital defenses that are left before strafing the terrestrial bases themselves.”

	“So in other words, we're putting everything we got into this.”

	“Exactly, Ozone.  Now any questions?”

	“Yeah, how about we just blow the stinking planet up, probably be easier and take less time.”  Said Halfry, getting a general laugh.

	“Well that might work.”  Said Viper laughing with everyone else. “But we want to show the bugs that they can't just dig in and wait until they can beat us, we want to show them that we're gonna take um down wherever they are.  Report to your flight leaders for squadron briefings at 1200 hours.”

	“Whoa, we got up at 0400 just to here that!” Shouted Wombat 

	“Yep, don't worry I'm lodging a formal complaint but don't expect much except the old 'we're at war' routine.”

	“Wonderful.”

	“Shut up, don't forget I think you're the biggest idiot ever created.  Dismissed.”

GTD Galatea:
Alpha Wing Briefing
1200hrs.

	Viper cleared his throat and began.  “Alright, here's the deal, we're gonna stick with the Galatea and help secure the outer blockade.  Most of the bug space force is concentrated here so we're gonna be seeing the brunt of the action.  As you know once all ships are at the planet the Lucifer will proceed to pound the planet itself.  Now Nephele V is a large planet and for some unknown reason its gravity is almost identical to Earth's.  This means that it will take a while for the Lucifer to make a full assault on the planet.  It can only hit a relatively small area at a time.  For this reason, bombers will also attack ground targets.  The cap-ships will also assault the planet itself, our job is to strafe any remaining orbital and/or atmospheric defenses before heading down to the surface and strafing any ground forces.  Any questions?”

	“Are those Confed pilots gonna be with us again?”

	“Oh yeah thanks for reminding me Stardust.  No, they're gonna remain onboard and see how a cap-ship functions in combat.”

	“Ok.”

	“Alright then, lets go kick some ass.”  The pilots rose and filed out of the room, walked to the flight deck and jumped into their fighters.  Viper clicked on his radio.

	“Alpha 1 to flight control, we're ready to go.”

	“Roger that Alpha 1, launching...good luck.”   Alpha wing shot out of the Galatea's launch tubes, immediately followed by the other fighter and bomber wings stationed on the Galatea.

	“Beta 1 to Alpha 1.”

	“Alpha 1 here, go ahead Jeff.”

	“Josh, new game plan, we'll hold off the enemy fighters, you guys take out their bombers.”

	“Sure, but why?”

	“We got to guard Delta wing.  Apparently command forgot that little fact.”

	“Oh.  No problem we'll get the bombers.”

	“Alright, we're ready to go.”

	“Galatea to all fighters, signal your readiness...alright then all craft jump.”  The fleet jumped and once again left no sign they had ever been in the system except for some radiation trails.

Outer Nephele System:
Nephilem Defense Perimeter:

	“Jumping out now...all craft break off and attack.”  Admiral Wolf ordered

	“Alpha wing rockin the house!”  Responded Viper.

	“Beta wing taken it to em!”

	“Epsilon wing lighten em up!”
	
	“Zeta wing goin down!”

	“Gamma wing startin the show!”

	“Delta wing here, anybody feel like fireworks?”

	“Yee-haw, Theta wing ready to go!”  The fighter wing s broke their formations and engaged the bug fighters.  The bugs fell so fast that Admiral Wolf quickly lost count of the amount of fighters destroyed.

	“Alpha 1 to bomber groups, go ahead and engage, we'll get the stragglers.”

	“You got it Alpha.”

GTD Galatea Bridge:

	“Well, Lieutenant what do you think?”

	“I'm not sure Admiral, your fighters and bombers are impressive but I haven't seen the Galatea yet use its weapons.”  Stiletto answered Admiral Wolf

	“Well, I think we can fix that.  Tactical, can you give me a target.”

	“No shortage of those of those.  Do you want a cruiser, destroyer, dreadnought, or carrier?”

	“Let's go for the dreadnought.”

	“Affirmative, targeting nearest dreadnought, got him.  Maly you getting this?”

	“Affirmative.”  Answered Commander James Maly, the Galatea's weapons officer.

	“Alright then Commander, take him down.”

	“You got it Admiral.”  The Galatea increased speed and came within 400 meters of the dreadnought.  “We're in range, all fighters stand clear.”  Maly advised the fighters.

	“No prob James, Alpha wings clear, we're the only guys near that ship.”  Hawkeye responded.

	“Alright Alpha, Galatea firing...”  The Galatea opened fire on the dreadnought with its main turrets.  These turrets fired high energy plasma particles that caused a large amount of damage to a targets hull.  The Galatea followed immediately with a volley of fire from its secondary turrets, these were a combination of Banshees, Avengers, and Prometheus cannons.  In addition, it fired a few rounds of anti-cruiser missiles and cluster bombs, all this within fifteen seconds.  The dreadnought exploded and sent pieces of hull material spinning into the vacuum.

	“Target destroyed!”  The Tactical officer called.

	“Very nice Galatea.”  Ozone radioed in.

	“Why thank you Ozone.”  Maly called back.

	“Well, Lieutenant, what do ya think now?”

	“I'm just glad you guys are Terrans.”

	“Hell yeah!”  Wolf answered.  

Combat Zone:

	“They're dropping like flies boss.”  Zack called.

	“Indeed.” Viper responded. “Alpha 1 to Galatea.  Any idea on how the secondary force is doing?”

	“They're waiting on us.”  The Galatea answered.

	“Really, well were done here.”

	“Alright then all craft let's jump to the planet.  Whenever you're ready.”

	“GTD Bastion jumping out.”

	“PVD Pinnacle entering subspace.”

	“PVD Hope leaving battle zone.”  The capital ships and their accompanying fighters entered subspace on a course for Nephele V.

Nephele V:

	“How's it going folks.”  The GTD Destiny queried as the primary fleet exited subspace.

	“Just fine.  Signaling the Lucifer...all craft engage the planet.”  The bombers entered the atmosphere of Nephele V, once they reached one thousand meters above the surface they launched their bombs.  With an atmosphere to conduct the blast the destructive range was increased greatly if the overall power wasn't.  Areas the size of Hawaii were obliterated. All this occurred as the capital ships rained weapons fire from orbit.  Then the Lucifer arrived.

	“GTSD Lucifer moving into position...charging...firing.”  The Lucifer's flux cannons changed their orientation, they turned towards one another.  Then the cannons fired, the energy was combined into a single beam that stabbed towards the planet with force to great to imagine.  Insantly an area the size of the North America was destroyed.  The energy radiated out, engulfing everything for a thousand kilometers beyond the original blast zone.  Only targets on the other side of the planet escaped the onslaught completely.  However, they may have escaped the Lucifer but they couldn't escape the continuing onsluaght of the orbiting capital ships and bombers.

	“Alpha wing to Galatea.  We've cleared all orbital defenses and are heading down to the planet.”
	
	“Go ahead.”

	“See ya later.”  The fighters headed for the planet and all remaining ground defenses.  These, included missile turrets, anti-fighter guns, and anti-bomber defenses.

	“Bye, bye buggies!”  Stardust called as he strafed a defensive missile turret.  The defenses were destroyed within minutes.  The bug bases that had survived the Lucifer's attack were defenseless against the orbiting ships and the atmospheric bombers.  Within thirty minutes what had been a main bug base was totally destroyed.  The fighters and bombers headed home.

GTD Galatea pilots lounge:
Twenty minutes later:

	“Well, Maestro think we can win this war?”  Stardust asked

	“Hell yeah, I'm surprised the bugs are still fighting after that pounding.”

	“Fine by us.” Viper answered.  Alpha wing had been given four hours off.

	“The more they fight the more kills we get.”  Laughed Higgins.

	“Yep.” Answered Hawkeye.

	“Any ideas where we're heading next?” Asked Halfry.

	“Your guess is as good as mine, I haven't heard anything.”  Viper answered.
	
“Wolf to Bridgeford.”

	“Bridgeford here go ahead.”

	“Sir, you better get up here you might want to see this.”

	“On my way.”

Bridge:

	“What the hell is that?”  Viper asked.  He was looking at a feed from one of the GTA's spysats.  What he saw was a large black hole in space being held open by what appeared to be bug cooling towers with some sort of super-structure between them.

	“Unknown sir, but whatever it is the bugs have a whole fleet guarding it.”

	“So it's important.”

	“Seems so.”

	“Commander, get one of the Confed pilots up here maybe they've seen this before.”

	“Right away sir.”  The Commander on communications signaled the Confed pilots, before long all four were on the bridge.

	“Aw hell.”  Maestro said immediately.

	“Ah, so you're familiar with whatever this is?” Admiral Wolf asked.

	“Yes sir, it's a bug wormhole.”  Stiletto answered.

	“So what?”  Viper queried.
	
	“The bugs use them to get from wherever it is they come from into our space.” Zero responded.

	“Your telling me that to reach bug space all we have to do is go through that thing.”  Wolf said.

	“Theoretically yes,” Casey said, “unfortunately, every probe we sent through our captured one in Proxima has been unable to withstand the turbulence.  We finally gave up and destroyed the damn thing.”

	“Ensign, what does the spysat say that thing is, exactly.”  Wolf asked.

	“It says that the wormhole is a massive subspace node that can bring more than one ship through at a time.  It also tells me that our drives are incompatible with the technology, we can't send a ship through.”  Ensign Deevers responded.

	“Can we get a frequency?”  Viper asked.

	“Standby...affirmative sir, but the spysat doesn't have sensitive enough equipment to get one, only an Orion class destroyer could scan the wormhole with any accuracy.”

	“Good, good, maybe it will work...” Viper muttered to himself.

	Admiral Wolf caught him.  “Maybe what will work Josh?”

	“Huh?”

	“Don't play innocent, I've known you for too long, you're planning something.  Now what is it?”

	Viper had to concede defeat.  “Well, if we get the subspace frequency from that wormhole it might just lead us to the bug's home-system.”
 
	“You want to take this fight to the bugs?”  Casey asked.

	“Yeah I think it's time they went on the defensive.  What do ya think Admiral?”

	“Sounds like plan, I'll call command.”  Wolf answered, smiling.

	“Alright!  Let's wax those critters!”  Maestro yelled.

GTD Galatea:
Pilot's Lounge:
July 1, 2740
0832hrs.

	Commodore Higgins walked in, looked around, saw Viper sitting at a table bent over a computer pad and sipping a mug of coffee.  Grabbing a mug from the shelf, Zack poured himself a cup and then walked over and sat down next to Viper.  Viper turned and looked at the still bleary Higgins.

	“Morning bright eyes,” he said.

	“Morning Josh.  What's that?”  Higgins yawned and indicated the pad.

	“This?  This is the preliminary battle plans for the assault on the wormhole.”

	“Really, what's it say?”

	“That command approves of the plan to assault bug space but, they don't really care how we do it.”

	“So, in other words exactly what we do is up to us.”

	“Yep.”  Viper nodded.  Suddenly an alarm sounded and the lights in the lounge went red.  Admiral Wolf's voice came over the comm system.

	“All pilots get to the flight deck now!”  Viper and Zack leapt up and ran from the room, they turned a corner and ran to their lockers.  They grabbed their flight suits and were zipping them up as the rest of Alpha wing came charging in.  Halfry turned towards Viper.

	“What the hell's going on?”

	“I have no idea, but we gotta get airborne.”  Viper answered, running out of the room.  The rest of the wing followed, when they reached the flight deck Viper called up the bridge.

	“Bridgeford to Wolf, what's up.”  He asked in a hurried voice.

	“Take a look.”  The screen next to the comm panel came to life with a grid pattern and several icons indicating friendly and foe ships above the grid were the bold words “RED ALERT”.  Viper and the rest of his wing immediately recognized the allied destroyer icon as representing the Midway.  Wolf continued. “The Midway is under attack and needs help.  There are too many bugs for us to jump right into the engagement zone.  Our ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) is two minutes, the Galatea will jump in as close as we can and launch fighters.  You guys get to the battle as soon as possible, once you've cleared the area enough we'll jump in and help mop up.”

	“No problem.”  Viper responded and turned off the comm panel, he turned to Alpha wing.  “You heard in get to your ships now!”  The pilots ran for their fighters leapt in and started them up.  Within thirty seconds Alpha wing was primed and ready, the Galatea jump into the Alcor system, the Midway hailed her.

	“Midway to Galatea, can you assist.”

	“Affirmative Midway, launching fighters.”  Alpha, Beta, Epsilon, and Zeta wings shot out of the Galatea, banked and jumped.

	“Hang in there Midway, Alpha wing's on the way.”

	“Beta wing responding.”
	
	“Epsilon wing here to assist.”

	“Zeta wing here, we'll clear your tail.”   The wings entered the engagement zone and headed right for the most heavily concentrated area of big fighters.  Energy fire leapt from the front of all the ships, dozens of bugs fell at the first pass.  The battle was far from over the bugs were swarming and though not out gunned the GTA pilots were easily out numbered.

	“Beta lead to Alpha lead.”

	“I here ya.”
	
“Josh, the bugs could win this, we can't get them all in time.”

	“I know, but what can we do.”
	
	“have the Galatea launch a Centaur transport loaded with Tsunamis or Harbingers right into the center of the bug fighter formations and self-destruct.  That could take out about fifty percent of their fighter force.”

	“That would work, but could the Midway take the blast?”

	“If the Centaur explodes far enough away.”

	“Okay, more importantly, could WE take the blast?”

	“I think so.”

	“What are the odds we could take out the bugs in enough time without the Centaur?”

	“Computer says fifteen percent.”

	Viper sighed. “Alright, Firefly I'll get it done.  Alpha 1 to Galatea.”

	“Galatea here, we've been monitoring your communications, we already have the Centaur ready for launch.”
	
	“So what the hell are you waiting for get it here now!”

	“Sure.”  Back at the Galatea a Centaur class transport flew from the Galatea and jumped out.  Normally the GTT Centaur was used for the rearming and repairing of fighters while in combat.  This one though was being used for a much more sinister purpose.  This wasn't the first time a Centaur had been used as a giant bomb, the GTA however didn't like to do it for several reasons.  First, the Centaur was not cheap to manufacture and destroying one like this was a waste of a lot in credits.  Secondly the Centaur's self-destruct system had a tendency to overheat and in that case a fighter had to manually destroy the Centaur.  This could be a problem because of the strength and blast radius of the explosion, odds were the pilot who destroyed the Centaur would be destroyed in the blast.

	“Here comes our Centaur.”  Viper looked up and saw the Centaur engines glow with an overload and then settle back to normal.

	“Josh, what the hell happened?”  Halfry called.

	“Damn, the auto destruct overheated.”  Viper thought for a moment about how to get the job done without the Centaur and then saw a squadron of bombers jump in and head for the Midway, they would be inside the Centaur's blast range for a good five minutes.  Viper decided he didn't have a choice.  “Alpha 1 to all fighters, stand clear of the Centaur I'll take it down manually.”

	Zack called over the open channel.  “Are you psycho?  You'll never clear the blast range in time!”

	“I might not have to, if I keep minimal power on guns and put everything to shields I might survive.”

	“That's an awful lot of might's sir.”  Stardust called.

	“I also can set my engines to jump me outside the blast range once the Centaur's hull hits zero integrity.  If my shields take the blast for long enough I should be fine.”

	“You're leaving a lot to chance Viper.”  Byron said.
	
	“Those odds improved Jeff?”  Viper called back.

	“No sir.”

	“Then I ain't got a choice, I'm going in.”  Viper diverted all power to his shields, keeping just enough on his guns to maintain a charge, he targeted the Centaur's engine core and used his afterburners to head in, with no extra energy directed at his engines his top speed was lower than usual and his burners didn't recharge.  “Alpha 1 firing.”  He fired, the Centaur's hull integrity slid down, he kept firing, and it went lower.  His computer sounded alarms telling him to pull away, he pulled to maximum firing range and kept firing, and the Centaur's hull integrity reached zero.

TCS Midway Bridge:

	“Mother of God...”  Talvert gasped as the Midway's screens showed the exploding Centaur, the Midway hadn't been able to get any fighters in the air before the bugs knocked out their launch control.  The Confed pilots had returned to the Midway earlier that week.

	“Nothing could come out of THAT alive.”  Zero said and then stumbled back as the shock wave slammed into the Midway.  If the shock could cause the Midway to lurch Viper’s odds of survival were slim to nill.

	“He ain't coming home.”  Maestro said sadly.

	“Damn.”  Was all Casey could think to say.

	“I can't believe he actually did that.”  Commander Drake remarked.

	“That has got to be the bravest thing I've ever seen anybody do.”  Captain Wilford said and then bowed his head.

Combat Zone:

	“All enemy bombers destroyed!”  Halfry called.

	“Any sign of Viper?”  Byron asked.

	“Negative Sir I'm not showing anything.”  Stardust responded.

	“Hold on, I'm reading a jump node.”  Zack called.  A jump node opened up just to his left and out flew another Valkryie-advanced fighter.

	“Alpha 1 to Alpha 2, Zack if I ever even mention doing something like that again, shoot me!”
		
	“Will do sir.”  Higgins laughed.  “What's your status?”

	“Minimal damage, the shields are down, but, judging from my radar, that doesn't seem to be a problem.”

	“Nope.”

	“Then let's head home.  Alpha 1 to Midway, you guys ok?”
	
	“You're alive!”

	“Uh yeah.”

	“Thanks a lot Viper.”

	“No sweat.”

GTD Galatea Flight Deck:

	“You’re crazy!  You could’ve killed!”  Admiral Wolf yelled.

	“But I wasn’t.  That’s the point.  Besides I may be EFC but my first priority is to protect my allies, not myself.”  Viper replied, trying to control his anger.  Admiral Wolf used to be a fighter pilot, of all people he should understand.  But Viper had to grant, what he had done WAS the least advised maneuver the GTA had.

	“Alright, alright, you win, just promise me you’ll never do that again.”

	“I hope I never have to, that was the most terrifying moments of my life.”

	“I bet, let’s get you a drink.”  Zack laughed as he, Viper, and the rest of Alpha wing left the deck.

Bridge:

	“Admiral, ship entering system.”  The lieutenant on sensors replied

	“Is it bug?”

	“Negative sir, Vasudan.”

	“So.”

	“It’s closing to attack the Midway.”

	“WHAT!!  Get me an I.D. now!”

	“Searching banks…PVD Hammer.”

	“HAMMER!”

	“Affirmative sir, she’s HOL!”

	Wolf slammed his hand on the comm panel.  “All pilots get to your ships ASAP!  The HOL is trying to take down the Midway.  Ensign, contact the Midway, tell her to pull back!”

	“Roger.  Midway is pulling back at max speed, not fast enough though.”

	“Weapons ready, shields up…BLITZ EM!”  The Galatea banked, and fired everything it had at the Hammer, the unshielded hull on the Typhon took the blast, but didn’t even acknowledge the Galatea’s existence.  The Galatea banked again and instantly the launch tubes dropped every fighter and bomber available.

	“Alpha wing here!”

	“Beta wing ready!”

	“Epsilon wing has arrived, awaiting orders!”
	
	“Alpha 1 this is Zeta wing, we stand ready!”

	“Delta wing is airborne!”

	“Gamma wing, ready to rock!”

	“Theta wing, ready to go!”
	
	Viper targeted the nearest HOL bomber and unleashed a withering array of Banshee and Prometheus fire, vaporizing the bomber in seconds.  The other forces to that as a sign to attack the Valkryie and Valkryie advanced fighters swept over the bombers, turned and dropped down.  They fired, the HOL bombers exploded in showers of sparks and plasma.   Some of the HOL fighters broke through the GTA lines and made runs on the Confed fighters, six vanished into oblivion.

	Higgins called over the channel, “Shit!  Hey boss six Confed fighters just went down.”

	“I saw it.  Anybody eject?”  Viper asked.

	“Negative, nobody got out.  On the upside nobody we knew was in that group.”  Higgins answered morbidly.

	“Doesn’t matter.”  Viper opened a comm channel to the HOL fighters.  “We’re gonna fry each and everyone of your asses over a slow fire.”  The venom in Viper’s voice set the Vasudans back, they quickly regained their composure.

	“You cannot stop us Terran!”  The HOL leader answered with hate.

	“Watch me!”  Viper rasped, as he launched a Phoenix V missile at the leader’s fighter, the Phoenix V was usually too slow to take down a fighter, but at the range that Viper fired from it was no contest.  The Vasudan screamed over the comm channel as his fighter exploded.  “Take that you ass hole.”  Viper yelled over his channel.
	The destruction of their leader sent the Vasudan fighters raging.  This distorted their judgement, they made several bad decisions and were quickly dispatched by the GTA fighters.

	“Alpha 1 to bombers, you guys are good to go.”

	“Gamma 1 letting them have it.”

	“Delta lead, lighting them up.”

	“Theta wing rocking the house.”  All eighteen bombers launched dual Harbingers at the Hammer, 180000 megatons was too much for the war battered ship to take, the Hammer exploded into a fireball of tremendous size.

	“Got her!”  Viper called.  “Alpha 1 to Midway, how ya doing?”

	“We have a problem Alpha, we had to really run our engines to get out of blast range, even then we didn’t quite clear it all the way.  Out engines overheated and we’ve had to shut down.”

	“That’s not a huge problem, the Galatea can send you spare parts we’ll get your engines running better than ever.”

	“Well, we also had several injuries, do to the blast.  Several pilots are in critical condition, and in edition to the six we lost, plus casualties before you guys showed up, we no longer have enough fighters to adequately defend ourselves.”

	Admiral Wolf jumped in.  “No sweat, Alpha wing you going back to work on the Midway.”

	“Sure thing.”  Viper replied.

	“We have one more problem, our computer core was destroyed.”
	
	“Oh that’s not good.”  Zack answered.

	“Definitely,” Wolf called, “Captain, I’ll send over a Merlin unit.  He can take over you’re computer systems for you.”

	“Are you sure he won’t turn on us?”  Wilford asked, Confed’s last experiment with Artificial Intelligence had resulted in what was called The Fire.  At the end of the 20th century nearly all military hardware was controlled by computers.  These computers had turned on humanity and caused unbelievable devastation that had threatened humanity with extinction

	“Absolutely certain sir, Merlin only hates what we tell him to hate.” Viper replied.

	“All right, but if he shows even the slightest anti-terran tendency I’m shutting him off.”

	“Affirmative, by the way.  Could we land?”  Stardust called.

	“Roger, you are cleared.”

TCS Midway:
Flight Deck:
10 minutes later:

	“Josh, give me hand with this.”  Lt. Commander James Mitchell shouted.  He was lugging the Merlin interface out of a transport and the rather heavy piece of equipment was more than he could handle.

	“Sure thing.”  Viper replied grabbing the back end of the box like structure, instantly his knees buckled and he threatened to drop the box.  “Damn, and this is made with the lightest stuff we could find?”

	“Yup, imagine if it was made out of something heavier.”  Mitchell replied, “Ok just set him down here.”

	“Gladly.”  Viper dropped the box…right on his foot. “DAMN!!”  He screamed, pulling his foot out and leaping in the air, he went on cursing for about three minutes before he finally calmed down.

	“Jeez, that must of hurt.”  Zack commented, coming over, barely able to keep from laughing.

	“Hell yeah, I think I broke something.”

	“I doubt it Josh, he’s not that heavy.”  Zack replied.

	Just then Casey and Talvert walked up, Talvert went over and began to examine Merlin’s interface panels.  Casey went up to Viper.

	“How are you gonna connect it to our CPU?”

	“I turn him on, pry open one of your computer panels, and connect one end of his transfer droid to any wire in the that panel all he does is upload himself.”

	“And that’s all it has to do.”  Casey’s distaste for Merlin was evident simply in his tone of voice, Viper decided to call him on it.
	“Lieutenant Casey, do you have a problem with us giving you the most advanced computer system known?”

	“Frankly sir, yes I do.  He’s artificially intelligent, what’s to keep him from accessing our weapons and turning us on our own people?”

	“Simple, most CPUs are programmed with a Core Directive of complete mission objectives, Merlin’s Core Directive is to obey the orders of authorized humans.  He’s been online for months now and hasn’t shown any type of anti-terran behavior, he’s trust worthy.”  Viper just then noticed Talvert pressing buttons on the interface.  “Talvert, I wouldn’t do that, he’s programmed to…”

	“Damn!”  Talvert shouted as she received an electrical shock.

	“As I was saying, he’s programmed to shock anybody that’s no authorized to go pushing buttons on his interface.  Don’t do that again.”

	“Yes sir.”  Talvert turned away somewhat embarrassed.

	Mitchell came over to Viper.  “Guess we better fire him up.”

	“Yeah.”  Mitchell and Viper went to opposite sides of  Merlin, Viper pulled open an access panel and took a card out of his pocket and  inserted it into a slot on the side.  Mitchell flipped three small red levers and instantly a small screen came to life with a number pad and a two keys marked enter and cancel.  Mitchell keyed in an access code as Viper inserted another card into the slot and turned it.  Mitchell pressed the enter key, looked over at Viper and nodded.  Viper spoke into a microphone on the interface.

	“Run startup sequence, authorization Bridgeford-six-twelve-gamma-oh-alpha.”

	Mitchell pressed the enter key again and Merlin came to life, however he spoke with a distinct computer voice.

	“Startup code logged and confirmed, scanning systems.  All systems online.”

	Talvert looked at Viper and said.  “Oh yeah, it, seems really intelligent.”  Her voice was dripping with sarcasm and she heavily emphasized the it.

	Viper turned to her.  “Wait,” he turned back to the interface, “run program, authorize, six-eight-bravo-twenty-niner.”

	“Confirmed.”  Merlin answered and the interface blinked for about twenty seconds.  When he spoke again his voice was not that of a cold computer but that of a living entity.
	
	“Whew, that was some ride, and for your info Lieutenants I’m probably smarter than you’ll ever be.”

	Casey and Talvert stepped back in shock. Viper simply smiled and turned to Mitchell.  “James why don’t you find a panel to pry off, I’ll start prepping this interface for a link.”

	“You got it boss.”

	Merlin turned his visual sensor up at Viper.  “Link?  What’s up Josh?”

	“The Midway’s lost her CPU so we’re gonna wire you up.  Listen back in the twentieth century these Terrans experimented with A.I. and nearly went extinct because of it, so you behave.”

	“Who me?”  Merlin responded, had he been human you could imagine a guilty grin on his face.

	“Yeah you.  I’m gonna start pulling at wires now so get ready.”

	“Oh great.”  Merlin answered with sarcasm.  Viper bent down and pried of a panel, he reached in fumbled around for a second and then came out with a wire the end of which had a clasp on.  He called over the Mitchell.

	“You ready.”

	“Sure bring it over.”

	“One sec.  Viper to Wilford.”

	“Wilford, go ahead.”

	“We’re gonna wire Merlin up no so if a voice starts talking to you from no where don’t worry, you’re not crazy.”

	“Affirmative, we’re ready.”

	“Ok, James catch.”  Viper tossed the clasp over the Mitchell who connected it to a circuit board.  Viper turned to Merlin.  “Ok, transfer your program.”

	“Sure thing.”  The indicators on Merlin’s interface started to blink as he tried to make his program compatible to Confed hardware.  A red bar showed how much of his program was still in the mobile interface, the bar emptied at an alarming rate.  Finally Merlin spoke again, this time his voice came from one of the speakers on the Confed computer panel.  “Transfer complete, I’m in.  I’ll start powering up the systems, you guys head to the bridge, I may need some help.”

	“Ok.  Were on the way.” Zack answered, he had stood off to the side.

	Viper, Zack, Mitchell, Casey, and Talvert headed for the elevator that would take them to the bridge, Talvert cast a suspicious look at the now powerless mobile interface that a deck crewman was loading into Viper’s fighter.

	“Hey, doll, you gonna head to the bridge or stay here and watch guys.”  Merlin called from a speaker in the elevator.  Talvert turned and walked into the elevator.

	Viper turned to her laughing.  “Ok so he has an attitude, but that comes from being around us.”

	“Huh?”

	Zack answered.  “When Merlin was first activated he was intelligent but he had no personality, that first startup voice you heard was the way he always talked.  However he’s programmed to absorb all the idiosyncrasies and mannerisms of people around him.  His personality is a blending of everyone on the Galatea.”

	“Oh, so I got  you  to thank for that little insult there.”

	“Yep.”  Mitchell answered.

TCS Midway bridge:

	Viper stepped out of the elevator along with Zack and Mitchell, Zack stood aside and waited for Talvert and Casey to get out.  Mitchell immediately went to a CPU status console.

	Mitchell spoke to what seemed like no one in particular.  “How ya doin’?”

	“Just fine, James.”  Merlin’s voice came from the speakers on the bridge.”

	Wilford stepped back stunned, Merlin hadn’t yet spoken.  “How’d he do that?”

	“He’s using the speakers as a mouth and ears, he’s also using your internal sensors as eyes.”  Zack answered, he had moved to a display that showed the overall status of the Midway’s systems.  “And, judging from this screen, he already has most of your hardware online.”

	“Sure do. I got the weapons, engines, external sensors, and flight deck controls up and running, to mention the criticals.”

	“Great,”  Viper answered, “now give me sector recon reports.”

	“How does he do that?”  Casey asked.

	Mitchell replied.  “Merlin is not only linked to the Midway, he also controls the spysats we have positioned around your space.”

	Zack chimed in.  “Merlin controls a lot of stuff, not just one CPU, he is responsible for ninety-eight percent of the intelligence we’ve received on the bugs.  The reason we do this is, we don’t have to worry about losing recon pilots, and sometimes the sheer numbers an unintelligent computer gives you isn’t enough.  You need an opinion, Merlin gives us that.  He can also act on his own instincts, if he feels that there may be more to a base than just what his first scans tell him he can send the probe in further at no risk to human life.”

	“Um, if you guys are done discussing me, I’ve found something interesting right in the middle of Sol Sector.”  Merlin reported, with a tone of bewilderment.

	Viper jumped in front of a display, “Show me.  What the hell?!”

	“That’s what I said,” Merlin responded, “it seems that the bugs have a large base complex right under our noses.”

	“What system is this?”  Mitchell asked, he was standing behind Viper.

	“Alpha Centauri.”  Merlin said.

	“Damn, this place is huge!”  Zack commented.  “How’d we miss this?”

	“We weren’t looking for it.  Merlin get me online with Admiral Wolf.”  Viper answered.

	“Sure thing boss.  I’m still figuring out these systems so hang on a minute.”

	In far less than the promised time Wolf’s voice came over the speaker.  “Go ahead Josh.”

	“Take a look at this,”  Viper transmitted the information to the Galatea.  “What do ya think?”

	“Holy!  So this is how they knew all about our fleet maneuvers.”

	“Apparently.  We’re not gonna be able to take this out from space.” Higgins called.
	“Agreed, looks like we’ll have to let Confed in on our big boys.”  Wolf responded.

	“What’s he talking about?”  Drake asked.

	“Assemble your troops in the briefing room and I’ll tell you.”  Viper answered, and sped off the bridge with Zack and Mitchell right behind him.

TCS Midway briefing room:
35 minutes later:

	“…so that’s what we’re up against.  Any questions?”  Viper paused, he had finished briefing the assemble Confed troops on the bug base.

	“How are you gonna take that out from space?”  Dekker asked.  “My boys can’t take something of that size down.  But half of it is underground.”

	“We don’t intend to take it out from space, we’re going planetside.”  Viper pressed a button and several pictures appeared on the screen behind him.  “You already are familiar with our Vulture assault cycles, the Wraith cloak fighters, the Arclite siege tanks, the Goliath walkers and our other military ground capabilities.  Well we have other things.  When the Goliath was first introduced it was never meant to be the only legged vehicle we had.  These are the Humaniform-Emulation Roboticized Combat Units with Leg-Articulated Navigation, H.E.R.C.U.L.A.N.  Or simply Hercs.  These are our big bad ground assaulters.”  Pressing another button Viper called up an image of a small legged vehicle with two small lasers mounted on it.  “This is the Emancipator, it’s a small, weak, scout Herc designed primarily for light attack, defense and scout duty.  Small, nimble and quick are the basics on this.”   Viper pressed another button and the screen split in two showing larger, heavier, and better armed Hercs.  “These are our mainstay light assault Hercs, the Basilisk and the Minotaur.  Better armed than the Emac but they are slower and less maneuverable, a good pilot can often work miracles with these.”  The screen blinked and a large Herc that was bigger than all the others before appeared.  “This is the Apocalypse Mark V or Apoc.  Standard medium assault Herc, a great mix between speed and fire power.  It’s ability to mount a Large sized shield generator  in addition to its two medium, two large, and two X-large weapons mounts means this baby can ‘dish it out’ as well as ‘take it.’  Viper paused and took a drink for the glass he had at his side, waited for everyone to catch up and then pressed another button.  The screen flashed briefly to increase its display size for the next two Hercs, then two behemoths appeared on the screen.  Viper noticed the wide eyes of several Confed soldiers, including the notoriously difficult to impress Stiletto and Maniac.  “These are the real bad boys of the Herc department, the heavy and super heavy assaulters.  The Gorgon and the Olympian.  Basically these can be described as slow, cumbersome death machines.  Or as some have called them, the one man battle wagons, walking weapons depots, or just, battleships on land.  Pretty much, if you against one of these get away quick, its your only hope.  That concludes my part of the show, Merlin.

	“Thanks Josh,”  Merlin’s voice radiated out of the speakers on each chair in the room, “now the Hercs are not the only high intensity ground assaulters we have.  When I was brought online GTA techs had already nearly completed what was called project <Next>.  It was a program to created a completely computer controlled Artificially Intelligent warform.  Or war unit.  However the problem was an inability to link the <Next>, as they were then known as together to form an effective fighting force.  When I was onlined that changed.  My CPU is capable of linking the <Next> together and getting them to fight very, very well.”

	“Don’t flatter yourself!  The Herkys still got you beat kill wise.”  Zack called.

	“That’s only because the brids ain’t been used in major combat.”  Merlin responded.

	Casey looked up and asked, “Brids?”

	“Huh, oh yeah once the <Next> were implanted in vehicles Command decided to give them a new name, Cybernetic Hybrid, quite a mouthful, so in the field it became Cybrid.”

	“Or glitches!”  Mitchell called with a smile, glitch was a term used by Herc pilots to make fun of the Cybrids.

	“Yeah, or glitch.”  Merlin answered.  “Now the Cybrids are a bit weird looking, because the preservation of a human pilot isn’t a big concern in the field.  The Cybrid brain is implanted deep in the vehicle and the space can be devoted around the best way to maximize weapon space.  Typically the Cybrids are more heavily armed, faster, better shielded, and more accurate than the Hercs.  Due to their ability to mount the bigger equipment. For example there is a limit to how fast a Herc can move due to the G-force effects on humans.  For the Cybrid this ain’t a problem.”

	“Interesting.”  Wilford observed.

	“Alright now to show you what the brids look like.”  The screen flashed and a rather scary looking Herc appeared.  “This is the Adjudicator, its design comes from what we call focus scan testing, most humanoid lifeforms are scared of the same basic things, like a general fear of the unknown.  Using known data GTA techs created a Herc that simply looks mean.  Not to say this baby doesn’t pack a punch, the Adjudicator can certainly hold its own.  This is the standard Cybrid.”  Merlin paused for a second and the screen flickered and two other smaller Hercs appeared.  “These are the standard light attack, defense, and recon Cybrids.  The Goad and Seeker, each one can only mount two medium weapons but are fast as hell.  These were designed to attack and get out.  We usually use these for recon purposes to scout enemy bases.  They lack sufficient firepower to take down any large target.  The next Herc is the medium attack Cybrid, the Shepherd, we designed this with the Minotaur in mind.  The Cybrid forces needed a medium attack Herc to fill the gap between the light and heavy Hercs.  The Shepherd fills that gap nicely, don’t underestimate this thing, in the hands of an experienced Cybrid the Shepherd can outfight the Olympian.”

	Casey coughed and then asked rather sarcastically.  “How can a Cybrid gain experience don’t you control them directly and aren’t you the smartest thing alive?”

	“Yes and no.  I am smarter than probably anyone in this room but, like all living things, my experience is limited, I gain insights into behavior with each new encounter.  When we started this war on the bugs I couldn’t really help at all except in an intelligence role.  Now that I’ve been observing them and their battle tactics I can accurately predict their tactics because I’ve built a rather complete physiological and psychological profile of them.  To answer your other question I don’t control the Cybrids directly.  There core directive is to obey me but once in the field they can act on their own instincts as long as they are striving for completion of mission directives.  I can always override their CPUs and assume direct control of course.  The Cybrids each have their own unique identities, the Cybrids are divided into sects, and generally in each sect the Cybrids have a unique trait that allows me to know which Cybrid belongs where.  The Machinators for example can implant Cybrid brains in dead bodies this allows them to look like the enemy but they are actually Cybrids, great intelligence gathers.  Generally the Machinators have more respect for the enemy than the other sects because they’ve observed the culture up close.  Therefore Machinator also deliver the briefings to Cybrid units via communication channels and computer codes.  Understand Lieutenant?”

	“Yeah I got it.”  Casey responded somewhat embarrassed, he had been just told off by a computer.

	“Good, now if I can continue, this is the Cybrid equivalent to the Gorgon or Olympian, the Executioner.”  The screen came alive with what can be best described as egg on legs with guns sticking out of it, it looked rather comical and one or two Confed pilots snickered.  “I know it looks funny but this baby packs a lot of heat.  The main weakness here is its slow speed and rate of acceleration.  However the firepower and shielding this baby packs make it more dangerous than the Olympian despite the fact that it has tow less weapons ports.  Well, that’s all folks, any questions?”

	Drake stood up.  “Are you going to use these to take out that bug base.”

	Viper stood up turned to her and said.  “You damn right!  You’re gonna see the GTA at its best.”

	“What do you mean?”

	“Each branch of the GTA has an image its identified with, for example the image of the spaceborn division is a fighter coming out through an explosion with its weapons blazing.   The overall image of the GTA is a Herc on the ground weapons blazing, a Cybrid in the background and a fighter/bomber group above dropping some bombs on a blazing enemy base.  In fact somebody actually painted a picture of that exact scene called Devastation, nearly every GTA ship and installation commander has copy in his or her quarters, even I have one.”

	“So you’re trying to say that you’re going to use everything the GTA has against this base?  Including the Cybrids?”  Zero asked, sounding excited, of everyone on the Midway he was probably the most ready to accept Merlin.

	“Uh-huh.”  Viper answered.  “Merlin send these orders to every GTA ship, order them to assemble in Sirius, I’ve already gotten the go ahead from Wolf.  Get every Cybrid unit up and running.”

	“Sure thing, you gonna go planetside?”

	“Why would he do that you stupid machine, he’s a pilot.”  It had begun to look like Talvert was going to insult Merlin at every turn.

	“I’m also a Herc pilot, namely the best, to answer your question Merlin yeah I’m gonna go planetside on this one.”  Viper answered, then decided he’d had enough of the Confed prejudice against Merlin.  He turned around.  “And listen up!  You may have had some bad experiences with A.I. in the past!  But that was the past now you got Merlin and trust me on this he isn’t gonna go Maverick!  If anyone screws with him, I’m pulling him out and you try to reinstall your old CPU!  Merlin may be programmed not to harm humans but that remember his Core Directive is to listen to my orders regardless of what those may be!”  Strictly speaking this wasn’t true, Merlin could refuse an order if it involved harming humans but Viper was trying to emphasize a point.  “GOT IT!”  Viper turned and stormed out of the room, Zack and Mitchell followed, they got onboard fighters and left the Midway. 

GTD Galatea:
Bridge:
July 5, 2740 (4 days later)
1234 hrs:

	Viper walked on to the bridge and went over to Wolf, he sat down next to him and asked.

	“So how’s Merlin doing?”

	“Well, despite Confed’s fears he hasn’t blown up anything.”  Wolf answered smiling.  “But, that’s not to say he doesn’t want to.”

	“Can’t blame him, I wouldn’t mind taking a shot at a few of the pilots on that ship either.”

	“Just don’t act on those impulses.”
		
	“No promises.  So has Command given us the go ahead for the Alpha Centauri strike?”

	“Yep, just got the message about ten minutes ago, says that whatever we come up with is fine, just don’t give the bugs an opportunity to take down anything major while we’re busy decimating their base.”

	Zack walked up and remarked, “Don’t think we’ll have to, this base is pretty important to the bugs, they’ll defend it with everything they got.”

	“That’s what I think, but these guys are as difficult to predict as the Shivans.”

	“True, and remember there is a least one Hammer of Light destroyer left in this universe.”

	Viper looked up startled, “Which one?”

	“Thunder.”
	
	“Oh, that’s not a big deal, that things got more holes in it than Luna.”

	“True, but remember, Confed weapons are useless against armor from our universe, so the Typhon’s a threat.  I got longprobe recon teams looking for it, the Lucifer’s with them, when they find it the shortest battle in history will take place.”
	
	“Sounds good.”  Zack commented, “When’s the Centauri assault?”

	“Two days.”

TCS Midway:
Pilots Lounge:
	
	“I still don’t trust this computer, I mean without Josh to control him he’s dangerous.”

	Merlin did the electronic equivalent of clearing his throat and remarked.  “We’re all dangerous Lt. Talvert, yes I am dangerous, so are you, and everybody else on this ship.  The thing is as long as you don’t aggravate me I’m not dangerous to you, currently all I care about is winning this war, if you want to lose by all means ask Josh to pull the fleet out.  I’m sure he’d like a vacation, he hasn’t had one yet.”

	“What do you mean?”

	“Come on Casey, the GTA has been at almost constant war for twenty years, the Terran – Vasudan war was fourteen years long, then the Shivans attacked in 2035 the biggest fighting of that conflict lasted only a few months.  Unfortunately after the Jump nodes to Sol were rendered useless due to after effects of the Lucifer explosion several insurgent pirate bands sprang up, not to mention the Hammer of Light and the Shivans, who still were very determined to run us to extinction.  Only by using the captured Lucifer did we end the Shivan conflict permanently.  Then we come to your universe and find ourselves in the middle of another war.  I’d be surprised if Josh has gotten more than eighteen hours of sleep total in the last five years, not to mention leave.”

	“Wow, I didn’t know the GTA was that war-ridden.”

	“Not many people do in Confed.  But that’s why we’re so much more advanced than you, date wise we’re pretty much the same.  Tech wise though, we’re al least two hundred years ahead of you, in you’re conflict with the Kilrathi you were already on almost equal footing, when we were attacked by the Shivans we had some catch-up to do.  I fact is it weren’t for the Shivans I wouldn’t be around.  Command wanted a ship that could still fight even if its entire crew was incapacitated, I can do that.” 

	“Interesting.”  Casey remarked.

	“Yes, very no if you are done insulting me at every turn you get, I have work to do.”  Merlin clicked off and began analyzing data and running diagnostics.

	“What do you think Max?” Casey turned and asked Maestro, who had heard the whole conversation.

	“I think we can trust him, I mean he hasn’t done anything remotely aggressive and he seems genuine in his concern for the war.  I don’t think he’s a maverick concern.”  Garret replied.

	“Yeah, I’m even beginning to like him a little.”

	Talvert walked in sat down and said with a disgusted tone, “It’s a computer it has no thought, it’s not even alive.”

	Merlin piped in, “Want a bet?  I do have thought, I’m aware of my own existence I can figure things out and I can plan ahead.  And, if you don’t mind, I’m a he!”

	 “Fine, I give!  You just don’t like me.”

	“Not particularly.”  Merlin reverted to his analyzing subroutines, Talvert walked toward the door in a huff and stopped, the door wouldn’t open.  A small chuckle came from the overhead speakers and from Casey and Garrett, then the door opened.  Talvert shot an angry glance at the pilots and the speakers then stormed out with a cloud of smoke trailing along.

	Maestro dissolved into laughter, “Oh man, that was great, did you see the look on her face.  I thought she was gonna tear one of your circuit boards out.”

	Casey, also laughing commented, “God how I wish we could do that, she sure deserved it.”

	Merlin finally spoke, “Does this mean you’ve accepted me?”

	“Anybody who plays a joke on Talvert is ok by me.”  Maestro answered.

	“Hell yeah, welcome to the club.”  Casey replied.

	“Great, no I have data to analyze.”

Galactic Terran Alliance:
Sol System:
Terran Command Installation GTI Excalibur:
High Earth Orbit:

	Terran President Jessica Myson addressed an assembled crowd and the GTVA over subspace concerning the Confed situation.  The GTA has declared a formal alliance with the Terran Confederation, part of the treaty is that after the bugs are driven out of Confed space the old Kilrathi Empire will be turned over to the GTA for colonization. However, several groups have voiced concerns over what they have dubbed, Bridgeford’s War.  Bridgeford has long had considerable influence, with his reputation, heroic exploits, commanding nature, and ability to convince people to accept his ways, he has been able to push several measures through the notoriously slow bureaucracy of the GTA.  Unfortunately, while most if not all of these measures have benefited the citizens of the GTA, small factions of pacifists and politicians with their own agendas have long tries to stall and weaken Bridgeford’s influence.  Up until this point little success has been made, but now with the GTA approaching its twentieth year without peace more people are beginning to examine the policies and are finding them wanting.  Myson and the majority of the GTA Senate have rallied behind Bridgeford and the current conference was called to allay fears of never-ending warfare.

	“Vice Admiral Bridgeford has proven himself to be an invaluable asset to the GTA, the destruction of the original Lucifer saved the Terran species from extinction, his decision to attempt and the successful capture of a Lucifer has made the Terran arguably the most powerful race in the known Universe.  These people, who call themselves ‘children of peace’, did not object to those measures, nor to his decision and attempts to continue a war with the Hammer of Light.  But now, when we find another group of Terrans in danger of extinction  and in the greatest need, all of sudden these groups rise up and demand that we pull out!  Saying that the conflict is none of our business, that we shouldn’t interfere.  Ha! We cannot abandon the Confederation and leave it’s people to the slaughter, I will not have over twenty billion people die, knowing I could help, that is unacceptable.  We do that and their blood is on our hands, we will be as guilty of genocide as the bugs.  Now I know that what I’m going to hear is that we shouldn’t abandon the war but just Admiral Wolf’s and Vice Admiral Bridgeford’s aggressive policies.  Well let me tell you, those policies are what allowed the Terran species to survive, those policies beat the Shivans and those policies will continue to be the way we continue to fight as long as I am the President of this alliance.  The Terran and Vasudan people, indeed the Galaxy itself owes Vice Admiral Bridgeford to great of a debt to deny him anything.”  President Myron stepped of the podium from which she delivered this speech to a deafening  amount of cheers and thunderous applause, Bridgeford’s policies were criticized no longer or they were criticized in secret by people to afraid to turn around and admit what they really felt for fear of ridicule.

GTD Galatea:
Bridge:
July 6 2740:
1534 Hrs.

	Viper was currently in command of the Galatea while Wolf was talking and reviewing fleet maneuvers with Terran Command.  Viper hated being in command, mostly because nothing ever happened when he was in charge all the exciting stuff happened when Wolf had the bridge.  Today was no different, Viper looked up at the big screen and saw…stars.

“Big surprise.”  He thought, “Jesus, why the hell doesn’t anything ever happen when I got the bridge.”  Out loud he called, “Report.”

	Ensign Hawk on sensors responded, “Point-two percent increase in theta band radiation emissions, ten point for particles of space dust per cubic meter up from eight and one half one hour ago.  Oh yeah, and a class one comet passed about fifty million kilometers of our port side.  All in all it’s been an exciting day.”  He added with a touch of sarcasm.

	“Well at least there’s some excitement.”  The bridge crew gave him puzzled looks, faking excitement he exclaimed, “Radiation!”  Most of the crew started laughing until Halfry, currently on long range sensors suddenly called.”

	“Boss, looks like you’re gonna get your excitement, I got a bug carrier about a five minute jump for hear, looks like they’re going for a Confed supply convoy on the far side of the system.”’

	“I see it Halfry,” Zack, who was manning the weapons, called.  “What do we do Josh?”

	“Jump.”  Viper ordered, then hit the communications panel on the seat he was in, “Bridgeford to Wolf.”

	“Wolf here, what is it?”

	“Boss, we got an enemy carrier on an intercept course to a Confed supply convoy, I’ve ordered an intercept.  You wanna come up here and take this, or leave it to me?”

	“Ships yours Josh, fry those bastards.”  Wolf responded.

	“You got, Bridgeford out.”  Viper closed the channel, then began ordering his crew.  “Zack, power up the shields, general quarters, weapons up.”  Then lights turned down abruptly then turned turquoise, they were doing the same all over the ship, this let the crew see there monitors more clearly, and still allowed the crew to see each other and possible of escape routes, just in case.  An alarm sounded as well, to alert the crew that no the ship wasn’t taking damage, but that the lights were low because of battle-readiness.  The low lighting level and also the absence of running lights on the outside of the ship, in addition to the dark purple color of the hull made the Galatea difficult to see from outside, even though it was tremendous in size.  However, this stealth really only worked if you didn’t have to jump into a battle-zone.  Jump points were incredibly bright and odds were that one the size of the one the Galatea required wouldn’t go unnoticed, the bugs would be immediately aware of the ship, but that knowledge wasn’t going to help then much.

	“Shields full, weapons powered, we’re ready to kick ass Josh!”  Zack responded, confirming Viper’s orders.  “Estimate twenty seconds till we jump in.”

	“All right, target and fire on the carrier as soon as we launch.”
	
	“Roger, fifteen seconds.” Zack confirmed.

	“Bridge to flight deck, launch fighters and bombers as soon as we’re done gun-running the carrier,  I don’t want to accidentally shoot down any of our friends.” 
	
	“Understood.”
	“Five seconds…four…three…two…one…jumping in…locking on…firing!”  Zack called and unleashed the Galatea’s turrets at the unsuspecting bug ship.  Outside the Galatea’s jump node looked like a tremendous whirlpool of light, then it closed.  The bug carrier began to fire at the Galatea but the beams just washed harmlessly over the shields.  Then the Galatea banked, and fired.  Instantly over twenty-five turrets lit up on the Galatea and fired incandescent beams and balls of pure energy.  The carrier’s shields glowed white as they took the fire of the Galatea, they looked like a blanket of light surrounding the carrier.  The Galatea stopped firing and watched as a final ball of light streaked towards the carrier, it impacted against the shields and they glowed brighter, then went out.  As soon as the bubble disappeared the Galatea fired again, this time with particle weapons,  this time there was no shield flare.  The particle weapons hit the hull of the carrier and created small thermonuclear explosion on impact, literally the Galatea was firing thousands of mini hydrogen bombs at the carrier.  The carriers organic hull matter began to collapse in hundreds of sections, the Galatea fires its beam weapons one last time, vaporizing the rear sixth of the ship, the sudden decompression tore the remaining parts completely apart.  Unfortunately the carrier had gotten its fighters and bombers out before the Galatea’s arrival.

	“TCS Saratoga to GTD Galatea.  You have to take care of those bombers, our turrets were blown off.”  One of the transports called.

	“Understood Saratoga, launching fighters.”  Viper responded.  The Galatea’s launch tubes opened and three wings of Ulysses class fighters dropped into space.

	“My wing, break and attack!”  Byron told Beta wing.

	“All right boys, kill em all!”  Commander Christina McDaniels ordered Zeta wing.

	“Kick ass and take names girls and boys!”  Captain Henry Finald informed his Epsilon wing.  

Viper watched as the fighters rapidly closed the distance between themselves and the bug bombers, Byron and Beta flight broke and pursued the single bug fighter wing, while Zeta and Epsilon continued on an intercept course with the bombers.  Energy busts streaked from the front of the GTA fighters and impacted the shields of the bugs.  The bugs twisted and turned in an attempt to break away but Beta wing followed every move, and never stopped firing.  The bug shields, which were apparently enhanced it had never taken so long to bring them down before, overloaded and went out, instantly missiles erupted from Beta wing.  The entire wing of bug fighters was obliterated, Beta wing then formed defensive patrol around the convoy, in case any bombers got a shot off.  Epsilon and Zeta wings however, were quickly dispatching the bombers, the bugs never stood a chance.  In less then ten minutes all that was left of the bug attack force was a few microns of metal marking where the fighters and bombers had been and an ever expanding cloud of debris and plasma marking the dead carrier.

“Galatea to Saratoga, you alright?”  Viper called.

	“Affirmative Galatea, thanks for the help.”  The Saratoga responded, her transmissions slightly garbled by static.

	“Good, where you headed?”

	“Luyten station on the systems far side.”

	“Alright, Beta wing maintain escort until you reach Luyten then head home.”

	“Affirmative boss.  See ya later.”

	“Roger.  Stand down general quarters.”  The lights on the ship returned to normal and the running lights outside came back on.  “Bridgeford to Wolf.”
	
	“Wolf here.”

	“I think I’ve had enough command for today, I need a drink.  Mind taking your ship back?”

	“I’m already on the way.”  Wolf  closed the communication and stepped on the Bridge five minutes later.  Viper and the rest of the crew bolted to attention.

	“Admiral on the bridge.”  Viper announced.
	
	“As you were.  Mind if I take the big chair Josh?”

	“No sir, In fact I intend to get a drink and then just relax until I go to bed, big day tomorrow.”
	
	“In that case, dismissed.”  Viper walked off the bridge and headed down to the pilot’s lounge.

July 7th 2740:
Briefing Room:

	As the assembled pilots and ground troops took their seats Viper paced up and down on the platform from which he would deliver his briefing, he had doing an awful lot of pacing lately, especially in the last hour.  Zack finally called him on it.

	“Josh would you relax!  You’re gonna where a hole in the deck.”

	“Sorry, just anxious, want to get this briefing over with and kick some tail.”

	“I understand, but just deliver the briefing and we can go.”

	“Why not?”  Viper turned from Higgins to the assembled troops, cleared his throat and began.  “All right, here it goes.  The Galatea, Bastion, and Minnow will be in charge of this mission, we want that planet intact, so no Lucifer.  As soon as the three destroyers are in the system, the fighters will engage orbital defenses.  Once the destroyers get a clear shot they’ll launch the Herc and Cybrid loaded drop pods onto the planet, once you get planetside, rendezvous with the rest of the strike force at navpoint alpha.  After that there is only one navpoint, omega.  Head there ASAP don’t worry about formation, just run and shoot at anything that presents itself.  Zack, you’ll be heading the fighters, I’m going planetside.”

	“You got it, always wanted command of that wing.”

	“Just don’t get used to it, when this is over Ill want my job back.”

	“No promises.”

	“Okay, now command asked that we assign a name for this little operation for media purposes, so we asked them what sounded good, you ain’t ever gonna believe what they came up with.” Viper paused and waited until the inevitable happened, Byron called from the back.

	“You gonna tell us or wait until the media does?”

	“The operation name is Cardinal Spear.”

	Zack looked up, “Cardinal Spear?  What the hell does that mean?”

	“No idea, just know that in case your asked in interviews.”  Viper paused, checked his notes and continues.  “Seems to be all they say, pretty simple actually, if it ain’t Terran when we go in, it ain’t breathing when we come out.  Got it!?”

	The chorus came back, “Yes sir!”
	
	“Then lets move!”  Jumping up the pilots ran for the flight deck while Viper and the other Herc pilots headed for the lower decks and entered the Herc launched bay.  Viper jumped into an Olympian class and all the others took the Herc most suited to what they liked in one.  On the far wall several lights blinked and forty odd shoots opened, Cybrid brains were lowered into their respective warforms and the indicators went green.  From his cockpit Viper keyed into Merlin.  “Everything good?”

	“Hell yeah, lets waste some insect hide!”  Merlin returned.

	“Viper to bridge, ground-pounders are ready to go.”
	“Roger that Cardinal lead, jumping in now.”  Wolf returned.

	“Cardinal lead?”

	“Your designation for this mission.”

	“Damn, remind me to murder whoever came up with that name.”

	“Sure thing. Jumping into Alpha Centauri now, get ready.”

	“Acknowledged.”  Viper responded.  Outside the destroyers jumped in about 6 kilometers from the bug defense perimeter.  The launch bays opened and fighters poured out, making full speed for the bugs they quickly outpaced the Orions.

	“All fighters, break and attack.”  Higgins ordered.  The acknowledgements came back and the fighters unleashed their guns, vaporizing target after target.  The Orions plowed through the bug orbital gun perimeter.

	Wolf paged Viper’s Herc.  “Drop pods ready Josh?”

	“Yep, cut us loose.”

	“Roger, fire em off!”  The Herc and Cybrid drop pods shot from the Galatea and Bastion, the Minnow held off waiting for a clearer shot, its Herc were set to engage a secondary base on the far side of the planet.

	Viper opened a comm channel in his pod.  “Set navpoints, we’ll rendezvous planetside.”   The pods lit up like comets in the atmosphere and plowed into the planet.  The pods were designed to be one shot rides, they had no engines.  When they hit ground a the contained Herc or Cybrid simply used his energy weapons to blast out, effectively wiping all trace of the landing zone.  In this case the landings were spaced widely but at an almost equal distance from Nav Alpha, the meeting zone.  Viper activated his Herc’s reactor and blasted from the pod, trailing smoke he turned towards Nav Alpha and ran for it.  “Cardinal One to Cardinal Spear, all Hercs head for Nav Alpha.  You can engage any enemies you meet but try to stay on course, Merlin same for you.”

	“Sure thing boss, Cybrids inbound.”  Merlin responded, and activated the Cybrids.  In all the landing zones, the Hercs and Cybrids obliterated their drop pods, cloaked up and headed for Nav Alpha.  In orbit the battle continued to rage, but it was pretty much a one sided fight with the GTA destroying bug defense after defense and taking up a blockade orbit.  The Galatea was already firing on bug installations on the surface, the Minnow’s forces were on the ground making rapid pushes towards the nightside base.

	“Cardinal One here, I’m at the Navpoint.  Waiting on you guys.”

	“Waiting for what?”  Came back a voice and Cardinal Spear decloaked around Viper, the Cybrids came charging over the hill and stood still.

	“Well I’ll be damned, how long you guys been here?”  Viper asked.

	“Got here about the same time you did.  Can we go?”  Cardinal Four asked.

	“Sure thing.  All Hercs lock on the Nav Omega and head out.  Merlin care to give the Cybrids the order.”  Viper ordered and the human piloted vehicles moved out.

	“Roger boss.  Cybrids activate secondary programming and execute.  Acknowledge/Submit.”  Merlin ordered, he spoke so that Viper knew he had heard.  The Cybrids responded instantly, also with a vocal output so Viper knew they obeyed.  The Cybrids all spoke at once, sounding like one collective voice.

	“Message acknowledged, executing program <Cardinal Spear>.”  They responded, turned and headed for Nav Omega.

	“All right lets rock and roll!”  Viper called.  He cloaked his Herc, all the others followed his lead and they headed out for Nav omega.

Orbital Combat Zone:

	“Lightin’ off!”  Higgins called over his comm channel, his fighter lit up with the blasts from his cannons and the bug Manta bomber he had targeted was hit full force, it twisted once, flipped over, and burst open in a fireball.  “Target dusted!”

	“Not bad Zack.”  Wolf called , “Now watch this!”  The Galatea banked and fired its main guns, the intended target, a Tiamat class dreadnought, glowed as its shields took the blast then failed.  The Bastion came up from underneath and fired its particle weapons, the Tiamat shuddered as it began to break apart.

	“You cannot stop the inevitable human!  We are doom!”  The Tiamat transmitted as it died.
	
	“Your mother must be proud!”  Zack retorted and for fun cut a gash in the Tiamat with his cannons.  “But in case you didn’t notice, we’re kickin’ your insect asses!”

Planet:
750 meters from Nav Omega:

	“Alright, there’s the base.”  Viper stared through his Herc’s targeting scope, he had it set on full zoom and could see all the base defenses.  All of the Hercs had their reactors turned off, shield generators were offlined, and they were in passive radar mode, cloaked, and kneeling.  Nothing could see or detect them, soon enough the though they would quickly become the most noticed thing within a hundred miles.  “Looks like they have something similar to the Cybrids.  Computer controlled defenses.”  Viper observed.  “Merlin what you got.”

	“The stealth Goad I sent in says that those are armed bipedal war machines, very similar to the Cybrids.  Significantly weaker though, just a side note, you’ll have to score several direct hits to take them down, plus they can take you down.”

	Viper sighed.  “Wonderful, guess we couldn’t expect more, the Hercs and ‘brids are still pretty new forces.  How many hits to take us down?”

	“Oh about thirty to get through the shields, and those had better be in pretty rapid succession and dead on.  Gonna be hard for em.”

	“Well, I think we’ve waited long enough, Cardinal 1 to Galatea.”

	“Galatea here.”

	“Chris, I’m gonna open the flood gates we’re going in, request confirmation of mission go ahead.”

	“Confirm that Cardinal Leader.  You are go, have fun.”

	“You bet I will.  See ya later.”  Viper closed his comm channel, sighed once, and looked around at his squad.  He did a final systems check, made sure everything was good to go.  He thought, “good all I need is to press this one button, the Hercs will stand up, decloak, restart their reactors, the shield generators will power up and the capacitors will fire, bringing the shields and reactors to full power.  Damn, those bugs are really gonna be surprised.  Okay, here goes.”  He opened a comm channel to his strike force.  “Cardinal one to Cardinal Spear, we are go!  Repeat NAIL EM!!!!”  Viper pressed the button, his Herc erupted from the dust that was on the ground, and he ran for the base with his squad half a second behind him.  The Cybrids followed behind and came over from the other side of the base.  The weapons of every Herc and Cybrid trained in on their targets and fired, the bases defenses well like dust in a stiff breeze, then the bugs knew what was happening and activated the bases main defenses. The bug versions of the Herc were dwarfed by the massive GTA assault forces.

	“Whoo, this is gonna be too easy.”  Merlin called, as an Adjudicator Cybrid blasted the legs out from under a bug.  “Hey, boss, these ain’t mechs they’re alive.”

	“You telling me these things are bugs?”  Viper asked.

	“Affirmative they’re not small Hercs, they’re big bugs.”  Merlin responded.

	“Doesn’t matter vaporize em anyway.  Merlin call in the Goads.”

	“You got it.”  Over the hills outside the base several dozen small Goad class Cybrids charged for the base, they weren’t much to look at but when they opened fire collectively the result was purely devastating.

	“Josh, I got a some sort of transport making a run from the base.”

	“So blast it, Mike.”

	“I scanned Terran life signs on it, looks like some sort of prison transport.”

	“I thought these guys didn’t do the prisoner thing.”  Viper responded.

	“Me either, looks like we were wrong.”  Cardinal 3, Michael Patricks responded.

	“Yup, transfer target data to me, I’m on it.”

	“How you gonna avoid killing it?”

	“I got Blink guns, they’ll take out the internal systems but leave the transport intact.”  Viper’s Olympian pivoted and charged off after the transport, he activated his blink guns, which looked like two small satellite dishes strapped to his Herc.  Once in range he fired them off, two balls of electromagnetic plasma erupted from the Olympian and made contact with the transport.  There was a brief shield flare and then the transport slowed to about one-half of its former speed, Viper fired again and the transport stopped dead.

	“Cardinal one the Ghost squadrons, I got a capture for ya, come and get it.”  Viper called.

	“Finally, we’re on the way.”  Viper crouched his Herc and cloaked to defend the capture, after about fifteen minutes four dropships began to orbit his coordinates and drop Ghost units onto the ground.  Ghosts were the GTA’s elite ground troops, they had small cloaking devices on their suits and special issue weapons.  These Ghosts forced open the hatches on the disabled transport, which was rather large, and forced their way inside.  Pretty soon Viper observed weapons fire coming out of the hatch and then several dead bugs were blown past him.

	“Damn!  Those guys sure are ripping that place up.”  Viper thought.  “Hope they don’t accidentally shoot any Terrans.”  After a few more dead bugs went flying, the Ghosts emerged with several Terran civilians behind them.  The fact that they couldn’t see the Ghosts faces and that what they saw when they came out was a 75 ton Olympian Herc didn’t do much to help their already scared expressions.  Several looked like they were gonna run for it when the Ghost commander Tom Walker removed his helmet.

	“Calm down, see we’re human too.”  He put his helmet on the ground and smiled.  Viper opened his Herc’s cockpit and waved.

	“Tom listen, I gotta get back to that base and make sure we’ve got it secured.  You mind if these people head back to base with you?”

	“No prob boss.  See ya back at the ranch.”  Viper closed his cockpit, turned his Herc and ran back for the now largely charred and gutted bug base.  When he got there he saw that he really didn’t have to head back.  “Damn, you guys sure took care of this place.”  Not a single construct was left standing.

	“You got a problem with us being thorough?”  Mike called.

	“Nope, nice job.  Cardinal one to Galatea, we’re done hear.”

	“Copy that Cardinal.  We’ll pick you up.”  Wolf responded from the Galatea.

	“Thanks, by the way we rescued some civilians there headed back with Commander Walker and his troops.”

	“They’re already aboard Josh, and scared as shit.”

	“Yeah well, first the bugs, then Ghost units, then an Olympian.  I can’t guess how long they’ve been here but it’s a good bet they’ve been captive since before we arrived.” Viper smiled.  “Now about that pickup.”

	“On the way.”  Ten minutes later several two-way drop pods smashed into the turf.

	“Alright Cardinal Spear, there’s our rides, lets blow this joint.”  The human piloted Hercs entered the pods.  The Cybrids activated one shot rocket boosters on their Hercs and headed for orbit on preprogrammed courses for their command ships.

GTD Galatea:
Flight Deck:
30 minutes later:

	Viper walked out from the Herc storage depot and nearly smashed into Wolf and Higgins.  Who were conversing in hushed tones in a corner.

	“Damn, you guys want to watch where you talk?”  Viper complained.

	“Sorry Josh, but we got a problem.” Wolf stated looking sober.

	“Oh no, what now?”  Viper asked.

	“Those civilians.”  Zack said.

	“What about em?”

	“You were right they’ve been holed up in that base for about four months and they weren’t quite prepared for our arrival.”

	“No, really?  I figured the bugs would have let them pack.”  Viper answered sarcastically.

	“Not funny, they seem to be going through some sort of future shock and don’t seem to believe that Confed still exists.”  Wolf answered

	“So we bring em to the Midway.”  Viper responded.

	“The Midway’s in another system and is having a small problem, I think our best bet is to explain what happened and let the civilians work it out themselves in their heads.”  Wolf continued.

	“Sounds fine.  What’s wrong on the Midway?”  Viper asked.

	“Oh, it ran into a small bug carrier force, I sent the Phantom and Amadeus to assist.  Shouldn’t be a big problem.”  Wolf turned his head and spied the civilians ambling around the flight deck in an obvious state of disorientation.  The Galatea was larger and  more advanced than anything they had seen, the fact that it was crewed by Terrans only aggravated the sense of future shock.  Confed had nothing that remotely compared to the Galatea and the crew of Terrans made it seem even more alien than the ship did by itself.  They weren’t helped when a small Goad class Cybrid came running onto the deck, not only was there the inherent Confed paranoia towards artificial intelligence but this Goad was worlds more advanced and organic looking than any machine they had ever seen.  When the Cybrid came up to Viper and actually spoke several of the civilians looked like they might pass out.

	“Hey boss, who are those people?  Looked like they were gonna die when I walked on deck.”   The Cybrid had a disturbingly human voice and tone to its speech.  This was no Cybrid warrior, this Goad belonged to the elite Cybrid sect, the Platinum Guard.  These Cybrids each had individual personalities and were charged with protecting critical installations and people, strictly speaking this Goad was Viper’s bodyguard, whenever Viper went somewhere that wasn’t a military base this Goad went with him.  Usually it was cloaked, that way people could walk right through it without even realizing it was there, on the Galatea it usually remained visible.

	“Civilians Duster, we rescued them from the bugs down on the planet.  They’re Confed and have been holed up there for at least four months.”   Viper responded, using the Goad’s name, Duster.

	Duster looked over at the civilians then realized the implications of Viper’s statement.  “Oh!  So they have no idea who we are, why we’re hear and what we’re gonna do with them.”

	“You got it.  Plus they haven’t had a chance to get acquainted with out artificial intelligence systems, seeing you probably spooked them.”  Viper responded.

	“Heh, they probably think that some sort of machine revolt took place and that I’m like your high overlord.”  Duster answered, chuckling.

	“Careful Duster, your ego might get to big for your processor.”  Wolf answered, then glanced at the sensor band on his arm as something caught his eye.  “What the…? GET DOWN!”  Wolf yelled and most of the people on the deck dropped to the floor while Duster crouched down sent up a radar pulse to scan the deck.

	“Duster what is it?”  Viper asked, confused and a little nervous.

	“A bug, must have stolen away on the transport, he hasn’t had a chance to adjust to the light, probably doesn’t see us yet.”  Duster responded and deactivated the beam to avoid detection.  A bugs eyes were extremely light sensitive so they had developed membranes to shield themselves from light until their eyes had a chance to adjust.  Downside, the bug can’t see anything until that membrane is withdrawn.

	Wolf came crawling over, “Saw his biosignature on my arm band.”

	“Glad you called out,”  Viper had looked up and seen a hole in the wall where the bug had randomly discharged a particle beam weapon, he indicated it, “my head was right where that hole is.”

	“Shit!”  Duster hissed, “He’s seen the civilians, he’s moving towards them.”

	“What are they doing?”  Wolf asked.

	“They’re all shrinking away, I got the guys forming a ring around the girls, damn I don’t think there’s a single one in that bunch over eighteen years old.  Mind if I introduce myself Josh?”  If Duster had been human, he probably would have been smiling mischievously.

	“Sure, introduce yourself to the civilians and the bug to those twin heavy laser you got mounted on you.”  Viper answered, smiling, that bug had no idea what was coming.

	“See ya in a sec.”  Duster replied and then stood up.  He bent down and leapt over the cargo boxes they were hiding behind, he charged for the bug and twin red laser beams lanced out from above and below the area where his CPU was.  The bug turned at the shrill sound of the lasers and they struck it dead in the chest, Duster hit the deck and activated his electrohull subsystem, instantly his hull glowed with electrical energy as he rammed into the bug at top speed.  With the electrohull engaged he hit the bug with the force of a small to medium sized bomb, he kept running, driving the bug into a wall.  Duster sprang back and fired his lasers again, the bug writhed for a second as the beams struck it in the head and then collapsed to the deck, dead.

	“Way to go Duster!”  Viper called, he and Wolf emerged from behind the boxes and ran up to Herc, Wolf made the mistake of patting Duster on the head.  Duster’s electrohull was still engaged, though at significantly less power, even so it was enough to literally send Wolf flying across the deck and back into the cargo boxes.  He wasn’t hurt, save his pride, and he quickly got up and walked back over to the laughing Viper and Duster.

	“Oh man!  You should have seen that, you went flying.”  Viper laughed, tried to stop, and then burst out laughing again.

	“Sorry Admiral, but that was kinda your own fault.” Duster said, and then started chuckling.

	“If I didn’t know better I’d say you guys planned that.”  Wolf then indicated the dead bug and called to the deck at large.  “Somebody want to chuck that thing into space.”  He called and three deck technicians big up the charred form and dropped it into a waste shoot to be dumped with the rest of the trash.  When Wolf looked up he saw Viper and Duster talking to the still cowering civilians.

	“So are you still scared stiff of us?”  Viper asked on of them.

	“Not you, just it.”  The civilian answered, indicating Duster.  “I mean it just killed one of those things like it was a small twig.  What’s to keep it from attacking us?”

	“Inherent programming orders not to harm Terrans.  Overriding orders from Vice-Admiral Bridgeford and myself, and the fact that he’s really a nice little robot.”  Wolf answered coming up behind Viper.”

	Duster snorted.  “Little?  I didn’t see any of you make that heroic effort there, and who you calling a robot, I’m a Cybrid.”

	“Sorry Duster, he’s really a nice Cybrid, got an attitude problem but who doesn’t.”  Wolf responded smiling, he didn’t here the small whine and crackle of Duster’s electrohull on extremely low power.  He did however, feel it when Duster purposely bumped into him, he leapt about three feet in the air, and came crashing to the deck with a thud.  “DUSTER!  Are you nuts?! What’d ya do that for?”

	“Sorry, must have forgotten to turn it off.”  Duster answered.
	
	“My ass.”  Wolf responded.
	
	“You charred ass you mean.”  Viper said, laughing.  “Ya see guys he even plays jokes on his superiors, though of course if he ever did that to me I’d turn him into scrap.”  Viper sidestepped Duster as he tried to ram him and pressed a small button on his belt, overriding Duster’s control of his electrohull and deactivating it.  “Or, I’d simply turn him off.”

	“Man, you ain’t any fun.”  Duster whined.  “Listen, I gotta get back to the bridge, I’ll see you guys later.”  Duster turned and sprinted towards the stairs leading off the deck and disappeared.

	Viper turned to the civilians, “Listen for the past few weeks we’ve been helping Confed fight this war and frankly speaking the bugs don’t hold a candle to us.  We’ve beaten them back at every engagement and they are fast learning to avoid us.  But we use artificial intelligence a whole lot and you’re kinda stuck on this ship until we can get you to a Confed installation or ship, so get used to smart bots and computers.”  The civilians still looked uncomfortable.

	One of the girls came up and asked.  “Are all of your ground units like that Duster.”

	“You mean artificially intelligent?”  Viper asked and she nodded, “No, a good amount are human piloted like the Olympian I was in when I saved you hides.  In fact most of our Cybrids, the robotic ground units, are controlled by a computer called Merlin.  He runs everything on the this ship, the Galatea, and on various other ships in the GTA as well as one of your ships, the Midway.  In fact one sec.”  Viper tapped his armband and instantly Merlin’s voice came from it.

	“Hey Josh, how’s it going?”  Merlin asked.

	“Well, we had a little incident down here with a stowaway bug but Duster took care of the damn thing.”  Viper responded, “I’m trying to get those civilians we rescued comfortable with artificial intelligence.”

	“Again, oh great, some of the Midway’s crew still ain’t to pleased with me on board.  Most of the pilots see me as a blessing.”

	“That increased response time when you link to their ships CPU’s?”  Wolf asked.

	“Yep, they love it.  Anyway, did you say Duster took care of the bug?  Remind me to elevate his status, and give him access to a higher tech level.”

	“Will do.  Now would mind explaining yourself to the civilians standing here?” Viper asked.

	“Sure.  I control the Cybrids, stands for Cybernetic Hybrid, they’re the main ground forces of the GTA.  Very effective because all that really needs to be protected is the Cybrid brain, and we have software backups of those, so we can divert most of the space to weapons and engines, literally creating death machines.  I also am the CPU of the GTA, running most essential systems, ships, and installations, this allows for a much faster response time because the data streams don’t have to convert to fit the parameters of different computers.”

	Wolf spoke up.  “Merlin himself, the actual physical computer, is on the GTI Excalibur, it’s the command center for the GTA.”

	Merlin continued, “Cybrids like Duster are what are called Platinum Guard, they have their own identities and know me only as a command figure, much like Josh knows Admiral Wolf.  Josh obeys orders give to him by Wolf but can use his own intuition and mind to figure out the best way to obey those orders.  The mainstream Cybrids literally do exactly what I tell them, such as shoot this, attack that, defend this and so on.  Fortunately I can issue multiple orders to different Cybrids at the same time because of the my mainframe is designed, the entire Cybrid force doesn’t have to be in the same place or attacking the same thing.  I can have one group attacking an installation on a planet and another group defending an installation four sectors again and I can control each unit independently.  Duster and the rest of the Platinum Guard are designed to defend key places or people even if I am out of contact.  If you were to open that central hub on Duster you could pull out his Cybrid brain or Pilotform.  The Goad is the Warform, or the vehicle.  When you put the Pilotform and a Warform together you get Duster his brain can be put in any chassis.  However the Platinum Guard usually uses specially designed Warforms that are faster and more maneuverable.  Dusters what we call a shadow unit, he follows Josh around, usually cloaked, and protects him.  That’s why his chassis is so small.”

	At this point one of the civilians cried out.  “Small!  You call that thing small!”

	Viper answered.  “Compared to our other chassis, the Goad is a light attack Herc, designed to go in, do the job, and get out.  He was not designed for sustained combat.” 

	“Unlike that Executioner class over there.”  Wolf said, indicating a heavy-assault  Herc resting against the far wall.  “That baby’s slow as hell and sluggish, but you put a large shield generator on it and it’ll get where going.”

	“And when it does, well I pity anybody dumb enough to stand it its way.”  Viper said.  “Listen, while don’t we get you people some quarters and we’ll drop you off on the Midway, I think we’re headed for a meeting with them anyway.  Right Chris?”

	“Yup, I’ll get you people assigned some rooms, in the meantime come with me to the bridge, Josh you too.”

	“You got it.”  Viper replied and the whole group left the flight deck.

TCS Midway:
Altair System:

	“Captain we’ve lost main power.”  Commander Drake called from the weapons position, the regular weapons officer was sprawled unconscious on the deck.

	“Damn!  Midway to all fighters, form a protective ring around us.  Engineering get power back online.”  Captain Wilford responded.

	“We’re trying but I don’t think its gonna happen anytime s – “ The transmission faded to garbled static.

	“Internal communications are down.”  Drake clarified what Wilford already suspected.

	“Sir,”  The ensign on sensors called, “I’ve got some garbled reading here but it looks like…jump nodes.”

	“Commander see if you can put a visual up.”  Wilford ordered, “We didn’t get a chance to send out a distress call, maybe they picked up the weapons fire.”

	“I hope so, cause we won’t win this on our own.  I’ve got a visual but it’s really bad, and the bugs communications jammers are to strong we can’t ask for friend or foe confirmation.”  On the screen the picture was blurred by static and it did indeed look as if the white holes of subspace tubes were opening, but Wilford refused to give in to a potentially false hope.  False that is until.

	“GTD Amadeus to TCS Midway, hang on we’re launching fighters.”

	“PVD Phantom here, our fighters are on the way.”

	“Terran pilot Panther to Confed fighters, we’re on the way stay frosty.” 

	“Vasudan fighter commander here, we are inbound and preparing to engage the Nephilem fighters, hold on.”  The GTA’s and PVE’s more powerful communication equipment cut through the bug jammers easily and announced the arrival of salvation.

	“Commander, try to get that picture clearer.”  Wilford ordered.

	“I’ll try, but I can only do that if I cut interior lighting.”  Drake responded.

	“Do it.”  The picture clarified almost completely as the bridge lights winked out.  The bug fighters, bombers, and capital ships, intent on the Midway failed to notice the approaching Terran and Vasudan ships.  Then five bug fighters were obliterated by Interceptor missiles from the foremost Terran fighters and three bug bombers found themselves spinning debris after the Vasudans unleashed their assault.  Then the bug destroyer was hammered by fire from the Amadeus at the same time the Phantom engaged the cruiser.  The Midway was in serious jeopardy however, one missile from either capital ship would be all that it would take to finish it off, and the cruiser fired that missile even as its hull was eaten into by the phantom.

	“Incoming!”  Drake shouted and grabbed onto the console and watched death approach, then the missile exploded, the Midway was hit with the shockwave.

	“What the hell?”  Wilford thought. None of his fighters had taken out the missile and the GTA and PVE fighters were on the other side of the ship.  The capital ships were out of range, so who had taken that missile down?

	“Galatea to Midway.  Did you miss us?”  Admiral Wolf called as the Galatea swept into the Midway’s view and fired a cluster bomb at a bug bomber group, obliterating it.  The Galatea angled up, underneath the bug cruiser and strafed the underbelly as the Phantom hit the top.  Caught in a vice the cruiser disintegrated between the withering fire and the Phantom swept through the plasma cloud, crossed in front of the Galatea, and both ships joined the Amadeus in attacking the destroyer.  The bug fighters and bombers had all been destroyed and the destroyer was doomed, the Midway had been saved again.

	“Midway to Galatea, glad to see you Admiral.”  Wilford called.
	
	“I bet, how many times have I saved your ship?”

	“I think we’re on number eight here.”

	Viper chimed in, he was manning the Galatea’s weapons.  “Really, I would of thought that number would be much higher.  Merlin how ya doing?”

	“I’d be just fine, if some of my circuit boards weren’t burned out.  Care to send over some replacements.”  Merlin responded.

	“Admiral we were unable to call for help, how did you know we needed assistance?”  Drake asked.

	“Merlin.  He’s programmed to automatically call for help when he determines it might be needed.  You owe your lives to a computer you wanted to offline a few days ago.”

	“Oh.”  Drake responded.

	“That’s ok Commander I don’t expect to be thanked, just following programming.”  Merlin responded, with all sincerity.

	“Thanks anyway, you’re alright in my book.”  Casey called from his eject pod.  “Now somebody wanna pick me up please.”

	“Affirmative lieutenant, dispatching recovery vessels.”  Wilford replied.

GTD Galatea:
Bridge:

	“Well, that was exciting.”  Zack said from his sensor console.  “Once again you guys get to have all the fun while I scan for more hostiles.”

	“Stop griping Zack, we could always be back at Aquilae on rock-watch.”  Viper reminded him.

	“Ah!  You’re giving me flashbacks, stop.”  Zack answered with sarcasm.

	“Funny.”  Wolf jumped in.  “Listen, get to the deck, I want you guys to supervise repairs on Merlin.”

	“Why?”  Zack answered.

	“One, the Confed techs have never seen software as advanced as his, I don’t want them messing around with files they shouldn’t be.  Second, Drake still doesn’t trust him, other might not either, I want you over there to make sure no ‘accidents’ occur.”  Wolf said, his tone indicating he didn’t really mean accidents.

	“Sure, lets go Zack.”

	“Oh, Viper.”  Wolf called.

	“Yeah.”

	“Take the rest of Alpha wing with you, just in case.”

	“Sure thing.”  Viper hit his communicator.  “Alpha wing report to the flight deck, look like we’re finally gonna get back together.”
Flight Deck:

	Viper walked on to the deck and surveyed the area.  “Damn, hot as hell down here.”  He thought.  “Where’s my crew?”  He looked around and saw the rest of Alpha Wing waiting for their fighters to get armed and fueled.  He tapped Ozone on the shoulder to announce his prescence.  “Hey Joe, how’s it going?”  He asked.

	Ozone turned around, “Hey Vipe, glad you decided to come back.  When this war is over, I want some vacation time.  Can you arrange that Mister Executive Fleet Commander?”

	“Probably, being as if they don’t give us some I’m gonna kill someone.”  Viper replied smiling.  Ozone noticed the computer pad in Viper’s hand.

	“What’s that?”  He asked.

	“Huh?  Oh this!  I almost forgot.  Is Halfry hear?”

	“Not yet, don’t suppose it matters, these guys don’t look like they’re ever gonna get our ships ready.”

	“Oh well.”  Viper hit his communicator,  “Bridgeford to Halfry.”

	“Halfry here.”

	“Where are you?” Viper asked.

	“On the elevator.”

	“Good, I was afraid you weren’t gonna make it, I got something to tell you.”

	“Oh, um well I’ll be there in about thirty seconds.”  Halfry responded, sounding concerned.  What had she done wrong she thought she’d been doing ok.  Her old anxiety came back and she felt slightly sick.  After some time it passed but she was still concerned as she walked onto the flight deck and came up to Viper.  “You wanted to see me sir?”

	“Yes Lieutenant.”

	“Uh sir, I’m an Ensign.”  Halfry replied confused, how could Viper make such a mistake.

	“Not anymore.  For your outstanding service to the GTA I am hereby awarding you the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade.  You’re the second fastest person to reach the rank.  Not bad.”  The pilots broke into applause and congratulations.

	“Who’s the fastest sir?”   Halfry asked.  She suspected she already knew the answer but wanted to see Viper sweat.  He hated to talk about his own accomplishments.

	“Well, um.”  Viper stammered.

	Zack spoke up.  “Jesus Viper, just say it, you can brag now and then!”

	“Me.”  Viper finally spit out.

	“Man!  He can stare down a Shivan, take down a cap-ship by himself, but he can’t brag about his own skill.”  Stardust said, rolling his eyes.

	“Alright, already so I’m overly modest, big deal.  Now, I think our fighters are ready shall we be off.”  Viper said and walked towards his fighter, the other pilots followed suit.  In fifteen minutes they were headed for the Midway’s deck and prepared to land.

	“I think that’s the first time we’ve gone anywhere in Confed space and haven’t had to shoot anything.”  Hawkeye observed.

	“You wanna jinx it shut up man.” Zack called.

	Viper smiled and called the Midway.  “We’re ready to land Midway.”

	“Roger Alpha Wing, you’re cleared, glad to have you.”  Wilford responded.  Aloha Wing banked and landed on the Midway’s flight deck.  On Viper’s sensors a small energy spike went up but it went unnoticed as he shut down his systems.  GTA sensors had a nasty habit of putting out ratty data when they powered down.

	Viper and his wing walked across the deck when Viper’s armband started to beep.  “What the hell?”  He thought as he looked at it, then it hit him, the energy spike, had been a primer for a bomb!  But where?  He turned to Zack.  “We got a bomb on the deck, find it.”

	“Shit!  Bomb on the deck everybody down.”  Higgins called, everybody hit the floor while Alpha wing started to frantically search the deck.

	Viper noticed Stiletto talking with one of the technicians, they apparently hadn’t heard the warning.  Unfortunately his sensor band had located the bomb, in the console right behind them.  He started running.  “Get down you two!  Bomb!”  He shoved them out of the way just as the bomb went of.  He was couaght right in the middle of it, he was thrown across the deck and smashed into a fighter with tremendous force, he fell the four meters to the deck and lay in a crumbled heap on the floor, bleeding from places he didn’t know he had.  Then he slipped into unconsciousness.

	Zack stood up and ran for him.  “Josh!  You ok.”  One look told him Bridgeford wasn’t ok, his legs were twisted up towards his neck, his arms were twisted around underneath him and he was bleeding from just about everywhere.  “Shit!  Someone get a medic down here.  Hag on boss, we’ll get you some help.”  The rest of Alpha Wing came running up and knelt down next to Zack.  Talvert came running from the other end of the deck, she had sent the tech to get that medic Zack asked for . She knelt down, took one look at Viper, and threw up on the deck, she hated the sight of blood.  By now there was a pool of it on the deck.

	“Mother of God!  Is he alive?”  She asked when she was able.

	“Yeah, barely, I can’t believe it but he’s alive.  Damn, I better call Chris.”  Zack stood up and walked to a quiet corner, a man with a medical kit came running past him.  Zack caught his arm and filled him in on what he knew of Viper’s condition, the doctor nodded and ran off to Viper.  “Higgins to Galatea.”

	“Wolf here, what the hell happened?”
	
	“Somehow a bomb got planted on the flight deck.  Viper pushed Talvert and a technician out of the way, but got caught in the blast.  He’s really banged up Chris, I don’t know if he’s gonna survive.”  Zack’s voice started to shake.

	“Can Merlin give me a visual?”  Wolf asked.

	“I don’t know.  Merlin?”

	“Sure.”  Merlin answered, even he sounded shocked.  Viper had survived so man things without getting a scratch, for him to get seriously, perhaps fatally, wounded by a rouge bomb, I just wasn’t right.

	“Ok, patch it through to my screen only.”  Wolf answered, waited about ten seconds for the link, and then inhaled sharply. “Christ!  You sure he’s alive?”

	“He was about a minute ago when I walked away to call you.”

	“Alright, I’ll let you go, but keep me informed.”

	“Will do, Higgins out.”  Zack closed the communication and ran back to the cluster of people around Viper he pushed his way up to the doctor and knelt down.  “You need some help, I’m a trained EMT.”

	“Good, I’ll take whatever help I can get.  I need to get him to Medbay but I don’t know if his neck is injured.”   Zack understood immediately, if Viper’s neck was hurt any wriggling of it could snap his spinal cord and kill him instantly.

	“So he’s still alive?”  Zack asked, that was his immediate concern.

	“Yes, but if we don’t get him down to Medbay soon he won’t be.”  The doctor’s face was ashen.  “You hold his head straight while I lift him up, then we’ll put him on this stretcher and take him to Medbay.  OK?”

	“Sure thing.”  Zack answered, “I’m Zack Higgins.”

	“Peter Rember, wish we’d met under better circumstances.”

	“You’re telling me.  I’m ready.”

	“Ok, one…two…three…lift!”  Rember said and he lifted Viper up while Zack kept his head from moving.  They placed Viper on the floating stretcher Rember had brought and wheeled down a short flight of stairs to the Medbay.  The doctors and nurses took him immediately into the surgery bay, Rember stopped to talk briefly with Zack.  “He’s in really bad shape, we might be able to repair the damage, but I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to regain full use of everything.”

	“Um, I’ll call and get some of out docs over here to help out, we’ve got more advanced medical technology.”  Zack answered.

	“Good, thanks for your help, I’ll keep you up on how he’s doing.”

	“Thanks.”  Zack started to walk away to call Wolf  when several doctors from the Galatea complete with equipment went past him, he grabbed one.  “Hey Cecilia, what’s going on?  I didn’t even call you yet.”

	“Admiral Wolf ordered us over here to help.”

	“Great, they could use it.”  Zack said and let her go.  He walked to a transport chute and headed for the bridge.  When he got there he was greeted by Talvert, who looked really worried.

	“How…how…is he?” She asked in an extremely shaky voice.

	“Not good, some of our docs are here helping, but right now I’d say his chances are about seventy thirty against.”  Zack answered, never one to hide the truth.

	“Oh.”  Talvert replied simply and walked away, Zack noticed she was crying.  Casey went over to her a started trying to calm her down while Maestro came to Zack.

	“She really feels sorry.”  He said somberly.

	“For what?  She didn’t plant the bomb.”  Zack said.

	“She didn’t pay attention to you shout, she thought it was Merlin playing a joke.”

	“So she feels like she caused this?”  Zack asked.

	“Yeah.”  Maestro replied and walked away.  Zack went over to Talvert and told her simply that it wasn’t her fault and Viper would probably be fine.

	“I’ve seen him beat odds a lot worse than seventy thirty, he’ll be fine.  I’m heading for the lounge to get a drink, want one?”

	“Sure.”  Talvert said, still shaking,  they left the bridge and spent the next few hours talking with the rest of Alpha Wing and drinking.  After about three hours Zack’s communicator beeped.

	“Higgins here go.”

	“Commodore, Viper’s out of surgery and is in the recovery room.”  Rember said.

	“How’s he doing?”  Zack asked nervously.

	“Better than we hoped, you obviously heal much better than us.  Right now he’s in a coma, I’d say that if he comes out of it he’ll make full recovery within a week after waking up.  If he doesn’t come out of it, well…”

	“Say no more, I’m glad to here that he’s still alive.”  Zack closed the communication and walked from the table, Talvert followed him.  As he left the pilots lounge one though kept going through his head.  “He’s alive…”  He walked into a chute, Talvert couldn’t catch it time and she was left waiting for another one.  Zack kept thinking,  “…but for how log?”