Babylon 5 1. PrologueBackground and Beginnings

Hello everyone and welcome to my first attempt at writing. Please give me some constructive criticism, i plan on editing this every now and then if I find something that needs to be changed, oh and please excuse the grammar, that is all please enjoy the story.

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Prologue -Background and Beginnings

It was the aftermath of humanity's third World War, the destructive nature of man had lead it to its lowest point in history; on the onset of alien interaction and discovery, humanity is lost; All alone in the dark. Seemingly, ready to either die out or regress into savagery it looked like only something amazing, as, an extraterrestrial first contact; or the discovery of some ancient high technology; or perhaps just some new miracle that would heal all wounds past and present could possibly save humanity.

In the end, of course it was neither one of those things, at the end of the last War, humanity was not only divided and tired; It was also wounded and in some ways ignorant of its past. It had  
lost much of its expertise in technology. Save for those smart enough to survive it seemed that humanity had lost the progress it had made as a world and would fall into obscurity, never to achieve anything great in its existence ever again.

That was when 'It' was found, The Database, as it would later come to be called. A veritable Holy Grail of information collected by a group of people who'd made it their mission in life to preserve mankind's history; as well as advances in science and medicine, the schematics of machinery, the plans and documents of the planet's greatest minds and the thoughts of the peoples of the world.

All of this collected by people from all over the world, through travel, dedication to a mission and of course; the internet, it appeared that a unifying factor had appeared. A symbol for the survivors and re-claimers to cling to; from it man reclaimed the lost pieces of his past and  
allowed it to resume its growth. The world's people; desperate and traumatised, clung to this artifact of the past and from it became something wondrous, for the first time in its history, Earth and Humanity stood United under one banner; The Earth Alliance was born.

But, the database did not only contain the usual knowledge that one would expect to be in it, the people who worked on it had not only included existing plans, but future ones, the plans of proposed devices; theoretical ideas and proposals, stolen from the world's governments and research laboratories were also gathered. New thoughts and ideas that may have not gained mush interest or recognition; were looked at in a new light and the projects were reinstated by the Earth Alliance with vigour.

Man's progress seemed ready to go full throttle; but, proposals and theories weren't the extent of the plans; there was more. A member of the team, a Dr. John Winder Smithers, had included gigabytes of data on multiple hard-drives relating to science of the fictional variety. TV shows and video games; books and ideas from man's imagination were all included in the hopes that man could remember not only what he had planned; but also what he could make should it be dedicated enough to take the risk. At first, this data was not as focused on as the existing and future plans and documents; some believing that such technologies were impossible by the laws of science, or too advanced for man to even think about attempting.

It was at this time that the second advance of humanity's destiny appeared, a Centauri ship appeared in Earth orbit, and with it the first definitive proof that man was not alone in the universe at large. After trying to manipulate man for their own ends with lies and false promises, the image of man and alien together as one diminished in the eyes of Humanity, though some mourned this, others were heartened by this display of individualism.

First contact had taught several lessons to Earth; one was that man was not alone; another was that while aliens did exist and did not seem to want to wipe out man; it didn't exactly seem like they would be the best of friends. The final, and what some would call the most important lesson was that, what had seemed impossible; was proven real. From this man began to wonder what else was possible. It seemed all that had been scoffed at as fiction by the world at large; had now become a beacon for the future of the human race. Some may wonder where this will lead, the world would research and investigate what advances could be made to the world; even if it seemed impossible; man was determined that it would find a way. The stubborn nature of humanity can sometimes be a terrible burden, but it does have its uses.

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So Basically in this fic the EA is a lot more curious and has a more devil may care attitude. Technologies that may have not seen the light of die or were left on the drawing board are going to be tested and tried. From this i also hope to include technologies from other fictional world's, but i'm not planning on giving them everything, they won't get warp 5 ships (yet ;p) and may only get warp 3 or less engines. So they're starting form scratch. This is where i'd really like some input, suggest a technology and give me at least a basic overview over how it works so I can try to incorporate it into the story. If it's too advanced it seems maybe dumb it down or reduce its effectiveness. I'm not planning on giving man everything but I am planning on them being better equipped.


	2. Paperwork and Projects

Well here's the first chapter of my story idea. Thanks for some of the suggestions and comments I hope to see more in time. Anyway let's begin shall we.

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Chapter 1- Paperwork and Projects

The year is 2220, with mankind and its inventive nature in full swing the R-AGE or Research Age of humanity had truly begun. New ideas and innovations were being proposed and plans for the future were being implemented and improved as time went on.

After contact with the Centauri mankind had made itself a limited stake in galactic politics, content to trade with its neighbours. Research and preparation for any potential conflict that may arise was the main mission for the armed forces. Not obsessing over invasion or conquering like some other races man was happy to just test out it's colonisation programs rather than invest in a war footing; this was not to say that man had abandoned his paranoid tendencies, just that it spent more time thinking on developing more ways to defend and retaliate against its enemies; rather than go out and invite attack through aggressive expansion and possibly lose against superior foes. Humanity wanted to be prepared to meet that enemy one day and it was always looking into new ways to defend itself, no matter what the cost or roadblocks it may encounter.

The health of mankind had improved, treatments such as gene fixing and scanning had advanced in leaps and bounds and most diseases that had plagued mankind in the past were either in the process of, or had been eliminated. This wasn't to say that man had become immortal or very longed lived compared to its past, the mysteries of the brain and the full genome of man were still in the process of being discovered. However, mankind was healthier then it ever was; all of that time and effort spent trying to preserve life had finally given the human race a new lease on life.

In the 75 years since first contact, man had advanced in many ways. Massive government projects allowed man to start building large artificial colonies around the Sol system, as well as the extra-solar ones. Engine technology had improved, allowing mankind to explore some of the further areas away from them. Sadly there were no alternatives to jump space, though the process was ongoing the physics, limitations and resources had to be discovered and covered. But by the start of the 23rd century many projects that had begun before and after mankind had discovered alien existence were finally bearing fruit.

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Nevada, North American continent, Former Area 51. Now Head R&D Base of Earth Alliance. Also known as Datacore 4. The date is 7th of July 2221

"When I was told this job was the opportunity of the lifetime I didn't expect it to mean paperwork heaven. I should have stuck with the warp project at least they get to relax by watching some TV, albeit for 'research' purposes." Prof. Eric Grimlaw thought to himself tiredly. An average height tanned male, with a sleight weightiness problem Eric thought he was the perfect male specimen of a man in his fifties. Sitting in a roomy office overlooking the main lab it seemed a great place for someone to kick their feet up and relax, that is, if there was room to put a foot. Mounds of paperwork and notes covered the desk and it all seemed to be set up in stacks increasing in height, ranging from requisition requests to the orders from on high, or as the Professor put it 'the bastards upstairs who hate trees, hate me and hate you'. Just as Grimlaw was about to go into the janitorial requests for more a sterile cleaner his door, made of Plexiglas to make sure the 'little man ' didn't feel cut off from his boss, opened. Eric had thought that the see-through door just made him an easier target.

"Hey Boss, here are those progress reports you wanted" Sam Bekker said as he walked through with even more paperwork and worse (Eric thought) a folder, those kinds of ones you know are important but really don't want to read because it's usually stuff you already know. Sam was a younger man of about 35, with greyish eyes and black hair; no one ever said he was a lady killer.

"Hello Sam, what's the word from downstairs?" Eric said as he contemplated getting a lock installed for the door. It wasn't that he didn't like Sam; just that he didn't ever seem to bring good news.

"Same as always boss, scientists acting like kids and giving demands; give us more resources, give us more time to finish, give us more time off and my own personal favourite 'it'll be done when it's done' seriously sir I don't know why you haven't snapped and beheaded them all" Sam replied in his usual way, smiling and stiff.

"Simple my dear sapien, if I did that then the politicians would just send more of them and the military would increase security."

"Well maybe you'll get lucky one day and be able to do that, until then here are the reports" Sam said as he gave Eric the reports and the folder then turning around and leaving to get back to his own work.

Eric looked through the reports, trying to spot anything like deception or a lie by the people who worked for him and the EA. After about and hour he managed to work his way through the reports, mark any changes he wanted made and sent them off through his secretary. After that he headed down to the cafeteria to get some food to keep him going. When he got there he noticed Sam and one of the division managers discussing something and decided to join them.

"Hey, you got any room?"

"Huh? Oh sure boss come have a seat we were just discussing some of the latest news"

"Thanks, speaking of news how are the requests of getting a grav-drive from the Centauri or League coming along?" Eric said as he sat down. The Earth Alliance and the major corporations had been trying to get a drive that would allow easier travel through space and allow the creation of artificial gravity. They were working on grav-plating and did have some working models, but the power constraints limited them to the large capital ships of the fleet. It was hoped that a grav-drive could be made to work in a fighter until they could solve the plating problem.

"Not so good boss the negotiations are going nowhere because they keep asking too much"

"I thought we were willing to give them practically anything to get those"

"How does your first born child sound? Because that's what the scientist on the negotiation team described their demands as"

"Never a dull moment huh? A few more weeks and mark my words they'll be sending the Vultures after them"

The Vultures. A select group of special operatives designated to perform outside of normal Earthforce procedure. They were effectively government sponsored raiders and pirates. Acting as a scout force and as a first line of defence their primary mission was to assess threats to human assets and interests as well as act as an early warning system for an attack by outside forces. Their secondary mission was where all of the secrecy and the pirate label came in; as a force separate from Earthforce their other job was to steal, plunder and 'acquire' any advanced alien technology they could get their hands on. So far they had had only limited success due to little knowledge on this front as it was difficult to know what advanced technology existed that wanted to be gotten. Although certain things like stronger armour plating and better scanners had been pillaged.

To prevent infiltration as well as a finger being pointed back to Earth the people who were Vultures were normally given formal discharge from Earthforce or gotten from civilian security operations to provide a decent background to hide behind. For some of the more dangerous areas the people were given cosmetic surgery to look like a different species, as one didn't normally examine a pirates corpse the changes were only skin deep and reversible. The default appearance was the increasing of a person's facial hair as well as a ridge on the ear's and above the nose. There was many a private joke about the vultures being the friendliest 'aliens' to humans.

"Yeah well our own forays into that are still up in the air, luckily our anti-gravity tech is going better, and the boys downstairs think they almost have it"

"Oh really? Why do they say that?"

"Because they supposedly levitated an apple with their device at full power yesterday, not bad considering they didn't blow up the grid this time" Sam replied with a hint of a smile. Eric didn't find it all that funny, the little fiasco that had resulted from that test had caused him to spend the next three weeks trying to soften the blows from the other departments and the higher ups, as well as trying to petition a new generator that could provide more power and would be less likely to blow a fuse.

"Well let's hope they monitor the power readings next time. Alright then, what about the Pathfinder project, has the Stargate Department made any progress?" the pathfinder project was the division name for finding new means of travel around the galaxy. Not content with sticking with conventional jump space, the EA had invested heavily in trying to find new ways to travel, allowing faster speeds or just something to give a tactical advantage. Flying blind in jump space was not a state of being that Earth or the rest of humanity wanted to be in.

"Apparently so, they've looked at all their theories and believe they have found the right calculations to begin creating the right addresses for the Earth Alliance systems"

'Well that's some good news' Eric thought "So, what's the problem?"

"They haven't found the right power generator for it that will cause whatever gateway is formed to not, *ahem*, explode"

*Drat* Eric cursed under his breath "well tell them to keep working on it"

"Yes Boss"

"What about the Slipspace drive?"

"Most of the boys working on it are thinking it's a dud, the chances of finding a form of travel that works through probability are, according to them, terrible odds in themselves, but there are still some believers that think we can do it"

"Again tell them to keep working on it but reassign their tech group to one of the more developed project until the theorists come up with something"

"You got it boss"

"Alright, how about the exo-suit armour project is it coming along smoothly?"

"We're working on it, thing is, half want to go the HALO route and are working with the AI creation department, another is wanting to use Starship trooper powered suits while another is wanting to go full out and create those giant robot things the  
Japanese cooked up" said the division manager, Fred was his name, Fred Sturnet a doctorate in Robotics and a minor in metallurgy he was a good choice to oversee most robot projects.

"The Gundam project? I thought I told those guys to switch to the mobile suit development sector because it was easier for them to work with those guys." It also gave him an excuse to distract them by cutting their budget, hoping that they would be too busy proving their superiority to the neighbours than notice their smaller paychecks.

"Some did, but the majority of them transferred to the armour department because they wanted to and I quote 'Show those no good armour jockeys what battle armour really is'; there are bets as to who is going to finish first."

"Any other factions I should be aware of?" Eric said tiredly 'so much for that plan' he thought.

"Not that many with any relevance, though one of them is focusing on trying to recreate the armour on the clone troopers from Star Wars"

"Ah, well that's Star Wars isn't it, those kinds of people have gotten their teeth into almost everything."

"It is famous sir"

"I wouldn't mind so bad if half of them didn't believe in the force, and the rest weren't trying to waste resources making a lightsaber."

"Maybe if you gave into their requests for a lab of their own; perhaps they would be less annoying?" Sam replied inquiringly, the need for space was premium at DC4.

"You know as well as I do that if I gave in they would waste resources trying to create droids when what we need are ships, also the Trekkies and other major groups would protest for their own facilities and bother all the 'real' science people"

"What they do is science boss" Said Fred, being head of the division's that contained a lot of different 'fictional' sciences and sources caused him to speak in its defence.

"Of the fictional variety, until I see one of these projects actually work out how it's supposed to I'm not giving them any breaks on my watch" Eric finished with finality in his tone that brooked no further discussion on the subject.

"Yes boss, by the way, the jump drive project wants to either use the antimatter generators or a nuclear device to power the their ship on its maiden voyage"

"Tell them alright to whatever. But they damn well better keep to regulations and be careful with what their doing, I like having all my atoms in the right place thank you very much"

"Speaking of atoms sir, do you want the report from the tele-transporter division?"

Eric Groaned as he thought 'it's gonna be one of those days'.

"Alright then" Eric said resignedly "what news on the Galaxy at large?"

"Well apparently the EA has found a new player, some warrior race that's been worrying the league and some of the other star nations. They're calling themselves the 'Dilgar'"

"The Dilgar Eh?"


	3. Military and Making History

Well everyone here's chapter 2. I decided the next stage should be a look into EF. So hope everyone enjoys it. Constructive criticism's and any help you can give is once again appreciated. Well let's get started.

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Chapter 2- Military and Making History

After the unification of mankind under the banner of the Earth Alliance, questions were raised as to how man would now move forward not just in governmental and civilian issues, but also military ones. This question was answered shortly after the treaties and documents were ratified by the newly unified people.

EarthForce, a shining beacon for the rest of humanity to follow. The central military organisation for the Earth Alliance, EarthForce's main job was to secure the borders of Earth Alliance space and act as the 'strong arm' of the EA; working to face down potential enemies and making sure that humanity lived to see another day in an ever-changing cosmos.

The approach to how they fought took the typical three-type of forces approach that had served man in modern times. Where it was once Ground, Navy and Air these new groups were to work in an environment where death could potentially happen just from a micro-fracture on a hull or a strange alien disease.

One of these armed branches came from the Ground forces from Earth and its colonies. Now known as 'Worlders', the ground forces followed a similar approach to the armies of the past, save for a few differences of course; such as training in atmosphere drops and surviving in potentially lethal environments, not all places the EA had a presence had an atmosphere suitable for humans. As such large research into creating the new BDU's of the standard soldier existed. While there was some originality such as micro boosters on the feet to jump higher or faster or stabilisers in the legs to prevent falls in non-static environments; a large amount of information was gotten from the 'Database' concerning armoured Exo-skeleton's and training.  
The popular opinions were things such as HALO and Starship trooper's suits could be made standard fare for a soldier.

Not to say there wasn't some specialisation for others, the armoured warriors of the Imperium from the WH40K were a clear goal for many of the higher ups in the Worlders, though it was decided until large scale GMing could be done then things such as the Tau full suits rather than the bulkier and heavier Space Marine power armour would be used. The Tau suits did allow more flexibility and modification so its advantages outweighed its cousins for now. But there were some other things created that sated this desire for such an intimidating warrior. Lasguns were popular due to their en-mass usage and durability, a weapon that could recharge in sunlight gave the solar-power industry a new product to field. The other was the use of railguns, while not as durable as lasguns; they could break through most armour with the right force and matter. Both of these were useful for light or heavy infantry and it became a new tradition of a right of passage when one was authorised and upgraded from Las to Rail. Though while some species did make fun of the 'flashlights' and 'catapults' that the human troops used, this usually stopped when they lost something of theirs, usually a limb or their life.

A major change in rules of engagement and tactics was that every soldier was to be versed in the general knowledge of known alien species, as well as how to perform in a first, possibly hostile, contact. The 'shoot first and ask questions later' brand of thinking was for the Vultures; not the typical soldier whose job it was to make sure man could stop hostile invasion and, if need be, make and invasion successful. Because of this xeno-biology and species tactics were now studied at the academies and other training camps.

The next branch of the new forces stemmed from that of the old navy. Their purpose moving from the seas to the stars, it was now their main purpose to act as the most visible part of EarthForce, large fleets and ships were their fare. Making sure that no-one tried anything stupid against man's interests.

A key point of this new force, as with any navy worth its salt, was the diversity of the ships that were used. The Database and man's new interest in seeking out new forms of technology and living lead to new discoveries in the field of space combat. Popular ideas such as heavy cruisers and fighters, as well as drones were standard fare for many. After months of debate it was decided that the fictional world of 'Star Wars' would be a good place to start for a fighter and larger starship base, with the diverse nature of the number of kinds of ships found in the movies and other sources, it was a popular choice. This was not to say they only picked from a single source or that they were based primarily on a single design, 'never putting all your eggs in one basket' was the mentality that humanity followed. Ships of science and exploration were needed; mainly it was decided that 'Star Trek' would be a good choice due to the comforts that would be available to those who spent a long time out in space, though the problems of Zero-G put a damper on replicated food and 'holodecks' becoming standard on ships. It wasn't until the compound known as 'Newtronium' was created by Ellis Philips from his work on anti-matter in 2189 that the problems of Zero-G went away. When Newtronium was given a large enough charge a field emanated from it, this field reacted with the mass inherent in all objects and pulled them towards it and created the effect of gravity. Sadly only large ships such as the 'Socrates' class heavy cruiser could provide enough power for the Newtronium to work properly.

Finally civilian and colonisation ships were built based around the old adage of its bark being worst than its bite. Mass amounts of usually weak weapons and thicker hides than some warships was the main point by which the other races thought of humans technology as primitive and 'brick' like. But this didn't concern humans that much, they had their ideas and inspirations and would continue to develop and refine their techniques and technology as far as it would go in all (safe and ethical) directions.

The final force was to act as the main defensive branch of EarthForce. While the navy performed their role as defenders of the territory of the EA, and the Worlders worked to defend the ground it was up to the successor of the air-forces to act as the 'Garrison' to the world's, bases and homes of mankind. The mission of the garrison was to patrol and act as either the first or last line of defence for the area it was assigned to, with the navy being the most mobile of the group. This wasn't to say that they were weak and useless to the EA, on the contrary, while the Worlders got the nicest hand and heavy weapons, and the navy got the largest and more powerful ships; it was the Garrison that got the more powerful space-stations and fighters, as well as the more interesting technology and tools for their job.

The idea for this was that a 'fly-boy' attitude to battle and flight would cause them to mentally be willing to test out the more experimental tech and risk their life. Most testing of new ideas for space-combat and movement was their responsibility, fleshing it out and refining it until the navy mass-produced whatever they came up without for their own forces.

This three-group approach was simple in tactics to a sense. The ground forces were to act like a pack of animals, working in unison for the greater goal or objective. The navy was a herd, each ship was supported by its diverse number of counterparts to compensate for weakness or provide support for any given situation. The Garrison forces worked like a nesting animal. While they followed the same rules, it was because of their distance and separation form their counterparts and neighbours that gave each 'nest' its own personality and layout, made to work in the place they were stationed, but like any murder of crows they could gang up on those it found threatening its nests and would use whatever tools it had to so it could defend their homes and the lives that were its responsibility.

Each had other duties as well of course. The Worlders were used for security purposes and lot, the exploration fell to mainly the navy, though more interesting areas usually allowed the Garrison forces to spread their wings from the nests', but usually they stuck with the research and home side of things.

Safe to say mankind had a diverse force ready to be wielded if need be. True it had yet to be used to its full capabilities. But opportunity works in mysterious ways.

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Orbit, Alpha Centauri system, Third colony of Mankind. The year is 2222, a hopefully lucky year for humanity.  
The date is the 16th of September. The time is 13:00 Zulu

All was quiet aboard the 'Descartes' class cruiser Leviathan, its systems were running smoothly, the engines were purring thanks to the hard work of the engineers and the people were all focused and relaxed for what was to come. That was until the silence was shattered by the one force on board that could disrupt such an atmosphere of serenity.

"ALL RIGHT YOU LOT, LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD, ENOUGH LAZYING ABOUT."

That's right; the captain hadn't had his coffee yet. Captain Edward Yates was usually a calm, collected and likeable man, he had always been known for his dark hair and eyes of coal-blue, he was taller than most people but not really a giant, his ability to quickly and efficiently gather and process data and information given to him allowed his career to progress faster than most. But as it was said he was usually a nice guy, it was just that without his coffee he got a bit on the loud side, once he got some coffee into his system he always returned to his, more preferable, calm side.

"Settle down sir, everything is running fine, the crew is all ready and the scientists have reported we should be ready in a few hours." Mj. Eriks Soskevich head of sensors and secondary comms chief sternly said, being a hard-bitten Russian he had dealt with his fair share of drunk off vodka comrades and superiors and he was the best one to get the captain to back down when he was in one of his 'Coffee-Breaks'.

"Alright Eriks I'll calm down, now give me a report on what's going on out there, this is an important day not just for our careers, but also the entire human race" Yates replied in a more muted tone. The crew expelling a breath thanks to the problem of a coffee less captain being dealt with.

"It looks alright sir; apparently we are at optimal conditions for the flight" Eriks lightly said. Glad he had headed off a potential bad beginning to the mission.

"Good, how does the engine come up on sensors?" Yates asked curiously.

"It reads as fine, and our ECM is running at peak efficiency" Eriks replied in a matter of fact tone as he looked through his instruments. The sensor head was down in the hangar, making the final adjustments.

"Excellent. Any signs of our squiddy friends?" Yates said while adopting a more tense tone. A squid sighting could put the entire project on hold.

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The 'Squid things', or 'Angels', as some space travellers were known to call them, were a particular kind of ship that had been sighted at some of the failures of projects relating to Faster than Light travel. They were first detected from an accident. During one of the first tests of a long-range subspace communication relay a sensor void was detected from the pulse it caused when activating in 2206 around Earth. Not wanting to give away the element of surprise and possibly cause whatever created the void to disappear; a recon patrol was dispatched to the void's location and do a fly-by of the area. As they approached there appeared to be no indication that the void was aware that they had detected it, possibly believing it was immune to sensors. While this may have been true for sensors using the typical spectrum or Tachyons, the recon patrol consisted of ships that were testing out new subspace sensors and comms for inter-fleet operations.

Hoping that being closer would allow a clearer picture; the ships were able to get a good outline of the vessel that was in the void, some energy readings were also acquired and an sighting by one of the pilots later described it as "Squid-like with its tentacles, yet, also graceful like it was alive."

No-one seemed to know where they came from, although there was some talk from the other races of 'old-ones' that left the EA guessing. It was not known where they came from or what they wanted, save for a strange signal that earned them the name of saboteur's. The signal from one of them apparently caused a test of a new engine to break down and become irreparable for future use. Since then it had become standard policy to either cancel or postpone a test if they were sighted, that or send some ships to warn it off or make it move, distraction's were sometimes used for more the important tests, the ones in the end-stages of completion and were used to draw attention away from whatever was going on until it was finished. Until man found out what these vessels and the race using them wanted, Earth and humanity wasn't taking any chances until they thought they could stand against them. From the energy readings gotten from the recon flight and subsequent detections, such a stand was beyond man, at least for now anyway.

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"No sign in our immediate vicinity sir, though they have been seen at our distraction on the other side of the system" Soskevich replied adopting a grin.

"Ah, yes the 'Holly Hop Drive that's been on the ISN and other channels, it's a shame its meant for failure, all that money spent on advertisement down the drains" Yates said, grinning himself. He found it funny what EarthForce and EarthGov came up with as distractions sometimes.

"Better them then us being focused on sir, as far as the cosmos at large knows, this is just a routine test for the starting stages, not the end"

"Even so, is the special surprise we had placed ready to do its dirty?"

"Yes sir, systems check out, any squids or other uninvited guests will be in for a surprise" Soskevich said, his grin going a bit more feral than the one before.

A standard procedure for the projects that did not require hyperspace was to plant a bomb in hyperspace near the project zone that would explode and create a disruption to it. The bomb, which had elements like Quantium 40 and others which would disrupt Tachyon particles, was to hopefully block any signals, sensors and communications systems, it also prevented ships from running away if they tried anything. Travel was cancelled to clear up the area and make spies more obvious to be spotted and the bomb also prevented them from appearing or scampering off with any data collected. It was an effective deterrent when several known pirate crews and spy vessels had been captured and 'disappeared' by the Government, or returned without data or those who knew anything, blaming accidents as the reason for the no-show.

"Very well, how are the final preparations going?" Asked Yates earnestly.

"Good sir, from the latest update they should have the containment of the flux regulators of the matter/antimatter flow fully prepared for a full dispersal field within a few hours" Soskevich replied in a straightforward manner, clueing Yates into the fact that he didn't make what he just said up.

"Those words were long and unnecessary in my opinion. I swear they have enough words of technobabble to class it as its own language" Yates breathed out with a hint of annoyance.

"I'll begin work on the dictionary as soon as I can sir" the major said back, deciding to continue to distract the captain while his coffee was being made.

"You do that, and while you're at it, include a dictionary on l33t speak if you can. I'd like to know what some of you people write between each other behind my back without having to ask.

"Isn't a person's correspondence private sir unless it directly affects the crew or EA regulations?" Soskevich said narrowing his eyes a bit.

"Yes, but looking into the crews mail is part of what makes it so fun to be captain. Plus there's really no way of you stopping me, superiors privilege and all that" Yates let out with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Yes sir, which reminds me, how are those reports coming along?" Soskevich said.

Yates paled as his own grin was wiped off his face so fast you could have sworn it was going Faster than Light. "They're going fine thank you Major Eriks, how are those ones you're working on for me coming along?" Yates said as he tensed up, no matter who you were, if you didn't do your paperwork fast enough it seemed to mate and create more of it.

"I'm afraid I'm not done sir, why I dare say that I might be a bit late with it. What with the communication being so unsecured and all" the major said in a light voice. This caused Yates blood pressure to step up a bit of course. So he grudgingly gave up gave up his fun, promising to pay the major back by giving him the backlogged inventory and request list next time.

"Alright Eriks I got your point, you win. No mail rummaging without good reason" He said with a small glint in his eye.

"Yes sir, those reports will be on your desk later today" Soskevich smiled indulgingly, glad he had won this round.

'Bloody Ruskie' Yates thought 'threatening to hold back on those reports could have cost me that holiday I've been saving my time for. If I had to cancel it, then the wife would kill me.

"Good, well then I'm going to take a few minutes rest and work on the reports in my quarters, call me up when we're ready to go" Yates said getting up from his chair and into the turbolift, a nice feature for some of the latest vessels to come out of the Io ship yards.

"Alright captain, see you later"

[Four hours Later]

'and in other new a man was arrested on Zona Planitia by security forces. Accused of being a known drugs dealer, he was later charged for being fully nude in a public place; a security spokesman had remarked that he may have tested his own product with bad results. Finally, today may mark the beginning of a new era for mankind, a new form of faster than light travel is to be tested out that experts say shows signs of success after all the repeated failures and problems of the past. The drive, known as the Hol-'

"Switch it off" Yates ordered.

"Aye sir, signal cut" Eriks replied, felling better to be back in his position at Sensors.

"Excellent, so are we all ready Major?"

"Yes sir, all scanners give us a green light"

"Alright then, Lt. Open a channel to the Commander on the ship, narrow band if you please, I don't want any listeners"

"aye, sir, channel open" Lt. Emma Coppell replied, an officer of high standards, Coppell did not fit in with the 'dumb blonde' stereotype. Any person who thought that usually found themselves confused while she explained how string theory worked. Anyone who thought they could out do her in something usually found themselves poor from a bet or silenced from defeat. Her passion was comms though, wanting to know how much stupider some people were by listening to Comm. traffic always gave her a warm feeling inside.

"Time to begin then. Good Evening Commander, how does everything look?" Yates called out into the room.

"All looks fine sir, the crew is ready for Warp Flight, subspace bubble is holding steady, engines are warm and the matter/antimatter flow is within safety limits" Cmdr. Pierre Joubern called back in his high voice. A pilot who had served in some of the messier areas of EA space, he had earned the right to command what could be the discovery of a working FTL engine thanks to his command of the cruiser 'Hellion' when it got lost from the beacon network thanks to gravimetric shear from a collapsing star, with the captain dead and other officers losing their heads he had assumed command until someone gave a good reason to take it from him. His calm focused mind had allowed them to latch on to the beacon network after 2 weeks and earned him respect and the name of 'Odin' for his wise decision to have daily scout parties of Raven fighters sent out to try and find the beacon network, and also stave off the cabin fever of being lost.

"Well then Enterprise you are cleared for Warp Flight" Yates said, almost wanting to actually be there on the ship when it finally achieved its goal of a working warp engine. The name was a no-brainer, with EarthGov deciding that the name would be sure to give some form of luck to the project. The 'Rodenberry' had been discussed but it was decided that the engine would have that name, along with the name of the woman who had finally nailed the specifications one would need for the engine. The Rodenberry-Terrace drive was the end result of years of work by the dedicated men and woman of humanity. Today was the test of that engine, a manned flight to see if it was safe.

"Thank you sir. See you in a few light years. Enterprise out" The voice ended with a click.

All was quiet again on the ship. This was a defining moment for mankind; the warp project had been one of the highest priorities of the Database Development project before they became divided into the seven main sectors which dealt with projects and even then it had gotten its own lab space in Datacore 5, the ship sector, for its importance. This day could make or break many people's hope's dreams and possibly wallets.

"Report Major."

"Sensors show the ship is increasing its speed, it's about to hit the warp barrier."

Everyone took a breath, even if they couldn't hear what was going on the tense situation caused everyone to stop moving and wait.

As the View screen showed the ship accelerating there was a sudden flash as the ship seemed to stretch to infinity and then disappeared from sight in a flash of light.

"Ship has gone to warp sir" said an awed Eriks; he had just watched history being made and felt somewhat shocked it had worked.

A cheer arose from the crew as the implication sunk in. Humanity had did it, while hyperspace was somewhat faster right now, just the euphoria from developing something that no other known race had ever developed or even considered was like having Christmas, all their birthdays and other celebrations at the same time.

"All right quiet down you lot we're not finished yet, Lt. The ship should have stopped by now, is there any word?" Yates' voice rose above the din after a few minutes, trying to restore some semblance of order, even if he felt just the same. The crew once again drew a breath, while the success at the beginning was great, this moment was the most important, if it failed leading to the ships destruction or crews death than the engine may not see the light of day for years, even with research being so high, there were other things man wanted to spend his resources on.

"Nothing yet sir, wait, wait, YES! I'm getting a subspace signal sir, according to the coding it's the Enterprise"

"Open a channel Now!"

"Channel open"

"Leviathan to Enterprise, what is you status. Commander what happened?" Yates now held his breath; this was it, what would happen next? He prayed to whatever deity would listen that this would not be for nothing.

It seemed someone was listening as a voice was heard from the speakers. It sounded relieved, shocked and very gleeful "This is Pierre Joubern, Commanding the Enterprise, the first vessel of Humanity and the Earth Alliance to achieve warp flight, I repeat mission successful everyone"

The din was worse than the last time; some people were even starting to tear up. People were shouting their enthusiasm and the ship rumbled with the feet of dozens of people who felt they had made history today.

Yates felt just the same, and the coffee in his hand didn't hurt things either.

Man was going places, where it would head nobody knew, but the path's of fate had just opened.


	4. Vulture's and Unwanted Surprises

Phew, creating battle is harder than it seems. Constructive criticism's and any help you can give is once again appreciated. Now how about some Boom?

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Chapter 3- Vulture's and Unwanted Surprises

The Vultures, the hidden ace for Earth and its colonies, charged with covertly defending the territories of the EA through raiding and pirating ships that would pose a threat to its people. Working in shadow and under heavy security, using whatever resources were available, the Vultures were free from the typical rules of engagement and other conventions that could limit its effectiveness by way of the rule that 'whatever the other races don't know won't hurt us'.

Its other mandate was to lie, cheat and steal any advanced technologies that the surrounding alien races and cultures possessed in the hopes that it could be reversed engineered by the EA to add to its defence by using it themselves or finding weaknesses that could be exploited should said alien races ever get the idea in their heads to attack.

After contact with the Centauri in 2156 the Vultures were created by drawing in the best from the member nations Special Forces and other clandestine organisations to create a force that could monitor any moves made by the other alien races, should they seek to exploit Earth's new position as a burgeoning space power.

To achieve this the minds that made up the newly created 'vultures' (though they were known as the Alien Containment Enforcers or ACE for short at the time) were charged with finding out all they could about the other aliens that surrounded its space; though the Centauri had been 'helpful' in their providing of information for the Alliance, such information was not going to be taken at face value until ACE forces could properly study and present its own results and conclusions to the EA.

It was not until the Year 2168 that the Vultures first stepped into the spotlight. After several border skirmishes with the surrounding races and raiders attacking cargo, the losses incurred by EF due to insufficient information on enemy numbers and superior enemy technology became too high. After a particularly destructive attack on civilian ships by alien raiders it was finally decided that the ACE would be remade to deal with this problem. Deciding to work in secret to prevent leaks, the ACE central command was given the ability to create its own fighters and ships in the hope that a specialised force would be more effective than conventional weapons and tactics.

Its new name was credited to the Human pirate Lawrence Coolditch who, after being surprised by ACE forces, commented to the ISN reporter interviewing him in prison that the attack was 'like a flock of Vultures, circling you before swooping down to consume you'. This name stuck to the forces and while ACE was still the official designation for the organisation, the Vultures would be what they would be called in conversation or consternation in case you suffered from one of their attacks.

The Vultures then descended, clearing up border space by capturing, manipulating or simply eliminating the other factions. Pirates were never really trained to deal with Special Forces personnel or high-tech stealth technology that the Vultures employed. After many years of hard work the borders were clear of humans who wanted to exploit the fledgling colonies and bases, and the alien raiders had been warned off by the violent response that was met when they tried anything in Vulture territory.

The next step was tenuous, while there were still some raids going on around the borders and some inner systems, the Vultures had fulfilled their role as border watchers and defenders and the future of their organisation seemed in doubt.  
This was until an attack by a rogue Abbai, who believed in the 'peace at any cost' mentality, was thwarted by Vulture forces and the ship was captured. While it was damaged, the ship's shield was partially intact and could still be studied by the Alliance scientists. When the Abbai asked the EA what had happened to the ship and its crew, humanity told them that the ship had been vaporised by a lucky hit to its engines, to prove this a mock battle was recorded by creating a fake Abbai ship and its subsequent destruction by an EF ship, then the evidence was presented to the Abbai who went happily on their way. Meanwhile the ship and its shield was being analysed by the best researchers and scientists in the fields of defence and armour. While not successful in allowing the Alliance to create its own shields, the technology did prove several theories and other projects right and allowed mankind to move on with its own development of shield technology.

From this encounter a new directive was created for the Vultures to follow. 'The acquiring of alien technologies and resources for the good of humanity' was the new law to be followed, the raider hunters became raiders themselves, going into alien territories and systems with the intent of stealing their secrets and other precious materials to fuel Earth's development.

Of course, the other races would notice if one of humanities organisations started attacking them so the Vultures went even more underground. People were officially discharged by Earthforce and private security experts were hired so as to provide a background that would not lead back to the Alliance. The ships used became more specialised and cleared of obvious Alliance markings and new technologies were kept under wraps for privileged Vulture access to prevent its spread to potential enemies and targets. The 'Alien' treatment was made for the most covert operations. The ridge on the ears and head as well as the facial hair made sure that those caught too far from home were not bothered with. A new history for these 'Ridgeheads' was spread through rumour and it was decided that this new species was nomadic, explaining their presence in far off systems apart from each other, and aggressive to their pursuit of 'prey'. 'Ridge Hunts' became common for many of the races, but victory against one party never seemed to slow down or stop their prowling. This behaviour caused some of the researchers and other VIP's ask to change their name to Hirogen as 'Ridgebacks' was too unimaginative for them. They were voted down harshly due to the fact that if they were named Hirogen and a race connected them to Earth and its fictional portrayal of a race of the same name; it would be all their heads on a platter.

The structure of the Vultures organisation was changed to allow it more flexibility in its duty, the Roost was the head of the organisation, sending out the raiders and giving them their objectives, to safely get the information to their operatives without rousing suspicion, the Roost secretly owned a number of bars and warehouses across known space for Vultures to meet in, thinking that there would be less suspicion of a known aggressive group going to have a few drinks rather than flying into secret or covert bases. These parlours also provided a small bit of extra revenue for the Vultures and the rest of the Alliance to use. A person at the top was given the 'official' name of a 'Nest Maker' to denote their role as the heads of the organisation, under them were the Griffon Class, the name given to those who had proved their ability. The most common group were of course the Carrion class, it was this group that performed most of the missions and secured most of the objectives for the Vultures.

When becoming a Vulture the new recruit began as an egg until they performed a successful reconnaissance in a group of other eggs, after this they became hatchlings and began some smaller raids on weak cargo, and after performing a successful attack on said cargo with their 'Venues' or teams, a hatchling became a fully fledged flier or Carrion. Training the eggs was treated as a boring and annoying assignment while being put in charge of a hatchling team denoted trust in one's ability to lead a team on missions.

Contingencies did exist should the Vultures links to the Alliance be found out; puppet officials and people were selected to take the fall for any discovery by the other races. These people knew their purpose, and were usually some of the strongest supporters of further security to prevent any of their hides being sought.

As it stood, none of the other races really thought about connecting the Vultures (and Ridges) to Earth, arrogantly believing that such a new race to the stars could not field such a force and were to be ignored as a minor pest. By the time any of them could have connected the dots it would have been too late since the Vultures had been around long enough to stop any incursion into their territory and infiltration.

The Vultures circle the holdings of man, loyal as a trained Falcon, as deadly as any sharp clawed Hawk, as watchful as an owl and as intimidating as any Raven or Crow seen at the time of death. They are coming, and they are fierce.

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Corperth Star System, Minor mining system for Earth. The year is 2223, tensions rise and the sound of drums grow louder.  
The date is 9th July, the time is 09:00 Zulu

Space is a curious thing, it can excite minds and dull them, and it can create life and just as easily destroy it. It can cause a being to question their existence or make them feel more secure in it. Some may wonder what wonderful creations it will be witness to as it grows and moves forever outwards into infinity. But this is not that part of the story.

"Alright you jack rabbits, form up with me, I want sound off now, Stalker 1 go" asked a gruff voice over the narrow band comms.

"This is Stalker 2 reporting in" replied a quiet male tone.

"This is Stalker 3, all's clear" said a woman's voice. A slight twang indicated a Texan accent.

"This is Stalker 4 reporting clear skies" A tougher sounding, low voice stated.

"This is Stalker 5, I report no problems so far" the final voice said quickly, like it was distracted by paying attention to something else.

Five ships moved slowly as they approached their assigned location for the mission. The ships looked like a tear drop with the larger part being the front and the smaller at the back, the cockpits were hidden by the octagon shape that surrounded it, hiding the pilot from view and damage. Their engines and other emissions seemed to be so little that they appeared non-existent, suggesting they were dead in the vastness of space, but they moved in such a coordinated fashion and with such a speed that the possibility of them being damaged or dead seemed to be wishful thinking. But considering what kind of people flew these vessels, wishful thinking may be all that you got should you make them your enemy.

"All right then people let's do this right and I'll buy the beer for the team tonight" the gruff voice of Stalker 1 said again.

"I'm going to hold you to that Flight Leader" Stalker 3 said.

"Quiet you two, this is an important mission, the 'roost' wants it to go as smoothly as possible, we don't want any mistakes this far down" Stalker 5 loudly said.

"I remind you 5 that I'm in charge of this Flight, you don't give me orders" Stalker 1 said over the comms in a sterner tone than the one before.

"Yeah 5 what's got you all riled up?" Stalker 3 said in the voice that translated as 'what are you ruining our fun for'.

"Sorry sir, didn't mean to exceed my authority, as for the reason for my caution, well I just picked up from 'Pioneer Mermaid' that our target is closing in and I don't really want to alert it" Stalker 5 timidly said before adding a sterner voice at the end.

"Crap, why didn't you say so? Everyone go to comm. silence and engage shrouds" Stalker 1 said quickly.

"Roger" The Group of voices chorused before silencing with a hiss of static.

Suddenly their appearance was hidden by a strange flow of darkness that was all around their hulls, clinging to it like it was its lifeline. The engine emissions dropped off even more, making it seem that they were nothing more than background noise to sensors or glitches in the system; they then fell apart from their coordinated pattern, making it seem they flew in a random pattern and the larger distance between them hid their presence even more.

Bert Fielder a short, thin caucasian gift to women (he proclaimed when drunk), or Stalker 4 as he was known for the mission, was a tad bored. In his nearly skin-tight black spacesuit that held no markings to connect him with anyone, save for a badge on his shoulders that was the head of a well-known carrion eater; he waited patiently. After flying some dangerous missions in League space, his Venue Flight was reassigned some down time from the more stressful tasks and given an assignment to sort out some problems that the Narns had been causing lately in Alliance space.

The Narns has been making some, what they thought were covert, raids into EA space for some time to fuel their efforts against the Centauri Republic and several civilian and even a small EarthForce scouting party had been attacked and stripped of their valuables. Suffice to say, man didn't take this sort of aggressiveness lying down. But rather than let the Narn Gov. be made aware of the raiders identity and accuse their people and possibly cause an incident (though the analysts and diplomatic teams said that war was unlikely), as well as the raiders getting away scot-free; it was decided that something had to be done. So to err on the side of caution, the Vultures were dispatched by the Roost to teach the Narn some manners and make them think twice about attacking EA holdings and citizens.

Bert's full flock had not been dispatched, typical teams consisted of fifteen, usually Raven class, fighters and one carrier, Albatross class, to move them from location to location or be the head of an assault, the Roost had only dispatched five of them for this raid, deciding that any force encountered would not be too much trouble and the rest would be better used elsewhere to deal with any unwanted attention. Code names were kept simple in case someone was listening in and identified the standard means of identification used by EarthForce fighters.

The plan was a simple one, present a juicy prize near a mostly deserted border systems jumpgate for the Narn to attack, make it look damaged and send out a wide ranging distress signal while the Vulture team waited far enough away so they wouldn't be spotted. After the Narn arrived they were to assess their strength and engage before they finished with their prize. In the interest of success of this mission small mines, similar to the one used at confidential testing areas that exploded in Hyperspace, had been deployed to prevent them from escaping until they wanted them to, they needed a messenger and it had to be suitably scared at the end. Bert smiled when he read this mission order; while not a sadist, he liked seeing the reaction of his prey when it realised it had been trapped and doomed. Now, after two hours of mindless waiting, the action was about to begin.

"Heads up people, we've got company" Stalker 1's voice rang out, pulling Bert out of his thoughts.

Looking up ahead he saw the typical vortex that leads to Hyperspace open up inside the systems jumpgate, after checking his shroud system was in working order, he maintained a passive scan to paint his targets when they emerged.

First through the vortex were some Frazi fighters, about three of them acting as a scout force to assess whether the prey was real or a trap, 'it was real alright' Bert thought 'just that it's a trap as well'. After about five minutes of flying around the area, completely missing the shrouded ships, they took up a formation around the cargo ship and one of them blasted a small hole where the bridge was, creating a small shower of metal debris and some cow meat that was to simulate dead bodies. 'Stupid' Bert irately thought 'the rule is Pillage .Then. Burn, they shouldn't blow any holes until they assess what's in there, could have been some explosives, bloody raiders'.

After about another minute the main players of this spectacle arrived, two T'Ralie class freighters appeared and set to work on docking with the damaged cargo ship and sending people on to get the loot. 'Incompetent pirates, they can't even get that fake manifest we cooked up because the bridge is gone, another point against them and more reason to remove them from the galactic gene pool.' Bert thought as he prepared to attack the fighters, when Murphy decided to intervene.

A T'Loth class assault cruiser appeared from the vortex's maw and set about coming along side the rest of its companions, its chaotic structure creating a pit in Bert's stomach. The vortex closed behind, it leaving only the Vultures and the Narns in the area. The appearance of a ship of that size and armament could only get one reaction from such highly trained personnel.

"Bloody Hell!" Bert almost shouted "they're really taking this seriously; one of those could give any civilian and some of EarthForce a cold feeling in their stomach".

"Stalker 1 to all units, I know you see what I see, all though it would be easier to retreat or wait for reinforcements we don't have that kind of time, we're going to complete this mission come hell or high plasma" Stalker 1 said over the comm. the shock in his voice being evident.

"No way, there is no way we can handle three fighters, two lightly armed freighters and a T'Loth class. Not with only five fighters, and the cruiser may even have five more fighters waiting in its hangars, I don't know about you but attacking that seems more suicidal than calling a Drazi a Brakiri" Stalker Three's livid voice rose over the comm.

"Be that as it may this is our job, don't make me bust you down to Egg alright, now let's hear some suggestions quickly people before they finish picking the ship and leave." Stalker 1 said.

"I have one sir, it's risky as it means splitting up our group" Stalker 2 said, Fred was his name and planning was his game, his 'suggestions' had lead to many successful assignments to the team, if he had an idea then it seemed someone was looking out for them today.

"Let me hear it Stalker 2" Stalker 1 answered, a small sound of relief flowing down the connection.

"Well first thing we have to really do is deal with the fighters and the T'Loth cruiser. If we split up into two teams of two we can divide our attention easier" Stalker 2 suggested.

"And what do we use against that T'Loth, our current armament isn't suited for that kind of ship?" Stalker 5's worried voice rang out. "One hit from that things heavy guns and we're splat patsy"

"We do have the standard mini-plasma bombs on board, if we can get close enough we could disable its main power and engines, our shroud should protect us as long as we don't crash into them" Stalker 2 shot back.

"And the freighters?" Bert, or Stalker 4, said.

"They're lightly armed from my scans and probably yours, so they will run or at least be not much of a bother, plus the surprise we cooked up for them should sort one of them out at least" Stalker 2 voiced his reasoning.

"What about the last one of us?" Stalker 3 said, indicating curiosity, Fred (Stalker 2) didn't like to waste any possible advantage he could get, desperate measures and all.

"Back-up in case things get worse" Stalker 2 replied, a hint of worry in his voice.

"and with that note you have doomed us all, all right Stalker 2's suggested something workable and I agree with him, me and Stalker 4 will take the fighters while Stalker's 2 and 3 will attack the T'Loth, Stalker 5 you're on backup duty. Everyone agree with this?" Stalker 1's voice once again taking order.

"Roger" The group chorused again.

The four ships sped up and headed to their targets, the Narn group oblivious to their plans and actions. As they approached the four ships split of into pairs and headed to their respective targets. As 1 and 4 began their run at the fighters that were positioned around the cargo ship, 2 and 3 lined up behind the cruisers wings, aimed, and fired their mini bombs at the cruisers engines and power relay room. The bombs were standard explosive, fitted with a small amount of nuclear material and, thanks to advances in the field or production, particles of antimatter to produce that extra Boom.

A small series of explosions lit up space for a brief second as the bombs detonated, causing the cruiser to start drifting as it lost power and propulsion, the lights dimmed and frozen bodies of the crew floated out from the hull as decompression sucked them out into the coldness that was space. Two fighters emerged from the hangar just as 3 fired her pulse laser cannons to disable it; the bolts flew in and damaged the door, preventing it from being closed to load more people into the fighters or any other vessel. Both of the fighters survived 3's continuous fire and started firing their own pulse cannons at 3's former position, her moving off quickly before being hit, the shroud hiding her presence almost perfectly as the energy from her weapons dropped off, confusing the fighters as they didn't think that it had been destroyed so easily, even though it effectively vanished after it stopped firing.

Just as the bombs went off near the cruiser, 1 and 4 fired their central rapid-fire plasma lances at their target fighters while one of them fired a tracer against the third ship for their tracking bombs to attack. One ship was immediately destroyed, its hull ripping to shreds as the plasma boiled its occupant and the ship alive, but the other managed to get out of the way and begin firing its own weapons at the Vulture vessels a glancing hit striking Bert's ship.

"Shit, that was close" Bert exclaimed as he lined up his sights on his enemy.

"Yes it was, now less yapping and more blasting" Stalker 1 said over the comm.

"Oh, you don't need to tell me twice" Bert shot back as he opened fire on the Frazi fighter with all his main weapons.

As he fired his weapons the Frazi attempted to evade, weaving up and about, trying to not get hit by the fiery death. Both ships weaved in and out of each others line of sight and range, Bert having to dodge the occasional shot from the freighters as they flew around the cargo ship, trying to force their enemy into making a wrong move. A moment of bad judgement was all it took, a left swerve to avoid the hot plasma that was being fired at with caused it to be hit by Bert's pulse laser cannon, damaging its shell and slowing it down long enough to be fully vaporised by a plasma blast.

"Take that you low-life!" Bert shouted.

"Ah crap, somebody get this get off me" Stalker 2 shouted out. His ship was being followed by a surviving Frazi fighter form the hangar, it had managed to damage his systems by its random fire and his shroud started to fail, making him a plump target for any Narn with a vendetta; firing his rear pulse cannons for all they had but the fighter behind kept out of his line of sight to get a clear lock. Weaving in and out he couldn't help but wonder why the man with the plan always got the most grief.

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T'Var was absolutely livid; he had been assigned to this, seemingly easy, mission after all his success in claiming the worlds of the cursed Centauri. He had been raiding the human's territory for the past few weeks and was just starting to feel more relaxed after the tense missions against the Centauri when everything went wrong. He had made friends and gained comrades from his fellow pilots and the hangar crew, and now most of them were dead or dying thanks to these 'Vultures'. Their very definition had reminded him of what the Centauri had done to his people, picking them apart as they slowly wasted away. He had heard stories from pirates and cargo shippers of their almost legendary ability to appear from nowhere and wipe away those that opposed them, but he had laughed thinking that such an enemy would be some weak and cowardly lot; hiding behind some smoke and mirror tricks to survive.

But such thoughts were no longer favoured, these ships had truly appeared out of nowhere and decimated his fellow Narns', even the cruiser had been seriously damaged by some of them, he could not lock onto one and unless they were firing a weapon they were almost impossible to see. But from some random fire he had sprouted in his frustration it appeared that he had caught one and damaged whatever helped it to be invisible from sight and sensors. He would enjoy retribution; as a light lit up indicating a targeting lock he smiled, victory, even against one of these phantoms, would be sweet.

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Just as the fighter appeared to be lining up to fire a missile behind stalker 2, it suddenly exploded in a showering inferno as Stalker 5 came through its debris. Weaving about like some bat that was chasing its prey.

"Hey, thought you could use some help" Stalker 5's smug voice rang out, he didn't like being left behind it seemed.

"Thanks Stalker 5, now how's about you and I take care of the dear T'Loth that's sitting out there?" Stalker 2 said, voicing his relief in being able to live another day.

"Gladly Stalker 2" Stalker 5 replied.

"Alright then, let's face it head on, my shroud's damaged so I'm switching power to my defence grid, at least it'll keep me alive longer" Stalker 2 said, while switching some levers and making the adjustment, the flickering of his ship completely stopped and he appeared in his full glory while small lights activated around the ship, burning and waiting to discharge their energy to stop incoming fire.

The two Raven fighters lined up their sights as the cruiser tried in vain to defend itself with light fire, but the defence grid's of the two Vultures intercepted this and helped address the issue of what to do with a damaged T'Loth when you find one. Sending out their remaining and full complement of bombs and all energy weapons firing at the ships reactor, the ship crumpled before fully blowing to smithereens. The debris going out in all directions, no-one appeared to have gone into any escape pods, not that the standard T'Loth carried them, as such a technology was below those who would fight against the hated, and cowardly, Centauri foe.

The remaining fighter was taken out by the tracking bombs, trying in vain to avoid them even though the tracers attached to its hull kept them going after it with their small ion drives. It succumbed to defeat when a lucky hit from Stalker 1's pulse cannon hit its engine, slowing it down long enough to be hit by the explosives. Its death proving once again that going against Vultures only resulted in failure.

"All Fighters eliminated" Bert said with relief.

All that left was the freighters who, after seeing the T'Loth's destruction had begun to beat a hasty retreat to the gate. Their docking rings ripped off and their engines glowing as they tried in vain to escape the fate of their comrades.

"Stalker 5, please send out the signal to one of the freighters before it gets away, I think we need only one ship to deliver our message" Ordered Stalker 1 pleasantly.

"Aye sir, signal sent" Stalker 5 replied while sending out a special subspace frequency to one of the freighters. When coming up with this plan, it was decided that the cargo would be fitted with mines that would detonate at a moments notice by way of a special signal from one of the Ravens special subspace comm. gear on board.

As the ships neared the gate one of them suddenly burst into flames before being put out by the vacuum of space, its debris flying harmlessly away from the gate and the other freighter.

"Think they got the message Stalker 1?" Asked Stalker 3 smugly.

"That they did 3, and its delivery is sure to complete our objective, if not well, more work for us." Stalker 1 replied, sounding a tad proud for his team's success in dealing with difficult odds.

"Message from Pioneer Mermaid coming in again, says they want us to fly back, refuel and go off to investigate some new troublemaker with the rest, we're meeting up with Venues 12, 23 and 59" Stalker 5's voice piped out.

"What are they called?" Bert said wearingly, always a bit reluctant to go against unknowns.

"Says they're called the Dilgar, strange name, Warrior race if I'm reading this correctly, supposed to make Hitler look like Ghandi from their conduct."

"Well then lets do what they say, team fall back to the rendezvous point to meet up with our carrier, the others should be with it already, Stalker 5 detonate the ship, we've got plenty of salvage from other T'Loth's, we don't need another one cluttering up the researchers docks and we need to make it look like we actually did some ransacking, our pirate label is at stake" Stalker 1 told his subordinates.

"Roger" The final chorus shouted out with relief, glad that the mission was now over and were returning to their wing mates.

As the successful Vulture ships left, the charges on board the trap cargo ship were detonated, taking the T'Loth and the remains of the other ships with it. As the vortex opened Bert left with one final thought over his next mission 'All in all, a vultures work was never done.'

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Well I hope everyone enjoyed that. Next, moving on to a look at EarthGov.  
For those who want to know what Pioneer Mermaid or what a 'Pioneer' is will have to wait, all I can say is that it's one of those things i've got plans for.


	5. Average Days and Loud Proclamations

Constructive criticism's and any help you can give is once again appreciated. Now on with the story.

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Chapter 4- Average Days and Loud Proclamations

When mankind became unified under one banner, the need for an effective government to run it became paramount. The various organisations and peoples that now made up the Earth Alliance had to decide what kind of legislative, judicial and bureaucratic systems would exist to keep humanity alive and free.

The other problem was of course the colonies that already existed before the first contact with the Centauri, small bases on various moons and a group of biodome's on Mars which was slowly becoming habitable and leading to more expansion across the surface. With the continuous growth of a population and improved Terraforming techniques, it seemed that eventually the number of people and resources on the colonies of man would outdo and outnumber its Homeworld. Such a situation, no matter how far in the future, worried many in the new government.

The thing was that, as the economy gained strength in leaps and bounds, the number of people in the Alliance grew, as did the number of those wishing to stretch their galactic legs. Instead of a few ships escorted by a small contingent of armed escorts, entire fleets were made for colonisation; huge vessels that could land and run themselves were constructed, basing designs off the old Macross and city ships of fiction, ships were made to last and allow new generations to grow. An improved education and health care allowed millions to lead productive lives in both familial and work related life, there were problems but they were mostly dealt with easily, the lessons on the past being learnt with vigour.

The Database was a marvel, containing data from so many different sources and within it, the opinions, desires and ideals of generations of people who from their thoughts and actions had guided mankind throughout its history. Apart from technical and theoretical knowledge, the information on the planet's history, cultures and even the numerous forms of government were saved onto it. When the need came for a new government and a solution to the problems that could plague humanity's future, this information was what was focused on and scrutinised; trying to find an approach that could lead humanity onto great things, with Truth, Justice and Equality as its guide.

To that end an uncodified document was created, to allow the freedom to adapt should the need arise. The judiciary would be ran by a system of and hierarchical separate courts, each one to deal with an aspect of the law including, human, alien and personal rights and freedoms, as well as responsibilities. To defend the homeworld, only chartered and registered flights would be allowed up and down through the atmosphere unless they followed a set path and landed in one of the various commercial spaceports dotted around the planet on land and sea. The border was up in space, a spaceship had to pass through one of the many orbital stations that Earth possessed before it could set down on Earth soil, this of course was to prevent dangerous articles from reaching Earth and funnel the numerous commerce traffic into a controllable environment. There was a 'blockade' runner every now and then but the land based laser arrays and various patrols around the planet didn't allow much room to get in or out without being spotted and blown to bits. The pioneer clusters that also defended the Earth added an extra, and more covert, feature to security.

On the case of the colonial problem the constitution had been drafted by legal experts, environmentalists, economists and some military advisement from around the world to work on the problem. As hyperspace became more widely available it was decided, to resolve any possible future conflict, that when a colony gained a large enough population and resources, as well as enough self-sufficiency to run without direct Earth support, it would be able to petition the senate to become a State in the Alliance federal territories, gaining a degree of independence but still being under the EA flag and laws.

After the petition was submitted trained federal inspectors were sent off to the colony to judge whether they had a case to become a State province rather than an EA administered settlement. When the colony gained approval from them it would then be required to submit a list of documents that explained what laws, taxes and political system it wished to be run by to the Colonial Administrative Board (CAB) who would make sure there were no clashes with constitutional, human or political freedoms. From there, the now free province would elect a governor and his party to oversee its development, while usually this was the person already in charge of the settlement at the time due to them setting up the process; the law stated that there be a fair election. After the laws, liberties and personal freedoms were studied by the Supreme Court of the alliance and debated in the various other departments in the civil office another official was elected by the now semi-independent colony to be sent to the Senate on Earth to represent and defend the colony on its behalf to the rest of the EA.

The constitution that allowed such freedom was not weak though. It layered extensively with clauses and amendments to prevent a state from running off on its own agenda and breaking federal law, and changes were constantly being made to deal with and ever growing community of planet states. To prevent clashes with federal and colonial organisations a law that stated the colony/state's authority ended once atmosphere was reached was put in. For a non-atmospheric colony-run moon or planetoid it was a distance of that halfway between the moon and Earth. Those who broke the law but had managed to get far enough away would then be put under Federal jurisdiction to apprehend and try them. For colonies that owned its moons the laws extended to them but a distance was decided by the authorities to know when one law ended, and another began.

This atmospheric border law allowed interstellar trade and commerce as well as asteroid mining to be conducted by EarthGov unless the colony gained a claim of its own. The system of Elysium possessed large enough, habitable, moons orbiting a gas giant that it was becoming known as the ancient Greece of the stars with competing moons each trying to out do the other in their quest for trade, over twelve different colonies ran against each other and it was a topic of fascination for other alien governments when they learnt of it; the system itself was discovered by a chance encounter when a subspace sensor array detected it and a flotilla of colonisation ships were sent, without the array it was theorised that it would not have been detected unless it was flown right through due to a black hole that faced the alliance absorbing any tachyon sensor sweeps. For large multi-system corporations the law required that they follow federal law unless the business they conducted, trash and transport etc…, interacted directly with the colony, in which case they followed the colonial law. This gave steady incomes to both the colonies of the Alliance and the rest of the people.

For moons that could house a large enough population but didn't monitor a habitable planet to be given State status, and had enough resources like Europa, a commission known as the Natural Satellite Independence Board was created. The NSIB was to act with the CAB to debate and decide whether the moon could qualify for state status. The first one was Europa and its first Spaceport, the Arthur C. Clarke, opened on the eve of its statehood. Many other moons and other satellite's still asked for statehood but it was a slower process due to the nature of the peculiar situation. The Twelve Elysium colonies were an exception due to their average size being a third less then Earth and most were easily terraformed by cheap and fast methods.

The planetary province was itself mainly defended by EarthForce, but to prevent conflict between the army and the civilian population many of the Garrison forces that defended the planet and system were recruited from the colony itself or, if the numbers of trained personnel at the time weren't enough, were dispatched from neighbouring systems rather than those on the other side of the alliance; the people of the Navy that patrolled the colonies space were still mostly gathered from larger world's and Earth for numbers and the fact that the Navy patrolled on a much larger scale, prompting the need for larger numbers of people.

These intersystem and homemade recruits were meant to create a sense of camaraderie among the population, letting them know that those that defended them, defended them because they felt a responsibility to protect their homes and the lives of their families more than anyone who was just ordered to defend it would; some alien races, namely the Centauri, rationalised this as a means of blackmail to prevent cowards from running and leaving their loved ones, or precious items to die or be ransacked. To the humans it gave them hope and peace of mind, knowing that their defenders did their jobs not just out of duty, but out of love and principle.

The colonies and new homes of man are growing in both number and stature. The senate represented the interests of billions of new people and they performed their duty with the utmost care and scrutiny by both those at home and those far away. Trade was competed between states but was mainly monitored by EarthGov to prevent unnecessary clashes. With better understanding of the stars around them and the people's desire, combined with an understanding that history will repeat itself unless the lesson's from it are learnt; humanity was bounding forward's prepared to face the universe's challenges with freedom and unity.

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Earthdome, Geneva, Switzerland, Home of the Earth Alliance administration, Earth, Sol. The year is 2229; the drums have reached a crescendo.  
The date is 14th December, the time is 15:00 hours GMT (standard Europe-side Earth time)

The President of the Earth Alliance was a distinguished position, charged with representing the will of the people and doing all that could be done to improve the life of everyone and strengthen the stature of the EA in the eyes of the other races, the food and drink was free, healthcare was excellent and the security was the most sophisticated money could buy and train. It's a shame that the things that no one knows about are also the most common occurrences when working in such a position; major headaches and chronic insomnia with a side order of the urge to just scream.

President Edward Dresden, 29th president of the Earth Alliance with Black hair and jade eyes with a calm exterior that could weather a hurricane, was having an average day. He'd been taking calls all day from various organisations about the need for more resources, more time or a larger budget for a certain department.

He was just about to consider ordering one of his bodyguards to fetch him his fifteenth coffee when the knock that indicated his next meeting stopped him.

"Open the door" he told the man in black next to it.

The door opened and one of the most powerful persons in the Earth Alliance entered. Head of the joint chiefs and chief war minister David Fenrir was a tall and somewhat intimidating man at over 6' tall and onyx eyes, having taken part in the sunward conflict in 2195 as a Worlder; he had faced down numerous enemy troops and had achieved his rank through his deceptive use of false trails to trap the enemy soldiers in a pincer movement. Edward had worked with him as an intelligence officer at the time and when he started his election campaign he had brought David with him.

"Good morning Mr. President, how are you doing today?" he enquired pleasantly, just cause he looked like he would snap your neck didn't mean he would, he was a bit of a practical joker; something that had caused some laughs and shouting matches when he 'misplaced' paperwork

"I'm doing fine Dave, just waiting for the last person to join us, and how many times have I told you not to 'President' me in private, I'm still the same old partner in crime you once had" Ed smiled.

"Yes, that's true. But the fact remains that if I try to prank you back after one of yours get me I'll probably end up in jail or shot by these guys" he said, indicating the people around him.

"I'm sure, now from that knock I can assume that our final attendee is here, let him in would you please Bill" He spoke to the one next to the door, he made a point knowing the name's and backgrounds, including more private matters, of all of his guards, so he could catch out any assassins that tried to take him out.

As the door was opened a man in a dark blue suit came in. With a beard, tanned skin and some small spectacle's on his face, no one ever accused Aydin Jayhoon of being someone to be scared of, the rumours of him handling and building doomsday weapons was what did that. He was head of the Special Spatial Projects (SSP) division and had the technical know how to build a computer out of scrap as well as the ability to set the time on his DataDisk player, a rare ability that still had the majority of EA citizens scratching their heads over.

"Good morning Mr. President, I trust the day's been agreeable so far?" He enquired gently as he handed some folders under his arm to the other two powerful men before he sat down on the softest seats that money could buy.

"I'm doing fine Aydin, are these the updates on the MRY project?" The president ventured before opening the folder up.

"Indeed they are, we've completed the three prototypes the project called for and just need your go ahead before we give them the test flights and work out any kinks" Aydin replied.

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The MRY or Mobile Repair Yard project was part of an effort by the Earth Alliance to make their ship building and repair work more moveable and able to avoid harm. The plan consisted of creating Dry-docks that possessed sublight and hyperspace engines of their own, with the ability to reach disabled or damaged ships if it was to hard for the ship to reach safe harbour, and also to create ships on the move should the need arise.

Each MRY was about 2500m long and taller than two Confucius ships stacked on top of one another. It would possess its own shuttles and drones to construct and repair ships, the other purpose was that the extra vessels could be used to get resources to be used in the docks creation or repair work. About five fighters would defend a single one but the yard itself could take fifteen if it needed to, not including the smaller hangars that could be used to create fighter class ships on the go. Possessing cutting lasers, gravitic tractor beams and microwave weaponry for mining and defence, each was to defend itself to give time to those inside to either repair any damage or make something to defend itself.

The layout appeared like a hexagon to divide up the yard into separate groups, the centre being for the larger creations and numerous sub-hangars to build smaller ships of the line. As a bonus each was made with the ability to add parts to itself for special or more difficult jobs with interchangeable apparatus being available, and warp engines (albeit only capable at Warp 2 with full power) to run or get to a ship faster.

The inspiration behind this Mobile Yard was the quick-construct bases of old warfare and the show Battlestar Galactica, the fact that a fleet possessed construction ships intrigued many and the idea was proposed and accepted with the condition to make three prototypes before mass production to test out if the design was solid and already have three docks waiting should the need arise. The energy needs were large but the creation of matter-antimatter power sources could take the brunt of the work.

The yards were to become standard around the Alliance rather than the static ones that orbited the Earth Alliance holdings, save for those that needed to be specially created for new ship designs.

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"That's good, are there any ideas as to who is going to crew them yet?" David asked Aydin.

"We're considering those that have just finished their postings on Pioneer stations and deep space observations, but some of the people form Datacore's 5 and 6 want in, stating that its their project and they should be allowed to participate this far" Aydin said.

The Datacore's were the main reason for man's technological prowess and progress, 5 and 6 were ships and Large-scale projects respectively.

"Justifiable I suppose, try and distract as many as you can with newer and shinier projects those that remain can then be considered" Edward stated, smiling as he thought of how many scientists could get distracted just by tempting them with anything new.

"I will sir"

"Good, now David I hear that some of your boys want us to get a hold of some Brakiri EM defence screens, any reason why when we have our own defence screens that work fine?" Edward said switching the topic to more foreign matters.

"Yes, well the thing is that our own EM screens, while useful, are woefully inefficient compared to theirs and it works on a separate principle of charging their hull rather than the space around them like ours do, if we can get a hold of a working and up to date version we think our attempts to create polarized hull plating will advance much further and faster, the ability to strengthen our hulls just by an Electromagnetic field is interesting to those of us who want to cut down on our ships' weight from the armour by removing it and strengthening the remaining layers" David stated to the President.

"Well call up the 'distributors' and see what they could give you to tempt the Brakiri, just don't promise to give them the 'Dallas', that ones for emergencies."

The 'distributors' were a special division of Species Relations that was created to deal with the Brakiri and any other alien races that desired to get hold of humanities past and present entertainment shows and productions.. They had access to old television and radio archives, their job was to make it easier to make deals with alien races that were interested in anything that man had made; copyright and retrieval were their other jobs. The 'Dallas' was the episode over who shot J.R. that was to be an ace in the hole for the Earth Alliance, either as an offer to get support or a threat to make them back off or ruin several profitable industries that distributed the various 'theories' the Brakiri had cooked up when they had found humanity's transmissions all those years ago.

"Ok, now before moving on to the latest ACE reports I was wondering whether we should respond to that request by the Vree Conglomerate on the return of their peoples bodies and any remaining ship parts, 'historical' value and all" David said, relaxing now that he had a strategy to go on.

"I read that report and think that we should probably return the bodies, but keep the ship and give them some scrap, if that doesn't work we ask for it own loan to Roswell for cultural purposes and 'interspecies relationships'. Offer them a stake in the profits, that should keep them quiet" Edward replied, always looking for another way to pull the wool over someone's eyes, it wasn't just the Vree that liked practical jokes; if they found out, well, he was sure they'd appreciate the humour in it.

"Alright then, now on to the ACE reports, we're hearing some rumours in Centauri space over those 'Rangers' again and they want to dispatch some-"

Suddenly the President's internal line went off. Edward looked a bit sheepish as he picked it up "Yes Jake what is it?" His secretary Jake was good at his job, but sometimes he wondered if he interrupted him at these inopportune times on purpose.

As the others waited and re-read the reports Edward put down the phone.

"Sorry about that, a courier's just arrived from intelligence and he seems a bit frantic"

"Hm wonder what could cause a intelligence courier to fly off the hook, they're usually calmer" David remarked.

"Mr. President Sir! May I come in?" Shouted a raised and exasperated voice.

"Let him in Bill" Edward sighed, all the while thinking 'Yep, nothing was better than this kind of job' sadly it was about to get worse.

Suddenly a small man in his forties burst through the door, stopping in front of the three men while security checked him out before he started to babble. "I'" The dishevelled man said.

"Whoa! Slow down there Mr?" Edward inquired

"Oh. Uh. It's Fredson sir" Said the man named Fredson, looking a bit embarrassed by babbling in front of the president.

"Well Mr Fredson, take a deep breath and say it slowly and calmly now what were you saying" David said.

Fredson took a deep breath and stood straighter as he said I'm sorry sir for interrupting your meeting Mr. President but a major event has just occurred and I thought that you would need to know"

"What major event?" The President said, mentally preparing himself for something bad.

"Well what happened is-"

"Mr. President, Mr. President!" Said Jake as he burst in, interrupting Fredson.

"Can't you see I'm busy, what is it, what is so urgent" Edward said as he glared at Jake for ruining his average day.

"We just got word from some of our 'Pioneers', The Dilgar have declared full scale war on the League of Non-Aligned Worlds by attacking one of their members colonies, it's a full scale invasion fleet, much larger than that reported by the Vultures. We need construct a response and the Senate needs to be informed immediately and assembled, if they haven't found out already" Jake's words shot out of his mouth quicker than lightning while still being coherent.

Shock gripped the group and long faces with dropped jaws met with Jake's proclamation. Full scale was a disaster for any kind of government, even those not involved in it, the economy would fluctuate wildly and the mass amounts of death involved in large conflicts upset many in the civilian sector, that fact of a large invasion force only caused increased the worry in them and the military.

Edward switched his view to Fredson, who looked far calmer than the rest of them; he took a deep swallow before asking the man "is this the news your were about to inform me about?"

"Yes sir, that would be it" Fredson plaintively replied as he nodded in assent.

"My god, war, I need to call up the other chiefs and set our forces on high alert and prepare for possible refugee's or an incursion" David shocked voice spoke.

"I need to call up the other sector heads to prepare for more conflict orientated projects" Aydin said, adding his part.

"And I need to make some call's, Jake call up the Senate's people and have them meet up immediately, tell them they can use vid-talk if they can't reach us in time but any who can make it should ASAP, tell them they have 1 hour and 30 minutes to prepare whatever they want, but inform them I won't be allowing a shouting match in Earthdome." Edward, President of the entire Earth Alliance, ordered his secretary.

"Yes Mr. President, I'll get in contact with them right away, they will want a response though sir" Jake said as he left to make some very important calls

Edward knew he needed a response to this; the question was what would it be. Solidarity but non-interference in it. Aid to those affected, or should he declare war on the Dilgar for a first strike and unprovoked attack on allies, he knew from Vulture reports that those in charge were ruthless and lacked common decency in war. But did he want to risk the lives or those under him in what could be a devastating conflict with another Galactic power? The simple truth was that whatever decision he made, it would effect the EA for years to come.

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Well that's all for now, next we take a look at a colony, a colony's family and the response by the Earth Alliance.  
Until then, review and respond.


	6. Decisions and Reactions

Hello everyone, sorry for my silence but a RL has a way of distracting you, don't know if you remember this but I hope you'll enjoy it. After looking through my previous chapter's I saw I wasn't putting enough into my character's so here's a change. Like it or Hate it, please comment or criticise.

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Chapter 5- Decisions and Reactions

The colony of Vega III was said to be one of the closest to a paradise as you were ever likely to get with present terraforming and planetary formation technology, which is to say not that much. The planet was pleasant enough in itself with a calm tundra/tropic landscape shaped around certain points across the landscape with the main desert of Archon facing the sun but being bordered by the surrounding ocean and creating beach resorts in their hundreds with power being received from the desert by means of solar collectors and fusion power stations. Because while fusion was a reliable method of powering devices it was the sheer abundance of sunlight that made using the Archon desert an opportunity that no sane person wished to miss out on.

The solar industry had grown tremendously after most fossil fuels became obsolete with the advent of fusion power and it being mostly drained for plastics, while the drive to discover new and improve present methods and devices continued to increase (including the Lasgun 'flashlights' of Worlder fame) at an exponential rate.

So to say it simply, Vega III had become a glorified solar power station and beach resort. Both provided a steady income as the solar power was collected and put into battery form and providing a reliable backup in case main power ever failed. Which, of course, was just perfect for the family of Pierre Joubern, commander of the first ever alternate FTL travel created by the EA and now a resident of Vega III?

The Joubern house was fairly typical of many Vega III beach houses; it was two stories high with sandstone and other reddish rock being its main surface colour, a small rock patio with some wild flowers growing around it and possessed a state of the art stun pistol defence system for intruders. What made it special was its location; this was because when Pierre went looking for a house he wanted three things, low crime and a decent education system for kids. But he had one last criterion and that was the ability to see the stars. Now on a planet where the population is breaching 1.5 Billion with multiple beach resorts and an almost never ending stream of vehicles taking off and landing creating light pollution this seemed a bit of a difficult task but Pierre had a very good estate agent.

There was mostly a flat landscape across Archon and the rest of the planet due to so little shifts in the planet's crust, but on the North-East of the landmass there was a small mountain range that had been created, according to popular theory, by a large impact somewhere about 30Million Years Ago. Now the reason people didn't build here was that the sun didn't really hit it that much due to the mountain's being in a direction which basically intercepted most of the light that the planet's Sun beamed down and thus making it unviable for a large beach resort. But due to the little Sun and the high mountains it allowed a person to not be bothered by any light or even noise pollution that some of the larger centres dealt with, also the springs from the mountain produced a clean and almost endless source of water. So Spa's were found on some of the bases and middle level ranges of the mountains. The revived Buddhist movement had made this location one of their primary bases.

Pierre loved it and bought up one of the few properties built there and moved his wife and two children there from their former homes on Earth. His new status among the EF brass had allowed him permission to get some seeds from his Native country to grow flowers and plants to make it more familiar, he had also received one of the new line Subspace radio's so he could receive information faster and safer than most other people.

Of course on most days he was working on refining the warp engines or acting as a Garrison chief for the Systems Space Station _Dauntless_, an _Oak _class station; an _Oak_ class was one of the largest classes next to the command type _Redwood_ stations, it was covered in numerous particle and rail weapons with a half spherical head which acted as the command centre and lower down its numerous 'branches' extended out of the main 'stem' and allowed docking to be made, the bottom of the station was the locations of its 'roots' that acted as the main location of the communications and sensor array giving it a distinct tree-like quality. The most distinct feature to be seen when one saw it was the Mass Driver Cluster Frag Cannons that surrounded its main base.

The MDCFC operated on a principal of 'you call a thousand needles slicing you up fragmentation? This... is Fragmentation' just before you found that your body was located somewhere about a dozen kilometres in another direction. The Station itself would either gather ammo from the surrounding area like asteroids and shape them or use a personalised stash of large ball like devices to fire. These balls were then loaded with a single specialised rocket to increase acceleration and direct debris at the target. The weapons would then be sent through the magnetic and gravimetric fields to increase the speed closer to the Speed of Light. When fired the engines would boost the ball and after reaching a certain countdown, distance or received a signal would explode in a directed cone and fragment the rock or metal while increasing its speed even further towards the target. The fragments would then shred up the enemy and create multiple holes in it, venting atmosphere or doing damage. One ball usually may only cause some superficial or specific damage to an area but the 'Cluster' effect of putting each cannon in rows of four or nine usually meant the enemy was shredded and whatever else was around it would get damaged or destroyed also.

With a shield, such damage could be potentially very small or ineffective, but what the others races and peoples didn't have meant it was easier to hurt them. There was some consternation in certain circles about using Mass Drivers due to their 'planet killer' potential, especially on a space station, this was why they were only to be used as a method of last resort, a desperate move of survival or, in a policy which caused uproar when it was proposed, to enact 'Scorched Planet' protocols to prevent the land from being useful to an enemy.

So Pierre worked for his bread and house while his wife wiled away, trying to create extra and terrestrial hybrids for her biology PHD. Life had an easy cycle, they laughed, cried shouted and forgave. Life wasn't perfect but it damn well was good.

It was on one such day, at lunch time, when a world changing event happened that shattered this cycle, for better or worse change was in the air.

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11 Pollux Lane, Archon Mountains, Archon, Home of the Joubern Family, Vega III, Vega System.  
The year is 2229; the drums are to begin a new rhythm, it is a March.  
The date is 17th December Vegas III; the time is 16:40 hours VMT (Vega Mountain Time)

It was an idyllic day for the Joubern family, Lisa had just returned from school and Jean-Lock, or JL as he was known, was expected to be back soon after college had finished.

Mary Joubern was just starting on lunch where she was hoping to test out some new combination of Spinach and Cabbage she had finished and wished to see if humans preferred it, ah family, nature's guinea pigs. She was wondering what would happen if she mixed Pears with Potatoes when her husband walked in.

Pierre was not a tall man; standing at 5'9" he impressed people with his careful plans and calm demeanour in the face of danger, he didn't exactly laugh at it, but he did fart in its general direction whenever he got the chance.

His cropped, Bruple hair (Hair colour was not really something EF regulations cared about as long as it didn't distract others, indeed it was seen in EF documentation that two of the joint chiefs had forest green and Autumn orange for their hair) made Mary laugh more than scorn and it highlighted his Blue eyes more than everything.

"Good morning Mary, my radiant queen of all flowers." He said in his Parisian accented voice, all the family knew French but after WW3 a standard had to be decided for language and English won out due to the number of those using it and the fact that it wasn't as complex as the symbolic nature of the variations of Chinese.

"Good Morning to you, my morning star" She replied using the nickname she had for him.

"Is there anything in the news today?" He enquired; a bit of a knowledge buff meant he was always on the lookout for new things. One of his main hobbies was reading old ISI, or Inter-System Investigations, reports when not on duty when on an assignment.

"Not really much so far today, do you want me to turn it on?" Lazily pointing in the direction of their TV.

"No, I'll do that as it seems Lunch-Is-Burning" He ended in a sing-song voice while moving over to the TV.

Mary Turned around and emitted a small screech as she saw her steamed vegetables becoming shrivelled, muttering under her breath about no-good, unfunny husbands she added some more water to replenish them.

Pierre switched on the TV to the news channel. Sitting down in his E-Z Guy chair he briefly wondered what to do for his wife on their up and coming anniversary.

"And in other News, **Loki** has announced its newest arrivals to the planet's population with the mayor or Fenrir city stating "Today is another celebration for the colony, for as we grow in numbers, so too will out stature in the eyes of all those who watch us" The mayor then went on to explain the new drainage system being implemented. Back to you Tom.

Pierre snorted at this as he briefly wondered how many people were actually taken in by all the useless words that the 'mayor' sprouted. On the plus side he was a magnificent actor so Pierre had to give him some recognition.

"Thanks Philip, moving on to planetary news, it seems that the local sectors 12, 32 and 74 are suffering an attack of the jellyfish as more and more are being washed ashore, local biologists from the Archonis Scientific had chalked it up to the new compound being used to clean up beaches stating that it may be acting as a slight stimulant, making the jellyfish attracted to it in search of stronger mates.

Pierre wondered if his wife had anything to do with the compound, since 12, 32 and 74 were all places where the service to her had been less than stellar on their 'local' trips, then doubted it as she didn't know much about jellyfish, now an attack of amorous weeds would have caused him some suspicion.

He decided to switch off the TV when a Purple light began shining in the background of the news studio, this usually meant a message of great importance was about to come on and for people to stay tuned.

"Sorry to interrupt you Tom but I've just been handed a purple lined paper stating we are switching to an emergency announcement from Earthdome, the senate has just reached a decision in a closed off debate over what to do about the recent Dilgar attacks against the League, we now take you to Veronica Snow, our EarthDome correspondent for more."

Pierre Wondered what the response to the Dilgar attack would be, the Dilgar were not all merciless Psychopaths, they were just very territorial and followed the 'Pack' mentality wherever it led, but sometimes he met a lone one that just wanted to trade and keep moving.

"Thanks Philip, the President Edward Dresden has announced the Government has come to a decision over what to do about the Dilgar Incursion. Here he comes now."

Suddenly President Dresden was up on the Podium, a tradition from American politics as the various reporters shouted for attention to themselves, showing how much things had changed in the world of journalism, or not as it was the case. After asking for silence the people calmed down and took their seats, the various hover cameras at the back for security reasons.

"Citizens of the Earth Alliance, after days of tiring debate over what to do over the Dilgar's aggression against our allies, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, we have come to a decision and have constructed a response with the support of the full senate and the Colonial house."

Pierre held his breath a bit as it wasn't every day the Colonial parts of the EA were brought in for a debate. Looming in closer he noticed his wife at the edge of his vision, standing and looking a bit scared as the President continued after the murmuring had died down around him.

"The debate ended only a few hours ago so what I am about to say may cause some shock as the little time to create a proper document has not been afforded to us, deciding that it would be better for the citizens to know the full story, rather than sugar coat it for the masses"

Translating to 'we're trying to get this off our chests as fast as possible' Pierre said in his mind.

"So to the citizens of the EA, our response to the Dilgar Incursion is as follows"

Pierre heard himself and his wife hold their breath's as many others were surely doing.

The President took a deep breath as he read a sheet of paper out "Due to the unprovoked attack by Dilgar forces, with the full support of their government, combined with the treaties that we have made with our friends and allies in the League of non-Aligned Worlds. The Earth Alliance under President Edward Dresden, in compliance with our constitution and laws and with complete backing by the Joint Chiefs of EarthForce and the Senate, do hereby declare full and total war against the Dilgar Empire, until such time that they are pushed back from League space and made to pay for the death and sadness they are causing for those they attack without cause or care."

Silence.

That was all that could be heard, a total silence with not even a pin dropping to ruin it. A war, a total war with another race seemed an impossible nightmare but here it was. Such a thing can cause silence.

But such a thing never lasts. A loud chorus of voices rose up, demanding more or asking questions galore, the President had to call four times to let him continue before everyone listened.

"Let me assure everyone one that we do not take this lightly, as of this moment all Grounder forces are to step up alert and to prepare operations for the re-taking of territory from Dilgar ground forces, all Naval exercises and standard patrols are to move onto War-time protocols and begin aggressive patrols around all of EA space. All colonies, especially those close to Dilgar territory, are to switch to alert level SDEFCON 4, any Dilgar forces spotted that are not fully declared are to be shot on site with extreme prejudice, those that are declared will be forcefully, if required, moved to safe zones to prevent attacks from or against them. Also, all factories and production facilities are to go into war time procedures and begin the construction and demothballing of any and all available defensive and offensive armaments and tools. ACE forces are to begin standard operations for war-time conditions. I am also calling up all reservists to prepare for war and defensive procedures. Finally, all garrison forces close to the reported area of attack will now switch to SA operations and be prepared for further orders. Thank you everyone, may whatever Deity or faith you may follow help guide us on the path to Victory" He ended.

As he was about to start answering questions, Mary switched off the TV set. Pierre looked at her, she looked distraught and terrified with tears brimming in her eyes, and she looked about ready to collapse. Pierre went up and hugged her for all the Galaxy's worth as she cried on his shoulder. SA operations were simply Staggered Attack in code form; this meant that due to Vega's proximity to League Space and the Incursion he would now be assigned a frontline position with the rest of the Garrison forces.

She knew that he would be assigned to the front. Their proximity to league space made it so that any occupational offences or long term attacks would mean Garrison forces would have to be used. The reason for this was that although the Navy of the EA was its main strong arm and largest space based force that it could wield, it was also meant to be used as a more mobile force in times of war. When drawing up how an army would work in space, the people in charge at the time wondered who would defend the Navy while they forcefully showed antagonists the error of their ways. The plan that was decided on consisted of a quick aggressive and precision strike lead by the Navy who would then relinquish whatever land or space they won with a staggered approach performed by the Garrison and surplus forces of the EA.

The idea was that while the Navy ran around the war front, defeating the enemy wherever they were, it was the Garrison forces' job to be used as a more stable backing for any military action. The idea was that Navy would attack, with their mass amounts of firepower and ships, the planets and static bases and defeat the enemy stationed there. After this the Garrison forces would come in with their heavily armed mobile space stations and heavy fighters to occupy the space and set up their own forces to free up the Navy for duties better suited to their type of rapid attack warfare. The Navy would have someone watching their back, which in war was always a positive thing. The Navy would be the sword of the EA, their swift death dealing as their forte; the Garrison would be the shield, their tough hides and strong nature keeping the enemy at bay, the Worlders would be the armour, their mobile shape and all surrounding nature would be the final piece to defend the body of the EA.

As Mary cried on his shoulder, Pierre wondered if he should resign his commission or ask to be transferred to a place where he would not be put in such danger. He was not a coward to death or war, but he was in the face of causing his family and loved ones pain and worry. He knew he could not do this though, his loyalty to humanity and the friends he had made with the people of races who were dying due to the attack made it impossible for him to do so.

As he brought Mary away from his shoulder he looked at her, her features all red, her mouth so sad and her eyes so broken as was her soul. He spoke as he tried to tell her why he had made his choice. "Mary, my Queen of Flowers, you know what my duty is and what I have to do, this is distressing to you I know but I must report for my position in a few hours, I beg you that we spend as much time as possible before fate must part us."

As Mary looked at him she got a small smirk as she said "You're way too poetic to just be saying that, I wasn't raised and you didn't marry a fool. I won't ask you to defer yourself to me as I know this isn't just for the greater good, but to defend what you and I and so many others believe to be true. Just promise me you'll make sure to keep yourself and your Brothers in arms safe"

"I shall do what any man of desperation shall do" Pierre said in a slow voice with a glint in his eyes showing hoe important such a promise was to him.

"Then quit with the Poetic crap and help me prepare you for your meeting and work, we'll then get the kids and tell them what's going on. We'll call up some of our friends and then book a restaurant, out last night together will then be full and fufilling, do you understand me" She half-sternly told him.

"I shall my queen, now what are you going to do about that burning lunch I wonder?"

"What? What are you-?" she said before she gasped and ran for the kitchen, shouting expletives and biological insults while Pierre laughed as he went to make some calls.

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Deep in space around the same time, a ship was floating along as it passed the various debris and other junk that space and sentience left behind, the standard patrol was boring and many usually groaned at such an assignment. There were many now who were starting to think over why they complained so much after a transmission was broadcasted.

All was quiet aboard the _Sartre_ class cruiser _Leviathan_ as the message over the declaration of war was shown to the crew and played across the speakers. The bridge was laid out with the captain at the back with the command stations raised above everyone else while the other ones worked beneath the command tower, all were staring at their own screens or the large one at the front of the bridge.

There was only one thing to say really.

"Sweet Mother of Holy Jesus We're All Going to Die!" Private Chester 'Chas' shouted out in rapid succession from his station at Piloting

"Quiet down private we're not going to die" Captain Edward Yates said to the rookie. Ever since his ship had been upgraded to the more weapons orientated, rather than fighter carrier, _Sartre_ class he had been dealing with greens for years, luckily his crew had stuck by him and the brass had allowed him to keep the name when the old girl was decommissioned after a fiasco with a black hole and a meteor. Suffice to say, the Quantium 40 that the meteor had contained meant he didn't get discharged.

"Have we received any new orders yet sir?" Commander Eriks Soskevich said as he went out of the trance-like state he had just been in.

"Just got them a minute ago, but I wanted to check the news first"

"You need to sort out you priorities" Commander Soskevich chastised his captain.

"It doesn't matter now; the orders are to join up with battle fleet L17 under Admiral Shiraffe, we won't be on the frontline of main operations but we will be performing attacks with some of our League Allies, seems the Abbai need some help with their defence that their shields can't provide. We'll also be picking up some grounders from Giza colony" Edward replies as he read out the text.

"Giza The desert colony? What use will they be on a water world?" Amanda Gorelli, his Sub-commander interrupted.

"Apparently their being dropped off on Brakiri territory, we're just the escort and delivery service." Edward leant back into his seat, surveying those under his command. "Usually we run at comm. silence in this sort of time but I'm giving everyone one hour and thirty minutes to contact their loved ones or send their will off to their lawyers, no information over where we're going or what we are doing is to pass anyone's lips, after the time limit is up we will proceed to Giza colony, understood?" Yates ordered as he looked around at his crew.

"Aye, Sir!" was the collective reply.

Yates leant back as he contemplated what pools were to be allowed to continue and was weren't. The clean up pool and the guard duty would remain. But the death pool, so named because of the lack of it, would have to be decided upon after a few engagements.

He just hoped that not too many would win on that pool.

He pressed a button on his chair's arm rest and spoke while his voice boomed out to the crew. "Attention all hands, I know you just heard what I said but remember, One hour and Thirty minutes is all you have, switch to Yellow alert and complete any and all jobs. Captain out." He finished as he pressed the button again.

"Mr. Chester, set a course for the jumpgate, we'll warp some of the way but let's get our bearings first"

"Aye Sir, course is set for jumpgate"

"Then proceed Private"

The ship moved faster than it was doing a few minutes ago, a burst of chatter and communication's being sent out to those important to them as they rode on wings of purpose to an uncertain future.

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In hyperspace another person was just waking up when heard the orders and declaration. Pressing in his codes to the computer a message was sent out.

"To, all hands, proceed to Dilgar territory, we're to monitor and prepare striking attacks. Authorisation Cappa, Sentinel 5 Alpha 7. Pioneer Captain of 'Reliant Fury' Wu Senlong out."

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Hope you all enjoyed that, next time I going to tell you all about the Pioneer's and then maybe some boom. Until then stay tuned and give ideas.


	7. Pioneer's, Debate and Surprises

Chapter 6- Pioneer's, Debate and Surprises.

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Kosh was silent as he approached his homeworld, the music from his ship dying down as it grew nearer to the planet.

Kosh could feel the mental link to his people growing, becoming less background thoughts and more clearer. As he went into orbit he fell into the artificial astral plane that he and his brethren constructed and met in.

'Who are you?' was the first word and question. The Vorlons eternal question rang out in the darkness as it was answered.

'We are the one, and one is all'

'What did you see Kosh' his others asked.

'Humanity and its desire to learn'

'Do they follow ours or _their_ path' The voice said, not wanting to utter the name of its adversary and rival.

'Both yet neither. They advance fast but steady, they study and contemplate before action, but they do inquire into things other's do not, such as seeking new ways to travel the stars'

A small mental pulse like a murmur rang out before the voice continued.

'Have they been slowed by your efforts'

'All that could be done was done, they seem to have more failures, but due to the number of ways they seek knowledge I am only able to terminate them when they appear to be finished'

'What of their development into the space below'

'It appears to be minimal. But due to our knowledge of it being so little, that conclusion is assumption'

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Subspace wasn't like hyperspace, where distance was shorter. It just had a maximum speed that could be travelled in it that was faster than Real Spaces speed of light.

While the Vorlons were aware of subspace, they had little to no means of monitoring it. Their path was one of order, they did not want to use any other realm save that of hyperspace and it's adjoining higher and deeper dimensions. The attack from the space beyond that had caused chaos to infect their people and led to the loss of so many, made them unwilling to risk moving into any other dimension.

Also it was shown through the limited study that was made that, while psychic ability still worked when one was in or close to Subspace, it did cause some interference for long-range mind communication and breaking the connection to the All, also the eddies of subspace damaged the bio-ships of the Vorlons and even their own forms. For a species that evolved to a point of being energy, a realm where they could be easily torn apart was not one they wanted to explore or investigate. Which led to the present situation at the moment.

So while they did know of its existence, the Vorlons avoided looking into it. The circle was more important.

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'Have they shown to be aware of your presence'

'That is unknown, others do spy on them and so far they only attempt to stop them or increase their defences. They have made no obvious motion towards my presence'

'What is your conclusion on how this affects the Circle'

'We should pull back and refocus our efforts on the other young ones, humanity is still going through the Circle, this progress of theirs shall allow them to face the shadows on a more equal plane, my studies show they want order from all of their work in the end'

'Then it shall be, continue to monitor them'

'For the all made one'

'We are all Kosh'

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War, an action that is seen by many as the second reason for the communal gathering of a people next to hunting for food, it is the taking of food and the fight over land that leads to War. Even if a civilisation, a species or a society exists for one hundred years it does not go away. A people that lives for a Thousand years does not escape it hand or its embrace. Even to an empire older than the Suns and Planets themselves, the oldest of the old, it does not cease.

Why? There are many explanations; to the innate need to survive that any developed species possesses and to the selfish needs of the individual being put aside for the selfish gain of the people is. The final one is vivified by people who wish to prove their point, to justify their actions and stand above those who are seen as wise yet immature, those who are smart yet unimaginative, and those who would sacrifice others for their own ends.

Humanity now engages upon a new War, one that takes place in the all surrounding and twinkling Starlight of space. It fought with terrible weapons that taxed the mind, body and soul in the past. It is a decision by those in power that they will now use this ability to decide over life and death they possess on an enemy other than themselves. An enemy that possesses a frightening visage for its wilful use of weapons that creates a lingering death. For while its actions are brutal and ruthless, can it not be said that they are looking into a mirror and the image reflected back brings old, distant and tormenting memories of their own past?

The Earth Alliance armed forces, known as EarthForce stand ready with their ships. They stand prepared to fight in space and on land, in desert and tundra.

With Vultures circling to Peck and Watch.

With Worlders waiting to Pound and Smash.

With Garrison's mobilising their Station's to Hit and Hold.

With Navy Ships moving to Blast and Slice.

And the Pioneer's waiting to Prospect and Prepare.

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Hyperspace. Unknown Position. League bordered space to Markab.  
The year is 2230; The percussion is soft but it is building.  
The date is the 5th January. The time is 09:17 hours HST (Hyper-Station Time or what you make of it really)

Wu Senlong was having a bad day, a very bad day indeed. First he had been working all night with the people from various departments over where to store the Quantium 40 that had been delivered to them. Then he had found out that the EA was going to war which meant the chance of losing friends and family since quite a few of his had a long military tradition. The final kick in the teeth was the orders he had received from Pioneer Command or PioCom for short.  
_  
'Move from current position into Dilgar territory, PioNet will support you. Monitor traffic form core world and study capabilities of enemy. Authorised to use full EMcom and jamming techniques to preserve station, lethal action is allowed but not advised. Vulture crew being dispatched from Roost with two Venues' and one warp capable Albatross class to study realspace. Use extreme caution and Good Luck'_

A simple text message, scrambled through Subspace from the head Pioneer Cluster of Earth. He would do his duty, after all it was this kind of thing that Pioneer Station's were created for.

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**Document from the Office of Shadow Archives and The President of the Earth Alliance.**

**For Authorised Personnel Only. Any Unauthorised reading of this document will result in immediate tribunal. Any discussion of contents to unauthorised personnel can result in the charge of treason under Articles VII and XI of the Earth Alliance Constitution.  
**

**Pioneer or 'Battle' Fortresses.**

**Brief Overview:  
Staged in Hyperspace, purpose is to monitor EA space and those who travel in it. Another type can be used as a base of operations in times of crisis or war. Can act as hyperspace beacon.**

**Background circa 1st January 2230:**

**Prior to hostilities with the Dilgar the EA was researching the properties of hyperspace when the researchers noticed something. They were the only ones there out in hyperspace. This was not to say that no-one else was using it, there were ships passing through and certain forms of life had been discovered travelling in it. It was just that they appeared to be the only race actively taking an interest in researching it. The other races and organisations appeared content to just use it for travel and find faster or safer ways of reaching a destination, going from point A to B seemed to be the only thing on their minds. No-one else seemed interested in discovering what hyperspace actually was; another plane of reality yes, but, there was such little interest in what made it work, what its makeup was like, the forces that existed inside of it the properties that existed inside. It did leave some shocked to discover this, but to others, well, they just saw an opportunity.**

**Proposals were written and submitted over what to do with the relatively empty realm. No other species seemed to want to use it because of the difficulty in knowing ones position relative to real space, making it useless to try and establish a stable and working border or gain a tactical advantage; the strategists and various scientific institutions of Earth didn't think so.  
Sending out specialised jump capable ships with top of line, at the time, engines and a massive sensor array. The EA gave them a mission which was to, through trial and error; discover locations in hyperspace relative to important real space positions. After collecting and processing the data through DataCore computers the next step and set of goals was obvious; defence and monitoring.**

**To accomplish these goals to secure EA holdings, a new project was formed by the EA under the name 'Pioneer station and Border Stability' or PBS for short. Stations were built and placed in the important places in hyperspace in comparison to their real world positions with each station meant to be an outpost or used for defensive purposes. They were to be 'practically' self sufficient, each large enough for a small fleet of warships or larger vessels to dock with it and be stationed at and a small amount of Hydroponics and special plants that could survive through artificial light so a star's light and heat was not needed, livestock, such as sheep and chickens were then moved into these artificial fields. The breeds were chosen to be healthy and rid of disease, with high enough numbers to prevent massive inbreeding.**

**A station was a massive 12,000 metres wide and had an average of 2,000 metres height, reinforced bulkheads; some were even made around asteroids to provide a natural source of construction and defence, the Shape was similar to the Cloud City of Bespin, with a shorter pylon going down. Massive generator's that took power from the surrounding gravity shears of hyperspace that powered special Gravity stabilisers to allow some stable positioning and artificial gravity close to Earth Norm. Dotted throughout the structure to create overlapping fields, an idea from the Database and a series known as Farscape, it was difficult to create a single shield so the concept of using overlapping fields was put on the back burner until it was dusted off for the Pioneer project. Separate wiring and breakers ran through a station to lessen the chance of a chain reaction stopping the generators and leaving it dead in the proverbial water. Its main weapons were rail guns as they had the least chance of reacting negatively to Hyperspace's unique laws of physics, though continued studies of it were yielding a chance of allowing the safe use of beam weapons in it if they could be modulated correctly. New space, new weapons was what was needed for hyperspace the scientists said.**

**Each was given a small dry-dock and repair yard as standard, a full complement of fighters and bombers with some mining ships included as well. Three Sartre class cruisers and one large warship of varying class to be used in patrol, defence or for use as a rapid reaction force. They were also built to be stealthy and unseen to any other known races sensors and detection, cloaking tech was a main priority for future station development and they were insulated so that any emissions were too low to be properly detectable. Each had independent engines to get out of the way and a jump engine for use in emergencies or refuelling if it needed to. Other ships, such as explorer classes or commercial ships from companies in the know could dock at it and some stations were tailored for mining and scientific interests. All of them were usually built in secret in areas that were usually not explored by the other races, like the Oort cloud of certain star systems.**

**The final and what some said was the greatest innovation to be included was for each station to act as a beacon in its own right; working on a special frequency that only those who knew it or could detect it and use it for hyperspace travel. Some stations were placed out of the way to act as a fall back point for civilians or EF that no other race could follow them into because to them it went off the beacon network they were familiar with. Some races would consider this bad manners, having a beacon network they weren't allowed to use. Those that usually found out through less than savoury means however never really got the chance to tell anyone as their particles suddenly became strewn across Hyperspace or Realspace, if it was an accident then the large amounts of cover stories from 'experimental ship' that got 'blown apart' to Hyper-hallucinations and plenty of drugs.**

**For some more important colonies and the Homeworld the stations were placed in clusters, adding a means of defence of an area in hyperspace to defend the real space, act as a first line of defence in an attack and be an early warning system for those with harmful intent against the EA. The strict traffic control of Earth meant no one ever really looked around Hyperspace where Earth was as it would slow them down or the gravity would cause damage or death. Pioneer Command, PioCom, had dozens posted around Earth's relative position and each was lying in wait in case something went wrong.**

**At first the use of them as a network to map and monitor hyperspace was limited; tachyons could only go so fast if they were to remain secret and isolated from the Galactic Systems at Large. This was until the Trek project was able to finally accomplish one of their major objectives for their plans and creation; the proof and use of subspace. The discovery of hyperspace allowed not only new forms of FTL travel available, but also for communication, and from this discovery the Stations' stature grew in the eyes of the EA.**

**Such a project was of course was a massive undertaking for the EA, both in resources and people. To do it in secret seemed impossible. The other races would notice the mass amounts of material that were needed and were being used by the EA to create the PS. Eventually after months of internal and flared debate a solution was found and decided upon. A new colony, known as Loki, was to be built, touting it as a paradise for man alone it would only belong to man and its 'location' would be kept as a secret to prevent other races from going to it to claim it themselves, of course the co-ordinates only lead to a massive amount of guns or a black hole depending on which set was used because of its main secret. It would be a fake, a ruse to fool the other powers to divert their attention to the destination and not the resources of people actually going there. Loki was merely the codeword for PioCom as trickery and secrets were its mandate. PioCom itself was a massive station that was continuously moving throughout 'unknown' territorial holdings and was Three Miles in a saucer shape. It was a mothership plain and simple, a behemoth to be kept hidden as a testament to humanity's ingenuity.**

**Mass amounts of material were sent to Loki through hyperspace. On the way there they would be either diverted to secret planetary or orbit bases across the EA and from there be sent on to the location where a station was being built or stationed, another tactic was to have them 'destroyed' by Vultures or raiders in the case of hotly contested or watched territory. It would be known as 'Operation Fortitude' in honour of the same fake battle plan used by the allies prior to their invasion of Normandy back in WW2.**

**The 'Colonists' of Loki would be the bases' staff and personnel stationed there, being sent from either secret bases or loaded on the colonies transport's before they were sent off to the Pioneer Stations. On coming home after they finished their posting or being put on leave every person was given a cover story on what happened at the colony, for the more vital and dangerous locations a member of 'PSIcore' was sent to block off certain memories alluding to the stations operations or included a trigger that it was the colony and not a station that was talked about when drunk or even on stims to preserve the PS covert nature, each 'colonist' had to sign a document allowing this before being allowed on the mission and the PSIcore operatives selected were the best and most scrutinised around with some healthy pay checks in for good matter. For the groups of stations in clusters around the core or Homeworld the personnel for them were assigned to fictional ships. These ships were given the names of famous historical or modern confectionaries; Skittles and Mars Rock were popular with their sweet nature hiding the 'bitter truth'.**

**All the data was officially off the books work and most was kept in highly guarded locations and ready to be destroyed at a moment's notice. This tactic and others were successes with man's ability to deceive being shown to be as good as ever.**

**End Report. Submit to Security Checks After Returning This Document and Have a Nice Day.**

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(AN: Hope Everyone Could Read that)

Wu was waiting on his 'fresh' coffee when his XO walked into his office. His office was furnished with an oriental theme, paper partitions and bright colours were dotted throughout to provide an excellent field of view, perfect for Wu's paranoid, or 'safer' as he called them, tendencies.

Wu himself was quite typical of an average captain. Greying Hair and immaculate clothes, typical eyes from his home country of China in the southern areas. A distinguishing feature was a scar running along his head when some debris caught him from an accident in the engine room on his former chief engineering post on the _Hobbes_ class Gunboat Hercules.

His XO on the other hand was unique, she was a very tall women from the State of Germany, Brown hair and Bright Blue eyes with a sharp stern nose that promised punishment to those that annoyed her, she was quite sweet if you gave her ice cream though.

"Ah, good morning Anita, I hope the crew isn't getting you down" Wu began since the look on her face suggested he would have to use some of his paycheck for increasing the ice cream allowance next restock.

"Good morning captain, for your information the crew is whining because you had to cancel the showing of 'Independence Day III: It's payback time' to get us ready for the trip we're going to be making."

"I know, but these orders say we have to be ready to leave the moment the Vultures get settled in and secured" Wu replied.

"That's the reason I came sir, the two Vultures venues have arrived and docked with the Albatross 628 meeting up with the local fleet"

"Well thank you for informing me after they got here" Wu grumbled "Now how is the Reliant Fury's fleet doing?"

"All ships except the Buster are set to go, they're just finishing recalibrating their sensors and comm. to run in silent mode."

"Good, that's good. Do you think this will be smooth sailing?" Wu asked his XO. They hadn't worked together that long as Reliant Fury was relatively new compared to some of the others but apart from some trouble when he asked why they sent a marine, due to her height, it had caused some tension. It was pretty much over since his schedule had stopped 'mysteriously' disappearing.

"No idea Captain. We should be ready for a lot of things but you know what dread god Murphy is like" Anita said with a smile gracing her lips.

"I shall tell the crew to prepare the sacrificial gambling night to appease him" Wu shot back.

They both shared a laugh before getting serious again.

"I don't care what they say about being silent, if I see a chance to take them out quickly I'll take it" Wu growled out, and while a soldier he hated wasted bloodshed, the Dilgar had just attacked everyone without warning. No declaration was made and that was not an honourable or fair thing to do as far as he was concerned. He hoped that exploring the Dilgar home system of Omelos would yield some explanation.

"It's why we're Pioneer's captain, we don't follow, and we push the boundaries of our orders" Anita replied before handing him a report and dismissing herself, going down the corridor and past the guards outside.

Wu looked down and picked up the report, it would take a few days to reach Omelos without alerting the Dilgar, they were in it for the long haul. On the bright side he didn't have to submit reports for a while.

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Meanwhile down at the docking port and hangar.

"So you've been to Dilgar space before?" Asked one of the tech hands to the newly arrived Vultures.

"Yeah, we had a patrol their at one time, didn't go near their Homeworld though" Peter Capelli of venue 26 (Stalker 1) replied.

"They really as bad as the news reports say they are, using biological and chemical weapons without regard to civilian casualties seems a bit much." One of the Reliant Fury's Pilot's asked.

"Well their leadership is crazy from we've seen what they're doing and they like a bit of hand to hand combat every now and then, but their usual soldiers pretty much doing his job. Stick to the rules of combat normally, but I think whatever's caused their leaders to go nuts about invading may be allowing some of the wacko's in their ranks to come out" Fred-Jane (Parents had a divorce at birth and dear old dad wanted a boy) Workson (Stalker 3) replied in her every persistent southern Texas accent.

"I dunno, I hear that they're planning to use biological weapons for experimental and first strike use" Said Striker 1 of venue 73. His real name was Al Kahus Feyed but everyone who knew him well called him Alk due to his spectacular manoeuvre early on in his Vulture career. When raiding a Centauri blockade runner that had been causing trouble for the Taxman, one of his stray missiles had hit part of a shipment of Centauri brandy causing the ship to lose its engines from the alcohol powered explosion and become a sitting duck for the Vultures to suck dry.

"If they do that then we get unleash all of our goodies don't we" Stalker 7, or Carlos Federalis, said with a grin on his face from where he was checking his Raven was being stored for the long journey to Omelos.

"Do you think we'll use any of department D's toys? Maybe one of their new Quantum divider. Or maybe a BHC (Big Honking Cannon) that they say is ready for use" Stalker 8 said.

"You know department D 'toys' as you call them are for occasions when we're desperate. Where did you hear about that stuff anyway, that kind of thing is as classified as us" Striker 11 asked, he was a minor Psychic and decided to become a Vulture rather than work for PSIcore and when someone found out secrets before him he usually sulked, not that he looked for them; but being a conspiracy nut meant he wanted to know everything. Luckily the standard of education thanks to the creation of PSIcore meant everyone got some minor training in defending their mind or at least detecting when someone was.

"You hear a few things when you have a few drinks with an old college buddy who's working on the DS project" Stalker 8 smirked as she took a drink from her hip flask.

"Enough guys, save the chatter for down time, we're going to get plenty of that, until then let's finish getting the Raven's in here and locked down" Stalker 1 said as the last Raven passed through the Atmospheric Shielding.

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A new development, the Atmospheric Shielding was something that DataCore 3 (Theoretical) had been working on since the Shield project began. By creating a charged particle field in a small area between space and the ship the air could not pass through as the particles repelled each other. Thus, air pressure was kept stable. Due to energy constraints though only the latest ships and station's had them installed. Also, highly visible ships had to keep them hidden or let one of the other races find out about this technology. A simple airlock and door system still existed when the hangar was not deploying anything and power was down.

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A few nods of the head and various yes sirs and nasally Igor 'yes master' was the reply as everyone broke up to get back to their job.

"I dunno what I'm going to do with them all" said a voice behind the two commanders.

Turning around they found the captain of the station they had been briefed on looking at them with a wry grin on his face.

"Captain Senlong sir, thought you would be asleep" Striker 1 said after a quick salute.

"Plenty of time for that gentlemen, we have a long journey and little paperwork to do so I'm counting this as a vacation" Senlong said with the same grin.

"Not going to miss that" Striker 1 replied.

"Oh come now, you Vulture's don't have to write that much, secrecy and all, I have to pretend to be mayor of a place called Pleasantville and add random anecdotes or local news to my reports to make it seem convincing. The ever continuing 'sheep escaped' excuse would bother me a lot more if it wasn't an actual problem I have to deal with next to reactor leakage and cheaters on poker night" Senlong told the two men.

"Perhaps if you used tracking devices sir?" Stalker 1 proposed.

"If I did that then I'm quite sure half of my men would be fat from all the lying down and sitting they do, an escaped sheep here or there keep's them healthier than any gym time." Senlong Pointed out.

"Good point. So have you been briefed on our reason for being here"

"Both of them, if we go to my office we can sort out the fine details" Senlong said as he turned around and headed for the main door.

Both of the men started following the captain when Striker 3 posed a question to the hangar that rang out.

"Hey, can anyone else hear clucking?"

Senlong stopped and sighed as he activated his wrist comm.

"This is Senlong. I have a code 47G in the hangar rooms, possibly in the vents"

"Understood sir activating 47G protocols" replied the voice of chief of operations Terrance Philmore.

"Hey, what's a 47G..." Stalker 1 asked as music started to go through the speakers and a voice rang out.

'Attention Attention there is an escaped chicken on the loose, please detain and capture as fast as possible. Normal free beer at Locker 42 is the prize, all personnel this is not a drill.'

All at once the station crew put down their work and took out various gadgets and gizmos that looked like hunting gear and good luck charms while some went to their locker and got out small nets, bets were being made all around while the Vultures looked on in confusion.

"Is that Benny hill playing?" Striker 1 asked as he listened.

"Seemed like a good choice for this kind of situation" Senlong shrugged.

"Isn't this a bit chaotic for the running of sensitive equipment?" Stalker 1 said as he looked around at the movement with a worried look, missiles and bombs were dangerous enough without a random piece of poultry running around.

"It's good for moral and trust me when I say that getting feathers and fluff out of equipment and material is much better than cleaning up bird poop." Senlong said as headed out the door and turned left down a corridor.

"Oh. but isn't your office that way?" Striker 1 said as he caught up and looked at the various signs saying the command deck was the other way.

"We have time for meetings all day but free beer is rare. Now if you'll follow me gentlemen I have some spare nets available you can borrow and a pack of bird seed that's just itching to be used." Senlong replied as he drew out a bandanna with a chicken head silhouette etched on from his pocket.

"Now be very, very quiet. I'm Hunting Chicken" Senlong whispered to them as he stalked toward the adjoining hangar where some clucking could be faintly heard.

The two Vulture men left behind looked at each other and Striker 1 drew out his wallet and handed 20 credits to his fellow flight leader.

"Told you they went space crazy out here on the rim" Peter said as he pocketed the money.

"You got lucky, now are you in the mood for some tracking? Can't let chicken's beat Vultures now can we? Double or nothing" Alk said to his counterpart with a hand held out.

Peter grinned and shook Alk's hand while he said back "You're on" and both let go while heading for the Hangar where some Chinese expletives could be heard with a loud backawing that vaguely sounded like laughter.

The hunt for the Reliant Fury escaped chicken was on.

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The League ambassadors looked on as the recording of the EA declaration of war played to them all.

As it ended the Abbai representative looked at some of her counterparts.  
"Well it seems we have been granted some reprieve from the Dilgar Assault" She said.

"Those people? Hah! They may possess some large territory and a few impressive technological systems that look good but they are nothing compared to the military of my people" Said the Drazi representative with all the bluster usually associated with his species.

"Nevertheless it does provide us some time and perhaps a better chance at victory" said the Brakiri representative, simply talking in an attempt to counter the Drazi bluster.

"I think you underestimate them, their systems are not just impressive, but effective. Plenty of pirates throughout my people's population have fallen to human weapons and tactics simply because they have never seen the like and are unprepared." Said the representative from Markab.

"You merely preach their abilities because they are in fitting with your morality and their help with that 'Drafa' plague that was lying dormant in your gene pool, waiting to mutate and wipe you all out. Your own 'morality' could have caused your species very destruction were it not for their medical exchange program." The Drazi sneered.

"We recognise the help they gave us, and we do realise the depth of our mistake in denying the plague's existence among some of our people, we have taken steps to prevent its spread before it mutates into a deadly form again but that is not my point." The Markab Rorcha stressed to the delegates.

"Then what is you point" Asked the Abbai representative, hoping to prevent unnecessary squabbling as was typical in these meetings.

"The humans have not been in space for as long a time as some of us here, and in so many years they have seized their destiny and taken to the stars in a way other races that have been in space longer have not. They are constantly asking questions about the universe, they even doubt their own conclusions" Rorcha said.

"So they like to study and analyse, this does not help on a battlefield where choices must be made quickly" The Drazi said.

"Neither is blindly rushing into battle after battle with your army, wasting lives and resources" The Markab shot back.

"Why you son of a Crakor...my people are sacrificing their lives for your people and you would cheapen their sacrifice for a group of overblown scientists and engineers" The Drazi said lividly.

"Please calm down all of you, what matters is not what is in the past and present but what this meeting is about is the future. The humans have asked to use League space for their Military movements and staging points, what is the general verdict?" the Abbai said, stemming the fight for now.

"While I don't believe they can do better than us, the Drazi will gladly allow some help, we are not prideful enough to deny a useful ally to bulk up our forces." The Drazi official said.

"They can go through my people's territory as long as they remove it all from our space when the Dilgar are defeated" said the Balosian representative, speaking up finally.

"The Markab have no problem with Human ships passing through, so long as they can give us more of their expertise in our genetic study and cleaning." Rorcha said quietly as he sat down.

"And my government has no problem either. However even those whose territory is not part of the Dilgar warpath must make a vote." The Abbai said as she spoke to the other species in the room.

One by one it looked like the League would allow the human presence in their territory. Even if they thought that they could do nothing to stop the Dilgar.

It is surprising of course when the Universe decides it's time for another cosmic joke. It's a shame it is the only thing that can understand it usually.

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The light in the room was faded as 12 beings sat around a circular table with a screen in front of each of them. The image and words of the Earth Alliance 'president' being broadcast throughout the sector. As well as straight into their plans.

As the image switched off the lights came on. Furred faces and slit eyes all looked around before one spoke in a deep growl.

"Would someone explain to me why a new race just decided to declare war on us?" Asked Warmaster Ler'syn to the assembled leaders of the Dilgar people.

"We couldn't expect a race so far from our path of conquest to ally themselves with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds" Said another, Gek'hal, head of the intelligence division. "All of my simulations and predictions stated that the humans wouldn't join in unless we attacked their territory, or the League requested their help in exchange for some of its territory. Only the lowest ranked possibilities had them joining in the moment we began" He spat, disgusted he had been proven wrong by some hairless, pink faced race. Though he commended them for their outright declaration, they had much stronger blood than he thought they had at first it seemed.

"Well obviously your vaunted predictions were useless in this manner" said the logistics Warmaster contemptuously.

"Watch your mouth or I shall remove it from your face" The High Warmaster spoke to his subordinates. "Now what is to be done with these humans? They have decided to get in the way of our great destiny and I for one am mildly worried they will delay our great exodus."

'Great destiny... pheh!' thought Gek'hal 'he makes it seem like we're not running with our eyes tucked behind our heads; great journey and exodus are grand words for cowardly escape, a true great journey would have had them already evacuating the planet. They've even made it worse by making war on those best suited to assist us. The League could have provided shipping for us so we could move to a new planet and made them none the wiser if we fixed the numbers right, instead they decided to take this route. Dammed brash brats' Gek'hal ranted in his head.

He was from one of the older generation and was from a time when the Dilgar were cunning as well as strong and much preferred the path of least resistance and preserving power rather than throwing it brashly against others and wasting lives which could be better put to use getting their people out of the dying system. He didn't voice his thoughts though, in this age and situation it could lead to him being replaced and then 'retired'. He had some contacts and plans going, but the lack of people actually knowing why they were doing this 'Great Journey' prevented him from getting substantial enough numbers to stifle his counterparts' power. 'I'll have to wait until I have an opportunity, or we'll either rule the galaxy with recklessness, or die burning while our children curse us and our people become left to die on some rock by everyone else, I only hope I can do enough so that we survive.' He sombrely thought.

He should have been dead before this started but a Vulture attack had wiped out some pirates that were planning to ambush him on his way back to the Homeworld. While he did not see them he did see the debris and the lack of another presence was explained by a well travelled agent of his as "Vultures who work in shadows and attack those they do not favour". He had been grateful to those raiders that day, since it seemed the pirates had had enough power to bring even his ship down.

Gek'hal wasn't power mad and land starved as the others due to his age. He had ambition, I was just that it was more centred on his people surviving and living, not warring and dying like some others wanted. The intelligence life suited him, now all he had to do was put his abilities to good use and find out the best way to deal with the humans; they were his enemy, but they could also be an asset.

He just had to figure out the best way to use them.

"My friends and colleagues, calm yourselves and show some restraint, we are after all the best our people has to after" said a silky voice that promised nothing but death.

"Restraint? Jha'dur I didn't think that word was in your vocabulary, I've been to some of your labs and seen some of your experiments and the word' restraint' is not what I would use in terms of their creation" said the weapons Warmaster sarcastically.

"Merely a small number of sacrifices for the greater good of the Empire" said Jha'dur sweetly at him, with a slight twitch of her eye being the only sign of her dislike of that comment.

"Do you have anything to bring to this Jha'dur? Or have you gotten bored waiting to go out there and spread your plagues?" Questioned one of the others.

"Oh nothing really, I just believe that we have nothing to worry about from these humans" she said saccharinely. Flicking her eyes to and away from him as an insult designed to represent his position of being no threat to her. This only caused him to glare at her before answering back.

"Oh really? From what I have heard they have an impressive number of ships and dedicated people. Their position is ideal in that no one is stupid enough to move a war fleet through Centauri space to attack them from a different angle. Their number of colonies and the people on them is also quite substantial. So why should I not worry?" He said as he built up his case against her nonchalance.

Jha'dur flicked her eyes at him again as another insult before answering to the council rather than him himself. "Oh their position is quite good and their colonies impressive, but from what I have seen their ships are inferior to our own. With crews of new cubs and little experience fighting in major engagements. They shall be an obstacle but not a challenge" She finished to the group.

"Then what are the recommendations?" Said the High Warmaster.

"We should defiantly analyse them further, but if Jha'dur is correct then we shouldn't worry about them as much as the closer League races. Perhaps step up the schedule in some of our attacks to push further in before the local races receive reinforcements. I doubt the humans have had that much time to prepare for this and that time is all we need to secure our future" said the logistics Warmaster.

'Or our doom' thought Gek'hal.

"All in favour of this plan?" said the high Warmaster.

Votes were cast through a computer and a light appeared above their heads, off for dismissal and no, or on in case of agreement the light was on for acceptance or yes.

Out of the twelve lights, nine were on.

"Then we are agreed. I declare this gathering of the Warmasters over and set you all out to do your duties" said the High Warmaster as he banged a skull looking object onto the table.

The dye had been cast and only fate now knew where it would spread.

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I was a quiet day on station N47D. An '_Elkarch_' class monitoring station on the outskirts of Dilgar system Rohric. All were doing the jobs they had been posted at and all was running smoothly.

That was until the alarms went off and it shook.

The station master Re'cur had just finished reading his mail from his friends in the fleet when he felt the first shaking's of his posting and present home. Getting out of his chair he rushed to the command centre and passed several fires and injured personnel.

The command centre itself was a mess, several consoles were offline and one was smoking while he noticed some off his people on the floor that were unconscious or hurt.

"What is the situation!" He shouted to one of the lower class technicians who had taken the posting of a higher class who had been injured and had to be taken away to the infirmary.

"We started to get some readings of a hyperspace portal opening and a small object came out, it committed powerful scans before shutting down. About a minute later several unknown ships appeared around us and their jamming and ECM emissions prevented us from identifying them. They opened fire before we could switch to manual targeting or even hail them." She responded efficiently.

"Damage reports are coming throughout the station, there is a reactor breach" Screamed one of the technicians.

"Lock it down quickly, all non-essential personnel are to use the escape pods" Re'cur said.

"Reactor is going critical" Screamed the same technician who seemed about ready to have a nervous breakdown.

"Send off a message to HQ, let them know what happened" Re'cur ordered his communications officer.

"They are blocking us. Wait! I'm just about getting through...-there. Channel open" he responded.

"To Home Base this is station N47D Rohric monitoring station reporting an attack by unknown hostiles, please assist-"

"Reactor is detonating" Screamed the technician as he dove for cover, useless gesture as it was.

"Repeat need assistance, need assis-"

A blinding flash of light and heat was all Re'cur could see and feel in his last moment.

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Around the smouldering and quickly splitting parts of the once efficient station hung nine ships all powering down their weapons. On the largest ship stood a man looking out onto the destruction his crew and others had wrought before turning around to the rest of the bridge. The layout was similar to the bridges found in the Star Destroyers of Star Wars fame as it was decided they were an efficient system for a command ship.

Send a subspace message dumb back to command, route it through the Pioneer's. Message Reads: Operation 'Deep Strike' successful. Monitoring station eliminated and SOS sent, should expect forces to be pulled away from front to protect area. Now leaving target zone and awaiting further orders. Captain of ship 'Essence Wanderer' ending report. End Message and send." The captain told his comm. officer.

"Message has been sent sir. Further orders?" Asked ensign Bu'gark. His real name was Shai Fayik but after joining the Klingon Conglomerate, an organisation dedicated to recreating the Klingon way of life (except for the bloodsport which was banned in EA space) and he had changed his name while taking to performing rituals of Honour and speaking in another language half the time. Faith and Belief had taken a strange turn after the Database had been discovered.

Captain Arnold Rivers turned back around and mulled over what to do until orders from Earth commands came.

These new 'Jump Engines' straight from DataCore 7 (experimental division) had passed their first test of fire. Sadly it needed extensive data from a probe already sent in to get the telemetry and the range was quite short compared to hyperspace. But it sure did surprise these furries and such an ace would be useful for their disruption efforts in the future.

After mulling over his options he turned to his 2IC and said "third star to the right and straight on till morning" He smirked.

After the groan from the crew ended with an "aye-aye sir" he sat in his chair and relaxed. The war had only just begun and they were already ahead of the game.

The ships turned around and looked like they were headed for the Jumpgate before they disappeared in a flash of light back to their starting point while the probe that had allowed them the ability to Jump in headed into the Jumpgate and promptly exploded after going into Hyperspace deep enough with the Dilgar none the wiser.

The humans had thrown their first stone and it was a good one.

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End Chapter

Hope you all enjoyed that. Next time the real attacks begin so stay tuned.

Please.


	8. Prisoner's and Plan's

Chapter 7- Prisoner's and Plan's.

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What is the true measure of a soldier? Is it his age or years of experience? Is it the training and commendations he receives or the actions he takes that deserve man's attention and praise?

To a Worlder it is the dedication to the EA and humanity which measures his or her worth.

A Worlder is the main infantry force for Earthforce and acts in its interests far and wide or close and inside. The typical ranks are those of a combined US and UK with several other traditional roles and regulations thrown in to keep the various cultures of Earth Alliance space happy.

While in the old world a Cathedral is what made a town into a city in Imperial Empires it is usually the establishment of an academy on a planet which allows it full colony recognition along with the usual requirements of self-sufficiency and so on.

Usually started for a ground defence force the army eventually grew from a militia to a fully fledged fighting machine in weeks as resources and experienced trainers work tirelessly to prepare the next generation for face to face fighting.

Recruited and presented in a similar manner to that of the WH40K Imperial Guardsmen each different force was usually named after its celestial body of origin, with various denominations till it reaches squad size of about twelve individuals.

Trained so that there were always two medium class squads to each heavy squad and two light class squads for every medium class the various technologies and environments led to much customisation in terms of weaponry and training.

Of course an army usually went into surplus and was then reassigned somewhere else but the armies were mostly kept where they started to prevent overly large conflict, though interaction was created through joint training exercises to prevent isolationism from setting in.

Recruitment mainly began at age twenty to allow time for a person to complete their education and have some measure of a life before training for the next one to two years forced them to focus all attention on achieving perfection in the eyes of the brass. After this it usually became more relaxed and the newly minted forces could head back to a semblance of a normal life.

The Worlders possessed some of the most advanced and impressive ground warfare divisions ever seen. Apart from training to fight tougher or better prepared targets each soldier was also taught highly accurate data on the other star nations and races so they could be prepared to face any enemy. Xeno-biology was a required subject as well as Xeno-traditions and political theory to prepare them for the mindsets of their neighbours. Close to live fire exercises were conducted with makeshift weapons and specially trained soldiers to prepare them for the typical tactics of a different species.

For instance: A Centauri soldier will usually fight with a highly disciplined and take orders to the letter while a General may bargain if his life is in danger but will use dirty tricks to win. A Drazi soldier will be willing to fight you one on one to determine an entire battle if he has enough support from his fellow soldiers while a General will be willing to base a single battle in place of several if both sides agree to the rules. Finally the Narn are tenacious and tough to defeat as whatever you hit them with will only cause them to fight harder and they are close to being fanatical in battle if they believe enough in the reason for it.

So all of these various means of attack, defence and methods are taught to even the average soldier. The belief is that while anyone can be a good soldier, it takes a dedication and large amount of knowledge and ingenuity to be an expert soldier.

Back when man thought itself alone in the universe the need for actual armour on the battlefield became a bit of a useless concept. No matter how strong armour was it could always be pierced and it was usually very bulky and cumbersome to wear. The most anyone wore usually was a jacket and Kevlar plates slipped inside with a helmet to prevent death from a head wound.

However, after finding out about the universe at large and its many different environments it did and could have the concept was brought back and revitalised through the ingenuity of humanity and the inspiration from the database. Rather than have a simple suit or armoured plates the people of Earthforce decided that to survive in a world of toxic atmospheres and worlds of higher or lower gravity, a means of complete protection from whatever weapons nature and other star nations wielded had to be created.

The call went out and it was answered, and as concepts and ideas with wholly new but workable principles emerged the forces of Earth decided that apart from light infantry and mechanised units there would more subdivisions to handle the ever increasing number of worlds and ecosystems that were encountered. Including the weapons of whatever species they met up with across the void of space.

With the database the weaponry also expanded into what were at first thought conceptual weapons that were turned into realities.

So as man expands and encounters new friends and possible enemies his knowledge expands as well. The key lesson taught at the Worlder Corps. Academy was simple: Knowledge is Power.

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Prisoner of War Labour camp. Forest of Kelnis. Main North-Eastern continent To'vium. Tirolus (Dilgar held territory).  
The year is 2230; An unstoppable Fire is about to burst to life.  
The date is the 14th August. The time is 07:45 hours TGT (Tirolus General Time)

"Sight Seventeen to Sight Twenty what is your status twenty?" Said a voice over a comm. signal.

"This is Twenty, I'm in position and preparing for further orders" replied another voice.

"Orders have been received we are to begin operations in 10 minutes. Tell your squad to be ready to go the moment the lights stop flashing. Intel declares this a prison camp with a high chance of biological experimentation so make sure your suits are sealed. We don't think whatever these bastards have made affects humans but we are going on the safe side of things." Switching into the general channel he relayed Twenty's readiness, the next orders were a defining moment for the regiment of 'Race's Aces' as they were tasked with the first ground strike against the Dilgar war machine.

"Operations begin now everyone, artillery units have got their targets. Let's show these furries just who they're messing with. Last one into the compound has to buy the beer tonight. Over and out" Sight Seventeen, also known as Oni Raison, ended his opening words just as he heard the loud booms from the artillery begin their first volleys.

'Make it Look Good' was the Operating Procedure for this mission. They had to intimidate the enemy and impress their allies. He just wished he hadn't had that MRE earlier; his stomach was really killing him.

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The planet was a typical one for colonisation. A strong atmosphere and optimum conditions meant it had a few small oceans and forest's dotted across the landscape. The only reason it hadn't been colonised severely was because of the planet's small size in regards to having a major colonisation effort.

Ral'der was having a typical day on his patrol. After waking up he had done his exercises and loaded up before picking up some food from the cafeteria and hearing the latest gossip. It seemed some new power had decided to declare its futile resistance to the Dilgar's great destiny. Ral'der's father was a trader for some of the outer rimmed territory before the war began. When he had declared his desire to enlist his father had practically disowned him, in his belief that he would be losing not just business but friendships. His last message to his son had been to tell him that he had defected and was leaving all of his property to his son since he seemed only interested in taking the property of others.

Ral'der had been properly chastised by his fellow soldiers for this, which led him here, guarding some primitive beings while his brothers in arms fought on the front line. However he had received some mail from his father earlier that day and thought perhaps he may be coming back after seeing the error of his ways but instead it merely told him to escape or fake an injury before these 'humans' began to attack. Once again demeaned by his worthless maker he had destroyed the letter and was planning what he was to write in reply when he heard a loud boom surround him. Suddenly on alert he saw several bright objects heading towards the camp before everything turned light then darkness took hold.

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"Alright aces let's show them our hand. SHOW TIME!" Capt. Riley told his squad as they ran toward the base. Riley's squad was one of the more experienced ones in undercover strikes and he had been personally interviewed by one of the joint chiefs before he began this mission. He was clad in the typical uniform and armour of the Worlders medium class assault infantry. His uniform was a simple thermal full bodysuit with carbon fibre mesh and diamond sheet plates put in for projectile and kinetic energy weapons fire on strategic parts of the body like the groin, shoulders and torso, similar in design to the Kevlar vests or armies past. The diamond sheets were a new addition since the ability to compress carbon had been created, and as they were also each worth a small fortune each was declared in triplicate getting it and giving it back but so far no one had been stupid enough to steal from Earthforce.

His armour on the other hand was what really defined his squad and the others around him. The _Fire Warrior_ class armour had become extremely well known in the Worlder corps. The suits derived from the games workshop race known as the Tau was recognizable for their customizability and sheer versatility in combat.

Each suit of this type was made a shining grey colour rather than the sand colour which defined them, since no one was sure what kind of metal it was and how to make it so a combination of Steel and carbon sheet was decided on by the designers. Carbon sheets were the precursors to the Diamond sheets but their lack of ability to be shaped in anything more than simple curves or squares left them in the armour department. After creation a suit was given special light reactive camouflage sheets to better hide them because of the sheets extra ability of releasing very low heat emissions as well as changing colour slightly to suit the environment around it. The helmets had targeting scanners and overlay screens to show a soldier the position of friendlies and enemies and where he was on the map, allowing major coordination to go on even in a massive battlefield or firefight, as was the entire suit it could be completely sealed off if it needed to, with a four hour air supply and a breather filter to replenish it if the need came about. Each suit also contained numerous compartments to contain extra ammo and rations with a small medkit. Anything further was whatever modification was made for its intended conditions and purpose. The suit was heavy but the inclusion of minor hydraulics throughout the suit and hard training done by a soldier meant you could run about 5Mph faster than normal. It wasn't much by superhuman standards but such speeds could be what led to a life being saved.

Riley's own suit was the Aces special 'jackhammer' model. Apart from the usual hydraulics the suit contained pumps in the gloves that rose on a voice command of 'Show Time', or 'ST' if you were short on time, from the glove, in the form of a ring of cylinders coming out of the armoured hand. Riley's former commander had decided on them after finding his namesake, Roger Smith, as part of the Database archives and the giant robot that the fictional negotiator drove. After the voice command was given all that was needed was physical contact with a hard target and the pumps would drive in quickly and pump compressed air into the target.

If faced with a strong opponent or a tall wall you could blow them away or make yourself some handy hand and footholds to climb. The aces specialised in custom pistols that could fire further than typical handguns so they always had a hand free, ready to show their fist to whoever thought they could stand against a hurricane speed of 90mph in the form of a hand. The glove of course had extra protection inside to prevent a person's fist being blown off in a punch, no sense in knocking the wind out of someone if you lost your hand as well.

The gloves impressed the brass and they had requested the specifications to help in their next heavy suit project; simply known by its codename 'Reach'. Riley knew one of the new 'Reach' prototypes was in the attack today with the single squad of heavies, known as the Quake Makers for their like of grenades and grenade launchers alike, that was assigned for this mission and was hoping to see the prototype if he could. Until then though he had a job to do.

All the information gathered on these Dilgar and their weapons showed they possessed no truly devastating standard weapon but their overuse of biological and in some cases chemical weapons meant the deployment of sealed suits was a must. Looking around at the chaos that had begun he saw the lights that meant railgun fire coming from the surrounding covering fire. As the designated close quarters and short range fire squad he was one of the first in when he saw some Dilgar in their brown-black armour burst out of the cafeteria. It figured that even in the place they ate they had an armoury.  
"Alright aces best shots forward, standard switching and leapfrog attack" He said into his squad's comm.

Around him his twelve man squad split into three groups of four. Team A ran forward first and opened fire with their railpistols and mowed down some of the Dilgar who had yet to take cover. Shredding them quickly the precision shots made by training and targeting scanners meant they died efficiently and fell quickly. Team B set about heading into one of the buildings to their left and set up a control tower and declare their position so the artillery wouldn't do something stupid. His team, C, got behind cover and took pit shots at anyone not taken down by A's initial fire as they took cover. After they did this his squad moved under A's cover fire and ran forward to a further position.

Knowing they wanted some prisoners he figured he might as well start now. While the lowly soldier didn't know all of his officer's big plans they usually had some useful Intel of the local armament and layout of the base they worked in.

Picking up a voice command of 'shrieker' the suit opened up a hatch around his midsection and allowed him to pick up a small sphere that began to beep in quick succession. Shouting out the word's "Monkey Deaf" his squad switched off their external microphones and ear plugs were put into their ears while Riley did his magic.

Riley's magic was a special trick he had learnt after studying his suit's gloves. Putting the compression speed down a bit he threw the grenade in front of his hand and punched it. The gloves mechanism on a command fired the air before the punch and launched the grenade at higher speed than a simple throw would have done. For this trick he got the moniker 'Nade Knuckle' for its creativity and showmanship. For a shrieker though another piece of magic was performed. The increased velocity meant that the grenade went off in flight and extended the range of the weapon along the path it flew.

The ear drums of those unlucky enough to get hit by the sound suddenly burst and caused extreme pain, and the sensitive ears that were part of being a Dilgar only made it worse. Some would be deaf but even the lucky ones suddenly lost their sense of balance, making them easy targets for the taser grenade that followed its sound cousin, once again exploding in mid air the electricity went down through their bodies, effectively putting them out of action.

Seeing his work done Riley ordered his squad forward to tag the survivors for pickup later by another squad, some of the first prisoners of war gained.  
After breaking through the initial resistance he ordered his squad to one of the buildings marked in Dilgar characters his helmet's HUD translated as Labour Building 101. Surrounding the door he inspected its lock and found it easily breakable. Ordering two of his fist experts forward a cry of 'show time!' broke the lock and blasted the door in, hopefully anyone waiting on the other side would have been hit by it and this would make their jobs easier.

What he saw in their made him really regret that burger he ate in that morning, plus everything else he had eaten in his life up to that point.

There were numerous shapes of different species of alien all covered in the same sort of grey clothing that deserved being burnt in a furnace. He spotted some Brakiri and even a Balosian or two after a quick sweep over them to detect any hostiles. All appeared relatively healthy but every now and then he spotted some who appeared starved or slightly ill, using his knowledge of xeno-biology he had learnt at the academy. Another thing he noticed were black spots on the only Drazi in the view screen in his helmet. The room inside only included some raised bunks with some covers and simple flooring.

The entire group in front of him froze; some shuffled not knowing what to do while others defiantly looked directly at him, daring him to try anything.

Finding his voice again he activated the external speakers and spoke "Don't worry we're the good guys. Does anyone want a jail break?" He spoke clearly in a calm voice while moving his hands up; a universal declaration of no intent to harm and hoping at least one of them spoke English.

The various peoples looked around when the Drazi stepped forward and talked in a choked and slow voice "If you are here to rescue us then that means you are rescuing all of the others kept here, correct?" He asked the armoured figure in front of him.

"That would be correct; I'm Captain Riley of Worlder Earthforce. May I have your name?"

The Drazi mulled this over before replying "I had heard from the guards that you humans had joined the war. I didn't believe them and I certainly didn't think you would have pushed them back so quickly" He sceptically inquired.

"Well we are involved but we haven't pushed them back this far yet, we're performing deep strike operations to disrupt their plans and you are being picked up so prepare for evac." Riley responded in the same calm tone.

Even though he knew his face couldn't be seen the Drazi seemed to be studying him before slowly nodding "I'll believe you I suppose. Do you know if any more of my people have been found, I am Relver of the Trade ship Tilbur, we had been doing our usual route when we were arrested by the Dilgar for 'spying'. Ever since then they've taken my twenty fellow crewmen and slowly killed us, one by one." He glowered with fire in his eyes.

Nodding slowly Riley patched himself into the general channel and requested information about Drazi from the other squads. What he got wasn't so nice.  
"Sorry to say we've only found four others apart from you, all covered in those black spots."

Slowly exhaling his breath the Drazi spoke again "There were ten of us just over a week ago. These black spots seem to be our bodies means of defending or slowing whatever they gave us, they put us with the prisoners of other species to see if it mutated into something to kill them but so far it hasn't worked" He said clearly to Riley.

Feeling the growing desire to simply order an orbital strike after they got everyone out of there he swallowed his bile and tonelessly raised his voice "Rest assured Captain Tilbur we are taking prisoners but they sure as hell won't get the easy way out of this, we have medical and quarantine procedures at full alert right now, and we will do everything in our power to save you and anyone else suffering"

"Thank you Captain Riley, if you spot a male Dilgar with a brown tuft of facial hair on his cheeks please try and spare him, he's been doing what he can to save use by stealing medical supplies and giving us treatment. He answers to the name Fes'ter.

'Ironic name' Riley thought, but sent out the order to preserve that Dilgar's life if possible. Getting information that he had willingly surrendered and provided the location of the underground command station he relayed this information to the crowd before turning around to his squad.

"All right team A, you will go with the prisoners and escort them out of here to the Medical Shuttles and defend them. Team B you are coming with me and C to the main attack on the command centre. Word is a bunker buster is going to be used so prepare for some shaking. You hear me Aces? Let's show these sickos what a real soldier does. SHOW TIME!" He finished with a pumped fist in the air as they all replied in a loud shout.

Deploying outside he saw squad A lead the prisoners away and with one last look at the small smile on the Drazi's face he turned around to follow through on his promise to the captain while whispering a small prayer for the Drazi's continued and healthy life.

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It was about an hour later when Riley's squad met up with the main bunker buster attack force. After getting further orders to rescue the other prisoners he had managed to empty enough of them to allow his squad permission to join the bunker assault. However due to the logistical troubles of setting up such an attack he had been put under the command of another captain so it wasn't his job any more.

"Alright Aces I know you didn't really want to be working under someone else but right now I need you to work with my guys so we can get this over with. Are we clear on this?" Said Captain Perekov. He was the commanding officer of the 'Mole Mashers', which was a recon and base assault squad, and his team's suit possessed special hand held plasma and diamond drills to break through enemy defences or create short-term bunkers to hide in.

"Just as long as you do your job I'll do mine captain." Riley replied. "I just want to know why we are getting assigned with you since I thought that this attack was a free for all."

"You would be right usually Captain but from what we've gathered with our sensors and the information given by the prisoners the generator in there is an experimental one the Dilgar have been building, it's a quantum singularity" Capt. Perekov stated to the now shocked group.

Quantum singularities had always been a major thing for Humans. The various things in the Database and the information gathered on them thanks to the Stargate project and various other projects made sure that those in charge of Earth's future knew how dangerous they could be.

"If they are using it as a power source then how come they haven't used them on their ships yet? I would put something that powerful on my means of attack, not defence" Said Riley's head tactician sergeant Philip Tracker.

"You would think so but it seems that the one they're using here is too large and not efficient enough to use on a ship. However it also shows the Dilgar are being more creative than we thought and the presence of the singularity makes it hard for our comm. equipment to work unless we have signal boosters. So since I happen to have her" Perekov indicated one of his soldiers who sheepishly waved "You're assigned to me, any other questions?"

"Yeah, what is it about her that makes her useful? Has she got a signal booster?" said Tracker again.

"I'll let her talk for herself, Jan you're up. Riley can you come with me so we can coordinate a proper chain of command?" Perekov said while moving to some underbrush further from the two groups of soldiers.

"Ok then, Aces treat them right." Riley said to his squad.

"Yes sir" Was the reply as he moved to follow his fellow officer.

After both of the men left the other turned to the one called Jan before a woman's voice spoke up.

"Uh, hi I'm Jan or Janine but not to anyone except my family so watch yourself. Anyway the reason I'm being singled out is because while the singularity does block out most subspace and hyperspace frequencies it doesn't stop psychic thought" She replied in a mildly embarrassed tone.

'That explains it' thought Riley's squad.

"So you from PSIcore then?" Asked one of the soldiers.

"No, my brother is in it and works for one of their colony academies but I just got some training and went on my way." She told the surrounding listeners.

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PSIcore was the organisation whose job it was to handle the various psychic phenomena that humanity now possessed and teach others to use their powers responsibly. They had numerous academies and trainers all around Earth Alliance space and a required course to take before going into college was to be taught how to create psychic barriers and shields. Not just in the interest of protecting one own thoughts but also in protecting the psychics from mental exhaustion and overload when interacting with them.

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After various looks around them, Tracker got up and offered her a hand, which she took and gave a small handshake before he sat down again, and laughed.

"Well that proves that you aren't in my head because I was cussing like a navy engineer in my head right in front of you" He said.

After hearing this Jan gave him a small smack on the head before replying, "Careful or I'll make you stay up with sexually confusing dreams. After dealing with these bozos I'm more than ready."

Tracker froze before looking at one of the others on her squad, an inquiring look being shown by his helmet by tilting it.

"It's true, strangest week I had was after I slipped some smoke bombs into her shower. I didn't know whether I was attracted to women, men, animals or plants." Said the suited individual who shuddered slightly.

After a small silence Tracker switched his view back to Jan with the same tilted head before asking "Plants?"

"Hey I was pissed off and we were in a jungle exercise, I figured he might as well get what he was due," She said in a sweet, almost innocent, tone.

"Got it, no more laughing at the freaky dream girl."

After all sharing another laugh the two captains came in.

"Alright we've set up a temporary command structure. It's simple. Just obey the commanding officer closest to you unless someone else out ranks him. We only have two sergeants so they are on equal standing. I'm in charge of this op. but Riley is in charge of complaints so move them all to him. If you have any commendations though please heap them on me, don't be shy now."

"You lost the coin toss eh captain?" Asked one of the Aces.

"I swear it was weighted but we don't have time to prove it and Miss Freaky Dream Girl over there as you call her doesn't work for me so I'm stuffed" said Riley in a glowering tone, fidgeting with his gauntlets so that he didn't have to look at anyone.

Aces and Moles the order's in and we're going in. Lock up your suits if you haven't done so already and check your systems. You've got five minutes" Said Perekov.

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Five minutes later the attack began. Railgun fire and various other weapons started hitting a rock that hid the entrance to the bunker. While it was a waste of ammo command wanted as few casualties as possible and that meant overwhelming firepower to destroy whatever resistance and traps the enemy could have set up.

Riley's squad was charged with breaking in through a supposed side entrance; a hatch that covered a pit and ladder down to the lower levels, making it easier to split whatever forces they encountered and create a pincer attack. After denting the lock with his Jackhammer glove the Mashers had used their drills to remove the hinges before dropping an explosive grenade in. After the grenade stopped spewing smoke Riley looked down into the semi-darkness.

'Seems quiet. Must have either caught an unguarded post or we got them all. Just to be safe though...'

"Captain Deeds I know you are splitting with us after this but do you think we could get some idea of what's down there" He said to the leader of the other dual squad that was going down with his and Perekov's.

Deeds' suit and the suit of his subordinates had a compartment which contained highly accurate and powerful cameras in the shape of spheres that allowed his squad an extra means of checking out an area before going in. His squad was respected and sometimes envied for its ability to know the entire battlefield all at one time because the spheres could be used together to create and mosaic together a picture. The 'Fly Eyes' was their squad name, though they actually were quite clean and hygienic.

"All right then, patch your camera into signal 24 and have a look see" Deeds' said before dropping a sphere in the hole.

After everything stopped jumbling around the sphere came to a stop and Riley checked out the angles that weren't facing the floor. Spotting some Dilgar on the floor and the little movement they were making he decided it was safe to go in.

"Room seems clear Perekov, lets head in."

"Couldn't agree more. I will see you later Deeds if you are able to stay alive." Perekov said before heading down.

Deeds just seemed to let out a sigh before heading towards the hatch while muttering obscenities about Russians and their taunts of death, while citing it as unlucky.

Riley just mentally shrugged and headed down and switched on his suit's night vision.

After reaching the bottom he ordered one of his men, a Corporal Shambli, to hold position and wait for reinforcements while keeping an eye on the corpses in case they decided to get lively. After heading out the door Shambli checked his suit's sensors before sitting down and preparing to read some mail he had got from his parents back home. He was so caught up in it that he didn't notice the rifle butt headed toward the back of his head before it was too late. Of course with his suit's toughness this didn't do much save give him a slight throb as he moved to defend himself but the force of the second attack to his face caused him to fall back before being smacked repeatedly against the floor and finally submitting to unconsciousness.

A while later Shambli opened his eyes to find him looking at the darkened screen of the inside of his helmet with a massive headache.

"Oh merciful Allah. What have I got myself into this time" He thought.  
Deciding he needed to do something he gave a small whisper to his suit to switch on the external microphone, and go silent viewing so he didn't show his new found conscious state.

What he saw was what appeared to be a small room with minimal decoration and grey, what looked like concrete, walls. A few instruments appeared on a table on his right side against the wall and as he magnified them he saw they were cutting tools, most likely to get him out of his sealed suit. Switching his view he spotted a Dilgar in what appeared to be a command uniform, according to his briefing before the mission, who was talking to one in what he recognised to be a plain white lab coat.

"Great. It's Roswell all over again and I don't have any money for souvenirs" he joked while trying to remain calm and hear what they were saying. After identifying the dialect he had the suit switch on some subtitles while he planned for an escape.

What he heard wasn't encouraging.

"I will tell you again Base Watcher Wek'ral that I am doing the best I can to (Word meaning unknown. Possibly: discover, uncover, understand, find, identify) the identity of this being and his brethren but the suit has held up to most of my attempts to unlock its secrets" Said the lab coated one.

"And I will remind you (Word meaning unknown. Possibly: doctor, analyser, discoverer, biologist) that we are short on time. I have already heard word that these raiders have broken through our third level and apparently have been spotted on the sixth level while punching through our best made walls and doors. We have seen that a high powered shot seems to break through their armour, at least in less vital areas, and I am just about ready to shoot this being's torso or leg just to get some answers. It's easier to break an egg once its shell has been cracked" said the command uniform one, known as Wek'ral.

"We have no idea what that would do. The suit may have a failsafe device and self destruct. Not only would we lose out on its secrets but also our lives if it explodes."

'Hm, not really in the mood to get blown to smithereens thanks' Shambli said, mentally, thanking Allah that command wasn't stupid enough to do that. All that would happen would be that the suit's memory and circuits would be fried to prevent any secrets from being uncovered. The armour wasn't really special enough to keep it away through extreme measures.

Activating his rescue beacon and hiking up his subspace transceiver he hoped the singularity allowed some short range communication through.

'Or you could ask for my help,' said a voice in his head. He felt a small presence on his mental shields.

'Huh? Who said that?' he replied back while biting his tongue so that the suit wouldn't broadcast his voice and blow his cover.

'It's me Jan. Once you vanished I was told to find you and I guess you aren't in a good place right now.'

'You've got that right. I have Frankenstein and his boss arguing over how to skewer me - and a pounding headache. Plus Captain Riley's going to kill me for getting caught.'

'Yeah but at least you're still alive so cheer up' said the voice with a happy tone behind it.

'I'll cheer up when I'm free to drink beer and ride my motorbike, but I'm going to try and catch this guy. If he's in command we may be able to force surrender from these guys.'

'Okay but don't do anything to extreme. We need body parts to identify.'

'I'll be gentle' Riley thought before the feeling of the voice left him alone with the two Dilgar again.

Deciding it was now or never since the conversation seemed to be dying down he steadily broke the straps holding him down before jumping off the bed he was on and making a grab at the Dilgar in charge. Quickly picking him up while kicking the lab coat down to prevent him going for help, he slammed his hostage against the wall before saying 'show time' and smacking a fist into the wall next to the base head's head. Activating his external speakers and internal mike he decided to speak in a low form of trade speak so as not to reveal his humanity.

"You in charge?" He growled to the apparent leader.

"I'll say nothing to you raider. You may beat back my people and kill my base but you won't get anything from me" The Dilgar growled back in the same language Shambli was using while attempting to get free.

Chuckling a bit he turned his helmet's reflective irises so it appeared he had changed expression before saying "So it is 'your' base is it? Well then either tell your men to lay down their arms and surrender or I'll have to call in some friends and get creative. Oh, by the way. When I mean creative, I mean nuclear."

Shambli doubted he could get a Nuke actually. But his hostage didn't know that.

Seeming to come to a dilemma the Dilgar found his voice again and said "You would die as well."

"I would be gone and you would be trapped. Trust me I'm already writing the report."

"So you work for someone then?" The Dilgar replied.

'Crap' Thought Shambli. Got to keep my mouth shut on doctrine or he'll rat me out as a professional. Deciding to twist rather then deny the truth he started talking again.

"Of course I do. We are professionals after all and nukes are expensive. Of course with that generator of yours this will make it worth the trip and the cost. We can just launch a small one and go in to pick up the pieces."

"So you are after the generator?" Said the Dilgar with a hint of fear. Probably being surprised at the knowledge of his attacker.

"We aren't here for our health. Of course all of your men and those other prisoners of yours should make nice labour for us" Shambli lied. Slavery was outlawed by most civilised and large Galactic states but there were always rumours of a secret trade going on between the various space nations. The tales of Vultures and the missing bodies of the crews they attacked intensified them.

From the look on the face of the commander he had heard the rumours and had swallowed deeply before speaking again.

"What would happen if I order my base's surrender?" He sullenly said.

"Then we get the generator or its plans and leave you in peace. Our ships are almost full so in a minute any spare bodies are just going to be corpses. My friends on my comm. tell me so." Shambli said. He still didn't have communication with the main attack force and the ships they had come on had enough room for a base twice this big. But again, what the enemy doesn't know can't hurt you.

"Alright Raider, but I ask for you name for my own report if I survive." The Dilgar grimly declared.

Deciding to give him that for actually thinking Shambli decided on some irony.  
"I am Commander O'Shovah of the great nation of Mork" He declared while cracking up inside.

"Then Commander I ask that you give me a communicator and five standard minutes to inform my men to surrender" Said the Dilgar.

Checking for any kind of deception Shambli let down the Dilgar before handing him a basic comm. unit from his arm and patching it into the base's main announcement system before handing it over.

"Here you go. But any funny stuff and you'll find out why they call me Commander Overkill" He warned.

The Dilgar looked warily at the suited being whose had destroyed his base and killed his people and almost sighed. He knew that surrendering would probably lead to his death or at least disgrace but he was more interested in preserving the lives of those under him. Pressing the button which seemed to indicate transmit he spoke.

All across the base the voice of a once proud Base Watcher rang out, drowning and overcoming the sounds of battle and the wounded.

"This is Base Watcher Wek'ral to all of my loyal forces. The enemy has overcome our greatest defences and strongest wills. No matter what we used to stop them we could do nothing to prevent them from even reaching this great stronghold. I have talked with the one they call O'Shovah and he has agreed to grant us mercy on the condition of us surrendering. I know many of you do not want to surrender but it is the duty of every soldier to not only fight a battle but to know when he has lost one. If we survive we have many chances for future glory. Follow my order and I will be the only one to reap what is sown here. There will be no charges of dishonour or disloyalty presented to you; you have my word. I repeat. Lay down your weapons and release all locks on the doors, surrender and live to fight again." The Dilgar ended his speech and put down the transmitter, after this he put his hands on his head and kneeled down.

He spoke from his position with a strain in his voice.

"I have done what you ask, please grant mercy to my subordinates"

Shambli looked at his prisoner carefully while putting out a mental thought to Jen to relay the orders. What he got was good news. The Dilgar were putting down their weapons and going into the same positions, all forces had been told to keep an eye out but it looked like they had won. Shambli had almost relaxed when he remembered that Captain Riley was waiting for him and that wasn't going to be a fun meeting. He rather wondered how Riley had been doing up to that point.

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About an hour before.

Riley was damn well sick of these furries as he crouched behind what was once a metal desk in one of the bunker's numerous corridors. While no one had reported serious injury he could see several scorch marks and minor holes on the armour of his comrades and Perekov had given the order to find cover and deal with those that had pinned his and Perekov's squad down.

Just as it couldn't get worse though he saw that the life-signs of Corporal Shambli had suddenly slowed down after quickly spiking. So either he had gone to sleep after being scared, fainted, or had been knocked out. The Singularity generator prevented his equipment from reaching him by his suit's communication and he didn't have time to reconfigure it to track him through longer range radio waves rather than subspace. A flaw he would be telling command about after this since if anyone else used Singularities in their technology it would be difficult to fight them properly.

"Jen" He said through the short range radio he had switched on with a voice command.

"Yes sir?" She replied.

"Seems the corporal's decided to take a nap or a hike, try and locate him while we deal with these overgrown furbies" he ordered. Looking over the barricade slightly as the Dilgar took pot shots at them.

"Understood Captain" Was the reply before Jen's suit went up to a wall around a corner and sat with her back against it and crossed her armoured legs, it seems she was using meditation to focus since the loud noises of weapons fire could be distracting.

"Ordering my squad around Captain Riley?" Inquired Perekov.

"One of mine decided to disappear. I'm hoping to find him before this is over, whether he is dead or not by then will be up to my mood" He replied to his fellow captain.

"Very well, we are about to meet up with one of the other squads according to my signal sensors, and they should be arriving right about-"

Suddenly a loud boom and a large amount of light lit up the corridor Riley was in and the Dilgar emplacement made up of concrete bags suddenly had a large hole in its formation and was raining down grey flecks of dry concrete around the once secure barrier.

Turning around he saw that it was the heavy squad, the Quake Makers, who had launched a missile from one of its still smoking shoulder missile holsters attached to its form.

The type of armour they were wearing was technically classed as a simple mechanised suit for heavy combat but Riley knew they were just one step away, in terms of size, from the new variant mobile suits that were being geared up for mass ground assault on larger Dilgar strongholds.

The suits were themselves modelled after the mass production models found in the Gundam series since it was cheaper than buying and building each soldier his own custom model. But certain ranks did allow some changes to be made for exemplary service and duty or if the situation required a different method of attack. This particular model was based on the basic ZAKU II of Mobile Suit Gundam fame and it boasted heavily plated state of the art animatronics inside of it to give it mobility. While only about seven feet in height, the standard weapon it carried in its hands was a high class Lascannon in with additional power coming through for the weapon from a wire leading out of its arm. It also possessed whatever other weapon was needed for the job and Riley could see the box shape of a mini missile launcher on three of them while the rest held a Grenade launcher of some type with a small lasrifle attached to the top for 'softer' attacks. Suffice to say these weapons and suits were not meant to be disposable. Each was a light to medium class Tank with legs.

After staring at them for a moment he noticed something else moving toward him. This silhouette was not the same imposing figure of the _MS-ZAKU-MPI_ or his own _Fire warrior_ class armour. This he believed was the _'Reach'_ prototype on everyone's lips nowadays.

From the rumours being said about it, it seemed that is was being fielded as the next generation in high 'mobility' type medium Worlder armour compared to his 'assault' type medium armour. Meant to be the commando to Riley's Grunts and Roughnecks he could see what they meant when they talked of its 'uniqueness'.

Unlike his bulky and boxy suit this one resembled a far sleeker type of predator than his own could be based on. The armour looked like something out of the medieval age with its more human fitting and shaped head. It also possessed a more streamlined body on the whole and he could see that the boots were suited for practically walking in any terrain. It appeared to be a very Dark Green to his normal sight but it did seem to be melded to the shadows much like a chameleon changed its skin. The final defining feature was it Golden visor that reflected him rather than the small irises on his suit.

After approaching him and his team carefully it put down what appeared to be a standard duo-rifle, a rifle composed of Laser and Railgun parts, from its sight and offered its hand to the fallen shaken captain. What sounded like a click activated and he heard a voice speak from the newly arrived prototype.

"Hello Captain Riley and Perekov. I'm Major John Edwards and we saw you had a problem there and decided to assist. Under Shadow Prototype law I ask that you refer to me as 'Spartan' from now on to preserve my identity" Came a deep male voice.

Riley just looked at the suit strangely before activating his own mike and saying,

"Spartan? Please tell me you didn't choose that name. Plus that real name sound fake too. Uh, Sir"

The suit seemed to be looking at him before laughing could be heard from its speaker before stopping and speaking again.

"No that was one of the heads on this project who decided it would make me more recognisable. This is MJOLNIR type armour and this gun of mine is THOR. As for name it was decided that a red herring is always much more interesting when it has to be caught" He said while indicating his Duo-Rifle.

"I thought MJOLNIR was the weapon and THOR was the person?" Riley asked while his and Perekov's men got sorted out in this brief lull of activity.

"Yeah but THOR stands for Thermo-Holding-Over-Rifle. If you are going to ask that name was also not my idea."

"Looks like a typical LasRail to me" Riley said.

"It would be except the Rail is one-point-five times faster and the Laser has been replaced by a new type of phased energy beam"

"You mean?"

"A Phaser. Sadly the reactor is a sort of hit and miss since each one needs to be individually calibrated so it won't blow up so don't expect these on the market too soon." Said the dark green figure.

"I'll keep my eye out then. Isn't that heavy though, I hear it has heavier armour and you don't sound like you're a superhuman" Riley commented.

"No this suit has just a new type of flexible plastic mesh inside it that acts like muscles and the suit's power keeps me moving, still no neural interface though so I'm stuck having to actually moving my legs consciously"

"Damn and blast. I was hoping for the ability to sing while I pee and fight but I guess I'll have to wait. Ok 'Spartan', Perekov says we've got to reach level three in the next twenty minutes. You up for it?"

The Spartan turned around and regarded his fellow heavies. After receiving what appeared to be orders he nodded at Riley.

"Just lead the way captain. You provide the flash and we'll give you some bang."

And just like that they were off again. But not before Riley got a shot out.

"So when can I meet the purple missus?" Riley said while smiling at the Green figure.

"When she gets out of being built and stops believing that sucking her holographic thumb is more important than working properly" Replied the Spartan, already bounding ahead of the three squads into the fire.

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Now about an hour later after the Dilgar surrender Shambli was emerging from the bunker before he was grabbed from his arm and put in front of what he assumed was Captain Riley.

"You'll listen here you damn idiot. You are meant to be a professional and not some first year cadet straight out of the academy. Were it not for your screw-up actually helping I would be sending you straight back there."

'Yep, definitely Riley' Shambli thought while trying to imagine a far more peaceful life at the academy.

"But as I said" ranted Riley. "What you did saved us all a lot of time and lives. So you don't have to do cleanup duty in the barracks for the next three weeks. Instead you've got it for two. Now go on O'Shovah and command that grime. We've picked up all the prisoners and have isolated them while delivering medical care and we've copied their database then erased it. The generator's scrap metal and we've caught some of their medical and engineering geeks for 'resisting'. We've taken them prisoner along with all of the others we caught except some of their soldiers who aren't important enough to keep" Said Riley chuckling a bit before relaxing and pointing towards the nearest _possum_ class landing shuttle.

Shambli lowered his head and moved towards the shuttle, putting his pistols in their holsters before sitting down and mentally preparing himself for cleanup. A mission this far out meant the men were occupied with chores while off duty. He wasn't looking forward to when he had to clean the armour of those who had approached from the swamp for the base attack.

Looking out he saw some Sparrows, an atmospheric fighter ship, patrolling the Skies before changing from their triple engine configuration to the booster type and going out of the atmosphere and back to their hangars now that the mission had ended and air superiority was no longer needed.

Sighing once again Shambli wondered about the future and if it was going to get better.

The thing about this is that sometimes the future has no idea itself.

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A day later on Omelos. In the house of the Warmaster of Dilgar Intelligence on the Southern Hemisphere.

Warmaster Gek'hal, head of Dilgar intelligence was relaxing in his favourite chair while mulling over some events of the past and possible actions for the future.

Ever since that Elkarch class station had been destroyed without any sign of the enemy. Except for the sensors reading a small object that had emitted a powerful scan of several different wavelengths' before they went offline. Only to come online again after everything was destroyed by whatever those nine shadows were on the sensors that were far away from the actual station. He and his subordinates had been working non-stop since it had happened and it was only now he was catching a break before heading back in to the muddle of code and sensor readings.

Thinking about some of his plans he had learnt that the humans were already reaching the middle of league territory and seemed to be having no problems in terms of re-supplying the fleets that they had sent to assist the LONAW. His people had come up with many theories but three were the most prominent in his mind. Either the humans' ships had massive storage for their own supplies and perhaps could grow their own food while travelling, but to do that would mean they had dedicated food growing areas on their ships but that was something only colony ships may have carried.

The other major theory was that the league were doing in transit re-supplies with their own ships as they built up their fleets; but this didn't explain the seemingly non-stop journey they had been taking from the reports he had gotten from his network in league space and they had heard nothing of cargo being given in transit so that left the last, and possibly most disturbing theory in Gek'hal's mind.

This was that was that the humans already had a number of bases placed in league space that only they knew about. Such a thing was highly disturbing to Gek'hal as it meant that the humans had a means of being readily replenished when they needed to be while Dilgar forces had to either make do with what they had or wait for re-supply from home. But the problem with this was where they could have been hidden since he knew that no supplies had been moved through league real space to bases in their territory and it was impossible to keep something in Hyperspace for too long because of its tidal forces. So that left the possibility that the humans had either built some gates or had some coordinates that led to a number of systems that were in league space but uncolonised thus far.

Deciding that such thoughts would only tire his mind out more with the confusing possibilities he decided to start thinking about something else; his evacuation of the less bloodthirsty and fanatic Dilgar from Omelos and the rest of the Empire. While treasonous he knew that the continued war on the LONAW meant they would stretch themselves too far and eventually falter and fall back, which would have lead to his people's and their civilisation's demise. He knew that the house of Ados under the baron E'Phraim had been sent into exile because of their pacifistic ideals to a place called Planthos by the Warmaster council and he was hoping to initiate secret contact with them to ask to send some of his supporters and resources there for survival and safe keeping. Then the whole mess got worse for the Empire.

He also had been having his agents secret away other resources and League currency to use later if they needed to. Another thing was his attempts to form crews of those loyal to his less aggressive and more survivalist cause and put them on system defence ships so they could evacuate themselves and whatever civilians could be taken quickly when and if things went bad. The ships were not that advanced as a whole since most of the line ships were put on the front line but he had acquired, for monitoring purposes and secret meetings, one of the latest battle cruisers that had been built and was hoping no one would find out his involvement in the captain's post. It was difficult and he believed that without greater help from more of those actually aware of their home planet's coming demise to have a sizeable amount of the population would not survive. Let his counterparts debate deaths made while he worried about lives saved.

Suddenly his home computer started beeping in a way that he knew meant it was an important communiqué. Getting up from his seat he approached his desks where numerous reports and paperwork was waiting to be signed and read. Sitting down in his wheeled swivel seat he spotted that it was a highly encoded message which meant it was a deep cover agent of the High Warmaster. He didn't have a secretary at his home so he didn't know which until he switched it on and saw the High Warmaster's face staring into his with a look of anger and trepidation on his grey haired features.

"Ah, Gek'hal. I hope I am not interrupting anything?" he questioned with a curious voice which sounded strained to Gek'hal's ears.

"Not at all High Warmaster I was contemplating the war while taking a short break from my duty" He admitted truthfully as he was quite sure that while he was in control of intelligence matters, no one ever got this far in the job without a healthy dose of paranoia.

The High Warmaster seemed to take on a contemplative look in his slit eyes before opening his mouth again.

"Good, good" He said while nodding. "Well instead of running in circles I'll get to the point. An attack on one of our labour camps and research facilities based in our territory was made about a day ago by an unknown group of mercenaries or a new race, from the large amount of reports coming in and I have only been notified now because of the damage to their communication equipment. Apparently they were attacked by an uncountable number of heavily armed foot soldiers wearing fully armoured suits whose ship disabled the picket fleet we had left behind to guard the surrounding space and landed with silent shuttles before they could get a warning to the base and so causing them to be unprepared for the assault." Said the High Warmaster who drew a breath before continuing.

"None of the fleet's ships were lost thankfully but they were disabled efficiently by the aggressors transport ship through some unknown means. All we are able to discern is that the sensors were given ghost readings of Narn to Centauri ships signatures before they were blasted off by laser fire along with the engines and the weapons. A probe was then apparently seen by the crew to float amongst them which jammed all of their communications and left them dead in space." He grated out to Gek'hal who was wondering why he was hearing from the High Warmaster rather than his own network. Then he realised he had told his soldiers to hold all reports unless it was a direct threat to the home system. A mistake he would not make again in the near future.

"I see High Warmaster. I assume a council is being called?" Gek'hal inquired.

"Correct, so switch to channel 15 on this same encryption since all the others should have arrived by now" he said before switching off his screen to go to the council.

This worried Gek'hal as being the last to know meant he wasn't being seen as important or favoured right now by the High Warmaster.

'Oh well' he thought to himself while setting up his screen to go to channel 15. 'I guess that's the price I will pay for staying behind instead of putting myself at the frontline but an intelligence master is always best placed at the centre of a web' he finished before his screen lit up again and he found himself looking into the face of his eleven counterparts. Some of whom looked angry while other projected a face of caution or fear. The angriest though had to be Jha'dur's face though, projecting a fury in her features and fire in her eyes he knew didn't appear often on the Warmaster's face. The base was one that held some of her 'experiments' so he expected she was angry for losing the research she had made.

The High Warmaster looked at the assembled council before beginning to speak.

"You are all aware of why I have called you here. This attack cannot go unanswered but the reports have been unable to discern who these people were except them having advanced ships and armour as well as intelligence including the hidden bunker's experimental Quantum Singularity power generator. Years of research is missing or destroyed and I want someone to blame. Jha'dur, the base held some of your experiments in the above ground area that was attacked first so you can start" He spoke to the most powerful beings in the Dilgar Empire.

Jha'dur's face was still furious but she seemed to calm down as she spoke.  
"My fellow compatriots I can not begin to express what a disaster this has caused to the war effort. Several experiments of mine were there, including one meant to assist our invasion of the Drazi territories in a few weeks, and their loss by these attackers means I will be delayed for at least two more months before I can perfect it for the oncoming attack." She growled out.

"So should we wait or continue on without your 'plague's Jha'dur?" Asked the Warmaster in charge of logistics.

"I will try and improve the speed of the research but my projections only tell me that it will still take at least one more month of work. Any earlier and you may have to use one of my general plagues or an experimental version which would both be dangerous if they mutated to attack Dilgar physiology" She replied in anger to the question of her usefulness in the coming attack.

"I am still at a loss regarding these attackers. Do we have no recorded data on them or recordings at the very least?" Asked Gek'hal in a calm tone to reintroduce the order of the meeting.

"All we have is that they wore fully suited grey armoured suits with some talking of a 'Green Demon' that assaulted their positions in the base. Save for some who spotted what appeared to be seven foot giants and strange weaponry all of the testimony we have comes from those that these 'Morkens' left alone or alive." Replied the Warmaster in charge of the ground forces, Ler'syn.  
"Morkens? Why are they called that?" Asked Gek'hal again as he grasped what could be important information from Ler'syn's words.

"Apparently at the beginning of the assault on the bunker a commander called O'Shovah was captured at one of the hidden entrances and brought through the hidden tunnels to the commander of the bases presence. The soldier recovered after an hour despite numerous blows to the head, though it was a full helmet that was worn, and captured the commander who was down there to find out from the scientist assigned to the individual with what the enemy looked like underneath the armour." Ler'syn replied in a grave tone.

"So where is this 'Morken' reference coming from." Sighed Gek'hal over Ler'syn's long winded words.

"I was just getting there Gek'hal. But after disabling the scientist and forcing the Base Watcher to surrender on threat of a nuclear strike he said he was called O'Shovah from a planet called Mork. Have you ever heard of such a thing Gek'hal?" Asked Ler'syn since it would be Gek'hal's job to know of the different factions they were fighting and those they weren't.

"I can't recall anything but I will use whatever resources I can to discover that information so we can enact retribution" Gek'hal replied quickly to stymie any criticism of his work.

"Please say that again as I thought I heard the word 'surrender' in what you reported. Such a thing is punishable by discharge and possible death you know" Said the High Warmaster contemptuously.

"With the possible use of nuclear ordinance being indicated it was decided by the commander to preserve the lives of his subordinates. The threat of slavery was also used for those captured and he did not wish for those under his command to suffer. He did the only SENSIBLE thing." Ler'syn quietly explained to his superior.

Gek'hal respected Ler'syn's desire to keep those under him alive and started contemplating finding his allegiance's since he would be useful as a means to evacuate properly when Jha'dur spoke up again.

"Well then why are the most highly placed scientists at the facility apparently missing? Seems to me he didn't preserve their lives that well." She enquired in a cold voice.

"They apparently resisted but with the chaos and the practical takeover of the base it is a small price to pay for both their lives and the lives of every other person there." Ler'syn replied in an equally cold voice.

"Yes most notably your 'meatheads' Ler'syn. I say we use him as a scapegoat to this disaster and execute him for betraying his nation and people" She spoke to the High Warmaster.

"Why you rotten, twisted evil piece of dirt. You wouldn't know loyalty if it came and bit you." Said Ler'syn in a heated tone. A babble of voice's rose up in support or opposition of Jha'dur before the High Warmaster shook his head once and widely opened his mouth.

"ENOUGH!" said the High Warmaster and everyone silenced immediately.  
"We shall have a trial for the Base Watcher but until then we should focus on these new attackers. That their timing coinciding with the recent Earth Alliance declaration of war a few months ago worries me" He said in a critical voice that wouldn't be out of place on a parent chastising their children for acting stupid.

"You think they are related?" Asked the Tactical Warmaster in charge of planning fleet movements and battles.

"There is the possibility that these are a client race of the Humans or it could be them performing attacks to keep our strength split" The High Warmaster replied.

Gek'hal looked at the corner of his screen at some new encrypted message that had arrived and he saw the rest check their screen's for the thing. Bringing it up he noted that it came form the cameras that weren't destroyed and viewed some shots of these attackers. Their armoured forms with the lenses for eyes on the top and bottom of the helmets led him to a conclusion.

He had seen the ground forces of humanity in several visual data streams gathered by his agents and public records and while he could see some similarities in the images showing the attackers in their motions and actions, the humans didn't wear such heavily armoured designs as a means of protection as usually one could see the soldiers or the suits and armour they wore were form fitting rather than covering the body with what appeared to be rectangular shoulder pads; at least to the best of his knowledge. So either they were meant for secret operations, which seemed unlikely considering their apparent numbers and weaponry appeared more suited to large scale engagements rather than special operations, or they were a separate race from humanity entirely.

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Of course with no major war against any other known space faring race in ground combat, the _Fire Warrior_ type medium class armour, while recognised by some parts of humanity, was not that well known outside of Earth Alliance space. The most that could be gathered from their ground forces numbers and technology were the commonly seen 'light' infantry who usually worked in large numbers on colonies while the other, more stronger, classes and types were kept in more critical areas away from the public or foreign view.

Even ambassadors only usually got the sight of base patrol medium class armour at most, which looked similar to Stormtrooper armour from the earlier movies and lacked the lenses of the _Fire Warrior_ type to draw any reliable comparison and included a back attachment which allowed them a larger breathing apparatus that could last longer than the usual light or medium types. This combined with the magnetic boots and a special gel sealent system in between the hardened ceramite suit plate layers was particularly useful when based onboard ships or orbital bases as it could help should the area they were in be exposed to space and ensuing explosive decompression.

With the coming of the war however the 'armour in the closet' was deemed necessary to be revealed to the galactic worlds at large if any attempt to reduce ground casualties was to be made. Of course not all would be revealed but humanity liked keeping some of its toys to itself. The use of the armour and technology to the different races was bound to create a spy war and bidding frenzy to acquire some of it. Some were trying to imagine what would be done with it and while some were disturbing; others were amusing to no end.

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Deciding not to call his conclusions yet as he wasn't one hundred percent certain he decided to speak to the other Warmaster's on his screen.

"I'm quite sure you've all got the same thing I just did. These images will prove useful for all of us and I can spot a few video files that will take some time to watch and analyse for data. I call for a recess until we have done this" He spoke while hoping he would be listened to.

Looking at his screen he could see some of them wanting to make their point but knew they realised the logic in his actions as rash actions would only lead to rash and possibly painful consequences. He saw the High Warmaster take in the same sight before making a small noise with his throat and gained the attention of those under him.

"I think that is a good idea Gek'hal because I understand the need to fully know our foe. This meeting is in recess for the next twenty-four galactic hours. Study this data and whatever else you can gather and be near a means of private communication by then. Until then, this meeting of Warmasters' is in recess." He finished by shutting off his screen. All of the others did as well and he knew that several would be conversing privately with each other soon to promote their views or finish arguments like Ler'syn and Jha'dur looked to be preparing for.

Deciding to think privately he switched off his connection and sat back in his chair. The events he had heard about and was about to view could not only be a threat to the Dilgar's war of conquest. But also of his own plans to preserve his people. He decided to double his agent numbers throughout LONAW territory and send a few more agents into the human territory to find out what they knew of this 'Mork' and assign his second in command to data processing to keep him occupied while he stepped up his own agenda. He didn't trust his subordinate as he acted in a similar manner to the more fanatic way of thinking and knew that were it not for his continued survival his resources would be wastefully used and the survival of his race made that much harder to become a reality.

Getting out of the chair he once again thanked the Vultures for destroying that pirate raid against his ship as it would have probably led to his death and the potential death of his race.

Meanwhile in the Bunker under Earthdome another meeting of war by the Military Chiefs of the Earth Alliance was assembled…

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Bunker under Earthdome, Geneva, Switzerland, Home of the Earth Alliance administration and Earthforce, Earth, Sol.

Around the circular hardwood table in the low light room with no one else in sight, the eight most powerful men and women in Earthforce began an important meeting.

The chief war minister David Fenrir looked around and seeing no one else was going to interrupt he began.

"Gentlemen and ladies, yesterday and today marks a significant event for the people of the Earth Alliance and marks the beginning of what may be a new era in our species and nation's history. I have received a report from our Pioneer Stations that the first ground attacks on a Dilgar heralded a successful and enlightening operation for our Worlder forces. I would like to take a minute to thank Peter MacKinson and Sir George Walton, the heads of the Worlder and Tactics division respectively, for their hard work in making it a success. I would like to hear their updated reports as I am sure you all do as well" He finished while turning to Peter first.

Peter MacKinson was a respected Supreme Commander of all Worlder forces. It had been his idea to attack what was at first a suspected simple labour camp but his brand of luck had yielded much more than was at first thought by those around him. He was completely bald apart from some hair around the back of his head and rather than hide it he was showing his age and the scars of previous work defending civilians from a boarding action against Centauri pirates. Two cuts on his arm and a missing shoulder were his trophies and when you faced his brown-eyed gaze you knew whether you were an enemy or not and what your chances of survival were.

Making a slight nod to his younger, although no less able, commanding officer he began his report.

"Thank you David for the glowing reference" he spoke in a gravelly tone. Taking a breath he started again.

"The Worlders mission, code named 'Operation McQueen', was from my reports a complete success. Using detailed information gathered by Vulture forces we were able to identify the fleet power of the patrolling ships and plan accordingly. After landing successfully without detection the attack began in the earlier hours of the morning on the planet's surface and took the base guards by surprise. While there were no deaths reported a few were seriously injured by grenades and overwhelming firepower used by the Dilgar. After locating the prisoners and successfully evacuating them to the medical shuttles that were brought, we moved on to a hidden underground bunker that was discovered through questioning the former prisoners and captured Dilgar forces. On asking for a scan from the orbiting transport ship it was discovered that the bunker had unusual energy readings that were consistent with our own people's forays into Quantum Singularity construction and use. After relaying this information a decision was made by the commanding officer to disable, destroy or capture whatever was causing the Singularity which it was assumed was being used for power generation." Taking a breath he brought up images of the battle and plans taken from the bunker's database to further explain his point.

"Our forces got lucky however when a captured soldier was able to turn the tables on his captors and captured the Dilgar's head of the facility. With the threat of slavery and nuclear ordinance he was able to 'negotiate' a ceasefire and surrender. Their identities as our soldiers were also protected through his use of a false title and homeplanet. This should make it harder to tag us as a threat until we are ready to release the information to our allies and the rest of the galactic scene." He finished his address to the joint chiefs and waited for any questions.

"If I may ask a question? What are we going to do with those captured prisoners of theirs? The first idea was to simply declare what happened and intimidate the Dilgar Empire but our capturing and destruction of their Singularity generator may bring some unwanted attention. Not to mention the Dilgar prisoners including the ones that maintained that generator." Said Admiral To'brongi, a dark skinned former ship captain, and head of matters to do with the Earthforce Navy.

"We did prepare for this unlikely event and we are putting the POWs on one of our supposedly 'uncolonised' areas inaccessible to Hyperspace travel and keeping them there for the time being. We may do a prisoner swap later on but until then they'll be under our watchful eye. As for the prisoners we freed, we are putting them through highly sterilised quarantine procedure and prepping them for the Markab ships coming to pick them up and return them to where they wish. They have all signed confidentiality agreements and we have assigned some of our resources to making sure they keep to them for the time being." Said the head of Earthforce Intelligence, a mid-level empath called Catherine Crocker. She had worked as a powerful executive in PSIcore before deciding to work for the government in a different division and chose intelligence matters for her highly useful empathic ability of detecting the truth from someone.

"Very well then. I don't think we need to hear much about the Dilgar ships as apparently that part went off flawlessly." David said while nodding to Sir Walton who nodded back his consent to continue without his report on the crippling of the orbiting Dilgar fleet. Possibly wasting some much needed time in a wartime situation.

"To continue on I want to hear the Dilgar reaction. This of course falls to our Vulture head Laura Saunders. Laura?"

The woman opposite him sat up in her chair and pressed a button which showed an overview of LONAW and Dilgar territory. Above it was a map of the fleet beacon network in Hyperspace and arrows and numbers could be seen on both indicating ship movements of both sides.

"Thank you David. As our predictions noted the Dilgar have pulled back some of their forces from the frontline and have left several weaknesses we can now exploit. I propose we begin operations to take back the Drazi colonies that have been attacked and should send our latest generation mobile suit technology to quicken their leaving. My analysts say that with such defeats we can begin the push back of their fleet and army and end this war quickly. Meanwhile my subordinates have told the Roost that they have reached Omelos and have begun to inspect it for possible reasons behind the Dilgar aggression. While we did have them in before the increased need for a watchful eye on the Dilgar necessitates my more resources being used." She finished while sitting down.

"Thank you for that good news Laura. Now everyone, I can guess that some of you are wondering why we haven't threatened the use of WMDs in response to their own use of them in their attacks, but it has been decided by the analysts of 'Department D' that the use of any of our more specialised brand could only lead to an arms race that our economy is not ready to handle. Though the use of small ordinance air-fire rounds for ground combat and liquid nitrogen hull piercing missiles is being considered on worlds and against ships not valuable to us or the LONAW in the greater scheme of things" David finished.

"I think that is all the important matters for now. I propose we move onto the next part of this meeting. These rumours we are hearing of a rebellion in the Dilgar forces…"

With this the meeting was to continue on as the men and women charged with humanities future debated its numerous paths.

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Omelos Star System. Inner planetary system.

Deep in space around the orbit of the star called Omelos a conversation between two hidden ships was taking place.

"I say we shouldn't have given up that sheep hunt just to play some pool. We had it almost within our grasp and we could have used the promise of beer to the others to give us the nice pillows in the barracks that night," Said one voice to the other.

"May I remind you that two of our previous hunts turned out to be goose chases? Except that one time we caught a goose in the lower storage areas where we almost became Popsicles because of the faulty airlock?" Said the other quite irate one for his wing mate's whining.

"I still stand by the explanation that the goose knew we were coming and planted a trap for us. I swear I saw an evil grin on it just before the doors were about to open and it was near enough to the console to press the button marked open with its beak." Replied the first voice in a menacing tone.

"You're cracked like the rest of those station people. Luckily they are competent though so the door didn't send us out now quiet down. We are meant to be silently scanning this system and I don't want to see any enemy fighters or their larger friends on my scanner heading on an intercept course" spoke the second voice.

"Don't worry about it. They have no idea about subspace and they-Oh!" the first voice finished in a surprised tone.

"What oh? 'Oh' as in we've been spotted and I'll have to personally kill you now or 'oh' as in I finally realised what an idiot I am and beg forgiveness"

"How about none of the above. I just got some strange readings from my microwave scanner and my thermal one just went wonky. Take a look at these readings from that section of the sun" The first voice said while sending some data to his flying partner.

"Hm. You may have something there. We need a wider amount of readings and that will require a ship with better sensors than these can offer. Let's report back" Said the second voice with a commanding tone after checking his own instruments; their ships were a good distance away so he didn't get the readings strong enough to be noticeable but something did seem to be up. He was the senior officer after all even with equal ranks.

"Sure old man. While on our way back let me enlighten you as to what I did with that goose once I found him again" Said the now identifiably younger one as it began a long story.

His partner just wanted to smack his head or claim weapon misfire but he needed to know if the kid's machines were going funny or if what he saw was the real deal. He had taken Celestial Mathematics before becoming a Vulture and what he saw from the kid's data meant he suddenly was very worried.

"And then I laughed as a paid the guy to give it to me. I swear it was trying to puppy dog eye me but I was having none of that" said the droning voice.  
Of course that all depended on whether he would survive this trip back with his sanity intact.

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Meanwhile back in League territory under assault by the Dilgar.

"This is the captain. In 72 hours we will begin combat operations against the invading forces. Say your peace and prayers and prepare all stations for combat. That is all."

Restless ships wait in a form of stasis in hyperspace. They would soon begin and taste the wreckage of their enemies. Let hellfire rain down upon those unfortunate enough to mess with them and theirs.

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Well that is it for now folks. Hope you enjoyed this latest chapter.


	9. Dark Past,Bright Present,Unknown Future

Ok everyone, It has been a long time but here is the next chapter after weeks of nothing. Hope you all Enjoy it of Man's Potential/ Ages of Change.

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Chapter 8 - The Dark Past, The Bright Present and the Uncertain Future

'The Database'. Just as the Roman Empire, the Renaissance and the Industrial revolution evoked a change in the ways of man, so too did the Database act as a new foundation for which humanity could create a stronger and more united society.

The Third World War was devastating to what man had accomplished in its lifetime. The biggest population centres were hit with only a few surviving due to interceptor systems and by the hand of fate preventing their destruction.

Without such centres of society and the danger of irradiated and toxic land now across the globe it seemed that all of humanities accomplishments and monuments would fade into dust for perhaps the next sentient species to debate and argue purpose over. But a saving grace appeared when several people from across the globe each discovered entrances to a number of complexes all over the globe. Some had been walking around the mountains looking for fresh and clean water to provide their new 'tribes' with while others had simply been curious and had chosen exploration over despair. Opening the doors was relatively easy as long as it was proven the other person was human, via voice recognition or hand print, but once inside the constant hum of machinery and electricity prevailed in the darkness. Upon entering the lights switched on each showing what appeared to be a large entrance lobby with enough room for several dozen people, causing many to head back and return with their families and groups they had met up with and explain their discovery. Some noticed then or later that at the very end of the room was a wheeled computer desk chair with a keyboard, mouse and several dozen flat screens set around it. Sitting in the seat caused the screens to activate. Coming up with a timer each displayed a different bird's eye view of various other countries, or as was the case now, lands with the words [WAITING FOR SIGNAL] in varying languages. Deciding that what they had found could be important some groups set up in the lobby area while others left scouts in case of any change on the screens. On one of the days, now known as 'Vox Day' day those who were there on watch duty noticed a persistent beeping coming from the screens and the words [PLEASE PRESS ENTER]. Pressing the button caused all of the screens to change to views of different people sitting in the different chairs and for the first time in what had seemed so long ago one kind of man met another. The button activating protocols so that each of the different explorers of the bunker's could see each other from the piggybacked signals of satellites that had gone quiet without the constant participation of people to put them to use.

Making some tentative greetings some asked if any of the groups they now faced had been the ones to set up the system they were now facing. When no one admitted to being the creators of the places they now found themselves in the question over why any one person or group would go to so much trouble for a simple teleconference suite when due to the way the World was now would make it impossible to do anything but talk. As the questions grew a new set of words flashed across the screen [ENTERING PHASE 1: INTRODUCTION]. Suddenly multiple screens opened up, those who knew anything about engineering understanding some of the basic technological concepts were cycling through until screen popped up with a smiling man in a white lab coat and the words [PLEASE SELECT LANGUAGE] appearing across the bottom. Upon doing that a video started out with subtitles for those who could not understand English in the language they had chosen.

"Greetings, hello and good morning, afternoon and night depending on where you are and what time it is right now wherever you are, if you are seeing this recording then it appears me and my fellow cataloguers did not make it through whatever disaster befell human civilisation. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Philip Oakfield; I'm sort of what you would call the PR person among our little group so I was selected to introduce you to our pride and joy: The Database. Many of you wonder what I am talking about well let me show you"

Suddenly a great big sound of groaning metal caused many to jump away from the chair. Off to the side though a door hidden in the walls had opened up, the smiling man once again began to speak.

"Apologies for the sound but we figured it would draw your attention. Now if you or someone with you can head in I will meet you downstairs. To those wishing to stay put please wait for the cameras to start up."

Some heading down others watched on their cameras before Oakfield changed appearances, seemingly a different recording. On their cameras people came to a room which hummed with many different towers of what people assumed to be computers from the blinking lights and sounds. Alongside them were hundreds of filing cabinets with the corridor stretching far off into the distance and branching off at various intervals. Heading down them a sound made itself heard from one of the cabinets before it opened up with a click, triggering the video of the man to begin playing again.

"Ah, I see some of you were curious enough to accept my invitation. If you will please check in there you will find the manual of prepared responses and further description by me, in multiple languages and dialects depending on your geographical location. You can ask the questions in there to receive answers. I'll see you then" before the screen featuring him disappeared into black again.

Checking inside came up with different questions. Most went to the first one; what was this place and what is the database? Though the third one underneath the second did say 'Where is the toilet?' prompting some laughter from those who read it,

The second brought up a map while the first brought up another screen displaying Oakfield.

"Well I hope you're ready for this because it is a complicated story. You see when the mass crises of the late 21st century happened so suddenly several distinguished individuals, myself included, began to worry about our survival and legacy. Sadly while most of the world's nations focused upon their zero-sum gain they once again seemed to be forgetting the bigger picture in favour of short term monetary advantages. Knowing this might lead to disaster I was contacted and did contact prominent and important people in many different fields across the world to help with what we believed would be the best chance of restoring humanity should it fall back into more savage ways; to this end the concept of a database, a collection of all human knowledge and innovation up to this point, was born. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our legacy.

Suddenly hundreds of lights activated across the various complex's people were in. Computers and screens hummed to life while various machines to allow the complex to be run started up to give fresh water and accommodations while the habitat areas were opened up for others to move into. Rooms filled with machines and devices starting from the basic forge of medieval times up to the latest in factory hardware. The various computers had dozens of workstations dedicated to letting people use them to access knowledge. Though certain information (such as biological, chemical or nuclear weapons) was impossible to get or view unless a member of a community could prove they could understand it at the level of professors or specialists in the field. All in all the various complexes were underground and near self sustaining homes for the different people who had found them. As time went on further interaction and communication was made with the different complexes.

Some thought they could use the discovery to their advantage and carve out new kingdoms or empires with each other and many even began conspiring with others to make them powerful and gain wealth, material and glory for recreating 'civilisation'. At least that was what was happening until a certain day when another screen switched suddenly on. The different alliances that were forming noted it originated in what was once the country of Spain. As the rival groups plotted the means by which to persuade this newcomer to their side the screen cleared from the fuzzy snow it displayed. On the screen was a little girl, no more than eleven and looking frightened and sickly with tattered clothing that looked like she had crawled through several miles of foliage. It seemed she had gotten a lethal dose of radiation as she already appeared to be losing blood and hair with her breathing coming out in ragged gasps. Looking at this girl the other groups watching found they could not look away from this sickly being; for just as greed and malice are human traits, so too is empathy and a desire to alleviate suffering. The girl talked to the screen for a few minutes and told them her name, René, and that she had been visiting her father before he was sent to bolster the front line from the northern areas of Spain just as the war went nuclear and everything that she had cared about had gone or died in front of her. With nothing else keeping her around she had been travelling for ages and had not found any other signs of human life and had begun to think she was the last one alive. Just a scared little girl on a screen who thought there was no one else. Just as she finished her story she began to cough violently and it seemed more blood was coming out of her as her face took on that of something from the nightmares of all of those watching the screens, their harsh rivalry and loathing of each other forgotten. As the girl started to gasp and cough even more violently she managed to breath out some last words to those watching.

"Please help me. I don't want to be alone"

After this she collapsed on the hard concrete floor of the bunker she was in, and never got up.

Even if some could not understand the words they could understand the meaning and evoked a new thought to enter the minds of those who saw it. They also didn't want to be alone and the first foundations of what would someday be known as 'René's treaty' was created between all of the different groups who agreed that with the trauma of almost total annihilation humanity needed to come together at such desperate times rather than divide itself.

The decision was made to form an institution to prevent the mistakes of the past becoming that of the future. The idea of creating not that of a united nation, nor a single culture or society but of a United Species given the common thread of an original home from which all societies, nations and states after it stemmed from. The Earth Alliance, humanity's unified government, was born.

The complexes were united are several were converted to act as the new symbols of humanity's unity. Each was tasked with helping humanity in some way through the advent of what many believed made humans the dominant species on the planet; invention, innovation technology.

Datacore 1 was given the duty of developing new defences and mostly weapons. Humanity had accepted that those without teeth tended to die first but it was also seen that having new weapons being made outside of the purview of governments just gave more chance for them to fall into destructive hands. While weapons companies could sell them and add new features it was illegal to sell any weapon without official approval from Datacore 1. While war had become almost non-existent due to the Earth Alliance it was seen that new weapons led to new devices which didn't have to be used for harmful purposes. When the Centauri had showed up and showed humanity the number of other empires in their part of the neighbourhood many were relieved as it was clearly discovered that if humanity hadn't continued their research into weapons and defences and instead have stopped creating them then they would have most likely fallen under the influence or have been outright invaded by one of the neighbouring empires.  
Motto: "We know of restraint, it just doesn't apply to us"

Datacore 2 was established with the intention of healing rather than harming. Its purpose was to develop new medical techniques and treatments under a mandate to gain humanity an escape from the different diseases that had afflicted it. For this a health care system of Search and Destroy was created so that rather than let a disease run out of control it was quarantined and eliminated with ruthless efficiency. With the whole world now opened up from the Earth Alliance coverage of the planet new medicines derived from once little or unknown plants could be created and analysed for the first time. Private practise was allowed to encourage healthy competition and to reduce strain on the public services but certain criteria had to be met. One of them was that a doctor of any discipline could not go into private practice until their fortieth birthday and had to have spent a minimum of seven years in the public sector of health and medicine to allow sufficient numbers to always be present and prevent doctors either being quacks or simply flocking to the wealth. Though many did stay in the public sector due to the security of always being needed and a relatively steady pay check, through red tape was reduced by ridding the service of a need to fill a 'quota' of patients served of certain conditions to be replaced by a simple 'cure or treated' service alongside a directive to have a surplus of anything and everything so none were left without at least basic health. So with this Datacore 2 was to develop new ways to treat illness and damage to the human body. Their secondary duty was to also work on maintaining the health of the planet in general, though this was called secondary it's funding or support was not smaller than its primary duty; indeed several departments focused on dolphin development and scientific analyses were far larger than many of the more human focused divisions with entire campuses in the Datacore territory being devoted to environmental health studying and improvement.  
Motto: "Your health is our concern and our lives"

Datacore 3 was the main headquarters of many of the more theoretical and less defined sciences of the Earth Alliances sciences. Whatever new theories and information on the universe and its laws in charge usually came from this place. Before a proposed technology was even constructed or tested what set its parameters and checked its viability usually began here. It was said that it had become the new Alexandria for its detailed and mass documentation made by those who worked there or sent there by the citizens of the Earth Alliance. Entire wings of advanced supercomputers and rumoured football pitched sized rooms for the different chalk board, with cherry pickers to reach up to gain access to the ones that ran to the roof. Maintenance of this facility came about by having a system in place that whenever the concept was pinned down for any new theory or technological and scientific breakthrough was the people who had discovered it be moved to a different empty wing with all of their data to continue while the old wing was brought up to the latest specifications to keep it all up to date, of course there were permits for keeping things the same but this was usually only given to those who had 'lifetime' commitments to their work and had proof that their work was valid and disrupting it by moving them would only be damaging in the long run. Very few projects of the EA began without first starting here, giving it the nickname 'the birthplace of research' or its more informal nickname of the 'Chaos house' for the Greek idea of the origins of the world and for the myth of the parties tacking place there being the most wild and uncontrollable, many who worked there said such a thing was baseless falsity but many an Earth Alliance Senator had gone in hoping to cut flack to save money and had come out with half a dozen scandals connected to him or her.  
Motto: "Noli turbare circulos meos" (Latin translation of Archimedes supposed last words: "Do not disturb my circles")

Datacore 4 was where many things came together, technology and science from all disciplines had at least one representative at this Datacore. Anything deemed of less immediate importance of another Datacore's jurisdiction was done here while anything that a Datacore did not exist for was done here, including the entertainment and more basic technologies that were a part of everyday life began or could be found here. Set over a large land, equivalent to the state it once held a base too Arizona, the Datacore devoted huge resources to keeping the most advanced communications and computer technology so as to encourage inter-scientific study and innovation. When most technology or projects were in the final stages of its completion it was usually put into the jurisdiction of Datacore 4 to allow the many disciplines that made it up to analyse and study it, hopefully finding flaws and weaknesses not noticed and improving whatever was being studied in strange and usually useful ways, such as the Carnivorous GM plants from Datacore 2 coming in handy for base security for undercover ground locations in the vents, many falling prey to the Audrey's. Whatever advances the Earth Alliance made could be traced back or found through this department, giving it the title of the 'Heart of the Datacore's'.  
Motto: "Jack of All Trades, Master of Any of them"

Datacore 5 was the main vehicular and 'craft' research and creation base. From spaceships to station's, fighters to even the modern day Magnet Ball Propulsion Devices (MBPD) that were in all ground vehicles whatever had an engine usually began, or at one time could be found, here. Actually set on the Coast and in giant caverns many of things that happened here were either used on the giant tracks of flat and other types of land, or underground for the secret and testing areas for different environments almost anything could be tested for any type of environment. In the caverns were massive antigravity generators and a small space elevator which led to the massive 'Redwood' class station above it where many of the more space based projects were carried out to protect secrecy and allow access to any ships that suffered mysterious malfunctions could be studied by those best prepared for the job and either correct it or find the flaw and fix it. This was usually the most public of the Datacore's due to the Elevator and the Station's noticeable presence but anyone who asked usually got the very basic answer of "Really Devoted Mechanics".  
Motto: "If it isn't broken we'll build more. If it is we'll take it apart and make it better before building more."

Datacore 6 was where the larger and more time consuming projects began and were developed from. Hosting itself to the aptly named 'Department D' (Doomsday) it was here where the minds of the Earth Alliance looked and sought to be a part of the big picture, as well as other things of a large nature. While Datacore 5 worked on vehicles it was here where many of the 'Special Projects' such as the Pioneer Stations and the 'Europa Project' began and reported back to. Investigation and the development of Terraforming tools and methods was also one of its functions, having the job of not just destroying but creating worlds for humanity. While on the face of it appeared to be a place simply to show off great monuments to human ingenuity many things happened behind closed doors, the whispered about 'Narn Project' was one of the most closely guarded secrets but it had been said that members of the Khari from all circles had visited at time and come out full of good cheer and good things to speak of concerning humanity; over the years these smiles had been said to be growing. The nickname of this place was the 'Legacy Leaver' for it concerned itself with creating them so that even should disaster befall humanity it would be remembered, whether for good or ill.  
Motto: "The 'Seven Wonders' were a start, we are the architects of their successors."

Datacore Seven had the honour of being the only new Datacore compared to the others which were expanded from the original Database Bunkers and Location's. Placed on the Moon it was here where man employed some of the more 'practical' lessons learnt from the other Datacore's and maintained a large quarantine and danger zone for some of the more 'temperamental' projects. It was here where many had dreams of nightmares about going or being assigned to. The most cutting edge technologies and projects were made and constructed here and it was the location of the 'Infinite Periodical Table Initiative' (IPTI) called home base, so many elemental discoveries had been made that many a scientist had taken to uttering the phrase 'we might as well make it more of a guide then an example' on the subject of the table. It also played defender and security for the most dangerous knowledge in all of the Earth Alliance, projects and information found to be too dangerous to know except for a select group of people whose job it was to find counters and create scenario's to better prepare humanity should the worst come to worst. It was often said that those who worked there were the only ones who could earn the nickname of being a 'mad scientist' and all others were posers.  
Motto: "Eureka's our catchphrase. But the phrase 'Uh-oh' is part of our daily life."

As each of these locations strive to give humanity the greater chance of survival and understanding the universe. It is these places where he or she can be found to work to their greatest capacity and unlock the potential hidden inside every being. Lo' oh mighty ones despair should they ever be pushed or backed into a corner, lest they find out what mighty works are done in the brightest day and the darkest of night.

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Asteroid M-80T (475L4873E), Asteroid Belt 3, Sector 45, Tirrith Star System, Hyperspace.  
The year is 2230; Let the truth of Humanity's strength ring out across the stars.  
The date is the 18th August. The time is 12:20 hours GMT

"Does anyone know what to expect when we get there?" Asked Captain Edward Yates, 3rd in command of battle fleet 'allied forces' L17 and 'head honcho' for this mission.  
"We've got a basic view from our stealth probes; twenty capital class ships, full fighter escorts. Looks like they're fuelling up at this planetoid near the forth gas planet. Seems to be relatively well defended since it appears they've mined everywhere except a single 'safe zone' to jump into" replied Commander Soskevich, his long time friend, confidant and arch-enemy when it came to poker night.

"So no surround and squash?" Yates replied in a voice that sounded like a kicked puppy. It was well known to those who were close to him that he was a fan of that particular strategy. Simply put ships would surround a target and then use whatever weapons were available to pound the enemy into submission. A simple, yet highly effective tactic when facing a static enemy.

"Not unless you're in the mood to tell the fighter pilots and your fellow captains why now would be a good time to set their affairs and final wishes in order" replied Soskevich in an amused tone.

"Seeing as how causing a mutiny is not on my agenda today? No" Yates sarcastically replied back. Sighing he leaned forward to stare at the tactical screen as if it held the answer to the problem it displayed. After about 5 minutes he leaned back again with a smile on his face that while it didn't look like it had caught the canary seemed well on its way to getting there.

Soskevich, not being one to wait, broke "what are you suddenly so pleased about?"

Retaining the grin Cp. Yates replied "Well I was just thinking of a little divide and conquer. If we can distract the ships then we should be able to blast through the mine field without being shot by them and being caught in a massive mine death a la Dilgar."

"Might I ask how we accomplish that? Considering how many there are of us here they may believe in using defence rather than attack." Soskevich said. Considering that they outweighed and outnumbered their enemy it was a valid question.

"Well I was just thinking that we need only present an interesting and easy target to draw them away" Yates said.

"And what would be enough to draw their ships away and still survive being shot at and probably destroyed before escaping?"

"I was thinking a variation of follow the leader" Yates said while using the display to show a path he had typed out.

Soskevich looked at the display, then at his captain, then at the display again before speaking "You do realise that takes us into the atmosphere of the Gas planet sir?"

"Oh I do. It will be right where we want them"

"How do you propose we make them follow us?" Soskevich wearily replied.

"Simply put, we have them chase us and then try to outrun us" Yates grinned.

"Why would they suddenly be trying to outrun us sir?" Soskevich said as he contemplated an early retirement and immediate resignation possibilities.

"Because of the giant shockwave of fire heading towards them" Yates replied all matter-of-factly.

Soskevich didn't want an answer really but he did have a duty to fulfil "What Shockwave of fire?"

"The one we create by dropping some FAE-M-Type's (M-Type. For Moros, a Greek God of impending Doom. AKA Zim's for short and when used in coded transmissions) from our stores. We lead them into the atmosphere and just as they begin to turn away from being destroyed, we detonate them."

"And how do we also escape then sir?" Asked a nervous junior officer.

"We activate those jump engines we got installed and jump to some emergency co-ordinates we get from a probe and so we leave them behind to their fate"

Silence reigned for a few seconds before someone from the engineering department spoke up.

"Sir, I have heard many stories about you. I will admit that the ones about you being insane were actually some of the least I believed but there you go proving me wrong. The chances of surviving a Gas planet atmosphere jump to initiate a GDD are astronomical." Said the now pale Junior Officer.

"I would like to hear another option because that's going to be the only way to minimise our casualties I can see" Yates sternly replied.

"What about using some of our drones to fly through the minefield and prematurely detonate it?" Suggested the Chief Weapons Officer Cole Stevens, a tall and lanky black man whose roots were aborigine rather than African that many who met him assumed (which led to many 'abject' lessons being made on any who made the mistake when they asked him questions on some African cultural fact for a quiz or question).

"I considered that but our tech boys want this asteroid station intact and if the Dilgar forces get an indication of where we are before we can get close enough they will try and delay us with their ships while they evacuate and destroy the place to prevent us from getting anything in it or call in reinforcements, both of which are bad. With this plan we can make them underestimate us and weaken their defending forces so we can get in hard and fast with the _Occam's_ to siege it and prevent them from escaping while we invade it using our troops to overtake it, from what we can tell this place plays host to many important scientists in the astronomic and logistic sectors. If we can capture them and get what they know to the League they will have a much better chance of preparing for any attacks" Yates said.

"I'm guessing it is also to impress the Navy to allow us to participate in the new-tech war games on soon?" Soskevich dryly responded.

"Damn Straight" Yates grinned.

"Oh well, at least we'll get to test out our new PARKER's" Soskevich sighed.  
"I knew you'd see it my way" Was the reply with a dark chuckle added on for good measure.

The optimum word on the minds of the crew of the 'Leviathan'? We're Doomed!

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The reactors official name was the Particle Accelerator Reflex Kinetic Energy Reactor (P.A.R.K.E.R.) Constructed to look like a sphere it was constructed out of hundreds of small cylinders that were made out of a powerfully magnetic material, Macguyverism Type 32 (Macguyverism as a whole had at least 42 different types that each fulfilled a seemingly 'impossible' task), and were connected with small balls of Macguyverism Type 17, which was an extremely strong but sensitive material that had been found when a massager with a degree in Atomic-chemistry had been working on a new way to increase the effectiveness of massage chairs. Connecting the two and delivering a small amount of particle (Protons and neutrons) energy into the construct caused the Type 32 MGS to bend it until it worked on an infinite loop within. As the particle's passed through the Type 17 MGS the electron's in its structure vibrated with energy, put the shape and energy form infinitely looping meant very little or none (the science house was still out on that) was lost. This energy was then passed from the construct into the ship and Voila, a new power generator.

Of course it wasn't perfect as the size to make the structure effective to deliver enough protons and neutrons into it to keep it going without being absorbed or bonding with anything gave it the size of a small suburban bungalow so it's use as a infantry weapon or fighter ship power source was out of the question but for ships it was a dream come true. Normally after so much research into quantum singularity's that had been done the next step would be how to turn it into a power source. This idea was dashed of course when the first proper establishment of a stable Stargate wormhole caused a communication's disconnection by subspace that no one at one end noticed and the other going into fits. The resultant reaction by Earthforce to send in armed forces for fear of a foothold led to an interesting new joke being created. "If a SWAT team bursts into the middle of a party and aims weapons at you, should they be allowed to join?" because the very same thing happened that led to many raised eyebrows and heads banging on desks.

So the need went out for a new kind of power generator and the newly christened Stargate Command, SGC, went back to using radio's and tachyons. With the PARKER a new affectionate name was given because of how it looked; the 'Magnetix's' on one side and 'Magneto's' on the other. It s success was noticeable as the use of a quantum singularity generator was at the best of times dangerous and temperamental since the destruction of where its output energy went could cause an overload as well as a possible self destruction from disruption to its container. A Magnetix generator on the other hand did not need serious containment since it only worked when stable and held together under its own being. Should its output be disrupted it could be easily vented off or diverted as it was a simple knock on effect rather than its main function. As such even with the destruction of the entire ship as long as the sphere remained stable the residual energy could keep it going for decades. A dangerous thing to fall into enemy hands but very useful as it meant the hardest part to make wasn't the hardest part to keep or regain.

The pioneer's were meant to be getting the installed soon but the sphere had to be tested under constant hyperspace conditions as the increased influence by gravity in the dimension could cause a disruption to its stability.

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Meanwhile at Fendamir 2 (former territory of the Drazi Freehold and now under Dilgar occupation), Fendamir Star System, Real Space. A different aspect of man's military might stands ready to attack.

"Alright Meatbags listen up. We just got orders from the Star heads and we've got an orbital drop in the next ten minutes so suit up and prepare for the ride of your lives. No more simulations people this I promise you is the real thing. So say you prayers and please make good on all wagers before our decent into hell begins. You Got THAT!" Sergeant Fordman shouted to the assembled troops as they played poker or were surrounding the arcade machine at the back where a crowd had gathered to watch the two champions of MEch System VII played against each other.

"We hear you Sir!" came the shouted reply as the troops suddenly became less interested in what everyone around them was doing and started to suit up in their gel suits and uniforms to prepare for the drop.

"Good. I'll see you at the Pod hangar. Remember ladies and gentlemen once we touch dirt we'll be moving immediately and will be working for a long time to get these furries to back off. So if you need the bathroom I suggest you use it now and be quick. This Squads got Sector five as a landing zone so head to drop hangar seven for your orders on what to do. Good luck out there and always remember the first rule of the orbital drop pod handbook.

"Do your best to at least squash your enemy on your entry sir?" Asked a smart ass Lieutenant.

"And always remember that officers are worth more than a squad of privates. Alright then move out" Fordman shouted before moving on to his next squads living zone.

"Well that was interesting wasn't it 'Sparky'" Asked a teammate to his fellow ODAST.

"You've got that right" Replied Nathan 'Sparky' Mulhouse. A man of great standing Mulhouse was seen as a prime example of what an Orbital Drop Armoured Suit Trooper should live up to. He wasn't some plucky youth from the wrong side of the street and he hadn't been granted a small amount of luck with a dislike of authority and a charming streak. What he did have was an eye which could spot a lit match from 300 metres in the Desert sun and that was without his Mechcore issued bionic eye to replace the one he had lost due to an unfortunate pressure change while in training. With that his range practically tripled and allowed night vision, zoom and a HUD display on it to come into the equation. Everyone always assumed his name came from his eye which he had managed to actually create a small amount of visible electricity to appear on it when he activated the right cosmetic change to give people and evil eye of god but in all truth (and after severe amounts of alcohol) It was actually due to a guilty pleasure of watching old Database recordings of the Pokémon TV show. Something he had yet to live down.

"Think there will be any problems down there?"

Nathan smiled "As long as we think the guy next to us if a fool and we are well connected with our inner child then I think fate may just give us a break"

Eliciting a laugh from some of the more active Star Trek watchers.

"What about the little ship known as Enterprise" Someone said.

"Sure. If your want to think like a Star head vomiter"

Another laugh covered the crowd before they all went back to the little rituals one does before being put into the frying pan of a pod and being pushed into the fire of atmospheric entry.

Minutes Later 'Sparky' Was strapped into his Armoured Suit and preparing for an orbital drop into enemy territory. Deciding now was a good time for music as the drop pod's computer would be doing the work to get him to the ground he waited for the time to be right before activating a Database Music File (DBF) to pass the time, as the music started the rumble of the ship as it went into combat to get his and his brothers and sisters bodies to the battlefield also intensified as the first words were spoken over the strings of the music.

_'Faith and Duty, Courage and Honour, all who love life Fear the Reaper'_

As his drop pod was released the music began to intensify before settling down again, as his listened he felt his pod begin to deploy, preparing to enter the atmosphere it used its small engines to move closer to its drop position, as the shockwaves of ships dying hit his pod the music intensified for a short time.

_'Only in Death does Duty End, even in Death I still Serve, If I must die I shall welcome Death, Knowledge is Power hide it well, ready to unleash Eleven Barrels of Hell.'_

As the music and voices continued he could feel his ship beginning to enter the atmosphere of the planet he set up his transmitter to broadcast on a public Subspace signal, due to his role of being something to draw attention to the rule communication's silence was not applied to this particular part of the mission. As the music intensified so did the vibrations as he heard the pod begin its function of getting him down safe and not crisp fried, seeing the readings he learnt he was about to hit the main top layer of the denser part that kept the air on the planet inside of it.

_'No Retreat No Surrender, Information is Power, WITNESS YOUR DOOOOOOOOOOM, Glory to the first man to die, we strike with wrath of the righteous"_

As the music continued to get louder the first indications of atmospheric entry became apparent, he heard the pod around him begin spinning to remove the friction and get him down faster and safer (somehow doing both didn't make sense but it worked).

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The Drop pod of the Earth Alliance was derived from the Warhammer 40k Space marine Drop pods as well as analyses of the whirlybirds of the plant world allowed a new means of delivering payloads to the ground safer. When the pod was dropped motors would start up a circular maglev system which caused the first outer shell on the pod to spin in a clockwise direction so that when the pod headed through an atmosphere the spinning force generated allowed the heat and pressure the friction generated to be thrown off. A second layer spun counter to those and through gaps on the first layer created an opposing force to not only keep the pod on target so it didn't spin out in an uncontrollable direction but also allowed the pod to develop drill of sorts in the sir. Removing the force in front of the pod and allowing it to remain relatively safe as well as fast and manoeuvrable. Even the magnetic field made by the maglev moving system allowed a small amount of fire on the pods to be thrown off, protecting it from any enemy's attempts to stop the pod before it reached the ground. When the pod reached the right height the layers would open up to reveal the actual unmoving pod (the layers worked from a solid base at the top of the pod to prevent the sickness of constantly spinning the drop may create) and blossomed out with parachutes and thrusters to either slow the descent or control the path of the pod in its final moments to hit its landing zone. Due to it being modular of course allowed the pods to be relatively expendable if need be.

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As the Vibrations finally finished their intense shaking he heard the music lull from the last line.

_'For the Imperium of Man, Only now are we Worthy, Witness My Power!'_

As the music began up building again he did a check on his suit and made sure to double check it for anything amiss. He was headed into a warzone and it would do him little good to be caught flat footed. The music was not distracting, having worked under far louder conditions in machine shops turning this suit to his preferences and anatomy to allow comfort and usability to come together he noted his spectral imager was not properly aligned. While not significant for open ground combat if he had to endure city fitting it would to little good not to note something interesting like say a hidden weapon emplacement. Realigning it and doing one last check he heard a warning from the pod inform him that he was taking enemy fire, luckily few races ever considered the idea of deploying troops on a one-way freefall trip to the ground so it was doubtful they were prepared for them that well, any fighters would hopefully have their attention focused on the battle up above and any Anti-Fighter Cover or defences would hopefully not be ready for a few tonnes of 'Kreet' (A steel like metal, only 15 times stronger) heading straight down and not into any major instillation where he would doubtless come under heavy fire rather than the no-man's land below. As the fire intensified so too did the music, he'd read something about that years ago called synchronicity, on that thought the ground came up faster and faster.

_'Lo, for the time is done my faith shines, I am ready to die for him, tremble before my wrath, take them now'_

As the music gathered pace he checked his external screens as he and his fellow AS troopers begin their landing procedures, having their tops split off into four segments and old style thrusters and rockets with some pulses of ion engines create lift to slow them down.

_'Strike true and strike with precision, for the Emperor, fall now for your end is at hand'_

Feeling his pod shake he took manual control to steer himself down, seeing some of his Soldiers in arms aim at the clusters of troops on the ground he selected a less populated structure of a small outpost he had been told to destroy to prevent reinforcements from causing trouble, a Motor Pool. As he made the final few hundred feet he saw the ground fast approaching before finally hitting the ground heavily, right on top of a Dilgar equivalent of a tank. Throwing dirt, metal and fire all up and around him he listened to the final lines of the music.

_'Despair for I am the end of days'_

Looking up he thought of playing that line as he attacked but sowing confusion would be better than fear right now, thinking back on his interesting ride he looked up to what his sensors showed him, fearful looking and injured Dilgar deploying around the crater he'd made, checking his sensors of what was going on around him he couldn't help but agree with the music's last words.

'A New Stage Awaits'

Time to go to work.

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Dor'Enzal was bored to tears. When the word had come out that the weakling League and their human pets had arrived in space in force he was expecting and attack any minute but he had been at his post for two hours and, while his training prevented him from showing it, he was starting to get bored. Setting himself up for another boring time he suddenly noticed the lights in the sky. Putting the binoculars to his eyes he saw the lights appeared to be flaming pieces of metal. 'Things must be desperate', Dor'Enzal thought while he suddenly pointed out the lights and screamed "Mass Drivers!"

Suddenly everything was moving quickly around him as he and his fellow troops went to work calling in the lights and hoping the AA fire was good enough to at least hit the ones about to hit them. When they didn't get anything but static on the communicator, things became desperate as the lowliest soldiers started firing blindly in the air to prevent the metals trajectory from centring on them. No such luck as the lights suddenly seemed to spread out in a pattern. Such wild and futile fire would usually be frowned upon and punished for wasting ammunition and losing discipline but the steady number of rising distress calls from orbit coupled with the silence of those meant to deal with aerial attacks could cause any soldier with the highest training to panic.  
"What are they? Missiles?" Asked a worried soldier as he frantically reloaded his now empty weapon.

"I don't think so. They were moving too slow for missiles fired from orbit and to suddenly split now doesn't make sense since they're still falling from high orbit" The Squadmaster said, squinting at the lights as they descended more and more.

Any more comments were cut off as one of the metal lights suddenly seemed to aim for them. Dor'Enzal had only seconds before it hit so he and a few of the wiser ones ran or dived for cover.

A great crashing sound surrounded him as he heard several bodies' and parts fly past him and splatter around a few good metres from the epicentre. Getting up slowly he heard his Squad master order him and the other survivors forward to see what it was. Knowing that if it was a missile even if he ran Dor'Enzal moved with his land pack to the smoking crater. As he neared it a great sound of gas being released and a big thump sent a giant rectangular sized piece of metal crashing out of the crater and landed almost on top of one of his fellow soldiers who decided then and there to faint. Coming closer he heard a small thump come from it before a new problem entered into the already messed up situation he was in. A metal hand as large as a tank shell suddenly appeared on top of the crater. Aiming at it carefully he saw a small pad on top of a small raised part at the centre of the hand open up and what appeared to be a small spherical pod to rise up. Looking a bit close he noted it appeared to be a lens that seemed to scan all around the area before retracting back into its former location.

Preparing to fire at the hand which no doubt now knew their positions he saw the hand grip the dirt and an arm behind it appear from the crater. The same colour as the ground surrounding him he now saw three panels open up and three small cylinders that connected back into the holes they came out of. As if given the gift of precognition by a god Dor'Enzal tried to warn his fellow troops but it was too late as the three nozzles on the cylinder opened up in a terrible red fury and he heard screams of pain or thumps as bodies fell from the arms onslaught. Getting hit in the leg as he tried to dive away he threw as many grenades from his present position on the floor to destroy whatever it was that killing him and his pack mates.

Terrible gouts of flame and dirt came from the crater as they detonated and Dor'Enzal hoped dearly that he had managed to kill or at least injure whatever it was that had killed so many so quickly. No such luck as heard an even greater sound from the crater before and he saw a shadow and silhouette of something enormous come from the crater behind the dust the grenades had created. Out of that smoke and the falling debris came a nightmarish giant behemoth of metal that creaked and groaned as it stepped toward him. Raising its right arm the last thing he saw in life was the colour red from a hole on its arm.

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Shin almost felt sorry for the Dilgar he had just blasted. He knew his suit was intimidating and he had made sure to record the troop's face before he blasted him but to die so easily without any chance of putting up a fight felt most unequal and slightly wrong to him. But as his training Sergeant always said 'the only fairness in war was when you and your fellow soldiers were still alive'. He decided to stop being distracted by his contemplation as he had a job to do. One of the main bases of operation was somewhere around this area and it was his and his fellow Heavy OD Troops duty to find it and shut it down; or in the case of his commanding officer blast it to tiny dust mite sized chunks. He wondered what he'd done in a previous life to be put with the very aggressive Major Pickaxe. Something to do with one of his past lives he was sure.

For a moment Shin marvelled at the new Armoured Suit that he was now in. While he had worked with its predecessors before he had always seen then as a bit slow or unwieldy in regards to an actual battlefield situation. Either the hydraulics or the metal joints reacted too fast and his aim was thrown off or they were tweaked to be less sensitive and acted too slow that he felt a bit like a he was underwater during his use of them. But these new ones used some thing's called magnetic plates in the joints which when switched on would have one plate face another with the magnetic force either attracting or repelling the opposing plates in the right locations in order to allow frictionless movement. This was done actually by having hundreds of small rectangular pillars underneath the plates that actually were the things magnetised as it allowed the plates to move against each other in a multitude of different directions by having certain areas of the pillars be charged one way while another set acted the opposite way. Limits to the movement of the limb in use were made in the form of non magnetic material so people didn't break their limbs by swinging their arm to far and the frictionless system allowed momentum to carry said limbs past their bendable limits. While at first it was a little jarring to get used to the sudden stop when reacting quickly to something but once the proper material was put in to soften the blow from then it was easy to train oneself to use it properly. As it was his suit was built like an onion with layers upon layers of his suit being devoted to a specific purpose and allow for certain ones to disconnect from the main body if it was needed to either get rid of a damaged part or lose weight to make a quick getaway.

Looking around he saw some of his squad mates begin to move out towards the location of the base, similar fields of destruction surrounded them and Shin once again thought about the bad luck the Dilgar were going to be having in the coming war. If he was to compare this to a setting then he and his fellow ODAST were the equivalent of trolls with the standard heavy infantry trooper being only eight feet averaging compared to his twelve feet they were more like Orcs or space marines in their size. Shin mentally shuddered at what might happen when the Dilgar came face to face with Earthforce's 'Giants'. He spent a moment wondering if they would be deployed on this battlefield and if he might be seeing them soon.

But, then again, his was not to reason why, his was to make the Dilgar die.  
On that note.

Explosions suddenly tore all around him making it seem like someone had let off a Volcano under him. Hearing something over his comm. equipment he regained his wits to listen in.

"Repeat. Chavez is down. They're firing their artillery at our position and our suits aren't built to handle such heavy fire, at least not this powerful 'cause it looks like they're using their top end stuff, I feel so important. Get moving before we all find ourselves on the first lift to hell"

Hearing a note of assent across the line he made his own before looking to Chavez's position. Seeing nothing but a crater he made a prayer for a peaceful and good reincarnation in the next life. Until then he better get moving.

Switching to high movement mode he switched power from weapons to give him greater movement. Bounding along he could see his target. A hidden bunker that the Drazi had told EarthInt about and now would most likely be in the hands of the Dilgar occupying the planet. His team's job was to retake it and act as a rallying point for the incoming attack.

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The house of the Warmaster of Dilgar Intelligence, Southern Hemisphere, Omelos, Early Hours.

Gek'hal knew something was wrong when he woke up without the lights switching on automatically. Over the years he had trained his body and eyes to react to sudden changes in the light. Missions of intelligence for the Empire sometimes required escaping and the chances of being allowed to get used to light for the first time after being deprived in captivity by ones captors or pursuers meant he had to train his eyes to adjust that much faster. Hence his security by making it so that when he woke up he could assess whether any enemies had infiltrated his house and cause enough disorientation from the sudden light to give himself the advantage.

With no lights he decided to get up very slowly, giving whoever had deactivated or overcome his defences the illusion that he was not fully awake and allow him to assess them without putting himself in danger.

These thoughts however became nothing but wishful thinking when he opened his eyes to find his bed surrounded from all sides. His door had two beings while even his window and the carpet where his escape tunnel was had the strange soldiers standing near them, cutting off all of his escape routes.  
Faking a tired action he brushed some of his mane away to scratch his ear; one that seemed to suddenly lack the emergency transponder to inform the planetary security forces, as well as his own intelligence defence force that he was in danger and needed backup. Looking a bit more carefully he saw one of the soldiers raise its arm and allowed him to spot the small bean like object that was in its hand before it was returned to the beings side.

Suddenly realising how much danger he was in he took a closer look at the strange apparel and bodies arrayed around his bedroom. They all appeared tall and imposing, not wearing much other than black and what appeared to be green cloaks that shimmered as they were looked at. The armour appeared to be formed around the beings not unlike cloth and was pieced together rather than one solid piece.

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When creating the SpecOps armour for their standard Worlder and Vulture forces the EA had to answer the question 'what do I need to make the most effective means of hiding my troops while still allowing them the maximum amount of efficiency in completing their mission?'. The answer came through inspecting the database and finding several good designs to base the new SpecOps armour off of. The first to be chosen was design of the Kull armour the troops of Anubis wore in Stargate SG-1 with the helmets being favoured for their intimidating appeal as well as the idea of energy absorbing armour. This was made by creating an armour which was layered internally with particles of 'Teslanium' whereby its natural state was always in a state of flux which would cause it to always 'shed' protons and neutrons while keeping a stable electron base, giving 'Teslanium' the moniker of the 'impossible jigsaw' particle due to its constant missing pieces. This of course allowed it to take on new protons and neutrons allowing it to act as a sort of shield to absorb energy fire; sadly while the idea would have been useful for ships Teslanium weakened when forced to endure high speeds and strong enough G-forces caused it to break down and in large enough quantities it tended to weaken the atomic structure of whatever material was nearest making it dangerous to use as a building material. The reason why it was not used for the average Worlder or infantryman was due to its more dangerous habit of exploding when overloaded with so much energy that it couldn't get rid of it fast enough; so while a soldier on a battlefield was expected to be attacked with a lot of fire, increasing the chances of the Teslanium becoming overloaded and leading to a fatality, the SpecOps and Vulture forces had less chance due to them being expected not to fight a major enemy force and so have to endure less weapons fire.

The next idea for the armour came when looking into the fictional race known as the Elder from the Warhammer 40k game; specifically their 'Rangers' and the chameleon cloaks used to blend into the background as well as the armour they wore allowed flexibility while also providing full sealed protection. The wrist mounted weapons were also developed to be modular, allowing a range of different devices, from grappling hooks to scanners and darts to trackers making the wrist areas very versatile and could cater to a number of different mission profiles and user needs. The boots and gloves were magnetic but they also had hundreds of static hooks inspired by the arachnid and reptile families of Earth allowing even non-magnetic material to be fixed onto; it was safe to say that should anyone intend to attack EarthIntel HQ or the Roost in order to attack someone or something they should be prepared for sudden shouts of "Death From Above!" before losing consciousness. The boots also incorporated a flexible heel spring for the more speed demanding missions allowing greater jumping distance and height as well as increased speed; incorporated from one of the 'additions' made to their armour made by the Worlder company known simply as 'Jack's Jumpers' who had a special recruitment requirement concerning the ability to both long-jump and high-jump at a near Olympic level before being accepted into the company. Due to their habit of doing both to the extreme they were usually deployed in mountainous regions to put their talents to the best use, it was even said they had secret award's among them over who could jump the grand canyon (known as the Dukes of Hazzard award) and jumping the caldera of a volcano (known as the Be Nimble award) but no internal investigation had turned up anything save for a few reported instances of nausea from 'investigation' of the company's equipment.

The armour itself was many different pieces fitted together so instead of the 'crusader' and 'knight' full plate armour for an average soldier it was more of a 'Samurai' type armour which allowed greater flexibility and coverage, covering up any emissions from the suit to better stealth the wearer. The chameleon cloaks were a relatively new development which used a high powered camera and the latest in photographic technology that would 'sample' the colours of its surroundings and cause the filaments in the cloak to mimic them or take on a predetermined 'look' to blend in. While this wasn't a full cloak as it couldn't completely blend in with surroundings of varying colours and shapes it did allow the user to slip by unnoticed or escape detection if used properly; 'Shadows are my ally, nature my companion' was the motto of the chameleon cloak.

In the end the final product gave of something of a pseudo-insectoid appearance. A high coned head from the elder combined with its mandible mask form the Kull as well as the chitin and organic looking armour, making it seem like it was actually the wearer's actual skin in the form of an exoskeleton.

Which led to Gek'hal's first assumption of the being's around his bed being Gaim.

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Gek'hal knew that the Gaim had some of the best ground troops due to being able to simply grow them tailor made for a specific purpose, something he had heard Jha'dur was working on with her retroviruses to create superior troops. Gek'hal took it as a blessing that she wasn't making much progress due to an apparent set of genes which were present in all Dilgar that seemed to prevent forced changes, destroying the organism that had its genes changed through unnatural means. Jha'dur believed them to be intentional rather than a simple evolutionary quirk and had devoted many resources with the intent of finding the key to bypass or control the genes but the war was causing her to focus more on destruction than creation. Gek'hal just worried over what would happen should she be successful and start creating 'superior' Dilgar which could lead to civil strife and perhaps even a war of simple survival. On the subject of survival he was impressed that these soldiers had been able to beat all of his houses and planetary defences without setting off an alarm.

Unfortunately this would most likely be the only time he would be allowed to contemplate the effectiveness of these beings if they were here to do what he thought they would be doing. When he saw one raise its hands he was prepared to face death, shutting his eyes and making his peace before the inevitable pain and silence; his only regret being unable to finish his plan of ensuring his species survival.

What he didn't expect was to hear a hissing noise, causing him to curiously open his eyes and see the apparent head, now understood to be a helmet, of one of the beings in front of him being taken off. What came as the bigger surprise was the pink skinned face that was staring back at him.

At first he thought it was some imperial agent of the Centauri, sent to kill or capture him, though the removal of the helmet, thus creating a weakness, might be a sign of harmless intent which might mean that they were only here to deliver a message; most likely along the lines of 'stay out of our of our business/territory' or 'we won't get involved provided you offer the Republic/My Patron a boon'. Since he was the head of intelligence he would have the best chance of delivering these messages or knowing where the bodies were buried should leverage be needed, not something he was going to give willingly mind.

'Well maybe Jha'dur' Gek'hal thought. It would be a good day when that maniac was put in the nut house rather than being provided a powerful position to go nuts with.

On that thought however his further scrutiny of the individual in front of him reduced the chances of these being Centauri low. For one Centauri agents usually preserved something of their hair crest, it was usually the lowliest or disliked Centauri males that had short ones but in this case the hair of this being was cut short not enough to be seen a s a female Centauri, but in a military fashion with only the smallest amount of fuzz being present upon its scalp, or his scalp since the features implied a male rather than a female.

The second clue was way he and his fellow soldiers held themselves. There were two ways beings acted when faced with a potentially dangerous situation, one was that of a predator and the other was that of prey. From personal experience dealing with, as well as reports on Republic Imperial agents they almost always acted in the predator category, save when in a desperate situation; always focusing on their objectives and acting like they were on a hunt. These being's however acted in a very prey like manner, constantly checking their surroundings, and while to the untrained eye were unmoving, held the nervous energy of being ready to take action, offensive or defensive, at a moment's notice.

The final clue to his unintended 'guests' identity and proof of them not being Centauri came when he realised that not one of them had said anything since he had awoken. All Centauri, when given the chance, tended to speak on and on unless someone stopped them, an action which sometimes required more force than should be necessary, and it seemed that being in love with one's own voice was hardwired into their genes. This led him to the inescapable conclusion that they weren't Centauri and since there was only one others species that possessed mostly hairless pink flesh other than them he concluded that these beings were in fact human's.

Deciding to try and find out what these beings were here for Gek'hal decided he had to be the one to open communications, being the diplomatic being he was he started in the best manner possible.

"What kind of sick freaks watches a man when he's sleeping?"

For a person who was both tired and fearing for his life he thought that was quite articulate.

A chuckle arose from some of the beings around him before being silenced by a hand from the one without his helmet.

"I realise that we came in a bit unannounced but me and my superiors felt that such announcements would not be in our best interests our beneficial to me and my people's health. Apologies for bursting in like this but I'm short on time and doing this by vid-link wouldn't create too much trust, something I am going to need Warmaster. Plus you are a spy at heart and they love surprises don't they?" The supposed leader inquired with a cocked brow.

"Only when we're the ones doing and not the ones receiving" Gek'hal calmly shot back.

"Yes well I'm afraid we can't really give you that honour I'm afraid. The fact is Warmaster I have been given orders to open communications with you and only you, for the matter of high-level security we have taken steps to make sure our conversation remains private"

"And what would the Earth Alliance want of me? If you know anything about me you will realise I would sooner commit self-death than allow any secrets I hold to an enemy. You come here unannounced and surround me with weapons so I suppose I have no choice but to listen to what you have to say and what your purpose here and with me is" Gek'hal sardonically said.

"What I am Warmaster just might be...Your salvation. For the purposes of trust I am to be your liaison, my name is Jack, Colonel Jack McNeill of the Earth Alliance Special Operations division" The now named Colonel replied. Leaving out that was his public identity and his actual title was Vulture 'Scavenger' Colonel Jack McNeill.

"Colonel? I hear that is a high position in your people's military. So tell me why I should listen to you and trust you?"

"As I said, I am here to give your people the chance at salvation"

"Salv

ation from what? In case you haven't noticed my people are taking territory everyday against the paltry efforts of the League to defend themselves, even with your help" Was the snide reply.

"Salvation from this" McNeill replied before taking out an actual paper folder (an unused material due to the spread of electronic equivalents) and handing it to the Warmaster.

Looking into the folder while keeping an eye on his surroundings he noticed it had been translated into Dilgar characters and language. Studying it he found it to be a scientific report on a star. What really drew his attention however was the thermal and atomic graph and photo of the star with the words 'Death/Nova Event Imminent. DANGER' plastered all over it, and that's when he realised that this was a report on his homes star, the humans had discovered the secret only known to the highest members of the Dilgar Military and Civilian leaders.

Shaking as he put the report down he glanced to the Earthers before gathering his voice and thoughts.

"So you have found our greatest threat, why are you showing me this?"

"To show you that we mean business Warmaster. Our analysts tell us this Nova event will happen very soon, practically in a muscle movement of galactic time, we are talking single digit years, and it will completely incinerate and obliterate this planet and the system will be devastated. I don't know about you but my people have questions for why you're are making war rather than doing all that you can to protect your species existence. While taking territory in war may give you a place to go, unless you start mass evacuations soon you are going to have nothing to send to that acquired territory. We could give this to the League and make it worse for you; they would intensify their efforts and may even spread word of this problem to the public. After all, it's always easier to fight someone when you know they have only a short time left before they have nowhere to fall back to." McNeill replied in a serious tone.

"Why me?" Gek'hal could only reply.

"We weren't sure at first, we thought about going to your leadership as a whole but we believed that such a thing would only delay the inevitable and cause more internal strife than you need right now. That changed when we discovered and interrogated several of your agents that had infiltrated our space, rest assured should this relationship work out they will be returned with little to no long lasting damage, but during the interrogations we discovered many things. Such as your own plans to actually do something to save your people, such pragmatism is recognised and rewarded where I come from so here we are."

"How was it you were able to reach me in the first place?" Gek'hal inquired.

"In a way it was simple really. You see we have a saying where I come from. Amateurs study strategy, dabblers study tactics and professionals study logistics. In the business we are a part of Warmaster it changes to being amateurs kill, dabblers blackmail and the professionals bribe, turn and trick. Rather than kill and replace leaders with our supported ones, or use leverage over someone's head we merely bribed someone through third-party contacts to do what we want. Greed and a no-consequences attitude or a lack of threats can make a lot things easier for people like us let me tell you. Using this philosophy we merely bribed those whose job it is to set the monitoring schedules for your systems sensors. Oh and don't think you can find out who they are and replace them should you reject my offer, if we fail once we just try the next guy in his position. Everyone has a price and we'll always look far wide a deeply before trying again. Anymore questions?"

"Yes, why would you be so willing to help me and my people? To assist my people even though we are causing such destruction" Gek'hal morosely said  
The Colonel known as McNeill sighed before reaching into one of the pockets hidden on his belt and drew out a data crystal; throwing it to Gek'hal who looked at curiously.

"What is this?"

"Most would assume this is where I would give you a story or explanation of our basic legal tenets and belief's, perhaps to show off our 'superior' philosophies or ability for compassion. That, on the other hand, I think explains things much better." McNeill explained.

"What is on it?

"It is a story that concerns how desperate man could be if it was pushed, how viewing and obsessing over an enemy and portraying them as monolithic is detrimental, it tells of the sacred nature of the individual and the perverse nature of the mob."

"I don't understand" Gek'hal said, honestly confused but wanting an explanation for this person and his people's motives.

"The story is both wrong in a respect and all too right in another. It talks of how a species is genetically coded to only focus on its survival first before anything else. But to me, and others, the moment a species can kill itself it proves we have moved beyond our basic animal nature. Become more than the simple injured member of his pack or group who falls behind to ending our own lives by our own will for the sheer nature of life itself. I'm paid to do the dirty work Warmaster, but I'm quite sure that if any of our people became as desperate as the people you read about in that text, I would be first in line to shoot them. A quote best describes my feelings on such desperate men and that is 'For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?' Responsibility is passed on, it is not to be thrown on the shoulders of those unprepared for them when we tire of the burden, your compatriots and contemporaries lousy idea of the Dilgar Empire reviving itself on the burnt and dead world's they leave behind being the case in point. All beings have potential Warmaster; we'll do our best to live up to ours of doing that which is best for not just us but others as well. You should think about doing the same. Now me and my men must be going, here is a contact device, don't worry it can't be monitored or detected but don't open it cause it will self-destruct, but we'll be in touch and come back in a week for your answer in regards to saving your people without needing this senseless and desperate war." McNeill said before he signalled to his fellow soldiers and placing his helmet back onto his head and moving off while fading into the background of the room and leaving through the door in a coordinated fashion.

Gek'hal contemplated the beings word's, wondering whether he should be a traitor to his people in order to save them or reject the offer for help and continue on with a dangerous game that had just become even more tenuous if what the human had shown him fell into League and the public eye. Hoping to find perspective from the human he loaded the data crystal into his own private terminal, a text file opening as it loaded; and on the front of that text from something of fame came the very first words. **Ender's Game.**


End file.
