Beyond Alpha Centauri :::

[Mr. President]

Into the Valley of Death

Attention Drone Fleet

You are in violation of threatening sovereign territory held by the Greater Hive Empire. Your forces are ordered to withdraw from the Hive fringe immediately or you will be destroyed. Repeat withdraw or we will be forced to destroy you.

“Get that off the intercom,” Franco spat. He pointed directly at the central Hive Corvette, whose name he could not have known was People’s Vigilance. “That,” he ordered, “is going to be the point of the attack. I need a pincer movement on that ship’s wingmen. And we, my hearties, are going straight through the middle.”

The numbers were overwhelmingly in his favor. Nonetheless, the command center crew glanced at each other nervously. These three ships had appeared so fast, and with the Hive’s deadly ability to hide its ships from scanning, no-one knew what might be lurking on the other side of the welcoming committee. Their training took over, however, and they put the plan into action.

The timing could not have been worse. Five ships outflanked the Hiverians on each wing, led by destroyers Righteousness and Carlos Santos. Just as Franco’s navigator put the Liberty Bell into high gear, propelling it towards the damaged Hive corvette, the proximity sensors triggered.

“What the hell is that?” Franco shouted. But it was too late.

Three more Hive Corvettes had appeared from above and behind the three that had destroyed the Emancipator. They were closing fast. And the Liberty Bell was hurtling towards them at almost four stellar travel units. And hitting the brakes now wouldn’t stop his ship for another half a light-year.

“Commodore! They’re firing!”

“Brace for impact!” The new Corvettes unleashed a wide-angle barrage on the onrushing Drone ships. Franco heard loud screams interspersed with crackling static. A frigate and a cruiser disappeared from his tactical readout. The lights flickered and all the computer readouts went haywire for a moment.

Then they were past them, gradually slowing to a stop. But the braking systems had clearly taken a direct hit, as there was practically no suspension and the command center jerked sickeningly.

“Damage report!” Franco ordered. The answer wasn’t good.

“Severe damage to braking system. Minor damage to weapons, and sensors. Power leak in tertiary conduit. The Hive leader is broadcasting a name. . .Drone Taskmaster.”

Some of the bridge crew turned pale. Surely this was an ill omen . . . Emancipator destroyed, and now the command ship hit by Drone Taskmaster?. The astrometry operator interrupted.

“Commodore! Gravity readings indicate . . . that we are just outside the Oort radius of a star system!”

A Hive system? This was something major. Once they got out of this, he would summon more ships from MI-135 and Station Insider. And they would pound the planet like the wrath of God. What a coup it would be, to put Drone Marines in the caverns of the Hive and disenchant Yang’s mind control! He imagined the headlines: “Slaves Yesterday, Free Drones Today”.

But first, there was much more fighting to be done. He calibrated his sensor readout and saw Righteousness and Carlos Santos’s battle groups engaging the Hiverians. Though they possessed a numerical advantage of ten against six, they were struggling against the enemy’s communal tactics. The corvettes worked in tightly-flown pairs, cutting off cruisers from the destroyer before inflicting heavy damage. For just a moment, Franco marvelled at the precision, the efficiency, the mutual support of the Hive commanders.

Then he ordered, “Order anyone who’s still alive to regroup and head back in there. And make sure someone stays facing the star system. We don’t want any surprises.”

[GeneralTacticus]

The Kraken Wakes

Cadre frigate CSS Helot, currently hyperspace

Chiron Standard Time: 07:38:02

"Dr. Mernok, we are approaching the system now. FTL drive disengaging in five seconds."

Mernok nodded, and leaned forward eagerly towards the viewscreens as though it would make them show more. He hadn't moved from his seat on the bridge through the entire ten hours of the trip; he'd just been sitting, staring fixedly at the viewscreens, which, in the absence of anything outside, had been showing footage of the ship they were there to investigate.

Shortly afterwards, the images on the screens shifted to show a field of stars as the Helot dropped below lightspeed and into the system that had been designated Windfall. A minor course correction and a few minutes later, and the vast derelict ship cmae into view, dwarfing the Helot, it's two escorts, and the four transports they had brought along. For a few moments, the whole of the bridge crew simply stared in awe, before gradually remembering their jobs and getting back to them. Mernok, meanwhile, just kept watching, and when the Cadre ships entered what appeared to be one of the ship's docking bays, he smiled, a slow, ecstatic smile.

* * *

Encrypted Video Transmission:
To: General Kane, Laekdaemon Prime
From: Dr. Zacharias Mernok, Windfall System
Subject: Preliminary report
Time: Chiro Standard, 19:09:54

"General Kane, we've only been here about twelve hours, so we haven't had time to do a whole lot, but we've found out some quite interesting stuff.

"First of all, it appears that this ship was run mainly by automation; there are AI modules everywhere, seemingly where they could run nearly every major system on the ship. The computer networks themselves have a lot of similarities to Progenitor resonance computers; we haven't got the right equipment to operate them properly here, so I've requested some from Laekdaemon. Hopefully, once it gets here, we can activate some systems and see about taking this ship over.I don't think there's much risk of the ship turning on us; the Progenitors wrote that this race was very paranoid about that possibility, and hence placed strict limits on the capabilities of their AIs. They could only be instructed to attack whoever was operating them presently by feeding them some code that was over 6 billion digits long and known only to a very few among that race.

"Secondly, we have some more information as to the ship's capabilities. A surprisingly large quantity of the ship in fact consists of manufacturing facilities, presumably intended to build ships and ammunition. It's all very self-contained; you feed resources in at one end, plug in the design of whatever you want made, and it comes out the other end. Given the scale of this ship, that should prove very useful - we could produce capital ship segments with amazing speed, and the only limitation would be finding enough crew.

"In addition, the ship, as you have seen from the information we received previously, is quite literally covered in weapons; they have some interesting designs here, including some kind of four-stage anti-fighter system, which is capable of spreading lethal quantities of plasma over an area several hundred metres in diameter. It also has some big main guns, and when I say big, I mean really big. These things are energy beams capable of obliterating small ships in a single blast, or vapourising fortified cities.

"Finally, and perhaps most intriguingly, the ship has some kind of energy shield generator on board; it appears to work as some kind of armour reinforcer, by taking part of the energy of a shot and dispersing it across an entire segment. Unfortunately, it's quite badly damaged, and certainly in no state to be used, but hopefully we'll be able to figure out how it works before too long. Further reports will be sent regularly. Mernok out."

*MESSAGE ENDS*

[Lonestar]

We interrupt this broadcast...

* Cue John Williamsesque theme*

* Gold Interstellar Networks Logo descends and centers on Screen*

Narrator: This is ISN, the date is June 4th, 2703. Tonight's top stories...

Lord Protector Henry Pym offered a major new Peace intiative today...
"Mr. Zakharov, the people of the Protectorate are ready to walk into the future...will you join us??

The Border War between the Hive and the Drones heated up...

And the Protectorate Cup, will Ross City beat it's 50 year slump?

*finish intro Music*

Cynthia Garcia: Good evening on this June 4th. Tonight's top story is the Lord Protector's ambitious new Peace intiative. During a speech today at the University of San Angelo's graduation ceremonies.

Pym: Today I am proposing to Acadamecian Zakharov a new treaty of state. While he has been kind enough to grant us a consulate on Earth, I would like to treat him as we would any other nation; with a complete trade, and a embassy on the Univeristy Capital.

Cynthia: With us tonight is Senate Minority Leader Edward Yoon. Thank you for joining us tonight Senator. What is your Opinion of the Lord Protector's new plan for peace?

Yoon: I think it's obvious, Cynthia, that Dr. Pym is trying to patch the perceptions that foriegn governments have of us. He pissed away the goodwill that came from His Late Excellancy's assaination attempt. The attack, I would even call it massacre, of Sab Abar has caused other nations to shun us. Dr. Pym has abused the power of the office, and is now trying to cover his idiocy up.

Cynthia: Idiocy? Senator, He has 7 PhDs, 4 of which he aquired before MM interfaces were introduced.

Yoon: Yes, forgive me...I did not mean to insult his intelligence. The office of Lord Protector was meant to have a Great Man fill it, Ian McDiarmid was such a man. Henry Pym...he isn't. He's a smart man, but not a great one. His policies have led to a foreign relations disaster. People like Yang end up looking better than us. This is what happens when so much power is concentrated in one man.

Cynthia: The Protectorate thrived for hundreds of years under this system Senator. Are you seriously suggesting to change it? Haven't you ever heard of the phrase "If it ain't broke..."

Yoon: "...don't fix it." Yes, I know. But the point is, we didn't thrive under a system, we thrived under a Great Man. Dr. Pym isn't a Ian McDiarmid, and he never will be. All he is is a man with a gaggle of degrees who happened to be best buds. The Country shouldn't be run on the "Good Ol Boys club" theory. That's why the Whigs will be proposing a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate the office of Lord Protector at the start of Senate tomorrow.

Cynthia: *shocked Silence*

[GeneralTacticus]

Knives in the Dark

Rebel Command Complex, Iron Mountains

In the shadows cast by the dim, night-time lighting, something moved.

Private Adelphos Forakis, making his sixth circuit of the main storage area that night, jerked his head around to search the shadows not ten metres away.

Nothing.

Well, that wasn't all that surprising. He switched to IR vision.

Still nothing.

'What the-?'

"You saw something?"

That was Corporal Talos Mamalis, the other soldier assigned to this area. Adelphos glanced back at him before continuing to search for the source of that motion.

"I'm sure I did, sir, but there's nothing there, even on IR. I really wish they'd hurry up and get the security system finished here..."

"Well, that's strange. Let's have a closer-"

Before he could finish the sentence, the corporal's voice had cut off abruptly. For a second, the world seemed frozen, Adelphos standing still and no unusual sounds coming from anywhere.

That lasted for a single heartbeat before Adelphos heard the loud *clang* of a helmeted head striking the floor. He spun, bringing his rifle around, but before he could even try to open fire, something razor-sharp sliced across his throat, and the world spun crazily as darkness enveloped him. The last thing he ever saw was a visored figure in heavy combat armour the same colour as the cargo crates behind it, holding a long, thin blade in it's hand and standing over the headless corpse of Corporal Mamalis... and himself.

* * *

Peering through the door of the storage area, Sergeant Mandraphilias frowned worriedly. Corporal Mamalis should have reported in over 60 seconds ago, and he was a great one for punctuality. He activated his commlink and opened his mouth to request a report... but he got no further, because at that exact moment, two shadows detached themselves from the greater shadow inside, and something whirred through the air before striking him full in the face, slicing through his armoured visor with such force that his was hurled back almost a metre and his helmet was sliced in half.

* * *

"Captain Matsoukis, over the past ten minutes, we've lost contact with no fewer than eighteen guards and three security sensors. "

Matsoukis, the officer in command of security on this shift, swore under his breath as he absorbed this. 'Eighteen, and three sensor installations...? What could possibly have done this, and with raising an alarm?'

He swore more loudly as the trooper delivering the news continued.

"What's more, sir, we've plotted the lost guards onto a map of this complex, and they form a rough trail heading for Lord Lysander's quarters. At this rate, they'll be there in under five minutes."

Somewhere else in the security station, someone cursed, then turned and raised her voice.

"Captain, we've just lost two more sensors and five guards. Someone at least managed to get off a shot this time, but they're only a corridor away from LYsander's quarters."

Matsoukis didn't hesitate. "Sound the alarm!"

Someone did, and the entire complex was immediately lit to full daylight standards, while a blaring klaxon awakened everybody not already dead.

"Get me video feed of what's happening outside Lysander's quarters!" he shouted, trying to make himself heard over the klaxon. A few minutes later, one wall of the room swirled and turned into an image that simply defied belief. The two heavy-weapon emplacements outside the door to Lysander's quarters were smoldering wreckage, those manning them no better, and two looming figures in armour the same colour as the corridor walls were running for the door while spraying the corridor with rifle fire. Even as the stunned security officers watched, the last of the defender went down, and the intruders reached the door. One crouched opposite it, hefting a rifle in his right hand and a grenade in his left, while the other was planting something on the door. He appeared to finish whatever it was, stood back, and then to door was ripped clean out of the wall, torn into several pieces, and hurled inwards so hard that one of the pieces wedged itself into the plasma-steel wall. Both intruders ran into the room, the one behind reaching for his belt and hurling half a dozen grenades onto the floor along the corridor. They didn't go off; proximity-detonated, presumably.

* * *

Lysander had been asleep when the sirens began to blare, and was still half-so when he heard the loud blast of his outer door being blown apart. That brought him wide awake, and he snatched up the shredder pistol that he kept by his bed. Useless, perhaps, against something that could penetrate all the way here, but still better than nothing.

Keeping one eye on the main door to his bedroom, he felt along the wall behind him until he found the concealed sensor pad a few metres to the right of his bed. As he pressed his hand to it and waited for it to process his handprint and open the hidden door out of his room, he heard a series of explosions from outside, followed by loud screams, and then, as the door was hissing open, the inner door to his bedroom exploded inwards, immediately followed by a blizzard of rifle fire perforating the opposite wall. It all made Lysander very glad that the room had been designed so that the bed was not in the door's field of fire.

Relief faded, though, as the shooting cut off and a massively-armoured figure stepped through. Behind it, Lysander could hear more rifle fire, more explosions, and then the characteristic sound of a heavy rocket-launcher being fired. It struck something, exploded, and suddenly all fire cut off.

A heartbeat later, it seemed the whole outer part of Lysander's chambers had exploded, silhouetting the apparently unaffected intruder, who was now raising his own weapon and aiming it at Lysander.

He ducked as the first volley came, spraying across the wall; ducked rolled through the door, his own shredder pistol blazing back. A steady hail of fire struck the intruder, but it didn't even seem to notice as it pulled a grenade from it's belt prepared to hurl it.

As it's arm drew back to throw, however, another figure could be seen running through the flames behind it, a figure carrying a rocket-launcher. Before the grenade left the intruder's hand, one of the launcher's long, sleek projectiles left the barrel and slammed into it from behind, lifting it from it's feet and hurling it across the room and into the passage, and past him in a broken mess. Even before it had stopped moving, though, the figure with the rocket launcher was screaming at the top of her voice.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE NOW, SIR!"

Without thinking, he dived back into his own room and to the side, and just as his foot cleared the door, something massive exploded in that passageway. A jet of flame surged out across his room and blackened the opposite wall, along with a few bits semi-molten, flying metal. Then it was over. No more shooting, no more explosions, no more sounds except the crackle of flames, the moans of the wounded, and heavy breathing from everyone.

Getting to his feet, Lysander could see that the outer part of his rooms were a ruin; much of it was still burning, and the rest was strewn with wreckage; the doorway into the corridor was completely gone, with a much larger hole in it's place, and through it he could see a number of charred corpses lying about, with a handful of wounded guards standing over them.

"What... what happened?" he asked, running the sequence of events through his mind. "What were they?"

"Myrmidons, sir," answered the woman with the rocket launcher, who, he could now see through a layer of blood and soot, was Captain Arete, who had arranged for the capture of Dienkes Base and made the entire uprising possible.

"What?" he asked, searching his brain. He was sure he had never heard of any military or intelligence unit by that name.

"You wouldn't have heard of them, sir," she replied, dropping the rocket launcher and holding herself up on the doorframe as she breathed heavily. "They were Dr. Graves' brainchild, a group of elite soldiers removed from their units, trained to perfection, and cybernetically enhanced to the point where they were barely human any longer. They received the best weapons and armour the Cadre could give them, and functioned as Menelas' bodyguard and elite hit-squad. There can't be more than a hundred at the moment; for two to have been sent was a pretty significant investment, although I shudder to think what might have happened if more had come.

"Regardless, they can be identified by one crucial feature: on missions like these, they explode when killed. One of the cybernetic enhancements they're given is some extremely powerful high explosive set to detonate as soon as they die, unless specifically disabled. It's meant to let them do some more damage, even in death, and it can kill the target right when he thinks he's escaped... and as you saw, it nearly killed you even after I blasted it."

"And why, Captain, would I not have heard of this unit?"

"The whole project was secret; it was known only to the very highest ranks and some members of the security forces. You certainly weren't eligible to know, but I was."

"I see. I want an investigation, Captain Arete. I want to know how they got in here, and I want to know what can be done to stop them if more are sent."

"Yes, sir. It will be done."

[Frankychan]

In Orbit above Omega IX
Planetary Bombardment in progress…


Admiral Trasssk split her attention from the variou viewscreens of the bombardment and the statistics that were scrolling on a nearby screen. Various survey probes were sent to gather data on the fleet’s progress. Satellites above the atmosphere gathered climate changes, counted the living organisms and their fast-dwindling numbers, and even monitored the progress on the ground.

One satellite image caught the Admiral’s eye. On that satellites viewscreen, it displayed a birds eye view of what was happening in one of the planet’s minor cities. Trasssk stepped forward to get a better view and chuckled softly.

The scene was one of utter chaos. The natives were rioting in the streets, fires were erupting sporadically among the buildings and looters were running with armfuls of stolen goods. She noticed some activity and wanted a better view.

“Zoom viewscreen 32’s image by 5.”

The image instantly magnified and confirmed what Trasssk suspected.

A group of natives was embroiled in an enormous brawl. She observed some natives carrying large sticks and waving them around threateningly. Others were obviously going mad from the Hive bombardments.

An officer from behind her broke her concentration.

"Sir, our three ships are requesting the order to commence the suicide attack on Omega IX."

Trasssk turned around and nodded.

The officer waved the confirmation order to the awaiting commofficer.

Trasssk immediately shifted her attention to the viewscreen displaying a broad picture of the planet. She watched as her ships fired their engines and began the suicidal bombardment.

"Impact in 5 standard seconds."

The Admiral watched intently, wondering what the destruction would be from the resulting impact. When the countdown ended. She leaned in closer.

As if on cue, three large explosions rocked the planet in pre-determined points. The flash of the ships explosions were so bright and large, the Hive fleet in orbit could clearly make them out. The atmospheric disturbance pushed the clouds far away from the blasts.

Trasssk looked at another viewscreen showing what the conditions on the planet were.

In one region, winds from the blasts tore the flora from the earth and flung them up into the atmosphere. Debris whipped around the air like earthly shrapnel.

In another region, the explosions created enormous tidal waves that washed up and over the land, submerging the earth underwater for miles inland. Whole cities were washed off the face of Omega IX.

The three cities that were designated as the final path for the three Hive ships were nothing more than charred, smoking craters. The kinetic energy from the collision of the ships, added with the Hive reactors breaching upon impact, resulted in devastation previously unseen on Omega IX.

Overall, the mission to eradicate life on Omega IX was a great success. The debris kicked up into the atmosphere would cause the temperature of the planet to drop substantially, killing off most of the surviving flora and without vegetation to eat, the native creatures would starve. A chain reaction of global proportion would wipe out the remaining survivors of Omega IX.

But Hive command would not wait until all the planetlife was destroyed, all they needed was 80% of the planet's life to be eradicated so they could start the mining of the precious ore in the earth.

Trasssk nodded in approval, not the least concerned of the global disaster she just witnessed. The planet would die a slow death, accelerated by Hive mining and it's eventual environmental destruction.

"Order the fleet to maintain orbit."

Trasssk paused.

"And check on the progress of our ships sent to the Fringe. I want to see how they are fairing."

[Mr. President]

False Dawn

Fringe of Omega IX system

Commodore Franco ordered two battle groups to assist cleaning up the Hive advance fleet, intending to cross the Oort radius of the unknown system with the other four. He tapped a note into the ship's black box via his handheld keypad.

Intention to scout / test planetary defenses of Hive system. After will request reinforcements from MI-135.

The bridge rocked as the Liberty Bell hurtled through a cluster of comets. None of the objects were large enough to damage the hull's integrity, but Franco felt clearly his ship's lack of suspension systems. He could stand it.

"Astrometry," he ordered. "What sort of planetary defenses are you seeing?"

"None yet, sir. I've got a couple of comets, and a planet . . . whoa! Lots of Hiverians!"

Franco passed over the officer's lapse in verbal discipline. "Lots of Hiverians," he repeated, "but no planetary defenses? No sensor systems?"

"None that I can see, sir."

"Patch everyone into the tactical readings." A second later, the sensor schematics appeared on his readout. Sure enough, there were a horde of Hive ships orbiting the planet, more or less evenly distributed above most of its surface. Franco saw three of them lurch suddenly on a strange trajectory, directly into the planet's gravity well.

"What the . . . ? Put that on viewscreen and magnify."

The magnification at this range resulted in a slight loss of resolution, but the commodore could see the Hiverians' hulls reddening for just a moment before they vanished into the white clouds.

"What are they doing?" Franco mused. "Looks like some sort of self-sacrifice ritual."

He stood. "It doesn't matter. I want to wake those guys up a bit. Cast a torpedo spread adrift at our current position. Remote detonation. After we set it off, we're gonna loop around and come at them from that planet's south."

The torpedos went into space. When detonated, they would form a spectacular glowing chevron pattern. But Franco's moment of musing appeared to have cost him. His sensor readout clearly showed several Hive ships breaking formation and turning to face his direction . . .

[Sovereign]

Bridge of UAS Hercules
Approaching Ptaha III

Captain Sean Donnell tapped several touch-pad buttons on his armrest. Several displays materialized out of thin air in various spots in front of Sean. He took a deep breath to relieve the tension slowly building inside his guts.

My first major fleet command. This is so different from the Army.

The Academician recognized my command talent, from the Battle of Sol, and felt my talents would be best used in the Navy instead of the Army. In the Army, life was simple. You just follow orders, and shoot anything that isn’t friendly.

The Navy has a lot more greys than black and white clear-cut situations. I must prove to the Academician and Grand Admiral Devlin Yezprach my worth in a pivotal battle.

Eight years ago, I was a simple civilian, content to work as an engineer in the Memoria system, constructing a new class XII shipyard. After three years, I was transferred to Spira to oversee the construction of several new planetary to space defensive systems around Bevelle, Luca, and Zanarkand.

Then the terrorist attacks in Chronopolis occurred. I wanted to take a part in restoring the sense of security in the Alliance. I thought if I joined the Army, I’d be able to blow up some terrorists. I went into some grunt training, and used several exercising regiments to toughen up my body.

Then my infantry unit got sent to the offensive in North America during the Battle of Sol. Thus, began my fast track of promotions and heroism.

Funny, really.

In a short period of time, I changed from a senior engineer, to a grunt in the Alliance’s army, then a captain, commanding several units in the Mid-East. Then just as quickly, I am now a captain in the Navy, commanding this battle.

How times change.

I miss my beloved Lucentia, and my two daughters and my only son. I wonder how they are doing. After this campaign comes to a close after this battle, hopefully, I am definitely going to request some leave, so I can visit my family.

Without them, what is the point of fighting? What worth is freedom, security, and life without others to share it with?

Sean took another deep breath to calm his thoughts. He could still smell the fresh metallic tint in the air, mixed with several chemical and plastic odors.

A display floating a meter up and to the right of Sean displayed the status of the freshly built Titan class ship, the new flagship of the UA fleet, the Hercules.

The nine-kilometer Hercules comprised of a long cylinder that has been stretched along its two-kilometer diameter, while having a raised section resembling an Enterprise class arrowhead hull on the left and right sides. The raised sections snuggled perfectly on the stretched cylindrical superstructure. Another smaller arrowhead section rested directly on top of the first raised sections, in a somewhat double-layered arrowhead structure. The sections are perfectly mirrored in the front, rear, and bottom sections of the Titan, to create eight arrowhead formations on its hull.

Several statistics scrolled down the floating display, detailing the Hercules’s armaments, defensive systems, energy levels, among others.

Sean lapsed into another bout of deep thought.

Commanding a nine-kilometer Titan.

The Academician has put forth a program to produce the largest battleships ever conceived by Mankind. He feels that the aging Relativity and Einstein Battleships won’t be able to keep their edge much longer. These battleships could still keep their own with most Human ships, such as Drone, Hiverian, Spartan, and Morganite ships, in thirty years. However, the threat of the Protectorate and hostile aliens demand a technological and engineering supremacy.

The Relativity and Einstein battleships were designed in the 2640’s while the Enterprise Carriers were built in the 2690’s. They were the most advanced Human ships built at that time, with antimatter reactors, tachyon weaponry, and neutronium hulls.

The Titan class is the first pure battleship designed and produced by the Alliance within the past fifty years. It incorporates the very latest in the Alliance’s technology. It is the first standard class of ship that uses the new Quantum Reactors, which provides ten-fold more power than the old antimatter reactors. In addition, these new reactors take up less space than antimatter reactors, because it simply doesn’t need storage pods for antimatter / matter.

This allows larger ships to be built, because without the Quantum reactors, a Titan ship would require nearly half of its hull mass to be devoted to antimatter reactors. This is due to the huge energy requirements to run life support, lighting, artificial gravity, and essential systems throughout such a large ship. It wouldn’t be feasible or efficient to do so with antimatter reactors, with its extensive infrastructure. Hundreds of storage tanks would be required for the fuel to quant-space jump a ship with a mass numbering in the billions of metric tons.

The Titans employ the next generation of weapon technology, based on the recently developed Quantum technology. One Quantum cannon is capable of an energy discharge three to five times as potent as the old Tachyon cannons. One Quantum reactor exclusively powers all the Yamato super-cannons mounted on the Titan, increasing their destructive potential by four times over anti-matter powered Yamato cannons. This technology is being refined further. It is likely that upon the Titan’s first dry-dock stop, their weapons will be fine tuned to give even more power.

The Titan has unsurpassed amounts of firepower available. It has approximately five thousand anti-fighter and anti-missile flak cannons, one thousand standard cannons of upwards to one-meter diameter, one hundred cannons of five-meter diameter, while mounting twenty-four anti-battleship cannons of fifteen-meter diameter. The Titan has eight fifty-meter Yamato cannons, one for each arrowhead formation, providing ample fire to cover its approach and retreat vectors.

In addition to the Titan’s energy-based cannons, it is the first Alliance ship to mount projectile cannons. Using the Xaos Principle, the basis for the infamous Alliance’s Xaos Swordfish missiles, the projectile cannons use dense Neutronium “bullets” as ammunition, firing them at 70 percent light speed. Due to such dense matter being fired at high velocities, the kinetic energy released upon impact, as well as the projectile itself, is guaranteed to rip through any material known to Mankind, even the Alliance’s unique Neutronium hulls. The standard name and type of these projectile cannons is known as Xaos Gauss Cannons.

The Titan possesses missile banks capable of firing thirty-six missiles per salvo per missile bank. The ship has seventy-two standard missile mounts with a complement of one-meter missiles, twenty-four heavy missile mounts with a complement of five-meter missiles, and eight ultra-heavy mounts with a complement of twenty-meter missiles. The banks can fire a full standard salvo every ten seconds, heavy salvo every twenty seconds, and ultra-heavy salvos every 45 seconds. In doing so, it creates a large cloud of missiles that is designed to overwhelm enemy point defense weapons.

The Titan’s defensive systems are quite formidable, in comparison to the Alliance’s most fortified ship class, the Enterprise Carriers. The Titan employs a completely revolutionary hull design, using newly developed materials with the Smart-Material and nanotechnology enhancements. The ship class employs five hulls, divided in two areas, the Outer Hull and the Inner Hull. The outer hull comprises of the outer, middle, and inner hulls, while the inner hull comprises of the outer and inner hulls.

The Outer-outer hull is the first hull to employ materials impossible to fabricate a mere decade earlier. In addition, it has an ability to self-seal hull breaches, given that the hull breaches do not exceed more than ten meters in diameter, thanks to rudimentary nanites and sufficient metal reserves. The self-sealing technology isn’t as efficient or quick as the Protectorate or the Dosi, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The material that comprises this very hull consists of enhanced Admantium, which is ten times lighter than Neutronium while providing an increase of thirty percent toughness over standard Neutronium. This enhanced Admantium metal was developed by arranging Admantium atoms in interlocking patterns, then compressing several dozen sheets of the interlocked Admantium into a single sheet.

The Outer-middle and Outer-inner hulls are comprised of Neutronium, due to the fact that the new Admantium metal, termed Admantia, is in short supply. Metal fabrication plants are rapidly developing equipment to create Admantia, which will ensure plenty of Admantia production within the next few years. Finally, the Inner-outer and Inner-inner hulls are comprised of Admantia, due to the smaller area it must cover and protect.

The three Outer hulls are layered in a diamond pattern to provide stronger resiliency towards hull buckling. The hulls are located right on top of each other, and cover the entire Titan superstructure. The Inner hull follows the same pattern, but only covers the Command Bridge, Main Engineering, several dozen decks in-between, and several weapon emplacements enclosed inside the ship.

The Titan is also the first Alliance warship to have the Outer-Ship and Inner-Ship system. In case the Outer ship takes grievous damage, the Inner-ship activates. It blows off the ruined Outer-ship hull, then either fights as a smaller and weaker version of the Titan, or flees the battle with most of its command staff and valuable data intact. Essentially, the ship has two “lives” giving it a further edge in combat.

Such firepower, redundancy, size, and strength of the Titan was demanded by the Academician to ensure that the Alliance will have the most modern warships. Also, it was designed in mind to ensure there wouldn’t be any Sab Abar’s happening in Alliance territory. The destruction of entire planets, with billions of lives at stake, is a sobering reality after the Protectorate’s attack on Sab Abar. Countermeasures must be taken to ensure that such destruction doesn’t rain upon innocent Alliance citizens.

The Titan, the paradigm of the University Alliance’s engineering skills. I am indeed proud to be commanding one of the only four Titans in service. I will do the Academician proud.

Captain Sean Donnell snapped back to reality upon the blaring of the alarm klaxons.

Sean’s tactical officer, Jack, sat at the Tactical station to the front and left of the Captain’s chair. Jack tapped several touch panels quickly, then spoke up over the din of the bridge preparing for war.

“Captain, Goa’uld sensors have detected our approach, before being destroyed as per standing orders. Several dozen Goa’uld motherships are already getting battle-ready, as well as several of these hybrid ships. They are forming up in a X-Y square formation directly in front of their apparent homeworld. Our sensors detect several large orbital batteries and space fortresses powering up.”

“Remember, all Goa’uld ships are equipped with these infernal shields that reduce our energy weapon effectiveness considerably. Have the [I]Athena, Zeus,[/] and Apollo form up in a triangular formation with the Hercules at the center.

Upon completion of the formation, fire all our missiles for several minutes directed at the orbitals and fortresses. This will provide tens of thousands of missiles for the Goa’uld to try and shoot down. Their shields cannot block our missiles at all, as proven at the engagement at the PX-973 system. Hopefully this tactic will take out several of these larger ships as well.

Have the rest of the fleet form up right behind us, adding their missile fire with ours. Once we’re in range, we shall give the Goa’uld a nice surprise with our Xaos Gauss Cannons. In the meantime, power up our Quantum Cannons and the upgraded Yamato super-cannons.”

“Your orders shall be carried out, Captain Sean.”

----------------------------------------------------------
Several minutes later


The four Titans wasted little time maneuvering into a triangular position directly ahead of the main battle fleet.

Several minutes passed as the Titans readied their potent missile armaments to unleash upon the unsuspecting Goa’uld. The rest of the fleet formed up directly behind the Titans in a circular formation to provide maximum missile dispersal, as well as support fire against fighters and any incoming enemy vessels.

Large missile banks, supplemented with smaller missile pods began their song of death. Multiple explosions could be seen throughout the missile bearing ships, creating the illusion of self-destruction. Several minutes would pass before the true nature of the explosions would be revealed to the enemy.

A cloud slowly formed in front of the University armada, as thousands of missiles were forcibly expelled from their homes on the ships.

---------------------------------------------------------------

“Begin Phase Two.

Begin at T minus ten minutes. Upon T minus zero, initiate Phase Three.”

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 9:40

The armada matched the missile cloud’s speed and trajectory, which created the illusion of a gigantic shimmering ice field. Thousands of cannons began gathering terawatts upon terawatts of energy, enough to power a small star. Armor on hundreds of ships began to deploy over docking hatches and fighter bays to provide solid protection against penetration of weak spots.

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 8:57

The Goa’uld fleet maintained their position, under the watchful eyes and teeth of their planetary defenses. Several thousand Alkesh bombers and Death Glider fighters spewed forth from the huge ziggurat vessels, in an attempt to probe the incoming University armada. Huge shields shimmered to life around the large orbital battle stations and the largest Goa’uld warships. Smaller glimmers could be seen as the fighters activated their weaker shielding.

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 7:32

The energy output of the University armada spiked as the dreaded Yamato Cannons began charging up. A slight warping of space could be seen around the muzzle of each enhanced Yamato Cannon mounted on the Titans. A white glow could be seen forming inside the muzzles, while the older anti-matter powered Yamato Cannons glowed with a reddish hue.
The fleet and missile cloud continued towards their final destination. The Enterprise Carriers began launching their fighters and bombers in waves. Instead of charging forward to engage the approaching Goa’uld fighters, the University fighters veered away. It appeared to the Goa’uld that the fighters were conducting a mutiny, fleeing the battle.

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 6:25

The Goa’uld fighters and bombers formed up into rigid formations, preparing to do attack runs upon the approaching armada. Four Death Gliders formed a square around each Alkesh bomber, to provide support and to cover the bomber as it made its bombing run.

The shields around the planetary orbitals and Goa’uld motherships became fully charged, and the energy emitters began to power up to maximum.

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 5:55

The University armada drew first blood of the engagement. Several long-range cannons began tracking and firing upon the initial wave of Alkesh bombers and their escorts. Several squadrons were transformed into free-floating energy and atoms as the energy bolts rained from the fast approaching University armada.

The University fighters and bombers swung around the planet Ptaha III, increasing their speed considerably. They established a course straight at the large motherships sitting in Ptaha II’s orbit. The fighter and bomber squadrons expected to arrive in roughly several minutes, within the final couple of minutes of Phase Two.

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 5:43 - 3:19

Several Goa’uld squadrons managed to breach the anti-fighter defenses, and made attack runs upon several Battleships, Heavy Cruisers, and Strike Cruisers. The Alkeshs launched their payloads, expecting dazzling explosions as the enemy ships were destroyed. However, their expectations were half dashed, as the trademark University neutronium armor absorbed a considerable amount of explosive energy.

The Alkeshs had more success against the lighter ships of the armada. The cruisers, frigates, and destroyers were much lighter armored than their heavier brothers. Several destroyers and frigates exploded as dozens of Alkesh squadrons managed to concentrate their bombing runs at the center points of the warships.

The next several waves of Alkeshs and Death Gliders attempted to destroy as many missiles in the missile cloud as they could. Long-range cannons kept up their challenge, pounding more and more Goa’uld fighters into oblivion.

More destroyers, frigates, and cruisers were either destroyed or crippled as the Alkesh squadrons kept swarming around the fleet. Eventually the sheer number of anti-fighter batteries mounted on the Titans and the Enterprise Carriers, backed up by surrounding battleships managed to cut down the majority of the fighters.

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 2:50 – 1:15

Both fleets achieved energy weapon range just as the last several dozen Goa’uld fighters and bombers were eliminated. The Goa’uld ships fired wildly, attempting to shoot down as many incoming missiles as they could. The orbitals added their long-range firepower in shooting the missiles down.

The University armada held back their fire, so not to vaporize their own missiles. Several University sips on the fringes of the circular formation were targeted by Goa’uld motherships and orbitals not directly in the path of the approaching missiles. The Goa’uld shielding deflected a considerable amount of energy from the counter-fire from the targeted University ships. Several University ships suffered various states of damage, ranging from moderate to critical.

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 1:14 - 0:01

The Goa’uld ships became more and more frantic as thousands of remaining missiles kept coming like a swarm of angry locusts. Several ships began firing in random directions, in hopes of hitting more than one missile at a time. Two ships accidentally fired upon friendly Goa’uld ships, as panic began to set in.

A second swarm, of a different kind, arrived from behind the Goa’uld fleet. The fighters and bombers disengaged their cloaking devices, catching the Goa’uld main fleet between the incoming missiles, and the stings of angry fighters and bombers.

---------------------------------------------------------------
T Minus 0:00

Impact.

[Sovereign]

Goa’uld designed their shields to withstand as much energy as possible from energy-based weapons such as laser-types, laser-analogs, particle weapons, and similar weapons. They had virtually no projectile weapons, therefore they did not foresee the need for ship armor or tighter shielding.

The outcome was never in doubt.

Waves upon waves of missiles tore through the Goa’uld shields like tissue paper. Multiple hull breaches spread throughout the massed motherships, causing thousands of Jaffa warriors to suffer an excruciating death due to decompression.

More than a hundred ships flared into miniature supernovas as their reactors lost containment, were breached by missiles, or became overloaded with the release of missile kinetic energy.

The missiles kept coming, even through the collapsing superstructures of ruined Goa’uld ships. The remaining orbitals and motherships kept firing, but to no avail. The University fighter and bomber swarm engulfed the remaining motherships.

The Titans closed to Gauss Cannon range of the orbital fortresses and weapon platforms. Suddenly several orbitals appeared to shatter into hundreds of chunky fragments as the Gauss shells impacted their hulls at nearly the speed of light.

The remaining missiles plowed straight into Ptah’s homeworld at incredible speeds. Trillions of tons of rock and seawater were vaporized upon the release of terawatts of kinetic energy upon the planet. Dozens of bright flares and mushroom clouds could be seen erupting all across the surface and ocean of the planet facing the armada’s vector. Several shattered Goa’uld hulls became fiery balls as their superstructure disintegrated in Ptaha II’s orbit, wreaking even further destruction upon cities, factories, pyramid bases, and Goa’uld hatcheries.

Armageddon.

---------------------------------------------------------

Captain Sean Donnell smiled.

“Flawless victory.”



-------------------------------------------------------
Battlestation Alpha
Orbiting Earth

The lights flared to life as the Academician tapped a panel on his maghony table.

He was smiling.

The Goa'uld finally conquered.

The Protectorate asking for peace.

The Titans proving their worth in battle.

Project Forge coming along nicely.

The University is finally a super-power, and no longer a nation that can be bullied.

-------------------------------------------------------
Transmission to Lord Protector Henry Pym

Your terms are accepted. We shall proceed with the peace treaty, establishment of embassies, and opening trade.

I am willing to meet you in person, and then make the treaty official on Earth within the next several weeks if possible.

Hopefully we'll be able to see eye to eye, and perhaps in time, our people may be able to call each other friends.

Live well.

[Lonestar]

Somewhere in Hyperspace.

After considerable debate, the new Super-Heavy Battleship Riothamus had been chosen to carry Lord Protector Pym to Earth. The Riothamus was the third of the troubled Harbringer program. Although the Prototype had done exceedingly well testing the advanced Matter/antimatter plant, construction on the other ships had temporally ceased as the Protectorate tried to back-engineer the Bree Hypermatter drives and plants. Now, after a delay of over a year, the Riothamus had finally been accepted by the Protectorate Navy. It's engines allowed it to move over 50% faster than the Alchemax-49 Antimatter Drive that was the mainstay of the fleet. The fact that the Harbringer class was the first to be designed from the keel up incorporating Dosi Technology increased it's Lethality and capabilities to points unheard of amoung Human nations.

Too bad we're only going to have 8 by the end of the year Pym thought, sitting in the Royal Stateroom onboard the Riothamus. He glanced at the intricate model of the ship, a Nano-neutronium beast stretching over 5 km, with a "wingspan" almost as long. The UA's "super terraformer" test had lit a fire under the Protectorate's Advanced Research Project's Agency, but Intial production of such a new warship had been slow.

Pym sighed again, the thoughts turning in his mind. That bastard Yoon is trying to undo everything that's been accomplished over the last several hundred years. And he was in charge of the Defense Committee. Getting rid of him would be tricky. Pym didn't have Ian's amazing mental abilities; the ability to just influence someone to do whatever he damned well pleased.

Even worse was one of the Intel reports lying on his desk. A Massive Proginator starship had arrived at Chiron recently, and the Peacekeepers had actually made an effort to keep it quiet. That Lal would try to deny anyone information was a poor omen. If he didn't cooperate with Protectorate Inquiries, he might have to be dealt with.

The other Intel report was disturbing. Ranger ships had picked up increased Military chatter from the UA. It was clear they were fighting someone, but who? He'd have to bring it up at the summit.

The comm clicked. Commodore West's voice came over.

"Sir, we'll be entering realspace shortly." Pym nodded, knew his advisors would be upset he wasn't preparing a speach, some empty words.

"Thank you Mr. West."

The ship shuddered and Pym looked at the viewscreen, which was set to immitate a window. A blue marble was approaching the ship rapidly. For the first time in Hundreds of years, he was returning to Earth.

[Lonestar]

Senate Building
Nuevo San Antonio


Senator Edward Yoon was young, as far as senators went. Most politicos were dinosaurs who were content rubber-stamp the Lord Protector's decisions, while he was a vigorous, "idealistic" 150 yr old. He had ran on a platform for reform in the government, and won the seat from Ross city 20 years ago. For most of his career, he'd been thwarted whenever he tried to bring more democracy to Beta Hydri. For some reason...whenever he seemed to make progress Ian McDiarmid would call him in for a private meeting and convince him to drop the matter. He never knew why, but it was comforting talking to him.

Now, with Ian gone, he was finally making strides. Many, many senators were (as well as Provincial Governor-Generals) still in favor of keeping the office of Lord Protector exactly as it was. They didn't care this wasn't a real democracy, but a fascist state with an authoritarian figurehead. Sure, there were more personal freedoms in the Protectorate than in most human worlds, but the people didn't have real power.


Besides, without reforms he would never get to occupy that highest post. Even with Ian gone, it was difficult, and he had to get aid from outside agencies. His comm chirped. Senator John Werner, the leader of the Federalists was on the viewer, and his face was blotchy with rage.

Yoon smiled.

"Hello John. I see you got my email file?"

Werner's face was twisted in disgust.

"You...you...how did you you..." Werner took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself. Another breath. " I...I don't respond to blackmail."

Yoon smiled and glanced at the device on his desk. It indicated Werner was not recording this conversation. Probably. But his friends had been more or less truthful so far...

"You didn't really give me too many options John. Here's there deal, convince your boys to vote for the amendment and ISN won't find out you like 'em young. Very young. Do you understand? This has to be a honest effort on your part. I'll know if you try to pull a fast one. Also, can you be a dear and talk to your Governor-General friends? I would appreciate it."

"You...bastard.." Werner's voice was almost a whisper. Yoon remained silent. "Alright, Damn you. I'll do it. I'll do it." The comm went blank. Yoon leaned back with a self-satisfied grin.

"It appears you were correct."

The large figure step out of the shadow. He had a blurry quality, with red eyes and a skull like face. He almost seemed not real. But then, the Hferhin were like that. At least, around humans.

"We are always right. We believe that your ascension is immient."

Yoon inclined his head at that.

"Thank you, my friend. Do you think that..."

The Hferhin chuckled.

We are not your friends. Remember, we had an agreement, about what concessions you will grant once you've attained the Office.

Yoon smiled.

"Of course. The Protectorate will withhold it's forces when the Progenitor attack on Chiron commences. I will even make like recommendations to foriegn governments." I'll do no such thing you pig. You think I'll sell out humanity for your masters' dreams of GodHood? If you can't get close to the current Lord Protector, what makes you think you can get close to me?

The Hferhin chuckled again.

Of course you will.

The Hferhin seemed to open up his chest, peeling back one of the large scales. He lifted out a small, black organic object. A yellow eye opened up, and wild, whip like tentacles extended.

Yoon's smile dropped.

"What's that?"

Your keeper. She will ensure you hold up your end of the agreement. It won't actually control you, but it can influence you. And if she has to influence you, it will not be enjoyable. Do not worry, it is exceedingly unlikely she'll be detectable by your sensors, optical or otherwise.

"You...aren't serious. You know I'll honor our agreement..."

The Hferhin was silent, then lowered the Keeper onto the ground. For a second it stared at the Hferhin, as if apprehensive about Yoon, then it it scurried over to Yoon. It's long, black whip-tentacles latched onto him. Soon, it was on the small of his back. The whip-tentacles stabbed into his central nervous system.


We're sure you will.

[Sovereign]

Sol

Several of the University Alliance's most advanced sensor arrays had just been built in the Sol system to detect incoming invaders long before they got within three light years of Sol. The advance warning would give the University forces in Sol ample time to achieve battle ready status, drastically reducing any advantanges the enemy might achieve through the element of surprise.

The sensor arrays were comprised of six spheres surrounding a larger central sphere. The six spheres were mounted on cylinders extending out from the central sphere, arrayed in the six cardinal directions. The entire sensor array measures at just one meter across, from end to end. The four original cardinal directions follow the flat disk of the Milky Way Galaxy, while the two additional cardinal directions, called Upper and Lower, follows the Z axis through the spherical center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The sheer volume of data relayed by the sensor arrays would overwhelm a human being. The arrays gathered terabytes of data every minute, which was unheard of for human sensors. Data ranging from atomic compistions, wafting interstellar gases, solar winds several years old, the subtle gravitional forces being exerted by Sol upon surrounding light years of space, several errant asteroids knocked out of Sol's Oort cloud millions of years in the past, cataloguing the speeds of all the particles around the Sol system, scanning of the quantum space surrounding Sol, monitoring communication channels, and a multiude of space phenomena were gathered, and sorted by powerful scanner Artifical Intelligence entities.

Any deviations were double checked and then triple checked to confirm any presence of cloaked vessels. Most deviances are resolved by several scans from multiple sensor arrays focused on the location of the deviations. If subtle or unusual deviances follows a linear path, such as a ship's probable vector, the artificial intelligence entities calcuate the amount of deviance, and promptly send an alert to the Bastion battlestations orbiting Earth.

One such array detected a very slight ballooning of quantum particles, which would have been undetected by less sophisicated sensors, in a vector path. The artificial intelligence housed inside the sensor array's central sphere focused the Upper Sphere on the incoming anomaly.

QUANTUM EMISSIONS INCREASED BY 0.22 PERCENT OVER NORMAL QUANTUM EMISSION LEVELS.

QUANTUM EMISSIONS IS FOLLOWING A VECTOR PATTERN.

CALCULATING BOTH ENDS OF THE VECTOR.

THE DESTINATION IS CALCULATED AT 99.002863 PERCENT PROBABLITY AS BEING THE SOL SYSTEM. 97.836278 PERCENT PROBABILITY THAT EARTH IS THE INTENDED TARGET.

THE VECTOR'S ORIGIN IS CALCULATED AT 88.366527 PERCENT AS ORIGINATING FROM THE GALACTIC NORTH, BEYOND THE SPARTAN FEDERATION AND FREE DRONE REPUBLIC TERRITORIES.

THE QUANTUM ANOMALY IS MAINTAINING ITS 0.22 PERCENT INCREASE IN EMISSIONS, WHILE FOLLOWING THE CALCULATED VECTOR PATH.

FURTHER ANALYSIS IS IN PROGRESS. ADDITIONAL SENSOR ARRAYS ARE ALERTED TO THE PRESENCE OF THE ANOMALY.

MONITORING OF THE ANOMALY WILL COMMENCE.

ALERTING COMMAND NEXUS IN BASTION ALPHA ONE.

--------------------------------------------------------

Alarms began blaring throughout the massive Bastion battlestation holding postion at Earth, several thousand kilometers above the Arctic.

Crews scurried to their stations and cannon emplacements. Blast doors slammed down throughout the station, reinforcing it aganist marine assault. Battle Mechanoids took up station at each major intersection, while the lighting throughout the battlestation dimmed. Thousands of cannons began charging up to battle ready status, as armor began to deploy over airlocks, spacedocks, and hangars.

The same actions were being repeated throughout the newly completed Bastion Battlestations Beta, Gamma, and Delta. The unfinished Bastion Battlestations Epilson and Zeta were charging up their completed weapons while construction crews took shelter behind armored bulkheads.

Appoximately fifteen minutes later, space erupted into a cascade of white and green light as an unknown five kilometer long vessel emerged from qunatum space.

The identity of the ship was revealed after several scans, as the Riothamus of Protectorate design.

--------------------------------------------------------

The Academician was in an odd mood. He was elated that his sensor arrays were able to warn his forces at Earth of the incoming unknown vessel.

However, he was caught slightly off guard by the size and new class that the Riothamus was. The Academician relaxed after learning that it was a Protectorate ship, but not by much.

He decided to open hailing frequencies from his private office.

---------------------------------------------------------

"Protectorate Vessel Riothamus, welcome to Earth.

Is Henry Pym onboard? I would desire to speak with him, regarding arrangements to be made in Geneva.

I am now ordering my battlestations and forces in Earth to stand down from alert status as a gesture of good faith."

[Lonestar]

Riothamus

Pym stepped into the sparkling CIC of the Riothamus. Compared to the Endeavor's CIC, it was large, quiet, and tidy. Also, there were many holographic interfaces, with a large viewer on the forward bulkhead. It struck Pym once again how long, long ago it was when he left Earth. Commodore West was talking to the Master Chief Operations Specialist.

"You sure?"

The Master Chief nodded, and Commodre turned to the TAO. "Set General Quarters. "

The GQ siren began to blare, and Pym strode over to West. Damn it, what now?

Without waiting for Pym to ask, West spoke.

"Sir, upon our exit from hyperspace the HOLMES-5 tactical A.I. pickedup that the UA's orbital battlestations were energized and launching their fighters. The new drive is exotic enough that they should not have picked up our entry into the solar system this quickly, even without being cloaked. I'll begin deploying Valkyries..."

"Negative Commodore. Secure from General quarters. You can deploy the Valkries, but only as a honor guard. Order the HOLMES-5 to begin gathering data...we need to know how they saw us coming, but secure from GQ. We're hear to sign a treaty, not start a war." Pym looked at the tactical display. " I guess they chose exotic sensors over exotic defenses. The Gravity wells we have set up all around Beta Hydri would have stopped cold intruders if they tried to waltz in. We transmitting our ID?"


West looked nervous. "No sir..."

Pym groaned inwardly. Years and years of isolationism had caused most officers to make sure the transponders were off. It wasn't his fault, just the enviroment he was trained and advanced in. At least the Riothamus had the Protectorate's Sword and Star over it's named on the Hull, hopefully the UA's finest would visually sight it and not try to blow them out of space.

The HOLMES-5 chirped. " We are recieving an intensive scan from several sensor relays. The Scans include all spectrums, X-rays, Quantum viewing, A trace pattern of tachyon..." It droned on for a while more. Pym frowned. It wasn't likely they'd get a detailed look at the interior of the ship, but their sensors were far more advanced than he thought. They'd be able to pick up the Hypermatter drive if they new what signs to look for.


The HOLMES-5 interrupted itself. "Incoming transmission."

"Play it."



"Protectorate Vessel Riothamus, welcome to Earth.


Is Henry Pym onboard? I would desire to speak with him, regarding arrangements to be made in Geneva.

I am now ordering my battlestations and forces in Earth to stand down from alert status as a gesture of good faith."


Hank looked at West, then waved at the comm system. "May I, Commodore?"

"Yes Sir."

Pym spoke into the comm.

"Mr. Zakharov! I greatly appreciate you not blowing us out of space. This is Dr. Pym. Respectfully resquesting permission to have a shuttle land with escort at Geneva spaceport."

There was a silence. Pym noticed the tactical display was indicating the Battlestations were de-energizing. Still no word on whether or not they'd icked up the Ranging ship Oakenshield, which was parked in the Oort Cloud cloaked 'just in case'.

"Dr. Pym, we're pleased to have you visit. Permission granted."

[Sovereign]

Sol
Geneva

A small emerald colored transport landed smoothly at the outskirts of the ancient and historical city. The landing pads were devoid of other shuttles, for security precautions, due to the importance of the two arriving shuttles.

Several minutes later, a shuttle clad in Admanta armor landed on an adjacent landing pad. Once the Admanta shuttle landed, the landing doors opened on both shuttles.

Twenty marines in full power armor, wielding particle rifles, marched out of the emerald shuttle, in a perfect rectangular formation. They took up station at the bottom of the extended ramp.

Two Mechas, the latest in the University Alliance’s long line of robotic infantry, slowly made their way out of the silvery shuttle. A dozen space-troopers clad in full Admanta armor, with complete faceplates, a quantum rifle, and a shoulder mounted Xaos rocket mini-launcher, followed the exiting Mechas.

Once the assembled troops checked the perimeter for any external threats, the all clear sounded on both shuttles.

Henry Pym exited from the emerald shuttle at the exact same time Academician Zakharov exited his silvery shuttle. Both leaders locked gazes upon each other, while closing the distance between the two of them.

The Academician was the first to speak.

“Welcome to Earth, Henry Pym. I am glad that we are able to meet today, in what could be the first step in the right direction for both of our people.

Arrangements have already been made in Geneva to host our historic conference.”

“Thank you, Academician Zakharov. It is a pleasure to finally set foot on Earth after what seems to be an eternity.”

The two leaders made their way to a waiting hover-limousine at the base of the landing pad. The soldiers followed in hover-trucks, to provide bi-lateral security for both leaders.

After fifteen minutes of traveling through the maze-like roads of Geneva, the vehicles reached the Geneva Coliseum. Both leaders exited the limousine and then they entered the Coliseum. The troops took up station at each entrance of the Coliseum.

Two hours later, the historic conference between the University Alliance and the Protectorate of Man began.

[Lonestar]

Hank Whistled.

The UA shuttle had a silvery hull that could only be, for a person of this importance, Admanta. Harder than Diamond, right up there with Neutronium or a Nano-Hull.

Showing off your Wealth Young Zakharov? One admantine shuttle does not a superpower make...

Pym's thoughts trailed off as the doors opend and what looked to be University equilivants to Cybers exited. Then, 12 troopers in polished, unpainted Power walked out. They had the same shine that the Shuttle did.

Damn it. I hope the Riothamus is recording all this. They have Cybers...and Admantine-armored soldiers. Why dragged these out? To show us what potential allies we can be...or a 'don't mess with us' indication? I don't know... Pym swallowed. The treatment to resist casual scans from P14's down the Dosi gave us has been a Godsend. I have a good poker face, but if there are any Teeps in Zakharov's they'd detect my broadcasting of emotions immediately.


Once the assembled troops checked the perimeter for any external threats, the all clear sounded on both shuttles.

Henry Pym exited from the emerald shuttle at the exact same time Academician Zakharov exited his silvery shuttle. Both leaders locked gazes upon each other, while closing the distance between the two of them.

The Academician was the first to speak.

“Welcome to Earth, Henry Pym. I am glad that we are able to meet today, in what could be the first step in the right direction for both of our people.

Arrangements have already been made in Geneva to host our historic conference.”

“Thank you, Academician Zakharov. It is a pleasure to finally set foot on Earth after what seems to be an eternity.”


The two leaders made their way to a waiting hover-limousine at the base of the landing pad. The soldiers followed in hover-trucks, to provide bi-lateral security for both leaders.

Hank sat down on one of the seats facing Zakharov. His security people would throw a fit that he was alone...but so was Zakharov. Zakharov was watching Pym, waiting for something for him to say. Pym remained slent, finally Zakharov spoke.

"I must confess Mr. Pym, I was a bit surprised to have recieved your transmission. Given our Past history, I was sure we were headed for a major war. You know, we were even approached by the GHE about 'containing' your nations' aggression. I am glad it never came to that. " Zakharov took a sip of Vodka. Pym thought it was probably synthetic, the Academician would be a full to drink at a time like this. Zakharov continued. " On a personal note....thank you for the media you sent about my Father..."

Pym studied Zakharov's face for a moment, trying to discern the hidden meaning. Then it struck him. My God, he really means it!

"Academician, First off....don't call me Mister, or Henry, or Lord Protector...if you're going to call me by a title, call me Dr. Pym. I worked hard for my Ph.Ds. You can also call me Hank, if you prefer. Second, I think we both know a war between our two peoples would have been cataclysmic at best. While I'm confident we can stomp you...sorry, I'm not threatening you...., We'd end up open to conquest by some other, not very nice people. I...we're tired of War Academician. I saw enough of it on Earth, then during the civil war on Beta Hydri with the New Spartans..." Pym took a deep breath. "We couldn't allow the Bree to retain Sab Abar, but we didn't have the numbers to simply land and pacifiy the planet. Our Decision to reduce it was...our only guarentee."

Zakharov looked at Pym strangely.

"You know, I think I may even believe you. Thank you...Hank. You may call me Randius. I think, someday soon, you should make a state visit to Zakurnia."

"And I extend a similiar invitation for Beta Hydri 4. I..." Pym looked out at the grand Coliseum. There were hundreds of Alliance troopers crawling around the grounds. Almost as many of the Cyber-knockoffs. "Tight security." Pym commented.

"We have had several Terrorist attacks of late...both at Home and here on Earth. It seems many Terrens are ungrateful for our emancipation of the world from Believer rule." Randius shrugged. "A pity. We've had to be heavy-handed in our responses, but most of the resistence fighters are only hicks fanatics."

Was that the reasoning of your bombarding of Southern California? Pym wondered.

The Limo came to a stop, and an aide opened the door from outside. Randius stepped out, and Pym slid out the door on the other side, and walked up to stand beside him. Randius grinned.

"Well, Dr. Pym...are you read to give the Galaxy a good shake-up?"

[GeneralTacticus]

A Midnight Sun

Control room of the CSS Kraken, Windfall System, approximately four days after discovery

"Dr. Mernok, the Kraken is now fully operational. All systems are active and useable, all weapon batteries charged, and we've even managed to get the shield generator working to some extent. It won't make us invulnerable, but it's more than doubled the effective resilience of the armour."

Mernok nodded, not looking up from the various technical reports he was reading but waving a hand in the general direction of the speaker.

"Well done, Engineer. Communicate that to Laekdaemon Central at once. They've been getting impatient, and they should be delighted to hear that our secret weapon is ready for use."

"At once, sir."

29 hours later

Mernok was sleeping when the reply came, but the loud chime announcing it's arrival woke him immediately.

Encrypted Text Transmission:
To: Dr. Zacharias Mernok, Windfall System
From: General Kane, Laekdaemon Prime
Subject: Re: Kraken Operational
Time: Chiron Standard, 08:12:23

*MESSAGE BEGINS*

Dr. Mernok, we are exceedingly prleased to hear of your success. You shall be rewarded when you return, and we will be very glad when you do, because we have been making little progress against the rebels - their assaults have been beaten back, but we have not launched a successful offensive since Dienkes Base. The ship upon which you stand will change all that.

You are instructed to make an FTL jump to the following co-ordiantes, approximately half a light-year from Laekdaemon. There, you will turn the ship over to myself and a proper naval crew, and we will use it to end this madness.

*MESSAGE ENDS*

Ten hours later

It was a small, unremarkable patch of space that General Kane had chosen in which to board his superweapon. Bare even of comets, it was empty, cold, and far from any route any ship might take to an inhabited system.

To Kane, though, it was the most important bit of space in all the universe right now. He'd been on his way there with a significant part of the Cadre fleet only hours after sending the message to Mernok, and though he knew theKraken would not be here for hours yet, he could not help pacing up and down on the bridge, mentally reviewing every aspect of his plans, every security measure taken, every single thing that might go wrong.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when an alarm began beeping loudly and shrilly.

"Sir, massive FTL signature approaching from the Windfall system! It's-"

The sensor officer was cut off as, on the forward viewscreen, the vast and unmistakable bulk of the Kraken dropped into realspace, escorted by three Cadre warships. A few seconds later, Mernok's smiling face replaced it on the viewscreen.

"Surprised, General?"

Kane opened his mouth, but nothing came out. How could they be here so soon?

"I have to admit," Mernok continued, still grinning, "I was rather shocked myself. This thing is over 50% faster in FTL than any of our other ships... and what's more, it's capable of pulling other ships along with it, hence the presence of our escorts. Could be quite a nice advantage, even if we can't duplicate the drive.

"Anyway, she's ready for you to take command. I'm rather looking forward to seeing it in action; we didn't get much in the way of live-fire practise in Windfall."

Kane nodded.

"The crew and I will be transferring over shortly. You've done very well, Mernok."

48 minutes later

"General Kane, we will be entering realspace in five... four... three... two... one... now."

As the words left the helmsman's mouth, the ship shuddered slightly, and the viewscreens abruptly showed the night-side of the cloudstreaked rocky world of Laekdaemon Prime, only a few planetary diameters below.

"Very well. Commander Alexis, you may fire when ready."

A few switches and buttons later, the decks of the Kraken began vibrating softly, and a blinding white beam lanced from the front of the ship, down through the atmosphere of Laekdaemon. On the viewscreen, Kane could it as it sliced downwards and into the mountain that held the priamry rebel command centre, which was immediately obscured by the resulting explosion.

At a gesture from Kane, the viewscreen changed, now showing footage from a Cadre satellite in low orbit. Kane smiled, watching in slow motion as the vast column of light struck the mountains and reduced it to vapour.

Looking up from various sensor readings, Mernok gave Kane a thumbs-up.

"General, our first firing was a omplete success. The mountain has been vapourised totally and a hole at least a kilometre deep has been gouged into the crust. There is no possibility of anyone surviving that, and the main gun should be ready for another firing within sixty seconds."

Kane nodded absently, staring down at the white-hot, slowly cooling remains of his enemy's heart.

"So perishes Lysander, greatest among traitors. Send whatever rebels remain a simple ultimatum: they will surrender now and hand themselves ove rto justice, or we will continue to destroy them until they do. Either way, we win."