Episode XVI
Off into the distance we march
 

 I am Commander John Ridow, Galactic Terran Vasudan Alliance, service number: 3-2-2-2-1-9-3-0-1. Serving Galactican Terran Destroyer Requiem, Black Sparrows Squadron.
 But all that means nothing, Doesn’t it? It’s not going to matter what I say, is it? You’ll just sit there and say you were right. You, who did not want a war on two fronts, you let hatred grow, and become powerful. I don’t believe that this court has been assembled to try a guilty man. You need someone to take the fall for the great Galactican Terran Vasudan Alliance, you need someone to look worse then you, so that you can stand up there and say ‘yes, we were right.’
 But I will testify, I will answer your questions, and though the man on trial was once guilty, that guilt is no longer his. It now rests on your shoulders. I will tell you the story; it is not one of peace, and not one of bravery. The story is of hatred and fear…

     * * *

 The swirling gas’ of subspace arced and spun around the destroyer, that’s all it was now, no more allegiances, no more flags. The ship was her own, the paint had been scrapped off, and the only word left, was Requiem.
 David passed up and down the briefing room, waiting for the Black Sparrows. When they finally showed up, they took their seats quickly. David nodded slowly, he searched the eyes of his assembled fighters, they were hard, and ready for whatever lay ahead. They had changed into their flight suits. Vo’rant shifted uncomfortably in his large battle suit. Kate had forced her braid down into her suit, so that her helmet would clip on in the back. Dove looked deeply into the helmet; it had been a long time since he had worn a proper GTVA uniform. David walked over to the pedestal and clicked on the screen.
 “All right people, you all know where we’re headed. Long-range scans have picked up a flight of enemy fighters, and turret defensives. They have four beam turrets guarding our jump node, they’ll take us out as soon as we emerge, so it’s up to you to take them out. We’ll be cutting back on speed and launching you from subspace. As soon as you come out you’ll be attacked by a patrol of fighters, you might get lucky, but I have no states for you.” David looked over the crowd. “That’s all, dismissed.” They all stood, Vo’rant and Ridow headed for the door. David shot out at the two remaining figures. “Captain, Commander, hold on…” Dove looked back, but continued out the door.
 “Sir?” Kate asked. Trying to figure out exactly what was going on. David stepped down from the stage and started towards Kate and Ridow.
 “If Dove goes back…” he trailed off. Ridow grew stern.
 “Come on, let’s have it.” David drew in a long breath.
 “If Dove goes back, kill him.” Ridow nodded. David clenched a hand. Ridow and Kate walked out of the briefing room. David stood a moment; he walked back to the stage. He looked at the large symbol of the GTVA. David reached for his pin; he pulled it off and looked down into its shining metal. He threw it at the screen, it had no affect.

     * * *

 The silver craft sat in the landing bay; their shining skins reflected the light from the lighting fixtures above. The Black Sparrows stepped out unto the flight deck of the mighty vessel. They climbed up the ladders and fitted their helmets on.
 “Alpha wing, you are cleared for launch.” The deck commander said.
 “Acknowledged.” Flight crews ran off the deck, as the shield protecting them from space fell down. The fighters started up their engines and flew off the ship and out into subspace. The Requiem wasn’t moving, it just sat there, in subspace, in reality it was moving, but so slowly, you could barley notice it. “All right, let’s go. Afterburners at full.” The small ships shot out, and flew out of subspace.
 Four large green blasts shot out of nowhere, they cut space to shreds around the four fighters.
 “Whoa… watch out for those cannons.” Ridow yelled.
 “Incoming enemy fighters.” Vo’rant said quickly. Kate looked down at her radar and nodded.
 “Alpha wing, break off and attack.” The four fighters broke formation. Six enemy fighters came straight at them; Kate pulled hard up, and dodged the blasts of fire. She suddenly pushed down and shot her afterburners. She came up behind one of the fighters; she fired blast after blast into the ship shields. The craft pulled up quickly, but its back shield had been damaged. Kate took a few hits to her rear and fired her engines. These were not standard NTF fighters, these were real craft. A wing of six Myrmidon fighters. Kate spun her ship as another one of the NTF craft caught unto her tail. Kate turned in her seat, she saw the Myrmidon gaining on her. She pulled up hard, but the fighter was still on her.
 “Hold on Kate, I’ll be right there.” Dove yelled.
 “Make it fast.” Kate said. She gritted her teeth and pushed the fighter down again, without the friction of air, the fighter dove easily the Myrmidon saw her, and moved to follow. It continued to fire blast after blast into Kate’s Perseus fighter. He back shields fell, she pushed energy into the rear shield, but she didn’t know how long it would last, where was Dove? She continued to dodge fire, and continued to dodge, she looked back again, the Myrmidon was gone. Kate searched space, looking for her pursuer.
 A Myrmidon fighter flew up in front of her. Kate jumped back into her seat. A Perseus fighter was chasing it. The Myrmidon dodged nicely, but Dove had it square in his sights. He pumped shot after shot into the ship, and the Myrmidon exploded into a ray of a thousand pieces. Light spread across space as the explosion subsided.
 “Nice shooting Dove.” Kate said.
 “Any time.” Dove said, he flew back, and over Kate’s fighter. Kate looked around, Vo’rant and Dove had the fighters covered, and they had opened a hole in the enemy’s defences. The beam turrets were open. Kate looked back, and pushed forward. She armed he heaviest missiles. She locked unto the closest beam turret. It came into firing range and she gave it hell. The enemy fighters caught on, they headed for Kate but they were too late to save the turret. Kate pulled up hard and quickly as the turret exploded it send pieces of metal spiralling in space.
 The momentary laps in concentration by the enemy fighters cost them two of their lives. The remaining three dodged high, and went after the silver crafts. Another wing of fighters warped in, this time Hercules craft. Kate smiled. The Hurcucleas’ were no match for them, but those Myrmidon were keeping them busy enough for the Hurks to be effected. Kate came into range, and the four Hurks began firing, it was impossible to dodge that much firepower. The Hurk’s were fighting as one, optimising their firing pattern. Another Myrmidon went down, the smouldering hulk spun out of control, the craft smashed through shield and hull of one of the Hurks and the two craft exploded in a blaze of fire and glory. The Hurks had lost part of their formation, they tried to regroup but not before Vo’rant had taken down another one.
 “Two for one, I like it.” Vo’rant said happily. Kate smiled, and pulled herself around to help Vo’rant, she blind-sided a Hurk. Ridow found himself free; he pulled away and blasted another Turret.
 “That’s two down.” He yelled happily. “Reading a large energy signature.” An NTF Leviathan came out of warp and opened fire on them. The beam turret shot out. It caught David’s wing and blasted it clear off. “I’m hit!” The Cruiser took up position to protect one of the remaining Beam Cannons.
 “How are we supposed to get past that?” Dove asked. Kate shook her head.
 “I don’t know, but we’ve got to take out that beam turret.” Vo’rant searched the sky, and had a look down at his timer.
 “We had better do it fast, the Requiem will be here any moment.” Kate nodded.
“Dove, Vo’rant, take out that remaining Beam turret, Ridow, your with me, strafe that cruiser, try to take out its primary beam turrets. And watch that flak.” Ridow nodded. He pushed his craft forward, ignoring the smoke belching from his wing. He opened fire on the craft. Small explosions exploded around him, he missed the main turret.
 “No good.” Ridow said. Kate swore. She looked down at her panel.
 “Energy spike people, watch out.” A portal opened and nothing. “What’s going on?” Kate asked. She searched space, but saw nothing.
 “It’s a stealth ship.” Ridow cried out.
 “How did the NTF get stealth technology?” Kate asked. Ridow smiled.
 “It’s not NTF.” Ridow said. Ridow’s ship flew just to the side of a Vasudan Stealth craft. The Phta flew silently towards the Turret. The pilot gave the thumbs up sign. Ridow waved back. The Vasudan pilot pointed hard at Ridow, and then pointed down at his controls. Then he motioned to the Beam turret. Ridow saluted. “It’s a Vasudan Phta, and it wants us to give it cover until it can reach the beam turret.
 “All right people, Vo’rant, finish off that Beam Turret, Dove, give that cruiser something to look at.” They all yelled out, and began their separate missions. The Phta looked strange as Kate came into position. It seemed to have a large hump of something attached just above the engines. But the better question is how did the Vasudans get here so fast, and what are they doing here with only one stealth craft? But there was no time to answer questions, and less time to ask. The Beam turret opened fire; it blasted blue beams at the three ships. Kate and Ridow dodged the blasts.
 “Pull off.” Ridow yelled. Kate and Ridow pealed off from their positions. Their energy signatures were larger, and the beam turret attacked them instead, leaving the way open for the craft. Another blast nicked Ridow. This time his engine had been hit. Black smoke flew out as Ridow lost speed. “Damn.” He said slowly. The turret shot again. Kate slammed her ship into Ridow, sending his fighter out of the way. Her fighter resounded with the clang of metal against metal. The blue beam destroyed her shield and ripped along her hull. Badly damaged she tried her engines, they had stalled. The Beam turret was ready to fire again.
 The Phta came into range. Its hump pushed itself off the fighter and floated towards the turret. The Phta arced away. The hump exploded in a quiet Debry, a Vasudan operative in a space suit grabbed unto the beam turret. He quickly cut his way into the turret with a Plasma burner. He fiddled with the circuitry. The Beam turret was powering up its beam cannon.
 The Operative spun the burner, and lifted it over his shoulder, he began to pound at the circuitry inside, it came loss. He let the burner go and it floated away. He pulled out another tool and began to remove chips from the main computer. The beam turret began to power up; blue and white surges of energy began to spin around the collector. The operative quickly pushed a new set of chips into the machine. It suddenly powered down. The operative held on as the turret slowly began to turn. It powered up its forward firing assembly and fired into the other beam turret. The turret exploded. Vo’rant dodged debrey and beam fire. He gasped and the sheer fury.
 Dove fired another volley into the cruiser, destroying its forward firing assembly. The turret began to reposition itself for an attack on the cruiser. The cruiser turned, and tried to get away, but to no avail, the beam turret fired into the cruiser, destroying it. Kate breathed out a sigh of relief. Her engines had started again, she flew towards Ridow, she looked into his cockpit. Blood was dripping down his face, he was limp. Kate was shocked with horror.
 “Requiem,” She called. “The way is clear, come pick us up. Medical emergency.” David came over the comm.
 “What’s wrong?” David asked.
 “It’s Ridow, he’s hurt.” The Operative hung unto the Beam turret, but he had a look of concern on his face.

     * * *

Richtoven walked slowly through the complex, his trench coat flapping behind him. He turned a corner and the door slid open to reveal a prison, its cold hard bars showed only one prisoner, and that was Extinguisher. Extinguisher sat, looking at his hands in the small cell. As Richtoven walked in, he stood slowly.
 “Hello Extinguisher.” Richtoven said smiling. Extinguisher stepped up to the bars.
 “How’s Stonefox?” Richtoven’s smile grew. Extinguisher slammed a fist against the wall.
 “How about you let me out of here, and then you can go ask him yourself.” Richtoven laughed slowly.
 “Not today my dear friend.” Richtoven stepped back. “Do you know what your friends are doing right now?” Extinguisher smiled slightly.
 “Kicking your ass?” Richtoven lost his smile and quickly came to the bars.
 “Getting destroyed.” Richtoven stepped back from the bars. “You’re a very interesting man Extinguisher. Perhaps I should have killed you back then.” Richtoven stepped back another step. “Perhaps I should kill you now.” Richtoven made a gun appear from somewhere inside his dark coat. He aimed it at Extinguisher, its long silver barrel had been well polished, and it glinted even in this dark light. Extinguisher began to laugh. “Mind letting me in on the joke?” Extinguisher stopped laughing. He backed away from the bars and sat down unto the small, hard, cot.
 “You’re not going to kill me.” He said. Richtoven stepped up to the bars, putting the gun back into his coat.
 “And why not?” Richtoven asked.
 “Because you want someone to gloat too. You hate Samuel Morrison, because of what he did to your master, you don’t want to just destroy him, you want the one that came after him. And then you want to destroy the title.” Extinguisher pushed himself up and hurried to the bars. “You will fail.” He said. Richtoven grew angry, his voice changed, and he stuttered slowly.
 “I will not fail. I will win! And you will live to see it!”  He slammed the bars with his arm. Extinguisher fell back; he struck the ground hard. Extinguisher began to laugh. “I will show you, I will show them all!” Richtoven left the room; Extinguisher’s laughing pounded in his ears. Sirus came out of nowhere.
 “Leader…” He began. Richtoven motioned with his arm.
 “What is it?” Richtoven asked.
 “It is about the jump node.” Richtoven stopped abruptly, he turned slowly to look at Sirus.
 “We have lost contact with the cruiser.” Richtoven grabbed Sirus by the throat and pushed him up against the wall. Sirus reached out with a hand and grabbed at Richtoven’s wrist. He dropped the pad. Richtoven walked on it, crushing it under his large dark boot. Sirus tried to breathe in air, but he couldn’t. He gasped like a fish out of water.
 “If they get here, it will be your head.” Sirus nodded vigorously. Richtoven let go, and Sirus fell quickly to the floor.
 “My apologies Leader for the Shivans.” Richtoven nodded.
 “Get up.” Richtoven said. Sirus pulled himself to a standing position, guarding his throat with his free hand. “What of the cannon?” Sirus read off the pad.
 “We’ve used up another destroyer building it. We’re running out of supplies, but it will be completed by the time the Requiem gets here.” Richtoven smiled he clenched his fist. Sirus saluted and walked out of the room. Richtoven looked up at the ceiling.
 “So close, David, and yet so far. The Leader for the Shivans will be mine, and I will destroy her.” He laughed.

     * * *

 The Requiem floated slowly in space, repairing, redeing her fighters, preparing her weapons. Outside of the ship, crews attached extra shielding to vital parts of the ship. Medical crews were waiting for Ridow as his ship was slowly pulled in by the support craft. It set the ship down, and the emergency crews pulled Ridow out of the cockpit and took him away. They had won the battle, but Kate only hoped that it hadn’t cost the life of one of her closest friends. Kate followed quickly behind the medical crew as they ran Ridow through the hallways of the Requiem. Officers and crew jumped quickly out of the way as the gurney pushed through. A guard up ahead told people to get out of the way, as they pushed towards the sickbay. They pushed through, and the large doors of the med.-bay slid open. The guard stopped outside and refused Kate entry. Dove and Vo’rant caught up, they stopped short of Kate. Kate stepped back, and threw herself against the wall; she slid down it and held her face in her hands. She blamed herself for what had happened. Ridow might have survived the blast, if only she hadn’t tried to be a hero. Inside the bay, Ridow sat unconscious. He had a serious head wound. The doctors used their highly advanced tools to repair damage, but no one could know how well it would work. Samuel Morrison and Vo’tion looked on from the astral plain, that unearthly dimension. Sam looked over at Vo’tion and the tall Vasudan nodded. Ridow might die, and if that happened, then there was nothing Vo’tion, or Sam could do, they couldn’t interfere, but perhaps they could give Ridow the will to carry on.
 

Leader for the Shivans 3: Journey from Dunwitch Hill
Will continue with:

Episode XVII:
Secret voyages to Heaven and Hell.