Warriors

David reached Captain Sarson's rebuilt office and pushed a button to ring the signal. " Come in. " Sarson's muffled voice called from the other side and David walked in. " Ah David, your here. " Sarson said looking up from his work and smiling at him. David looked around at the captains office, it was no more fancier than his first office. It had walls that looked like they were in a building and not a spaceship since they looked like stone or plaster walls. He had a few pictures on the walls of ships, him and his family on earth and a normal yet slightly cluttered desk in which the captain was now standing in front of. David walked up to the captain " You said you wanted to see me sir? That it was important. " David asked quizzically. " Yes colonel. Come with me. " the captain replied in a professional tone. They walked out of captain Sarson's office and down to the briefing room. There was Alec and the trooper Sarah Hall who he both acknowledged with a nod. There was also several guards who stood around a lone dark robed T'quan who just stared at him with it's tiny black looking eyes. Captain Sarson looked at David and said " I'll explain in a moment " and then walked over to the holo-display. Alec walked up next to him leaned over and said whispering " This is not what it seems like. " and David whispered back " I hope not. " " David. " the captain said and David looked to him listening very attentively. " This is Q'muia. Since I'm not good at memorizing explanations I will allow it to you all why it is here. Then I will brief you on the mission having to do with it. Go ahead " the captain said and then the T'quan stepped forward. " Az your, captain said I am Q'muia a ssspy and sssort of ambasssador for the currrent T'quan uprrrizing. I firrrsst noticed your skill az a leaderrr and a warrrrior when yourr people infiltrrated the bassse on Marrrz. The council and I have agrrreed to try and employ yourrr peoplez help in trying to overthrrrow our emperor G'ssshinusss. " " The council will be sneaking aboard a ship which will be making their way to our area. In a short time they should just be approaching Mars. " the captain said. " Once you arrre underrrway I will give my people the sssignal to reveeeal themselves cut off the communtionz and take over the ssship. " the creature said. " Right, no doubt T'quan imperial guard will soon find out about the rebels go after the ship and try to destroy it. Your job will be to rendezvous with the T'quan capital ship and escort it back here. " the captain said switching on the holo display to show them their route and objective. " Now commander I must warn you that the T'quan imperial guard are some of the best pilots the enemy has and there will be quite a few of them. Because of your squads obvious shortage of pilots I am also assigning trooper Sarah Hall to your squad. Just watch your back for imperial guard and defend the ship as best you can. " the captain said. " Don't worry we don't let either of you down. " David replied calmly. The T'quan spy nodded and captain Sarson said " I have great confidence you won't. Dismissed. " Alec and David walked out of the room David shooting a glance at the T'quan who was still just looking at them. " They arrre brave but the imperrrial guard iz ssstill very good. " it said turning to the captain. " Yes but Able and Steel squad are also the best we've got. They can do it Q'muia. I've seen them do amazing things before in tougher situations and this is no different. Yo of a liaison for some alien rebels of the T'quan empire. The reason it is here is to ask for our help in overthrowing the T'quan empire. In return for us helping them in their rebellion they have agreed to give any support they can to our forces embattled against the enemy. Our job is to go out near the area of Mars and escort a cap ship that is carrying ambassadors for the rebels back to this ship. Be very careful when escorting the ship no doubt that the enemy will find out about this and send their imperial guard to destroy them. The imperial guard are the best they got so watch your tail as well as the cap ship's. The mission specs and nav map have been loaded onto our ships so all you have to do is go get ready and report back here at three hundred hours, two hours from now. Dismissed. " David said in a calm professional tone. He returned to his usual self and they all walked off toward their quarters all talking to Sarah.

Colleen walked to the area where they were sleeping in a storage room. It was cold and uncomfortable in there but it was quite and they were so tired they could fall sleep almost anywhere. She almost collapsed onto the simple mattress, blanket and pillow that was her bed and closed here eyes. After a few seconds of blackness she felt a cold breeze blow across her face. She turned onto her side and pulled her blanket up more on her. She then heard the unusual sound of the rushing of river water and birds singing. She opened her eyes and found she was in a forest and alone. She then stood up quickly feeling scared and confused as she looked around. Colleen found herself in the very place where she last fought Ketzer and his mutated Neos by the river in which she almost drowned. She noticed herself, or someone that looked like her, standing on top of the surface of the running water, her hair down and she was wearing a pure satin and lace gown staring at Colleen silently and sadly. The woman on the river who was her when she was only eighteen lowered her head sadly and began to walk the other way slowly descending into the water. " Wait! " Colleen called after herself and ran after herself. She ran to the edge of the river bank and then for some reason without her wanting to she collapse on her knees unable to move for a second only able to watch herself disappeared beneath the rushing water. " What does it mean? What is it? " she whispered silently and worriedly. Just then she felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a familiar and always welcome voice. " It's your subconscious telling you how you feel and in a way what you want to do. " the voice explained. She stood up and whirled around going for her gun when she noticed she didn't have it. When she turned around her mouth dropped in surprise thoughts running through her head so fast that not even she knew what she was thinking. There stood J.T. perfect as ever, having no scars or marks from war wounds and his blue eyes showing their usual bright blue that he had when ever he saw her. He was wearing his usual uniform and nothing really was unusual about him except for a very faint aura around him. Colleen almost collapsed onto the ground but he caught her and sat her down on a nearby rock sitting down next to her. " I... is it really you? " she said in a hushed tone. " Sort of. Yes and no. " he said. " Whaddaya mean? " she said adding some confusion to her tone. " I'm real in your mind but no longer in the material world. I'm dead. " he said calmly and casually. " So then your... an angel? " she asked. " Ah something like that. " J.T. said cocking his head at her. They stood in silence for a moment and Colleen spoke up " Well why have you appeared in my dreams? What do you want to tell me? " " Listen I know you want to die and I know why but you can't do that. Colleen you'd be leaving all of you best friends behind who would be put down to see you go. " he began and Colleen began to look very sad and she humphed " That no different that what they've been telling me all along. " She looked up at him tears beginning to stream down her face and she asked " Why did you have to die? Why couldn't you just have let Jenny help you? " He brushed some hair and tears from her face and she closed her eyes " You didn't need to die but you did and you left your friend. You left me alone to be like this and you didn't even think about it. " she hissed and began to quietly weep. " Yes I know that now I was a fool and I'm gonna be regretting it for the rest of my existance. I was afraid and desperate back there and I forgot that I could time the grenade to explode at the moment it did without me being there. I loved you very much though and I still do I never wanted to leave you but unfortunately there nothing I can do to change that. Listen my reason may have been stupid especially since there was a way out but that doesn't mean you should do the same thing. Don't make the same mistake I did you have a lot of reasons to live, many more than you have to die. Yes I want to be with you soon but not that soon. " he said in a hushed tone stroking her hair and he kissed her cheek. She opened her eyes again and found that she was sitting on a crate in the same storage room in which she was supposed to be sleeping. J.T. was still there and her fellow squad members were still asleep. She too remained where she was in her bed as if she had become disembodied from herself J.T. stood up an said " Ya know how Jade said that love was in you still? That was partially me and partially her. The tragedy and story was her but everything she told you about the love beginning in you and about your friends was me. You see if I really need to and want to I can express to people what I want to say through others. " " You mean through possession. " she inquired in a surprised tone and stood up herself. " Well, I'd rather call it borrowing for a plausible cause, but yes. That young girl you saw before is not only a representation of your subconscious but it's also your innocence, your emotions ya know happiness and sadness, and what you lost your ability to love. " he said softly and silently. " But. But I ... " she tried to say and the tried to get up but she for some odd reason collapsed to her knees. J.T. looked at her lovingly and said in a kinda sad and soft tone " I gotta go, my time's up now. " She looked at him, quickly tried to stand unsuccessfully. He walked over and bent down in front of her and Colleen said " Will I ever see you again? " " Depends on you. Depends on what happens to you and how you feel. I love you though always remember that. " he said touching her face. She closed her eyes for a second and touched his had and said in a hushed tone " I will. " She felt it slip away and she opened her eyes to a squinting position as huge circle of light appeared. In the circle she could see four other silhouettes whose identity she couldn't make out. She looked into his eyes, weeping and noticed he was crying too and she whispered " I love you. " and he replied " I know. " She was hesitant to let go of him but she did slowly his arm and hands sliding away from her as if to stay together for as long as possible. His form disappeared into the light and he too became a silhouette. They light suddenly became mush brighter and then everything went black. She opened her eyes to find herself still in bed no sign of him ever being there was there. She did notice that her blanket was damp from her crying and wrinkled from her hands tightening around it. She turned her head noticing that her teammates were still asleep and she just stared at the ceiling closed her eyes and let a few more tears roll down her face before going back to sleep.

David climbed into his cockpit snapped on and secured the clamps on his helmet and closed the canopy. As he did the additional stuff when preparing for take off he couldn't help but think of the many times he had done this before. The many times he had climbed into this cockpit on missions and in times of emergency. How many times he had questioned before he didn't come back. He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind always and did it once again lining up with the airlock. He as usual shot out through the airlock broke hard right and took up a defensive escort pattern with the jumptroop ships that were planned to dock with the ship carrying the rebels. The rest of the squad and Steel squad took up positions around the shuttles. " Here we go again Elizabeth. " David said half humorously, switching to Lieutenant Colonel Juliana's channel. " Mmm. You know after all those defensive battles it feels kinda weird to know be taking on offensive missions. " she mused. " Well we aren't just gonna wait around and hope they go away. " David said. " I know, I know. But it still feels strange. " she said. " So David, I forgot where are we supposed to meet this alien craft again? " Bronski asked flying up next to him. " Around Mars. " David replied calmly. " That'll be heavily defended. " Maggie said a slight bit of a worried tone showing up in her voice. " Yeah that's why I told ya to watch yer back. And speaking of which here come our first customers. " David said looking to his radar as it showed four red blips come on. " Bronski,Sarah, Marsala want you to stay here and guard the shuttle. Alec, Jenny, Maggie your with me were taking these guys out. " David said quickly giving orders. They kicked in their afterburners and headed right toward the alien patrol of light fighters who turned and began to run at the sight of them. David got in range of one of them and fired of two missiles at it. The light fighter let go a string of decoys and broke hard left and up. The two missiles both yawed and hit the first decoy and David silently cursed. " Don't let them get off a signal. " David shouted over the comm to his squad. He picked up the first transmission being sent from the fighter he was chasing. He quickly got another lock and shot a stream of fire at it stunning the creature for a second. As David passed over it, he let loose one heat seeker missile finishing the creature off. Alec banked left staying directly on it's tail. He flipped open a special panel and pressed a button activating the jammer installed in his fighter to replace his old one. The ship stopped dead in it's tracks and Alec blew past it. He then turned around and deactivated his jammer so the alien could try to get a few hits in. Being unsuccessful it tried to make a transmission but was destroyed even before it could connect to the base on Mars. Jenny in trying to get a quick kill and prevent her target from transmitting shot a volley of four missiles while coming down on her target. The T'quan shot out it's own string of decoys steering away only two of the missiles. The other two made their marks one impacting on it's reinforced cockpit and the other blowing apart it's rear thrusters. Just then one and the last of the patrol cam right toward here firing it's own barrage of gun and missile fire. She swerved to avoid the gun fire and crazily shot out decoys to try and ward of the missiles. Unfortunately only four missiles out of six went for the decoys and two of them impacted on her rear thrusters. Sparks and metal went flying fortunately none hitting her but she came to a dead stop. The fighter also came to a stop in front of her and got ready to deliver the death blow. Just then Maggie streaked down guns blazing shredding apart the enemy light fighter right in front of her. " Thanks! " Jenny said her eyes widening " But now what I can't move. " " Maggie to Liberty one of our fighters has been disabled so we need you guys to send out some more people to come an' collect her. " Maggie said switching to the Liberty's channel. " We'll do Maggie just wait around till we get there. " the comm-officer replied. All the squads and jumptroops could do from then was wait and waste precious minutes for Jenny's pick up to come.

Colleen sat on one of the bench seats her arms folded looking straight ahead. Since no one could see her face since she had her helmet on she actually looked kind of annoyed or bored but she was really thinking. She thought about what J.T. had told her in her dream the night before and how her closest friend in her squad might feel if she left. She first turned her eyes to Pellegrino who was leaning against the wall sleeping his rifle cradled in one arm but still seemed a it was almost about to fall out. " Pellegrino, you are one of my longest lasting friends from all that's happened. Still reckless and easily excited you still have a heart in you. I'd hate to think of what you might do and what you might think if you found out I committed suicide. " She then turned her eyes to the other side of her and looked at Joana who was assembling her rapid fire laser cannon and polishing it. " Joana, you are my closest friend and have comforted me ever since Natasha and J.T. died. You are one of the most compassionate, kind, caring and understanding friend I have ever had. How could I possibly leave you thinking that all our talk's were in vain, and not regret it? " She finally again looked straight ahead at Lori who was staring out of a porthole watching stars go by. " Lori the youngest most innocent member of our squad. Ever since you joined you looked to me for guidance, though I don't know why you did. How could I let you down since you've always given so much in return? I don't know why but I'm sure you would be the most affected by my death. Yes, all of you would miss me very much, some might even do the same thing, falling like dominoes without even fighting for your life. I won't do it I... I can't. " The only bit of emotion she showed during the ride was laying her head back and sighing sadly. A few of her friends new and close gave her few concerned looks but then went back to what they were doing. For a while there was silence the only sound of the shuttles engines moving them forward silently. They know I'm depressed but their so unaware of my thoughts. How could she ever love again like J.T. told her. Or was it all just a strange dream and none of it was real. How she wished all of what happened was just a long terrible dream. That she would all of a sudden wake up and everyone would be fine and their would be no war. Maybe she would be with him soon, maybe the enemy would do the deed for her and kill her and then it would be all over. In a way she hoped that would happen, she just couldn't see a future for herself. If she lived through the war it would just be a life of living alone working at a dead end job, what was there for her after the war?

Just then an explosion rocked the shuttle knocking her from those thoughts and wondering what was going on. " Sorry about that it was just an enemy fighter that exploded next to the shuttle. " Marsala said calmly, coming on Colleen's comm-link for a second. She picked up her comm-link off her belt and said in an annoyed voice " Don't let them get so close to the shuttle. " Outside the fight was fast and furious, terran pilots chasing and shooting down T'quan and T'quan chasing terrans and throwing insults left and right. The T'quan trying to defend the frigate which unknown to the T'quan defenders, carrying the rebels. Elizabeth came around and went for a bomber that was going after one of the jumptroop shuttles. She began pumping the rear full of fusion and pulse fire but it was not destroyed before it managed to launch two missiles at the shuttle. The shuttle began to pump out decoys but it did no good, the missiles ignored the decoys and slammed into the rear of the shuttle. The troops inside were violently thrown around, smoke filled the shuttle and the emergency lights came on creating an eerie smoky glow. The shuttle severely slowed down because of it's one damaged engine and the other destroyed one, several weapons came off and there was a hell of a lot of visible damage. Colleen, on one of the other shuttles came on again and very sardonically said " Thanks for the cover Able and Steel squad. " " That's what were here for hon. " David said with a sort of ironic humor. He couldn't see her face but he could tell she scowled at him for that and he just laughed to himself. He looked down on his instruments turning to a more serious decorum and noticed that all of the frigates immediate defenders had been destroyed. " Okay people time to go for the frigates and remember disable it's weapons not it's engines, and don't destroy it. We need it so the jumptroops and rebels can fly it back to the Liberty. " David said on the open channel and got words of acknowledgment from his squad. " Your squad get that Lizzy? " " Yes they did and don't call me Lizzy! It's Elizabeth, E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H, got it?! " Elizabeth chided and frowned. " Okay okay. Let's go. " David said smiling broadly and slyly at her. They shot over to the frigate which opened fire immediately, not really a good sign. David flew in and strafed the surface of the ship destroyed several turrets. After a while of diving in and destroying the ships last line of defense they let the jumptroops shuttles in and attach themselves to the ships while the two squads patrolled the area.

Inside the frigate was a wild and bloody fray. The rebel soldiers were losing to the ships crew and security guards but both sides had lost a lot of soldiers. In all the hacking, slashing and shooting they didn't notice the jumptroops until they blow a hole in the ships hull and had poured through. The tide of the battle inside the ship quickly turned as the security guards now had to face full blown enemy marines. One particularly nasty looking T'quan rushed up behind Colleen O'Reilly and lifted her off the ground glaring at her. It slowly drew it's blade with a third arm, when she suddenly kicked it in the crotch and seeing as it was only wearing a chestplate and armor on it's legs and she had armor covering her this particularly hurt. It dropped her and feel back giving her a very surprised look. She drew her pistol walked up to it and shot into the visor and hit it between the eyes. There was a explosion above and beside Joana and a large T'quan guard landed right beside her surprising her. It brought it's blade down in a long arc slashing open almost the entire length of Joana's arm. With anger and pain she brought her cannon around in a wide arc to connect with the creatures head. It's helmet caved in and the head inside cracked open like an over ripe melon she collapsed and was carried by several rebels into the shuttle. Pellegrino was knocked against a wall by another large guard. The creature then charged him it's blade raised to strike the final blow. Pellegrino's head seemed to throb with pain and his vision was partially blurred for a second. He turned this head waiting for it when his vision cleared up and he noticed a sharp shard of metal lying right next to him. He quickly snatched it up though slicing his palm on it and jammed it into the creature when it came close enough. It dropped it's blade on the floor and fell onto Pellegrino who immediately pushed it off and joined the battle. Lori crouched wit her other squad member holding off other T'quan guards with their lasers. Many more came through and they couldn't hold them all off. Lori quickly snatched up a grenade pressed the trigger and threw it into the midst of the approaching group of T'quan guards. Another T'quan emerged from the shadows staggering and O'Reilly took aim at it. It put up it's hand and said " Wait! Do not firrre. We are the part of the council of rrrebel leaderrrz. " She lowered her gun and said " We have a lot of work to do here. Get into the shuttle you'll safe there. " The creature nodded and ran into the shuttle under the protection of more jumptroops and their own rebel soldiers. Colleen turned her comm-link to open channel and said " The council members are secure how are things going where you are Charlie-three leader? " " Bridge secure. I contacted the leader of Charlie-six a little while ago and they seem to need a little help down there so I suggest you get your butts down there quick before the T'quan resecure engineering. " the leader of Charlie-three said quickly. " Well do Charlie-three leader. O'Reilly out. " she said in a cold professional tone. " Alright people the people in Charlie-six need our help so let's get down there and show them how it's done. " " Yes sir! " the jumptroops of Charlie squad said simultaneously and they ran off toward engineering.

" Sir I'm picking up a large capital ship moving into the area and I've identified it as a Ra'Tinka Class T'quan destroyer. " said one of the soldiers on the frigate contacting David. " Shit! Just as Q'muia predicted. Someone musta managed to get a transmission out. " David hissed to himself. " Alright people take up tight defense positions 'round the frigate cause the imperial guard are coming soon. And you get that thing outta here as soon as ya can this battles gonna get real hot in a few minutes. " he said very seriously. The young girl was turned around listening to someone at the time and she turned around with a partially relieved expression " We can move now sir, the ship's secure. " " Yeah good fine. Just get that thing outta here because the imperial guard are comin at you right now! " David said a little hysterical. The ship jolted forward and moved as fast as it could in the direction of the Liberty. The imperial guards fighter were different from all the other T'quan fighter they had ever seen. They were faster, had more guns missiles and armor and were more maneuverable than all the others, yet this did not daunt either of the squads. " Ladies and gentlemen, let's rock n' roll. Time to exterminate some cockroaches. " David said courageously. They all flew in a line Steel squadron taking their position above Able squad and they all charged the enemy guns blazing arcing as a wall of fire. They destroyed three imperial guard fighters like that and they rest scattered and attacked. Both squads split formation and went for their own target. Maggie took up position behind an imperial guard which immediately and quickly time pulled up around and came at her guns blazing. " Shit these guys have eight shooters that's double the amount we got. " she yelled over the comm on the open channel. " Thank you for that news brief Mags but I got it under control. " Alec said. He shot up coming in at the lower rear of the imperial guard fighter and nailed it with two missiles. " They're not as bad as they seem. Oh and watch out they have side and rear turrets so come at them from an angle. " Alec said flying by Maggie " Thanks for the heads up Alec. And, be careful. " she replied in a gentle tone. " I will. " Alec replied in the same tone. They split of from each other and went for their own targets. Maggie rushed over an enemy fighter that went after Alec and launched three missiles just above it. It seemed to fall in a flaming mass and crash into another fighter destroying that one too. Elizabeth was desperately trying to dodge the shots coming from her pursuer being hit in some minor places once and a while barely managing to keep control of her plane when she was hit. David suddenly came in diagonally at the fighter and aimed just right so it hit it's weapons. Several of it's weapons and missiles exploded causing numerous flashbacks which could be seen from the outside. The fighter shot forward out of control and rammed another fighter that Kevin was chasing. Kevin seeing his target was now severely damaged went after it and nailed it with several gun shots to the engines. He peeled off and engaged a target coming at the frigate which was coming under heavy fire from the destroyer that quickly caught up to it. " The frigates comin under heavy fire David! " he shouted to David hysterically. " Able squad break off from your current targets and follow me. The rouge frigate is comin under heavy fire from the destroyer so we're gonna take the destroyer out. Steel squad your gonna have some hard fighting to do for a while we gotta take out the destroyer and it may take us a little while to do so. We can't lose this one " David ordered his voice was a little hysterical but remaining mostly calm. " We'll do David. " Elizabeth replied and then switched to her teammates and began barking orders.

Able squad all took last shots at their target and peeled off them David and Marsala managing to destroy theirs. They then avoiding the shots from their former targets rushed toward their objective and it's assailant. Bronski came from the back of the enemy ship and launched his full compliment of missiles up the engine nacelles. He sharply pulled up just as the thing exploded barely managing to escape the explosion. To his amazement, despite the explosion most of the ship though damaged was intact. " Seems like they souped up a few things on their cap ships eh David? " Bronski said thoroughly surprised. " Watch yer back Wolf! " " Huh? WHOA! " Bronski kicked in his afterburners and shot out most of his decoys to stop the wall of sixteen missiles that were coming at him. Unfortunately for Bronski they totally ignored his decoys and continued toward him steadily coming closer. Wolf began to panic and let out the last of his decoys which only caught six missiles. He tried looping, swerving, thrusting, banking and most of the tricks he knew. In fact by doing these they came even closer to him sooner and he realized that if he couldn't shake or destroy the missiles he would be hit by all ten missiles and most definitely destroyed or humiliated. " Goodbye Eve. I love you. " he whispered to himself sadly, the missiles came and began to close in on their target.

He was pleasantly surprise and startled by a savior. Alec DeLeon's fighter streaked out form seeming nowhere and launched four of his own missiles at the ones pursuing Wolf Bronski. All of Alec's missiles streaked down and made their marks destroying not only the missiles it hit but the entire group of missiles. Wolf was shaken mentally and physically by the explosion that happened so near, his fighter was knocked away and received some damage but he was alive. " Nice shootin DeLeon! " Bronski said surprised and happily. " Thanks. Someone had to save yer butt. " Alec said and the very ends of his mouth curved up in a small smile. Bronski followed Alec and headed straight for the four heavy fighters that had shot the missiles at Wolf. " Try and bring me down will ya. Eat my fire ya bugs! Eyah! " Bronski sped past DeLeon and came in shooting his guns and missiles every which way scattering the enemy but not breaking them. " Nice display but I hope you were trying to kill something Wolf. " David's voice suddenly came on. David and Sarah came doing shooting at the enemy. Two of the fighters spun out of control and exploded from their combined fire and they split off going for the last two. David banked hard keeping steady on the tail of his target. He got a quick lock and launched one missile at his target the missile impacting and disorienting the pilot as well as damaging it. The fighter spun out of control for a while and came to a dead stop, all of it's offensive, defensive and movement systems and instruments destroyed. David flew up over and around the disabled fighter and rejoined his team members already engaged in a fierce battle against the destroyer. He watched as he himself came in, admiring how much their skills have improved, especially Sarah. The destroyer had far more powerful and more weapons but the fighters they were in were smaller and far more maneuverable than anything the destroyer had. The Ra'Tinka destroyer seemed to have long forgotten about the frigate and was concentrating on trying to defend itself from Able squad. The frigate meanwhile merely sailed regally on to the Liberty far away from the battle it's enemies tied up with the two squadrons.

Able squad streaked up and down, left and right on the destroyer destroying weapons, systems, and tearing huge gashes in the ship itself. Maggie flew out in front of the destroyer made a tight turn and came back directly toward the ship. She let loose all of her missiles which impacted on and around the bridge and followed that up by a strafing of the main viewport with all four of her guns. The shots tore through the weakened main viewport and armor killing everyone on the bridge and rendering it inaccessible. At the same time Marsala and Sarah made attacks on the open hangar bays causing massive internal explosions. Finally Bronski and David made one final attack on the destroyers already mangled engines doing the destroyer in. All activity seemed to stop and they could see flashes of light racing through the ship through cracks in the ships hull and the viewports. That was their cue to make a break for it and run. The armor where it was intact bulged and blew out and where there were cracks the explosion and fire ripped through those area's seeming to peel off the hull. The destroyer finally exploded spewing fire and debris outward but Able squad was far out of reach. Elizabeth closed on her target and shot off it's wings. The light fighter that was her target lost most of it's main thrusters to her attack but instead of stopping it sped up and plowed into another passing medium fighter. James flew into the nearby ice fields trying to run his two pursuers into the ice. He found that the two superiority pilots were better than he thought. Even at high speed they managed to avoid all of the ice without a problem while he traveled fairly slowly in comparison. He decided to take a risk since at the speed he was going at his pursuers would most certainly catch up to him and kill him. He suddenly sped up and almost hit some ice while turning. Fortunately his pursuers were going so fast that when they went into the tight turn the one closest to the ice hit the same black that James almost hit. The explosion sent the other one into another block of ice crumpling it's left wing which fortunately for the pilot had no more missiles. James came around and finished the job with a few quick and well placed shots to the already heavily damaged left side. He burst out of the ice field and nailed another light fighter with two missiles that had been chasing Kevin's heavily damaged fighter. Katherine shot straight forward for a while and let two superiority fighter get on her tail. The pilots sped up and tried to come at both her flanks and riddle her with gun fire but she was the wiser. Just as they opened fire on her port and starboard sides she pulled up and over at the last minute and the T'quan destroyed each other. She rushed up to Elizabeth's side were all the pilots from both squads met up. " Where's the frigate? " Elizabeth inquired suspiciously and worriedly. " " It's on it's way to the Liberty Liz. " " YOU LET IT GO UNPROTECTED?! " she yelled in disbelief. " Hey don't worry Lisa we're not that far from the Liberty and I contacted them just a few minutes ago and they made it. Calm down. " he said trying to reassure her. " It's Elizabeth! And don't ever do that again. " she said sternly and very annoyed. " Yes mother. " David said mocking her. She began muttering to herself in a inaudible tone and David merely laughed. They set a course for the Liberty and quietly made their way back.

They began to come in for their landing approach, they already had permission and stuff like that. The space around he had noticed had been unusually quite and there were fewer T'quan patrols about. The frigate sat silently next to the Liberty and was docked with it. They could even from where they were see the bustling busy bodies moving in and out of the two ships going about their duties as best they could. They landed and noticed a crowd of people standing around one certain place. As soon as his plane stopped he secured the ejection seat and hopped out of his fighter. " What's goin on here? " he asked in a curious and confused manner. Both squads joined him and made their way through the crowd. What they saw looked like some kind of horror science fiction parade that was real. Technicians and med-techs were trying to go about their work despite the onlookers pushing along very organic things, things they couldn't even recognize that looked more like living beings than any kind of equipment or instrument. They also walked by with pod like things, some open that displayed experimented on and altered humans that they weren't even sure were alive. They heard enraged and threatening shouts of vengeance and death or fear from parts of the crowd as T'quan prisoners were walked by, by the jumptroops. Those screams turned into silent mumbling and sobbing whenever casualties from their side were reeled by. It was like every scene affected everyone's mood from enraged to fear to depression. Some quickly pushed their way out of the crowd and over to a bulkhead throwing up rather noisily when they got their, but it was drowned out by the crowds voices. They made their way out of the crowd and around to were the med-techs were going. They tried to get the identities of the altered corpses and figure out if anyone they knew was among them. The med-techs said that most of them were so altered they couldn't even identify them as human anymore. Suddenly Nara came up to them and said out of the blue " Hey guys what's..." They were startled and lept aside and around to face her and making them reveal the horrid sights while she was in mid sentence. She gave a loud fearful scream, she fainted and almost collapsed onto the floor. Alec and Bronski who were next to her quickly caught her pushed her back up and turned her around to face David. " Wha... What's going on? " she panted in a frightened and meek voice. " I don't exactly know myself. But it has to do with the alien frigate we captured on our last mission. " David said calmly. " Can we go somewhere else please? " she asked urging them away from the sight. " Yeah sure. " David said " You guys go along with Nara I'm gonna go and try and find Jenny. " " Okay. " " Sure. " " No prob. " " Alright. " " I understand. " the rest of his squad said and he walked off looking for Jenny. " What happened to Jenny? " Nara inquired. " Her fighter was hit kinda bad and disabled so some people had to come and take her back before the mission was over. " Bronski said casually. " Was she alright last you saw her? " Nara asked suddenly worried. " I guess. Since she was able to talk to Maggie after the battle. I guess he's worried about how her trip back was. " Bronski said. Nara took on a very understanding expression and said " He doesn't wanna lose anymore people. I understand him, I prefer not to lose anymore of you either. "

David walked down the hall approaching different people and asking if they had seen Jenny most nodded no. He looked for an hour and finally giving up went to join his friends on the O-deck. There he saw a sort of exasperating sight and put his hand over his forehead and sighed exasperatedly. Right there on the couch was Jenny who was sitting and talking with Nara, Maggie and Wolf. Nara looked up and said " Oops sorry David. I was gonna call you but... " " It's alright Nara. " he replied patiently " So Jenny how was your trip back? " he said sitting down on another couch next to them. " It was okay even though like I was telling these people here it was kinda embarrassing. " she replied and laughed a bit. David raised his eyebrows and then said " What's there to be embarrassed about? You certainly weren't gonna be any use to us when the imperial guard came. " " Yeah I know it's just a thing of mine. " she replied and smiled. Maggie quickly looked up at a rebel T'quan who walked into the room and asked " Jenny, Bronski, David? " " Hmm? " " Yeah? " " Maggie? " they all responded and looked up at her. " Do ya guys really think that the being allied with the rebels will win the war? " she said and looked back at them her eyes expressing her worried feelings " If not we'll go down fightin. " Bronski replied. " They don't mean guaranteed victory lieutenant Weston. " Marsala and Alec said walking up to them with several glasses of cola. " Thanks. " Jenny said and Alec and Marsala sat with them. " I think that they'll help but we're gonna be the ones who win the war. " Alec added. " David? " Maggie said liking straight at him. " I agree with Alec, the rebels are only the support for the Exofleet. We're the main body. " David replied and took a sip of his soda. Suddenly they began to hear hard laughing and insults being thrown at the T'quan that had just walked in.

They turned around and noticed that not only were they laughing and insulting but one was trying to get the rebel to fight. The T'quan tried it's best to ignore the human but it one and a while turned around and growled menacingly. The trooper sat down for a while talking to his friends and the whole thing started over again. " Jumptroops, figures. " Jenny said. " I thought people had to be older than eight to join the military? " Nara said in a loud tone to the jumptroops and stood up. She had always been one to feel sorry for the little guy. The jumptroops looked at her, grumbled, and went back to what they were doing. She got up and walked over to the jumptroop and said in a very annoyed tone " Didn't you hear me? " The trooper pushed her aside and said " This is none of yer business so butt out. " he pushed her back roughly and she almost stumble over. Alec narrowed his eyes and got up himself, he walked over and in the same tone as Nara he said " They're on our side you idiots. You know we can't beat the T'quan empire alone. " " So? " the jumptroop said with contempt looking at him the same way. " So we gotta treat them with a little respect. " Alec said. The jumptroop narrowed his eyes and said " Listen pal if you don't wanna end up in the infirmary you'll buzz off. " " You first. " Alec demanded and the jumptroops growled. The jumptroop walked up to him standing at full height and they got ready to fight. " Hey hey hey hey! Throw that first punch and you'll end up in the brig mister! " David said, quickly walking up and separating them. " This guys being an ashole. " Alec said glaring at the jumptroop. " I don't care. We're hear to fight the enemy not ourselves. " David explained. " That's right so all of you sit yer butts down and shut up! " Colleen said walking into the room and up to them. " But commander... " the trooper whined. " Sit yer butt down and shut up or get outta hear. " she snapped. The other troopers got up and they all walked out of the room grumbling to themselves. Colleen turned to Able squad and apologized " Sorry about that guys. We lost a lot of people when capturing the ship and that group is quite bitter. That and there's a lot of paranoia and stress about the rebels. " " I heard that but there's still no reason to be fighting them or ourselves. " David replied.

About three and a half hours later Able and Steel squadrons filed into the briefing room. Both captain Sarson and the two rebel T'quan they'd met were there along with a woman with who seemed to be in her late thirties to early forties. " This is vice admiral Sandra Namier she will be attending the briefings and making the decisions for this part of the fleet whenever the admiral isn't here, understood? " the captain said in a professional tone. After getting acknowledgment from everyone in both squads he turned to the holo-display which displayed sort of a grid image of the space around Mars. " Now, after the various espionage missions done by the jumptroops we've determined that the T'quan empire has turned Mars into a totally military planet. We've discovered various bases, military factories and ship yards on the planet and well, we don't like them being there. At twenty hundred hours we are going to take this whole fleet and attempt to knock some of those things out. It's a big risk we know but if we succeed we might be able to reduce some of their producing power in the immediate area. It would take them more time to assemble a fleet, giving us more time to prepare. " the captain said. " But, if we attack, won't the T'quan send their fleet to protect Mars? " Elizabeth asked. " It is likely that they will send some ships. As the rebel leaders told us the nobles of the T'quan empire are very arrogant. They won't send more than they feel they need to. If such a thing does happen we will send in more ships that will be hiding in the ice fields. They will all be equipped with a new type cloaking device and there will be three other ships equipped with a jammer developed under the combined minds of Terran and T'quan scientists. The clocking device will only be there to hide the extra ships until the enemy fleet arrives. Once the fleet arrives they will decloak and attack the enemy fleet. Shortly after the jamming ships will move in and jam the enemy's tracking and communication systems so it'll be easier for us to take them out. " vice admiral Namier spoke up. " Scuse me, I was in the intelligence briefing this morning and several people were saying that there is a fifty - fifty chance that they devices won't even work. What if they don't work and they send more ships than we can handle? " Alec inquired in a very slightly worried tone. " It's gonna be a risk we have to tale. We can't just sit here and replied invasion after invasion, we can't do that forever. If we ever hope to preserve our people and our freedoms we have to take some risks. " Sandra said in an insistent tone. " Sandra's right about that Alec but I have one question Sandra what do you mean if they come? Won't they definitely go after us? " Nara asked cocking her head. " That's were our allies, the T'quan rebels come in. Through various secret channels we have notified the rebels of this. They have agreed to use their forces to attack several imperial colonies thus providing the distraction we need to succeed with this mission. Captain? " she explained and then turned the floor back to captain Sarson. " You will be assigned, along with five other squadrons to take out this particularly large installation. You know the drill, come in, take out her primary defenses, while the others escort the jumptroop shuttles down. I would advise you to take out the hanger bays and shipyards first. Now are there anymore questions? " he said, no one asked " Good, if there are no more questions, dismissed. "

Colleen once again sat alone twiddling her fathers dagger unconsciously, staring out into space. She was trying to reconsider her life but she was melancholy and confused. All her life people had told her to listen to her conscious but not even in there was she sure what path she could take or should take. It was her feelings about his death versus her friends and J.T.'s very words. She suddenly was brought back to reality when her fingers slipped and the knife cut her the side of her hand just below her index finger and quickly dropped the dagger. She gently squeezed that part of her hand from the small yet sharp pain and then let it go. She looked at it for a second watching as a small trickle of blood ran down her palm and dropped onto the dagger and the floor around it as if trying to decipher some meaning. She sighed heavily got up washed her cut and then bandaged it and went back to pick up her knife. She picked it up and noticed that blood had accumulated on the tip of the blade and she frowned looked away and closed her eyes. She muttered something into thin air, there was no response. She put some gloves on, cleaned the blade and then sheathed it.

The barracks were empty of almost everyone except for her. She and her squad were off duty and she was extremely bored. She had never been that much of a people person and normally spent most of her time with her friends, most of who were already dead now. Most of them had been lost during those espionage missions, the first of which was the worst. She once again stood up and left the barracks and walked down to the flight deck where her remaining friends and squad hung out. She went from a half-depressed and half-deep in though expression to a calmer and happier face. She walked over to her two friends Joana Clare and Vince Pellegrino who were currently arguing about what kinda food is better to eat before going into battle. She paused near them for a while and then decided to not interrupt them. She nodded her head and smiled slightly " They had always been the ones to argue about the stupidest things. " she thought. Normally she would sit down near them and talk to Natasha and Ramon two more of her closest friends until Joana and Vince left their conversation and talked to them. Others, who she knew but were not really close to were lost in their own conversations. Lori Kenith looked up from her book as O'Reilly passed got up from the stairs she was on and said jokingly and loudly " Well look who's come out of hibernation. " Fortunately no one looked up, O'Reilly turned around " Was it necessary for you to shout? " she asked slightly annoyed. " No I guess not. Whatcha been doing anyway we haven't seen you 'round here in a while. " Lori asked in a child like tone. Colleen laughed and said " It's only been a week, I've been doing other things. " Lori blinked knowing Colleen, Lori somehow guessed what she was talking about. " Is it still about him, cause if it is you really gotta get off it. " Lori said seriously. " I think about it from time to time but I also got other friends outside the squad who I see and other matters to attend to. " Colleen explained in a reasonable tone. " I thought your boyfriend was the only connection you had to Able squad. " she said in a surprised tone. " J.T. used to be, but I couldn't keep associating with him and not get to know his friends, it was inevitable. " Colleen replied and smiled " Besides their good friends. Some of the few I have left. " " Nothing wrong with that I just thought you only talked to J.T. " Lori said and shrugged. " Hey O'Reilly, Lori what're ya doing talking over there. " Joana called noticing the two for the first time, and they both looked to her. " Come on and sit over here with us. " Joana said smiling and motioning for them to come over and sit down. Colleen began to walk over when she turned her head back to Lori and said " Well? Come on. " They both walked over to the two and they spent the rest of the time talking, together.

O'Reilly returned to the barracks along with her teammates, it was time to prepare. " Another paycheck, another buncha squished bugs. " Pellegrino said as he attached his chestplate. O'Reilly sighed heavily as she put on her helmet and shook her head. Joana leaned over to O'Reilly and said " I know how you feel, Mr. Ego guy there. " " Hey I heard that! " Pellegrino said in an offended tone. Colleen and Joana merely snickered with their backs turned. O'Reilly picked up her father's dagger and looked at it before sheathing it in her belt. She could also feel the chain on which the ring J.T. gave her hung securely against her chest. Two things that ever since she gained them was never without. She breathed deeply and exhaled trying to relax as she always did and moved the thought's to the back of her mind. She picked up her high powered energy rifle and loaded it with a new energy source and secured it into the holster on her back. She then prepared her pistol and put it in it's holster. She then stood up and they left the barracks for the flight deck, now came the wait. After about an hour they noticed the pilots rush to their fighters and prepare for take-off. That was their cue to get into their jump pods and take-off themselves. Minutes later they where in space and being escorted along with what could be hundreds or thousands of other jumptroops to their final destination. She walked into the cockpit where some other pilot were flying the shuttle and looked out the main viewport ahead of them. She noticed there was a large open space in the middle of the entire force. It was probably the rumored new ships that was built with alien technology. As they neared Mars that area began to move further to the front of their battle group. They moved out of the ice fields where they were decloaked and sent out their jamming signal. She could hear what was going on over the ships comm " Signal being sent, prepare to deliver the message. " There was a one minute pause and then " Jamming successful, time to deliver the message. " Most of the fighters suddenly sped up to engage the enemy forces which had started to come up as a result of the jamming.

The first wave of T'quan defenders came at the fighters like a typhoon. They zoomed right through them seeming to fire in random directions scattering the first wave of attackers and destroying many. After this initial attack the Exofleet fighters turned on the T'quan defenders and each engaged their own targets. It only took David only ten seconds two finish off his first two targets and move on to his next. Elizabeth spun and made a wide looping motion when charging three fighters trying to cross her path and go after trooper Gorad. One snapped in half as easily as a toothpick and the other flipped over it's engines going first and then moving up the rest of it's body. The last one was picked off by Kevin Gorad in a simple fly-by. The defenders were being quickly eliminated and they felt they had no choice other than to retreat into the atmosphere of Mars. The alien fighter began to peel off their targets most of them being destroyed before they could get very far. " This is so easy. " Kaz said gleefully. " Don't misjudge them Kaz. We haven't beaten them yet. " David said getting Kaz back on the right track. They continued to follow the alien fighter down into the atmosphere of Mars and were greeted by a hail of fire coming from both the alien fighters and the base itself. A fighter's wings to the right of Takagi seemed to crumple and explode from the fire. Another near Nara seemed to have it's very skin torn from it and it's exploded into a speeding fireball for a second before disintegrating. She could see the flaming figure of a pilot sprawling and tensing before he was disintegrated like the rest of his ship and she ripped her head away. The entire exo force let loose a huge salvo of missiles before David yelled on the open channel " Into the canyon we'll take less fire there! " It was a quick thinking, half baked plan since there were even turrets in the canyon and most of the pilots weren't as good pilots as Able and Steel squads were. Many crashed into the sides of the canyon trying to avoid the fire coming from the remaining turrets, others were actually hit by the lasers. Three more fighters tried to do something else but were quickly intercepted by two atmospheric fighters who also dived in after the rest of the terran fighters. David and Elizabeth pulled up to engage the two fighter and allowed the rest of their pilots to pass. David fired his fusion and pulse cannons peeling the armor from the top of both it's wings. To add insult to injury, as it spiraled down it was speared on a jutting rock and exploded. This caused the rocks to shower out at Elizabeth and her pursuer. She escaped the rocks but the T'quan was hammered down by them. She turned around and swept by the area only seeing black smoke rising from the rubble " Lieutenant Colonel Juliana to David, I got a confirmed kill. " she said slowly rising up next to him. " Good now let's get back to the rest of the force. " David replied and they rose above the canyon and shot ahead. The enemy base seemed to descend in their field of vision and they quickly shot a stream of their guns followed by four missiles all aimed at the buildings, or were they? As they shapes and look of the base grew they noticed it was just as the rest of the rest of T'quan technology looked. It was organic looking, like some writhing tentacled monster or a gigantic almost black plant. That along with the wine colored constantly twilight ski, it was a strange and awesome sight to behold. The energy from the guns and missiles impacted of it's surface creating a slight ripple tearing gash in the base and a green liquid oozed out along with the burst of expected debris and fire. They pulled off that area and rejoined their own squads. They dived in and bombed the shipyards and then pulled up watching the spectacular explosions erupting below.

They suddenly again were the object of another furious attack from the T'quan defenders. David pulled back and came at one of the approaching fighters righting himself as he snapped off two missiles. It managed to destroy one of the missiles but was hit in the rear by the other as it tried to get away. It did one spin and then fell into the base causing more explosions. Nara flew low to the base luring two of the defenders into a trap. She shot two missiles at the ground just below an enemy hover tank which flew high into the air and she flew under it. The first defender followed no problem but the other wasn't so lucky as the tank landed on it's rear. Nara flew under one of the bridges that connected two towers, did a loop and came around facing the fighter nailing it with a salvo of pulse energy. Kaz let another fighter get behind him and let it fire a few shots. He moved quickly to the right then the left, the T'quan fighter pilot following as he expected. Then he quickly banked hard left and moved down then changed direction and nailed it on it's underside with his fusion guns in a matter of a few seconds. Marsala, now famous for his timing led a light fighter into between two turrets just as they attempted to fire on him and instead they destroyed the light fighter whose falling debris destroyed the two turrets in turn. Alec came up from under Maggie and destroyed a fighter coming down at her and in turn she not only destroyed her own target came down and under Alec destroying a superiority fighter that had started to tail him. Everyone in the squad suddenly noticed small specks of pods in the sky making their descent on the alien base. " Look. It's rainin' jumptroops! " Bronski said as he chased and nailed another superiority fighter coming at them. Another wave of T'quan defenders appeared from the already wrecked and flaming mass that was the alien, organic base. " Give 'em cover! " yelled David.

" We cannot let them dessstrrroy thisss bassse! The terrans will pay for attacking the home of our beloved ancessstorrs. " yelled the leader of the next defender wave. The terran fighters attacked the rising wall of alien defenders picking off many. One in a last attempt to help defend their base aimed they charged the terran fighters and attempted to ram them and the heavy weapon shuttles. The rest of the defenders aced up through the mass of pods destroying anyone they could. It was hard for the terran pilots to attack the defenders it the midst of the jump pods since they might hit the pods themselves, but this didn't stop the two exosquads Able and Steel squadron. David came up behind two superiority fighters aiming his guns for one and two missiles for the other. Both met their mark and the fighters split off and plunged back down. There were many defenders but their number had dwindled. They became caught up in fighting the exosquads and the jumptroops floated on past. The pods landed and split open, the jumptroops leaping out and attacking the ground defenders. The shuttles came next landing in the midst of the advancing forces of jumptroops and disgorging their massive tanks and exo-bikes. The e-frames had also not been wasted as they were the last to descend on the base know a part of the heavier ground forces. More explosions erupted on the ground as a fierce hand to hand combat and long range battle erupted onto the ground. There were T'quan elite as big as the general purpose e-frames struggling with the e-frames, crazed hand to hand combat soldier coming at the jumptroops like flying wedges. Holes opened in the base were there were no doors or openings before to reveal their own massive war machines. Some looked like floating octopuses, giant scorpions, giant tarantulas or black widows or some other kind of bug with elaborate weapons attached to them. They were covered in spikes, hooks, constantly whirling blades to say the least. Nara and Marsala made another go around on the group and defenders destroying a group of war machines that were just coming out of the hole. " Wow, I'm glad I'm not a jumptroop. " Kaz said his eyes widening at the horrific site. " This is our first ground battle with the T'quan and probably one of the most important. Try to provide air support as much as you can and hope we can pull through. " David said in a calm, professional tone which betrayed his true thoughts. He quickly came down and strafed the ground forces destroying as much as he could. He totally covered a neatly lined ranks of elite troopers and destroyed several of their heavy weapons. One super heavy tank which took the brunt of the attack flew up into the air and landed in the middle of two tight packed squads of T'quan marines creating utter chaos. Others flipped over onto the tanks behind them or exploded spewing deadly shards of carapace shrapnel into the nearby elite ranks. He managed to pull up high into the air before they got a chance to return fir and they all missed. The legions of T'quan dwindled slowly over several hours and eventually had to face the wrath from all the remaining terran pilots since they had pretty much finished off the T'quan air support.

They retreated to the cover of the bases vine like passages and spiraling towers. " This is the ugliest place I ever seen. " Pellegrino said as they advanced through the plant-like base. He stepped forward and cut through one of the already damaged part of the base. As they tore it open it made a grotesque splutching sound as if they were tearing open organic flesh. As they flew inside Colleen, who had seen a little of the other complex, realized that it looked exactly like the alien complex that they had once found before Mars was destroyed the first time. There were no energy balls to greet them instead they were greeted by crazed close combat fighter from behind. One of the crazed close combat warriors jumped from the shadows, almost landing directly on top of Colleen O'Reilly. She was surprised and the creature got a chance to knock her down. This one was especially strong and it had a heavier and spiked mace on it's arm instead of a hand so she was dazed for a bit. Her vision became unblurred and she noticed the creature getting ready to stab it's energy blade right through her, and she was sure it could do it. Her body reacted but far too slowly as it began to make the motion to bring the blade down on her. Suddenly a well aimed cannon shot came from the side knocking the blade from it's hands and blowing off it's exposed hand too. She got up slowly and noticed it was her friend Joana with a stolen ionic energy rifle in her arms. " You don't think I'd leave my friend to miss the end of one of the best fights we had did you. " she said and smirked. The creature which had been cradling it's arm opened one eye and lept over O'Reilly coming like a hover train at Joana. It wrestled the rifle from her hands and threw it away then lifting Joana up and merely crushing her it between it's two enormous robotic arms. Colleen grabbed the blade and charged the warrior from behind who turned around just in time to be scoured by it's own energy blade right through the heart. Joana dropped cradling her right arm. O'Reilly went to help Joana up and asked in a very worried tone " How bad is it? " " Not that bad. ~Ugh~... But I might not be that much use to you from now on. " Joana replied her voice full of pain. " Pellegrino! Take Joana and get her back to one of the medical shuttle now! " Colleen ordered trying to be heard over the din of battle. Joana stood up and leaned against one of the walls sinking into it almost until Pellegrino picked her up and ran with her back out to a medical shuttle. " So what now boss? Do we wait? " asked one of the younger jumptroops. " No. We move on. No telling what reinforcements may come later. " O'Reilly replied her tone calming. She waited for a second for several e-frame to land move down the passage ahead of them and they followed them down the dim corridors.

As they fought their way down the halls they quickly learned about the other interior defenses as the walls seemed to spit acid, spikes and even energy when there was no one in the hall to fight." So boss, where you want us to wire the explosives? And how? " asked one of the jumptroops. After taking out another legion of close combat warrior and defense robots they entered a room a with several consoles and a lone energy ball that was enclosed in a cage. " At least some of it's workable. " she though finally getting a chance to think. Her eyes widened as she came across the painful memory of J.T.'s death. His situation was described as the same as theirs, she was afraid to know what would happen, but also she questioned " How did he do it? " " Boss? " repeated one of the troopers and she replied curtly " I'm thinking. " There were no panels or no wires that they could see There were few places were they could effectively stuff the explosives and she asked the same question over and over again. She scratched the back of her head searching anything her friend's in Able squad might've said concerning J.T.'s heroism. He likely encountered the same situation when all of a sudden " Of course! How could I be some naive. He thought of it first since he didn't have the regular tools to work with as we do. It's so obvious it's right in front of me! " she thought. " Second Lieutenant Wallis get out of your e-frame and give me your fusion pack all your remaining missiles. " she said quickly. " But sir... " Wallis said looking at her surprised. " Don't argue. Give 'em to me now. " she demanded. Wallis walked his e-frame over to the generator and climbed out saying " But, how will I get outta here? " in a confused tone. " How else? Travel with us of course. " she replied starting to work on the e-frame.

The sounds of gun fire, the crunching of skulls and metal, the grotesque sounds of swords and other close combat weapons sinking into flesh and the scream of the dying and wounded echoed from the outside. Inside Charlie-five squad took strategic positions around the room and her as she worked. She opened panels in the missiles and fusion pack and skillfully but slowly began to wire them together. She began to stuff the explosives into crevices on the generator and line the fusion pack and missiles around the thing and she set the timer. She turned on the open channel and shouted " Timer's set for five minutes time to get our butt's outta here and back to the shuttles. " Pellegrino who had joined them only recently opened the door and sprinted out only to be caught by a eight foot close combat warrior commander. It stopped him by leaping in front of him and took a slash at his chest. A red hot beam shot by Pellegrino's head close enough for him to feel the heat and impacted squarely on the warriors chest. " Let's move Vince! " O'Reilly said as she and the rest of his quad shot past the fallen warriors.

Alarms sounded and the halls went dark and in a few second there were sounds of many scrabbling, chittering creatures. They turned on their headlight and flashlights only to behold the horrifying sight of what seemed like hundreds of giant, deadly and poisonous mutant spiders. One shot out what looked like a tongue and tripped one of the jumptroops who was pulled up to the creature and quickly fallen upon by hundreds more. It was impossible to ignore the wretched, blood-curdling screams of their comrades in front of them and over the radio. They could not help the ones caught by the spiders and had no choice but to bash their way through the horde. Colleen O'Reilly felt a spiky little tendril cautiously wrap around her leg and with he lightning reflexes she turned around and blasted the spider culprit not stopping for a second. They saw a light up ahead to where they had blasted their way through the wall. " We're almost out of this hole! " shouted Lori gleefully. Their giant arachnid pursuers sped up and began to steadily gain on them. Wallis was pulled down shouting blood curdling screams and flailing his arms asking desperately for Charlie five's help. " Help me please help me! Oh god! Help m.... arrrrwwwwgggh! " he said his voice fading into disgusting crunching and sucking sounds. As before the rest of Charlie squad did not dare look back. They almost fought each other to get out of the hole as it began to close, many pouring through dropping off either back into the complex to try again or outside the complex, safe, for now. For those who didn't make it there were more sucking and crunching sound and blood curdling screams for mercy. They next made a dive as fast as they humanly could for the shuttles which had landed to pick them up. For the spiders the wall of the complex didn't not act like a barrier and they skittered on through. Charlie squad finished pouring into the shuttle and they closed the door the only spiders to touch the door were crushed between the ramp and the frame. She walked up to one of the closed medical containment cells where they had placed Joana. She seemed to already be resting peacefully when she looked and mumbled inaudibly " Why haven't we taken off yet? " and started for the cockpit.

Pellegrino suddenly noticed a thin filmy slime on one of the hydraulics on the ramp. He suddenly shouted as she opened the door " Colleen wait! " The door slide open to reveal to disgusting corpses slung over their seats with a menacing spider in between them. The creature in no time hopped on to O'Reilly and a spike like appendage shout out from in between it's feelers slashing open O'Reilly's shoulder. She screamed and threw it against one wall where Pellegrino took Joana's rapid fire laser rifle and turned the thing into spider paste. Colleen O'Reilly immediately calmed down and said " Lori, Richard I want you two to take control of this shuttle and fly us out of here now. I'll contact Able squad and tell them that we've finished with our missions. " Both Lori and Richard silently saluted Colleen and moved to take control and take off.

Just then O'Reilly's world began to become hazy and warm. She quickly sat down and leaned against the wall " Damn spider. " she mumbled and under her breath. " You need some help over there commander? " Pellegrino asked noticing the fairly dizzy look of her face. She leaned her head back and then looked at him and said " Yeah sure. Get that medi-kit over there and help me with this wound. " Pelligrino gave her a concerned look. She seemed tired and was panting every time she talked like it was very tiring. She fumbled around with the clamps on her armor and took the top part off. " Damn thing's spikes went through my armor like it was tin foil. " she thought as she looked at the holes in her armor. She then looked up and looked around at the other members of Charlie-five who tended to their own wounds and the wounds of others. Pellegrino finally came over with a roll of bandages and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. She looked at it and frowned " Don't we have any of that anti poison and neurotics solution? " she said in an annoyed tone. " What is this a med-lab? It's just a medi-kit. " Pellegrino said in an annoyed tone and then realized his mistake. " Sorry commander. " " It's alright, I guess we'll have to use that stuff. " Pellegrino kneeled down beside her and took a look at her wounded shoulder along with the blood he could just barely make out a slightly whitish liquid the flowed from her shoulder. He put some of the hydrogen peroxide on a cloth and dabbed at the cuts. Colleen winced and grunted from the pain " Ya know it's kinda funny. Avery went out the same way. Wounds to the shoulder are under-rated. " she said in mock humor. Fortunately O'Reilly was strong and healthy so she could resist the effects of the poison until they got back. After he was done bandaging her she rose to her feet once again and began to feel dizzy again so she sat down, almost fell down actually but Vince caught her and sat her down. He then walked into the cabin and walked up to Richard. " Hey, we should try and move as quick as we can. O'Reilly was poisoned by that last spider encounter and no one knows how long she'll be able to fight it off. " Lori hunched over at hearing this, O'Reilly was her friend. Richard merely nodded and moved the shuttle up to full speed.

David did a little bit of a wing over barely avoiding a DF his pursuer launched at him. He then made a few sharp turns and tricks and came up behind the enemy medium fighter and nailed it with a stream of fire right into it's back. Suddenly a picture of Lori appeared on his comm screen and said " Mission complete commander. Time for us to get outta here. Oh and by the way our commanding officer was poisoned by an alien spider so we're going to be moving as fast as we can so if we seem to be going kinda quick you know why. " " Roger that Charlie five commander well cover your escape. " he replied and the image disappeared. The three shuttles carrying what was left of the platoons lifted off quickly and began to speed for orbit. There was a bright flash from below, then an expanding bubble of light and then a mushroom cloud. Their ships shook as it expanded outward toward them and then quickly receded. They had a smooth and uneventful trip up to the rest of the fleet. David and the rest of Able and Steel squads made quick combat landings and ran over to where captain Sarson was waiting their next assignment.

" Right on time commander. I'm assuming everything went well? " he asked in a pleasant tone. " Almost everything. We lost a lot of good pilots. Also Charlie five's commanding officer was poisoned by some alien spider Ensign Lori Kenith mentioned I'm guessing the med-tech are taking care of that as we speak. " David replied calmly. " To be expected follow me. " captain Sarson said and walked of toward the hallway to the briefing room. They entered the darkened room, the same people in it but joined by Kaz who after the captain muttered something to him joined the ranks of Able squad. David smiled and nodded at Kaz and Maggie leaned over and asked " I thought you were still on punishment, what goin on? " " You'll find out. " Kaz replied leaning to Maggie. Captain Sarson cleared his throat and everyone in both squad turned to look at him and listen. " First of all, I'd like to start of saying that we have suffered heavy losses in this one battle to take back Mars. Because of this we've had to take all of our loyal pilots off any punishment they were on earlier so that explains the one who joined us today, Kaz Takagi. Second of all the rebellion has suffered many heavy losses also, they cannot afford to keep up the distraction as long as we needed. For this same reason I have taken you off your original mission path to serve as the distraction yourselves. " he began and stopped to look at the group who were now staring wide-eyed at him. " You will be temporarily transferring to the Maranar another light carrier and entering T'quan space. If you run into any patrols I want you to let at least one squad or fighter to get away so they may notify the colonies, and get him riled up so he exaggerates they story. It'll make it seem like there are more of you. Hopefully your presence along with the damage you do ought to draw enough attention that they at least send back a majority of their fleet. After you land on Maranar and meet up with the captain you will be given extra instructions. Once this part of the fleet appears your mission is complete and you may leave, understood? " he paused and everyone acknowledged him. Everyone turned to leave and walked off, except for David who turned around again looking at the captain and vice admiral very suspiciously. " If our job is to draw away as many as you say we have to we're not gonna get away. Why have you sent us on a suicide mission? " David asked calmly. " Admiral Gorad's idea. We couldn't refuse him, he said he'd court martial us if we tried, I'm sorry. He obviously doesn't like you. " the vice admiral said. " No. After I refused his little offer for me and walked out I guess he saw me as his own little definition of a security risk. Besides there nothing you can do. " David said in a calm professional tone and walked out.

He walked onto the flight deck and climbed into his fighter. He slapped on his helmet and secured the clamps when just then he noticed the captain looking at him from the ground. The captain motioned for him to lean down and he murmured just loud enough for David to hear " You will get out of there, I promise. " and then he walked away. Commander Sames looked at him suspiciously for a second closed his canopy and activated his systems. Just as was begin pulled onto the flight ramp Maggie's face appeared on his comm screen. " Where were you? " she asked curiously. " I just had to talk to the captain about somet'n. " he replied and the image disappeared. He kicked in his afterburners and pulled out of the flight deck breaking right as soon as he got outside. As he drifted out into the huge, black, cold vista of space he looked around. The stars shown brighter than ever and he could still see the constellations that were so revered on Earth. He could see the constellation of Orion 250 klicks of his port bow, just 200 klicks and below it, was Taurus, the great bull. Maybe the bright stars were to show fortune smiling on them. Maybe the spirits of their lost comrades and those who had come before had gathered in an audience to watch the last played out dramas of their lives. Maybe they were just very bright that day. He sat staring out into space's wide vista for a while until he decided it was time to go. They crossed through the fleet at high speed until they reached their destination. " It's a big cargo ship! " whined Kaz as they began their approach to the new ship. " This is Able squad commander to the Maranar. Able squad requesting permission to land. " he said in a emotionless professional tone. " Hold on Able squad. " said the comm officer, he appeared to be a man no more than twenty or twenty-one, young, extremely young. " We just need to clear the marine transports that landed a little while ago. It'll just take us five minutes. " " Affirmative Maranar, we'll wait until you say different. " David replied and switched to open channel. " My squad, their clearing the flight deck for us to land so we're gonna have to do some circling for a little while. Wait for my all clear signal and then you may land. " " Yes sir. " they replied simultaneously. They circled for about ten minutes until the comm officer gave the all clear. David made his usual combat approach smoothly adapting to the narrow opening that was provided for him to land and gave the all clear. Even as he made his approach and moved into the flight deck he could see the deck crew scattering about like scared chickens preparing to accept forty two fighters, Steel and Able squad and the other squads that had gotten the same transfer. He immediately began to miss the dance like order of the deck crew back on the Liberty, a cargo ship like the Maranar was not meant to take some many fighters at one time of such size. They weren't that big but they were still larger than the e-frames they used to use.

They touched down a little roughly and a few inches a way from the net, not one of his better landings. He was quickly pulled off the flight deck and they rest of his squad began to make their landing approaches, many making better landings. He as usual ignored the ladder that many people used and jumped down from his fighter. As he hit the flight deck a shrill piping sound cut through the air sending a corkscrew shiver down his spine. He hated the welcome aboard ritual that they usually did when a high ranking officer or important person came aboard. He looked to the left toward the back of the flight deck seeing the fighters that he had been put in charge of for this mission. They all looked new at least, but the Vigilance fighters being in front of the Jaguar light fighters were gonna be a problem. Moving the heavier fighter would waste precious minutes if the crunch was on and they needed a quick recon launch, that would have to be changed immediately. He turned back to the crew lined up in bright reds and blues of the varying uniforms. " Permission to come aboard. " he snapped trying not to sound peeved at the annoyance of what he had already gone through. " Permission granted. " squeaked a young officer, his voiced cracked. Suddenly he heard a familiar voice as his squad lined up next to him " David? David Sames is that you? " He turned his head to his right his squad also noticing. A fairly young woman about his age maybe slightly older came over to them. She had strawberry colored hair and bright blue eyes which made her look like a younger woman but when you got a good look at her it was easier to tell that she was in her late twenties. " Janice Karabac? They transferred you on this bucket too huh? " David said his tone slightly sardonic but glad to see a familiar face he hadn't seen in a long time. " Friend of yours colonel? " Jenny said leaning over David's shoulder. " Yep. One I haven't seen in a long time. " David said happily.

" Oh, you'll find a whole lot of the old crowd here. We pretty much stayed together for the whole time, your the only one who left. Unfortunately we're the only experienced pilots on the ships too, with the exception of the ones arriving today. " she said and smiled broadly. Janice then looked to either side of David looking at his squad and then asked " This yer new crowd, colonel? " " Yep and a close one at that. " David replied. Nara took the initiative and stepped forward to introduce herself " Hi, I'm Lieutenant Nara Burns. So how is it on this ship anyway? " Janice looked at her and said " I'll leave that to you to decide. You guys been together long? " " No, not really. " Nara said looking at David " He was a welcome edition though. Especially after getting all the people who couldn't fly worth a damn. He also replaced our old commander, who died recently. J.T. Marsh was replaced couldn't handle the stress from the first few alien invasions, but in the end he died a noble death. " Janice suddenly looked surprised and Nara cocked her head " Is anything wrong? " she asked. Janice looked to David for a second and then said " No. The name just sounded a little familiar for a second but it was nothing. " " There you people are. Where have you been? " said a voice and they all turned to a towering dark figure standing in the hallway connecting to the flight deck. " I am Harry Baris, captain of the Maranar. This yer first time on a CVE colonel? " the captain began. " Yes sir. Do you need all of us sir? " David asked and cocked his head. The captain leaned over and took a look at his squad " No, they can go. " David turned to his squad and said " The captain only needs me so your all dismissed. Do whatever you want for now but be where I can find you all later. " they saluted him and walked off. " Obedient bunch. " the captain commented " Only when I want them to be. I hate suck-ups " David replied. " Ah yes well, do you want me to show you around the ship? " the captain asked trying to be civil. " We have business to take care of first don't we? " David asked. " Yes. Yes, I suppose your right. Follow me colonel. " the captain replied a little surprised. They walked into the makeshift briefing room that was stuffed into a storage room along with a whole bunch of other instruments to jam any signals of people trying to listen in. The captain squeezed past the holo display and one wall of instruments and activated the display. " As you may have already heard from your former captain what we are doing is decoying some of the enemy fleet if not most of it into breaking off their attack against our forces at Mars. In a short time we are to jump through a back door to a neighboring system and give some of their colonies a little trouble. Now we will not be directly attacking the colony so much as it's moon which has quite a few military large military installations and do to them what we did to the bases on Mars. Your job as usually will be to give the jumptroops air cover when they land and try to take out as many ships of the enemy as possible. " captain Baris said in a professional tone using the holo display as background. David looked at the display and asked " Is this gonna be the mission we're gonna fly? " " Of course. I wouldn't play this thing if it didn't relate to the mission. Just because I'm the captain of a cargo ship doesn't mean I'm stupid. Now, would you like to see the ship? " the captain replied. David shrugged and went along with it knowing the rivalry between the front liners and the people at the rear was nothing new. " Yes I was with cargo ship design and helped transform this ship into a carrier. Cargo ship design isn't very interesting oh no. " the captain began, his voice suddenly cold. "No it's not as large or as powerful as the kinda carriers you've been on, it's just a little cargo ship. " the captain raved on. David cocked an eyebrow and merely said " Excuse me sir? " " Huh oh. Here's our bridge. " he began again in a normal tone now. They entered a dimly lit room were a small crew of various officer and non-coms wandered around or sat hunched over the even more varied instruments and displays. " They're slow right now but they'll the get the hang of it. " Baris commented curtly. David could tell from looking at the officers their displeasure with that statement. He led him to another hanger bay and started talking again " After taking out most of the machinery used for cargo shipments, and adding other equipment used in launches we are now able to hold about 40 fighter per bay, not including the ones taking up space below deck. " David looked around thoughtfully " Storage space below deck is good. Unfortunately by what I see from the size of the bay doors we can only launch 2 ships at a time. " " It's a problem we're working on. " Baris growled. David picked up the annoyance in his voice " Don't take it too personally cap'n. If I was insulting you or your ship I'd say it outright. Still it's a matter of time. " David answered calmly. " Ah, I see. Let's see the rest of the ship. " the captain said calming slightly. David looked out of the window at the particle cannon turrets and the torpedo and missile firing ports. They were the old style fixed position systems from not too long ago, no real turret just a hole in the ship. This limited the ships ability to fire in different possibly crucial directions. If a T'quan pilot was to ever realize this he could fly right up to the ship and hug it's back rendering the ship almost helpless. David opened his mouth as to say something but then decided against it seeing the way Baris babbled on about the design. " We also can serve in convoy duty, which is what we're doing right now. Yeah were gonna hook up with two other official light carriers. Yeah we actually have to work with those snobs in brass, thinking their ship is so much better than ours is. They say we've been losing too many to the occasional T'quan or pirate raids. No sense in tying up their precious fleet carriers which are meant to do the job oh noooo. " captain Baris muttered in a very sarcastic, cold tone. David just stood there holding back his feelings but could help but give an exasperated sigh. The captain finally looked at him and said in a suddenly cheerful tone " But I'm just babbling do you wanna see the engineering room. " he paused and without giving David a chance to answer. As soon as they got in a short, old, slightly greasy man stood up and saluted Baris " Harry? " Captain Baris tuned back to David and said " This is our chief engineer Thaddius Ungbal. He's been working with Exofleet recent through or refit to get new weapons, new, heavier armor, and most surprising of his 'negotiating this new omega class engine. " Thaddius beamed slightly. " Like the kind on standard class starship. Oughta be use if we ever get ourselves in a tight scrape with a Ra'Tinka class destroyer. " " But that'll never happen. I seriously doubt it. " the captain replied curtly. " Sir if we're going where command says were going were gonna need this speed badly. Cause where we're goin, you right we're never gonna see one. We're probably gonna see like three or four of 'em. " David said in a very serious tone. " Not while I'm in this ships seat. " the captain said, he was obviously and understandably nervous a Ra'Tinka class destroyer was not something you'd want to mess with often. The T'quan, despite all of the advances humans have made in the last year and a half, were still technologically superior in almost all aspects. David shrugged and said " I think I oughta go and meet my pilots " in a tone that indicated it was best to end the conversation. " Oh yes, uh well, Dismissed! " the captain snapped and saluted the colonel who returned the salute and then David went off to find his own squad.

" You knew J.T. when he was young?! " Jenny blurted out at Janice's last comment. Jenny then became calm and asked " What was he like? " in a gentle and quiet tone. " Well I... " Janice began but then was cut off by the voice of a friend. " Who is this little one. Sent by the admiral to kill us all I guess. " the man said his voice had, an almost languid air to it and dripped with depression and futility. " Uh, yeah. Guys, this is 2nd lieutenant Jack Akieny we like to call him Doomsday. Don't worry he talks negative like that to everyone he knows or meets. It's normal for him. " Janice said trying to reassure Able squad of Jack's attitude. " I'm not a negative person, I am a realist Janice, you should know that by now. " Jack replied slightly offended. " Is there a difference? " Janice asked with a sort of sarcastic humor. " Yes there is. " Jack said in the same tone as before. " Coulda fooled me. " Jenny said with the same sarcastic humor as Janice. " 2nd lieutenant Jack Akieny. Just the way I left you and as negative as ever. " David said walking in the same tone as Jenny and Janice in his voice and he smiled at them slyly. " I'm a realist commander. Something in my bones tells me I'll wind up dying and I guess commanders like you are being sent to make sure that happens. " Jack moaned. " You hung out with these guys for five years? " Kaz asked in a surprised and a little annoyed tone, David and Jack ignore him. " No one has been sent to kill you Jack. They aren't conspirators or traitors, they're normal, pilots. " David said urging his point. " You're right commander. There couldn't be more than a dozen spies and traitors on the Maranar. " Jack said trying to sound more normal. David gave an exasperated sigh and turned to the rest of his squad " Well we better go and orient some of the pilots already on the ship. From what I heard from the captain quite a few of them a just pups and they're gonna need our help gettin on their feet. " " Rookie's? Beginners?! More of them?! Where we're goin we need veteran aces to back us up. " Kaz said. " I know, I know, but we're running outta pilots and sooner or later the old heroes from the second Neosapien war are all gonna die and these people are gonna be the defenders of the Earth. They're gonna have to have more experience than they already got so we're gonna give it to him. " David replied. " Alright. So well see ya guys later I guess. Oh and I gotta talk to you when your done with the newbies. David walked into a briefing room that had been altered to hold more pilots. In some areas the walls had been pushed out and rounded make room for seating. The seat were positioned in a circular position almost like a theater that had been stretched around a central area where the holo display was. A bunch of tired and languid looking young troopers filed into the room talking and laughing like they were on vacation. A few noticed David's slight look of annoyance and came to attention as soon as they came to their seats. Their obedience didn't change commander David Sames's attitude but it would make for less of a headache when it came to giving orders. " At ease, be seated. " David said calmly and the pilots took their seats. " I just have a few things to say to you for this session. First of all for those of you who came to attention that's good, you'll make good pencils. " he began and the group broke out into nervous laughter. " I want very little, all I expect is for you to get the mission and follow orders when needed. I don't like suck up's, I don't want you to be suck up's so for those of you who've already written your scripts burn them when you get out because they're gonna get you no where with me. " he said and the group broke into the same nervous laughter as before. " Secondly, I wanna express the fact that I know some of you think your very hot stuff right now, now that your wearin a brand new shiny pair of wings. If that's your attitude I want you to get rid of it now. If you have that attitude through your career, believe me your headed for a very short career in the Exofleet. For those of you who are scared, that's part good, stay scared. I'm scared every time I climb into that cockpit, no matter how many times I've done it. It's kept me and my teammates alive through all the conflicts with the neosapiens and pirates and some of this war. But don't let your fear get so great that it takes control. That'll kill you and your teammates. " the room was totally silent. " Starting early tomorrow at twenty-four hundred hours I want you all up and on the flight deck, at twenty four, forty hours I want yer birds to be prepped and in space. We're gonna be on a half schedule of training, for the rest of the day, well you'll find out after your training. Actually, you'll be moaning and groaning because we don't have a full schedule, that means we're gonna hafta do everything double time, and that means no breaks. We're gonna drill, drill, drill and then drill some more. So get some rest and don't be late, Dismissed. " he finally finished and with sighs everyone got up and headed out. " Looks like you got the easy bunch again colonel. " Marsala said walking up behind David. David turned to look at him and managed a slight smile. " I'm not saying anything about them till tomorrow. They have yet to show me they can be on time and in space by the times I've set. " David said in a serious tone. " Yes, but they're much more obedient than the group Nara and I have. " Marsala said his eyes widened. " They're that bad, huh? " Janice, David's sort of assistant teacher asked walking up to them, Marsala nodded his expression turning grave. Janice immediately felt sorry for him and put a hand on his shoulder and said " All I can really tell is that I know they've had an easy ride out here from the homeworlds. Tell them the party's over and don't be easy on them, but don't be too tough. " Marsala looked at her like he didn't know what she was talking about " Tell Nara what I said. She'll know what I'm talking abo... " " Marsala here knows what yer talkin about. He just has never been tough on anyone and doesn't know how to be tough. " David said calmly interrupting. " No, David I know how to be, tough. But I have never done it before and it's a little bit of shock. " Marsala said in his usual calm tone. " Oh. " both Janice and David said simultaneously, " Well your gonna hafta be tough on them if they're a rowdy bunch, or else they won't listen. And tell Nara anyway. " Janice said. Just then the rest of the squad filed into the room to meet up with their friends. " So what's next. " Kaz asked excitedly. " We go and get some rest, no combat missions today people. Relax, get to know people and the ship, whatever. " David said to his squad, and they all filed out of the room.

David walked quickly up to Janice and said " You wanted to talk to me Lieutenant Karabac? " " Hmm? Oh, yes. " Janice said looking to him, she obviously was a little nervous, David merely looked at her and waited for her to start. " Well during the time you were with the captain, I sorta mentioned that you and their former commander J.T. Marsh knew each other when you were younger. " she began and lowered her head between her shoulders. David looked at her wide-eyed for a second and then smoothed his features " And the problem is? " he asked very curiously. Janice shrugged and said " Well it's several things. One, I thought that since that's more about your life you might've wanted to tell them on your own time. Two, J.T. was a man they respected and were close friends with. Since they know about the fact that you two knew each other when you were younger they might want to know more, I'm worried that them learning about your past with him might bring up some negative feelings toward you, they might even blame you for his death. You know that you two weren't exactly best buddies, David. " Her face took on a worried expression, David's remained as it was " They were bound to find out someday anyway. And it'll be my problem not yours. " he said in a reasoning voice. " But still, won't that cause some problems, or questions about your leadership? " she asked curiously. " Maybe, maybe not. They know I was not the cause of his death and I've changed since then, a lot. " David said and put his arm over her shoulder. She looked at it for a second and then gently pushing it off she said " I can see that. " David sighed and then said " I'm gonna go and see if I can find another friend of mine. Would you like to tag along and meet her? " " Naw. I'm gonna go and hang around Jack and Pietro. " she said. " Pietro? Wasn't he... " David said his eye's becoming wide. " Kicked out? No, he was just was put on probation and then sent to a grunt training center. During the war with the need for pilots he was put back with us as a pilot. Commander Wralings used that time and her sway to make the transfer permanent and there he is, in our squad. " Janice explained. " Maya still alive? " he asked quickly and she nodded and smiled " Well after I spend a little time with my friend Elizabeth I'll come down. " He gave a quick wave and disappeared down the hall, Janice muttered something to herself and smiled. She turned around to face Jade who startled her. Jenny looked straight at Janice her arms folded and a worried look on her face. " Jenny please don't do that! Now what is it? " Janice said at first in an excited tone and then calming down. " I was coming by to ask David a question. I heard what you were talking about and I have to know, what happened? I heard that their relationship was not the best one, why? " Jade inquired urging Janice to answer. " I... I can't tell you. Those are questions for David to answer whenever he sees fit. " Janice replied and tried to walk away, but Jenny grabbed her. " Was it really that bad? " Jenny asked becoming worried again. " No! No, I just think that since it's his life he has the right to tell you when he wants to. Besides, I already told part of it for him and even though he says it doesn't matter I don't think he'd appreciate me telling you his life story for him. I have to go now I have to have a talk with some of my other friends. " Janice said and walked off. " Bye. " Jade said in a silent worried tone. She walked back into the rec-room where her squad usually hung out. " I really think he's wrong to do it and besides... Hi Jenny. " Nara said noticing Jenny for the first time. Jenny plopped down on the ouch next to Nara and Maggie. Maggie leaned over getting a good look at Jenny's worried expression and then asked in a concerned voice " What's wrong? " Everyone around them in her squad became silent as they were also curious to hear what Jenny was going to say. Jenny did not move but she said " Well I was walking down the hall trying to find David so I could ask him about what's gonna happen after training tomorrow. I found him, talking to Janice Karabac, his old friend. Well I heard them talking about hat Janice had told us and she sounded kinda worried so I stopped to listen. While they were talking I heard a little more about the relationships between David and J.T. and I heard that it wasn't that good of one, and that was not so bad. After their discussion when I was sure David was out of earshot I approached Janice about it. She refused to tell me, telling me that she wanted me to wait for David to tell me on her own time. There was nothing wrong with that it either but, the was she said it though it... it worried me. Now I'm just worried about what was there, what happened, and I ask myself, was it really that bad? " " Hmmm, sounds like a little more of a personal thing with you. " Nara said and took a sip of some coffee, and Jenny looked at her surprised. " What I'm saying Jenny is that her attitude could've been nothing. We don't know what might've happened to her earlier in the day, and it might've had nothing to do with J.T. and David's relationship. As for the fact of the mentioning that their relationship wasn't that good of one, we all have things like that when we're young. It's like a phase, you always have one person, who, I'll just say you not exactly friendly with, and sometimes they meet up later. I'm sure that whatever happened in them when they were young went away, they grew up. " Nara explained in an understanding tone. " But what about the part of him hiding it from us. " Jenny asked. " He's not hiding it from us kid. " Bronski said. " There are things about everyone in Able squad that not everyone else in that squad don't know. I called a personal life, something that even your closest friend will not know, but that doesn't make us any different in each others eye's. Just like the relationship between J.T. and David doesn't make David any worse as a leader or a friend because that's in the past. How he is now is how he is, if he wants to tell us, he will. If he doesn't want us to know he won't, because it's his personal life. " Alec added. " I guess you guys are right. I shouldn't worry about it. Thanks. " Jenny said. " That's why we're here. " Kaz said his helmet resting on his head. They changed the subject and quickly moved to a better more humorous subject about Alec and Kaz's class.

Colleen O'Reilly ran down a long dark corridor almost tripping over objects that randomly appeared in the hall. She looked back her confused and harried face showing her true feelings and saw the hundreds of black yellow and red, man eating alien spiders that they had encountered at the alien base. She ran abruptly and painful into an e-frame that appeared suddenly as the other objects. The figure inside was covered in a dark shroud and was silent. She held onto it with all her might as a barbed appendage shot out from one of the spiders maws and grabbed her ankle, the barbs digging into her leg. " Help me. God help me! " she cried holding stead fast to the e-frame. Let go to unwrap the thing and she risked being pulled in and devoured by the spiders snapping mandibles hold onto the e-frame and she'd never get away. Tears trickled down her face from pain and fear, she had no weapons and no armor. She cried for the e-frame pilot to help her again and shouted angrily at it " You can help me! Why don't you help me?! " " Because you need to let go of the pain, and the past. " she was shocked at the voice, it was J.T.'s. She finally noticed it was his own e-frame with all the dents and markings included " How can I do any thing with these spiders. If I let go the spiders will be all over me. " she said and began to loose her grip. " Just like if you let go of my death you fear that you'll loose me. That you'll forget me, and all your friends and yourself if you let go but it's the opposite. By holding on to only this one aspect of us you are loosing us and your loosing yourself. By only thinking of our deaths your loosing sight of what we really meant to you. Your forgetting what we were, what we were like, as with you. Your not loosing your physical grip your loosing your mental grip because your forgetting about us, who we really were because all you can think about that has to do with us is death. And this is coming closer to your heart. " J.T. explained trying to reason with Colleen. Her father's dagger suddenly appeared and floated closer to her heart. " Forget about what happened. Remember the good times and only then will you begin to recover. Take this blade and do away with it. " Longfeather added appearing to the right of them. Suddenly without thinking and forgetting about the man eating spiders she reached for the blade. She suddenly went flying off the e-frame since she had to free an arm, which was vital for her to hold on to grab the blade and pull it from in front of her heart. She screamed as she was quickly dropped and pulled toward the spider's snapping slimy maw, no one making any motion to grab her. As she was pulled in there was a bright flash as they stepped back and she woke up with a start. She was as usual sweat and tear drenched. She sat up and hugged her knees rocking back and forth for a moment. Again she stopped and laid still for a moment thinking about their words. Her face grew into that of one in deep thought and she sat there for a moment. Several minutes later she stood up quickly got dressed and walked out of the barracks.

Colleen O'Reilly walked onto the flight deck where some jumptroops were hanging out. She noticed a tightly packed group of jumptroops all gathered around one thing. They laughed and talked loudly sometimes only looking up to taunt deck crew or pilots walking by. She narrowed her eyes and took on a annoyed and slightly angry expression as she watched one of the jumptroops try to get up and fall over without even taking a step forward, they were extremely and totally drunk. The worst of it was she knew this group and they were supposed to be on duty. She gave a heavy sigh and marched over to were the group was sitting. One looked up at her wavering even sitting he said " Hey baby, how 'bout a T'quan shell necklace or how bout a T'quan warrior tooth as a trophy. " She looked at them with a disgusted expression and said " You guys must be outta it. Do you know what your supposed to be doing? " They all paused and looked at each other for a second and looked back at her " Uh, no. " one said his voice very much reflecting the fact that at the moment he didn't care. Colleen put her hand on her forehead and groaned " Ohhhh. You're supposed to be on duty and checking the equipment. " she groaned. O'Reilly then looked at them angrily, they drew back, one fell of the crate he was sitting on. " I want all of you to go down to medical get sobered and then get back down here and do your job, alright. " she growled. " What if we can't find our way down, girl? " one said not taking her seriously. " GO, NOW!!! " she yelled and then they became afraid some of them quickly scrambled and staggered down to medical. They disappeared and O'Reilly once again put her head into her hand. Joana walked up behind her and said nothing but O'Reilly noticing her out of the corner of her eye groaned " I think I have a huge headache. " " Comes with being a leader. Lead the pack, get a headache. Anyway it's about time someone got them outta here, I think they were trying to impress us in some weird and twisted way. " Joana replied sardonically and put a hand on her shoulder. Colleen looked at her friend and managed a weak smile which died quickly and said " Well whatever they were trying to do, unless it was to disgust and annoy us it wasn't working. So, except for that group how's the preparations going." " Slowly, we've had several irresponsible groups so were short a few hands. Also since we're traveling on a ship that isn't meant to carry this much stuff we've hand quite a bit of trouble storing stuff like weapons, vehicles, supplies. You name it, it's on the floor. "

Maggie suddenly brushed by them heading toward on area where they were hoisting some fighters to the ceiling. " Hey, hey, hey, HEY! What in the solar system possessed you to do this. " Maggie asked in a surprised tone. Colleen and Joana walked quickly up behind her just in time to catch the reply " We had to make room for the jumptroop shuttles when they came abroad a few hours ago. And besides, when we get to our destination they'll be taking off first so it's better they're in the front. " said the technician hoisting the fighters to the ceiling. " Yes, but the fighters aren't meant to be hoisted for an extended amount of time and what's wrong with changing the order? " Maggie said getting annoyed. " We... listen I don't know I was just asked to hoist the fighters to the ceiling to make room. I don't make any decisions. " said the technician giving up on her. " Alright but your gonna be the one held responsible when these things drop and happen to explode into a firestorm. " Maggie called trying to regain his attention but he ignored her. Maggie turned around to face O'Reilly who had her arms folded and she had a slightly worried look on her face, Joana also looked worried but her arms were at her sides. " Colleen I thought you... " Maggie asked. " No the med-techs were able to determine the poisonous effects weren't as bad as it looked. They sucked the stuff outta me and just sent me on my way. By the way, about what you were arguing about with that guy, is what you said true? " asked Colleen in a serious but worried tone. Maggie sighed heavily " The cables he's using likely will hold the fighter in position. Unfortunately if it does drop, like in a heavy battle or something, yes it will explode. Their on constantly for a quick take-off so there's no safety against that. " O'Reilly stepped forward " But generally there really is little chance that these fighters will just randomly fall, right. " she asked calmly. " Generally yes. But there are other problems I'll have to discuss with the head techie of this ship. " Maggie replied in the same tone. " What else is wrong? " Colleen asked. " Well, when we hafta take those fighter down for take-off it'll take a while to get them down and take-off. Two the way the shuttles are positioned, well it's gonna be a while till you guys see some action, relatively speaking. There's likely to be a scramble before then and we'd have to move the transports so the fighters can even take-off. During them time we move the transports and move the fighters into take-off position the enemy might be able to do quite a bit of damage to the ship and the rest of the convoy. Every ship in a full scramble is important and crucial to minimize damage. " She sighed and continued " I've gotta have a talk with the head technician about this. " Maggie then squeezed her way past Colleen and Joana and headed off toward another part of the flight deck. Joana and Colleen looked at each other shrugged, and walked off.

Maggie walked over to the head technician who was directing work being done on the Maranar itself. She walked directly up behind the head technician and said " What's with the new position plans for the fighters and transports? Everyone knows that if there's a full scramble it'll take a while to clear the transports and take down the other fighters. " The head technician turned around in the middle of what she was saying and looked at her calmly. " I'm sorry ma'am but that mess wasn't my idea. It was the captains idea, says he wants a quick take-off for the transports when we get there and that we'll go around the danger area's. " he said in a tone that clearly implicated that he didn't like the set up either. Maggie narrowed her eyes and said " Change it back. It'll be a lot more work, but I don't wanna risk people's lives because of someone's stupid preference. I'll go talk to the captain. " " It won't work I argued with him for a while myself, he won't listen. " the head technician warned. " Oh he'll listen, because we're gonna change it anyway. " Maggie said in a low tone and then walked off toward the hallway. " Suit yerself. But I don't think you'll like what happens. " he called after Maggie, she ignored him. As she walked quickly down the hall looking annoyed Elizabeth noticed her. " What's with you? " Elizabeth asked and began to follow her back down the hall. Maggie looked up at her and then turned her head back to in front of her " Captain Baris really screwed up the order of the flight deck with his preference. I'm changing it and I'm gonna let him know. " Maggie said curtly. " Ah. You ready for the storm that'll hit ya when he finds out you went against his orders? " Elizabeth asked. " I'm more than ready. Why, you against it? " Maggie said stopped and looked at Elizabeth. " Oh no, no. I know that you have much better judgment than he does, muuuch better. But I'm just worried about what he'll do and say when he finds out. " Elizabeth said. " I'll be fine. Besides ever since we got her a few days ago I've already learned a few thing about him. " Maggie said. " Like what " Elizabeth asked and put her hands on her hips. " Like the main fact in this subject, which is that he'll back off when he knows someone else is right. " Maggie said and smiled. " Well, you feel you can do it so I'm not gonna stop ya. " Elizabeth said, stopped, and walked back the other way. Maggie looked at the Elizabeth's shrinking form, shrugged and continued to Captain Baris's office. " So your trying to tell me and others who know a lot more than you about this how to do our jobs?! " Maggie said slamming her fists angrily on captain Baris's desk. He looked calmly at were she slammed her fist and looked at her and said " Are you finished? " " No sir I'm not finished. I' m not just talking about this but all the decisions you force on people about things you know nothing about. " Maggie retorted sternly. " I am the captain of this ship and I am trying to make things as orderly as possible and I am ordering you to put things back the way I asked. " Baris said trying to keep calm and raising an eyebrow. " Sir anyone can see that if it's the way you ask it and there's a surprise attack it'll take too long to rearrange the order. " she paused and sighed. " The only reason the shuttles ever took off first was because they were kept below deck. This ship can't do that, they'll have to go last. " she said leaning over his desk again. " How do you know well be attacked? " Baris asked. Maggie gave an angry, exasperated sigh and moaned " Were in alien space. The aliens don't like us. They will kill us when they see us. Is that enough of an answer for you. " " Don't you take that tone with me or I'll put everything the way I want it and put you on probation for the rest of the trip. " Baris said in an angry tone and got up. One side of Maggie's mouth curled up and she laughed " You can't do that, you don't have the luxury. " Baris sat quickly down gave a heavy sigh and said " Alright, alright. But don't come crying to me if anything goes wrong. " " Oh don't worry I won't. " Maggie said sarcastically and then walked out of the room. Baris gave another frustrated sigh and mumbled " I so feel like leaving them behind, maybe. " he shook his head and returned to his work.

As Maggie quickly walked down the hall she was joined by her lover Alec DeLeon. " So Mags, what've you been up to lately? " he said cheerily. She turned to him smiling sort of a triumphant smile and his eyes widened slightly " Who'd you manage to tell off this time? " " The captain, and don't call me Mags. " she said curtly. " The captain? You must be better at arguing than I thought cause he's unreasonable and totally arrogant. " Alec said with surprise. " Well I learned that he tends to back off when he knows he's totally wrong and the other person is right. Now, you only come up to me when you want something or to ask me something so what is it? " Maggie said, stepped back and folded her arms. " You know me all too well Maggie. Yes I do want to talk to you but could we please talk in private? " Alec asked and looked around. " O-kay. " Maggie said slowly and raised an eyebrow. Alec walked off and Maggie reluctantly followed him to his quarters. She came in and noticed that even for a small space such as this one he kept his room particularly neat compared to the other pilot's quarters and she wondered how he does it. He sat down on the edge of his bed and motioned for her to sit down next to him. She sat down quietly and looked at him and said " So, what did ya wanna talk to me about? " " Well umm... I just wanted to tell you that, I just think that your getting too serious about your work and spending too much time with it. " he began his tone indicating he was a little nervous. His eyes, when he looked at her portrayed a more loving aspect partially giving away what he was trying to tell her, he never was that good when trying to hide his true feelings. You could always tell when he was trying to hide his feelings when he didn't look at you, and you didn't have to be really observant to see this you just had to pay attention. Alec obviously was not trying to hide his feelings. Maggie looked at him intently trying to figure out what he was trying to tell her and there was a long pause. " Listen, maybe your right when you say I've been too involved in my work but during this time at this place I have to be that way. We're not just floating around taking things in stride, we're in a crisis Alec. " she said stressing her point. " Yes, but maybe if you could just take a little time out, stop worrying all the time. There are other experienced tech crew on the Maranar now, they know what they are doing. " he said softly. Maggie looked down at the back of her hands resting on her lap and then looked at him understandingly " I know what you're really trying to say. That you want me to spend more time with you. I don't know, Alec I can't... " she looked back down at her palms. He touched her cheek and gently made her look at him again and he merely asked " Why not? " " I don't know. " she replied in a silent tone, her eyelids half lowered. " I think you do. Tell me why wouldn't we be able to spend more time with each other? " he asked and she remained silent. " Does this perchance have anything to do with J.T. and Colleen because a lot of the squads problems ever since he died seem to be connected to that. " he said in a gentle tone. " That's partially it but not all of it. " she said. Her voice trembled as if she were on the verge of tears, there was a long pause between them till Maggie calmed down and spoke again. " I'm sorry but it's still hard for me to remember it. " she pause again Alec knew what she was talking about since there were was only one event that could make her feel like this. " Ever since you, left, I became afraid of getting really involved with anyone. But when you came back that fear increased because I was afraid that if I ever tried again, to love you, that I would lose you again. After J.T. died I began to see O'Reilly as smarter than I was. She didn't want to take a chance with her life, her love again and just let J.T. rest. I guess that I haven't changed much, even after all we've been through. " she said, looked down again and looked back up at Alec as he spoke. " I, didn't know you felt that way. Why didn't you come and talk to me sooner, cause now that I know that reason I really want to help fix that. " he asked taking one of her hands in his. " Because I knew you'd try to do this. To try and get me involved again. " she said silently. " Scuse me for loving you " he said and she managed a weak smile. " Now ya feeling better.? he asked and held her closer for a second, she nodded. " Good because I want, to take you and buy you some lunch how's that sound? " he said in a playfully joking tone. Maggie pushed his arm away and laughed " Alright just let me go down and finish something I was working on and talk to one of the other tech officers and I'll meet you there in two hours. " Alec nodded in agreement and she waved to him as she left " See ya there. " The door closed behind her and Alec chuckled to himself softly, sometimes Weston can be quite a girl.

James sat across from the group of overly bored young pilots and the one T'quan rebel pilot telling one of his war stories. " So there I was, the battle was getting real bad. Suddenly he come at me like a angry hornet. And then... " " You did a trrriple axisss ssspin hit yourrr afterrrburrrnerrrz and made the two rrrun into each otherrr. " Q'muia said in a deadpan tone. " Hey who's tell this story me or you? " James said angrily. " McDouglasss my friend we have hearrrd that sssame story thouzandsss of timesss and az the humansss sssay it keepsss getting tallerrr everrry time. " Q'muia said in a smart tone. " It does not ya word slurring, shell wearing, bug. " James said even more angrily. " Sssometimesss I wonder why I botherrred to sssave you at all frrrom those close combat warriors afterrr you made that emerrrgency landing afterrr getting hit. " Q'muia said smartly. " It was an act of conscious and that bug that shot me down got a lucky shot. " James said. " I didn't know that being steadily burned by your pursuerrr wasss counted az a lucky ssshot. " Q'muia said resting her head on her hand. They began a fierce argument which dispersed the rest of the pilots among them Kaz Takagi. He left the rec-room and headed to the bar nodding at the two's sad behavior. Kaz walked into the bar feeling extremely bored. Lately, everyone in his squad has been using their off duty time to do thing they should be doing on duty. Kaz used to sit around and have a good time with his friends but know he was reduced to listening to James McDouglas's old war stories which he didn't find a good for of entertainment. He walked into the bar and looked around at the sparsely populated room. Kaz then noticed one of his good friends Alec sitting at a table drinking some scotch. Relieved at knowing that not all of his teammates were acting like squares he walked over to were Alec was sitting and greeted him as Alec stood up. " Well it's good to know that at least one other person still knows how to have fun besides me. How ya doing Alec. " Kaz said with sarcastic humor. " Fine. But ya know this work helps extend our lives so we have more time for other stuff. " Alec said making his point in the same tone as Kaz. " Yeah yeah. So whaddya doin here, no one goes to this place without a reason. " Kaz said suddenly interested. " Oh, personal reasons. That's all I'll tell you. " Alec said. They both suddenly noticed another young pilot staring and smirking at them with his eyes narrowed making him seem dark and mysterious. Kaz turned his head back to Alec " Who's the weird guy trying to freak us out? " Alec then brought his attention back to Kaz and answered " Probably just one of the new recruits. Anyway Kaz could you do me a favor. I'm having a meeting with someone about something important as soon as, that person comes so could you please leave for a while. " Alec asked being as nice about it as he could, he never liked to shove her friends away. " Suuure. " Kaz said smiled broadly and walked off. Alec nodded and went back to whatever he was thinking about. Kaz walked to the door passing the mysterious new pilot and the pilot grabbed him by the shoulder suddenly becoming serious, dead serious " It's gonna be a long wait for your friend. Accidents happen. " Kaz didn't take this seriously and said let go of me. " he said talking a disliking the new pilot and then mumbled below his breath " Freak. " The pilots just returned to his position and laughed softly while Kaz walked back down the hall.

" I don't care if there's no more underground storage just find another place to put that ordinance. " one of the tech officers to several other working technicians. " And put it where? Closer to the living quarters? " said Maggie walking up behind him. " Shouldn't you be working? " the tech officer said obviously in a bad mood. " I need a weapons link integrator, omni direction communicator cables for the directional indicator and a generator to engine power regulator. " she said walked past him and picked up what she needed. The tech officer began to follow her and said " That ordinance is dangerous. We get into a bad situation and start taking the hits those are likely to explode and then the entire flight deck will be in flames. " " Yes but if that happens the walls in the flight deck are better suited to contain any explosion that might happen the others aren't. And if they explode I'd rather it happen here than near one of the living quarters or engineering. They'd have enough problems without having to deal with an ordinance explosion. Now I'm just gonna tell you that I'm gonna work on this one last fighter that really needs it and then I have to leave, I have to meet someone. Oh and by the way you don't have to worry about the captain, he won't be a problem anymore. " she said turned around and went to do her work. The tech officer saluted her and then beneath his breath he mumbled " In a fight the majority of the on-board crew'll be here and, accidents happen. " The officer was very right, accidents happen but sometimes they aren't so much of accidents. Behind some of shelves containing jump fuel was a timer which was attached to a various yet quickly assembled array of wires and explosives. Still it ticked away unheard, unseen, only minutes remaining. Maggie worked almost right next to the thing not knowing of the danger she was in. It would be so easy to see it if she was paying attention, but that the way the person who had set it expected her to be like. Fifteen minutes later she got up and mumbled " Oh this thing is no good. Why did I have the luck to pick up a broken system temperature regulator. " She began to walk back toward parts storage just as the bombs time ran out and the shelf full of jump fuel exploded outward. There was a chain reaction among the stock piles of ordinance. The tech crew fled every which way trying desperately to escape the explosion. The force of the explosion pushed another shelf full of coolant that had just been delivered for the heat sinks on to Maggie, the tech officer and two other technicians. The flames washed over almost everything on the flight deck, chain reaction igniting more fires and more explosions. Alarms went off sounding throughout the ship. Captain Baris ran up to one of the damage control officers suddenly panicking from all the alarms going off suddenly. " Damage control what is happening?! " he yelled hysterically. " Explosion in the flight deck sir we've lost our ability to launch fighters. " the officer said quickly. " Get all fire teams and anyone available of that explosion now and contain it at all costs. We could loose our entire fighter compliment or worse the ship. " Baris said thoroughly panicked. " The damage control officer got on the intercom and said " All fire teams and experienced personnel report to the flight deck there is an emergency on the flight deck. Repeat All fire teams and experienced personnel report to the flight deck there is an emergency on the flight deck. " The officer repeated himself one more time recording his voice and then set the message to repeat it self over and over again. Then he turned his computer to ship status to monitor the damage as it went.

Alec and the rest of the people in the bar looked to the intercom as the first message was heard. Alec stood up quickly " Maggie! " he said in a horrified tone and ran out. The young man leaning next to the door remained calm and watched him as he left and his eyebrows arched upward and he thought " It had to be done. Revenge must be taken for their failure. " Alec ran down the hall to where the fire team were suiting up and grabbed an extinguisher. " Hey you you're not... " one of the firefighters began. " I'll return it when I'm done. " Alec said running toward the flight deck. The extinguisher was big and heavy but with his adrenaline and worry for Maggie it was no heavier than his sidearm. People moved out of his way to make way for him quickly followed by the fully suited fire teams. He finally stopped at the airtight blast door designed to contain the explosion and fire till the fire teams got there. Suddenly he was slammed against the wall by the fast moving fire teams. " Sorry son but this is our area. " the fire commander said and them opened the door quickly. The door opened to reveal a flight deck still being sprayed by fire retardant. Alec waded into the room being as careful as possible. His sight was partially blocked by smoke the now very dim room only lighted by the raging flames in certain areas. For Alec walking through the place was like an obstacle course him trying to avoid flaming areas yet looking in to make sure his love wasn't in there. He saw the many discouraging forms of blackened skulls and skeletons or a particularly large pile of flaming rubble. The fire team was not only putting out the flames but they also looked for survivors which relieved Alec a bit with the idea that maybe one of them would find her instead. He wandered unknowingly to were Maggie and some others were trapped and unconscious. Another piece of rubble just then came down from the ceiling and Alec jumped forward to dodge it, that's when he found her. She was burned, bruised, unconscious and probably there was even worse on the rest of her body but he didn't want to bother looking. " Maggie. " Alec said silently and got up quickly in fear. He looked up and noticed that another flaming mass of debris was being precariously by some strong beams which themselves were about to collapse. Making no arguments about it in his mind he bended his knees and began to try to lift the thing on her, it was too heavy. " Hey! I could use some help over here! " Alec yelled over the roaring flames and shouting of other fire team commanders, no one heard him. He tried again more desperately trying to get any kind of leverage to get the containers off her. The beams on which the debris was being held up by creaked loudly telling him that they were close to giving away. " Somebody, anybody help us. " he cried becoming extremely worried and scared, he himself was in no real danger but Maggie was in plenty of danger. " Well ya don't hafta yell. " said a voice in a partially joking tone. It was Marsala along with Q'muia and Colleen. They still were able to barely lift the thing but hey finally got her and the others out. Just as they got the last one out, the beams above the area gave a final groan and snapped the debris down in a pile and knocking the group back. " Gasss! " yelled Q'muia as she picked up a slight whiff of gas coming from where the debris had collapsed Colleen, Alec, Marsala and Q'muia each pick up one and ran as fast as they could for cover. Just as they managed to get under cover the rubble exploded sending rubble and a fireball every which way. Fortunately the fireball nor the rubble hit any of them and they stood up unscathed. Just then they were almost pushed over from the firefighters rushing over to put out a newly ignited blaze. They gave the wounded that they'd rescued to the medical team of hand. They were checked out for any injuries they may have had and the med-techs not finding any sent them off. Alec followed the group out still worried about Maggie's condition but he felt much better now.

Alec picked up his pace walking into the middle of the group and said " I wanted to thank you guys for helping me out back there. " in an appreciative and slightly serious tone. " Hey you didn't think that we'd let those people die back there did you? " O'Reilly replied in a happy and slightly joking tone. " Sssuch an thing would be dissshonorrrable, in my culturrre az well az yourrrz. " Q'muia added. " And you were not going to be able to lift that shelf yourself anyway. " Marsala also added. Colleen dropped back walking directly beside Alec. " I think what were all trying to say is that you by yourself would've been helpless to do anything about what almost happened and we felt an obligation to help out. " she said gently. Alec looked at her seriously and frowned " I know for you this probably was partially a personal thing. You don't have to dress it up in front of anyone. " he said seriously yet gently. " I'm not, I meant what I said. " she paused and they both stopped. Q'muia and Marsala who were deep into another discussion didn't notice Alec and Colleen had stopped and disappeared down the hall. " Why'd ya wait for them to leave? " Alec asked curiously. She began to walk in the same direction that Marsala and Q'muia had and told him as he caught up to her again " Because if I'm gonna tell someone something personal like that I'd rather talk to one person at a time. Even though I will talk in groups if they all want to know. " she said blatantly outright. " So where are we gonna go then? " Alec asked. " Well who here has the private quarters? " she asked. " Oh. You know where my quarters are? " Alec asked. " Uh um. So you're gonna take us there. " she said plainly. Alec shrugged and said " Okay. This way. " It was a rather short walk even though it still made sense for them to be close to the flight deck since they would have to get to the deck quickly when they had to take off. " Ya know, actually since this is a smaller ship and there's less room it isn't really private, I have a roommate. " Alec suddenly mentioned. " Who's yer roommate? " Colleen asked. " Ah some guy. Jackson, I think. Jackson Marlo, yeah that's his name. I don't really know him we're just roommates. He's kinda quiet, never talks to me much. Hopefully he won't be there and we can talk. " he replied. The entered his room and turned on the lights revealing the surprisingly clean room. " Seems like you work on this room a lot. " Colleen said with sarcastic humor. " Hmm, oh no, I just keep my stuff in order cause I need to. Marlo's the clean freak. " Alec replied. " So now could you tell me what helping me out had to do with your personal things? " he then asked. " Simply because I know what it's like to loose someone very important to you and I just as well know the added feeling of knowing that you wouldn't be able to save her, if not for us. " she said softly. " Oh. " he said noticing the slightly pained look in O'Reilly's face. " I see you, haven't gotten over his death yet. " Alec said in a soft and gentle tone. " He was the last of the people who actually loved me. " she paused and looked up at him, there were tears in her eyes and continued her voice trembling " We were so close ya know. He had proposed to me, I had accepted. Just a few more days maybe another week and we would've been married. The worst of it was that the knowledge that he had died and I wasn't there, there was not even a good-bye. " she said almost collapsing into tears. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath and said in a very soft tone " Still, I'm much further along in the emotional road to recovery, if that's something. But no matter how much counseling I have, no matter how many of these talks or dreams... " she said yet was cut off by a very interested Alec DeLeon. " Dreams? " he said confused and interested at the same time. " Yes, dreams. I'd prefer not to talk about those right now. Anyway as I was about to say, no matter what happens, I will always remember him. " she said suddenly becoming very sincere. " Of course, how could any of us forget. " Alec said. She gave a heavy sigh, Alec could tell it was like an extremely heavy weight on her back, all these things. He watched silently as she left the room.

Alec picked up his pace walking into the middle of the group and said " I wanted to thank you guys for helping me out back there. " in an appreciative and slightly serious tone. " Hey you didn't think that we'd let those people die back there did you? " O'Reilly replied in a happy and slightly joking tone. " Sssuch an thing would be dissshonorrrable, in my culturrre az well az yourrrz. " Q'muia added. " And you were not going to be able to lift that shelf yourself anyway. " Marsala also added. Colleen dropped back walking directly beside Alec. " I think what were all trying to say is that you by yourself would've been helpless to do anything about what almost happened and we felt an obligation to help out. " she said gently. Alec looked at her seriously and frowned " I know for you this probably was partially a personal thing. You don't have to dress it up in front of anyone. " he said seriously yet gently. " I'm not, I meant what I said. " she paused and they both stopped. Q'muia and Marsala who were deep into another discussion didn't notice Alec and Colleen had stopped and disappeared down the hall. " Why'd ya wait for them to leave? " Alec asked curiously. She began to walk in the same direction that Marsala and Q'muia had and told him as he caught up to her again " Because if I'm gonna tell someone something personal like that I'd rather talk to one person at a time. Even though I will talk in groups if they all want to know. " she said blatantly outright. " So where are we gonna go then? " Alec asked. " Well who here has the private quarters? " she asked. " Oh. You know where my quarters are? " Alec asked. " Uh um. So you're gonna take us there. " she said plainly. Alec shrugged and said " Okay. This way. " It was a rather short walk even though it still made sense for them to be close to the flight deck since they would have to get to the deck quickly when they had to take off. " Ya know, actually since this is a smaller ship and there's less room it isn't really private, I have a roommate. " Alec suddenly mentioned. " Who's yer roommate? " Colleen asked. " Ah some guy. Jackson, I think. Jackson Marlo, yeah that's his name. I don't really know him we're just roommates. He's kinda quiet, never talks to me much. Hopefully he won't be there and we can talk. " he replied. The entered his room and turned on the lights revealing the surprisingly clean room. " Seems like you work on this room a lot. " Colleen said with sarcastic humor. " Hmm, oh no, I just keep my stuff in order cause I need to. Marlo's the clean freak. " Alec replied. " So now could you tell me what helping me out had to do with your personal things? " he then asked. " Simply because I know what it's like to loose someone very important to you and I just as well know the added feeling of knowing that you wouldn't be able to save her, if not for us. " she said softly. " Oh. " he said noticing the slightly pained look in O'Reilly's face. " I see you, haven't gotten over his death yet. " Alec said in a soft and gentle tone. " He was the last of the people who actually loved me. " she paused and looked up at him, there were tears in her eyes and continued her voice trembling " We were so close ya know. He had proposed to me, I had accepted. Just a few more days maybe another week and we would've been married. The worst of it was that the knowledge that he had died and I wasn't there, there was not even a good-bye. " she said almost collapsing into tears. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath and said in a very soft tone " Still, I'm much further along in the emotional road to recovery, if that's something. But no matter how much counseling I have, no matter how many of these talks or dreams... " she said yet was cut off by a very interested Alec DeLeon. " Dreams? " he said confused and interested at the same time. " Yes, dreams. I'd prefer not to talk about those right now. Anyway as I was about to say, no matter what happens, I will always remember him. " she said suddenly becoming very sincere. " Of course, how could any of us forget. " Alec said. She gave a heavy sigh, Alec could tell it was like an extremely heavy weight on her back, all these things. He watched silently as she left the room.

Colleen walked a little ways down the hall to Jenny's room. She thought about Alec and his " death ", Jenny's guilt about not saving J.T., Jenny's offer to bring J.T. back to life and how she took it O'Reilly never to see it again. O'Reilly pressed the button the ring the doorbell. " Just a sec. " called Jenny's voice from the inside. Jenny opened the door two minutes later and Colleen in a joking tone said " I thought you'd said it'd be a minute. " Jenny laughed and finally asked " So whaddaya want? " in a friendly tone. " Well I was thinking about it and... " Colleen began but was interrupted by the sound of Jenny's comm-link beeping. Jenny took off the little comm-link pinned to her shirt and said " Yeah? " " We need you to join the rest of the squad on the flight deck Jenny, it's important. " Nara's metallic sounding voice said over the comm-link. " Sure thing, Nara. Jenny out. " Jenny said and then reattached her comm-link to her shirt. " Sorry, I gotta go, don't know what this is about but Nara says it's important and she usually means it. " Jenny said. " I think I do. " Colleen replied " What? What's happening? " Jenny asked slightly hysterical. Colleen motioned for her to sit down for a second and Jenny shook her head " It's alright. Besides I gotta go quickly. " " Fine. But I can't believe you don't know. Anyway, quite a few hours ago there was an explosion. It took out over half of the tech crew destroyed half of a quarter of the fighter compliment and made us temporarily unable to launch fighters. Their rectifying that problem right now, but the worst part was that among the badly injured was Maggie Weston, one of your own. " Colleen answered calmly, almost casually. Jenny almost hit the ceiling " What! I gotta get down there! " Jenny said now very hysterical. She rushed out almost knocking Colleen over and the door slide closed. Colleen didn't even blink, expecting the reaction, but Jade wanted to know. She stared at the door for a moment making sure Jenny didn't suddenly reappear for some reason. Colleen was too curious about J.T.'s little black box to what to ask Jenny about it when she got back, besides Jenny might not tell the truth or flat out deny it. She opened drawers, cabinets and the small closet carefully moving and replacing things so well that Jenny wouldn't know she went through her things unless she looked at it for a long time, carefully. It didn't take her too long since the room was small and Jade didn't have a lot of stuff but Colleen still had to move fairly quickly. Once and a while she stopped her search at the sounds of footsteps most of which were just a few people passing by. She reached under a bed and pulled out a large gray box labeled personal. Colleen stared at it in moral dilemma asking herself " Am I really that desperate to go through a friends personal things without asking " Then she thought of the idea that Jenny may be hiding something from her and she thought " Why not? It not like I was gonna look at her other stuff. All I want to know is if she still has the box. " Colleen carefully unlatched the box and opened it. Inside were stacks of photos, letters, something that looked like a diary and clothes. Without bothering to look at that stuff she took it out and moved the clothes aside, seeing as those weren't folded anyway and then she caught a gleam of black metal, " Probably what I'm looking for. " She pulled the black box out and looked carefully at it not noticing the foot steps that came closer. Colleen got up just as Jade came in, surprising Colleen with Jenny calm almost nil-reaction. " Jenny I... " Colleen began startled by Jenny's sudden entrance " It's alright Colleen. I suppose someone was gonna find out about it anyway, in some other way. Maybe this was the best. Anyway, if you're wondering I kept it, despite your wishes as a reminder of my failure to save him. Just as J.T. kept the photos of his lost squad members to remind him of their deaths. " Jenny said softly and calmly. O'Reilly took a quick look at the box, put it down and said " Jenny, you failed no one, not me, not J.T., not the squad, not anyone. When your young, scared, panicking and inexperienced you'll do things like that. Besides with the way you guys described him after he was wounded so many times do you really think he would've lasted? " " Your in denial. " Jenny said folding her arms. " Okay maybe that last sentence but most of it I meant. " Colleen said sincerely. " Ya know, when I came to with the box that time, you kinda surprised me. I thought you'd jump at the chance to revive him. " Jenny said widening her eyes. Colleen looked at the black box on the bed " Well it's kinda weird. On one side I really want to, so we can be together ya know. But at the same time, those memories, the risk of losing him again. I know it sound silly but I just don't want to take those risks again. It would be so easy ya know, I just take it to the lab where Phaeton's bunker used to be, and they could revive him, he'd be back in my life. But I don't want to have to go through any of it. " she sighed and looked back at Jenny. " Do what you want with it. I'm trying to forget that part of him. " O'Reilly said and then walked out of Jenny's room.

Sarah Hall walked into the rec-room looking for something to do. She stopped at the doorway and looked around trying to find someone to talk to. Just then she noticed her commanding officer David Sames sitting at a table drinking some coffee. She walked up behind her and said " Is this seat taken. " David shook his head and then looked up. " How ya doing Sarah? Have something you wanna talk about? " David asked casually. " Nothing in particular. I'm just trying to find something to do. Whatcha doing? " Sarah replied casually and sounding kind of child like with her question. " Just going over some manpower reports, nothing interesting. " he said. " There is one thing I'm interested in though. " David began. " Oh? " " Why've you been so quite lately. We hardly hear a thing from you at all? " David asked curiously. Sarah shrugged her shoulders " I dun know. I guess I haven't had anything to say. Aaaaand I'm a little shy around people I hardly know. " " Well, lemme give ya some advice. I haven't been in Able squad that long but I've already learned that the more Able squad's pilots know you the more they like you. Just say more and you'll start to feel less shy. " David said casually yet kindly. " What are you some kinda psychologist? " Sarah asked jokingly. " Anyway what if my history's not too desirable? Because... " she began when David broke in. " That doesn't matter, at least not to me. Why don't you tell me about it, no one's here but us and those people over there who are playing the TV too loud to hear anyway. " Sarah took a deep breathe and hesitated and then said " Well, okay. As you may already know I'm from Birmingham Alabama, I grew up in a poor traditional family, blah blah blah blah blah. What people don't know about me is that I was definitely no Shirley Temple. My, father was away almost twenty four hours a day. When I started middle school, I was a very shy timid child and as you could guess I didn't have a lot of friends, I wanted badly to be accepted. I started getting involved in stuff I shouldn't have like gangs, petty theft, it was the only group I felt accepted me. After that there were a number of incidents with my parents, our relationship fizzled. Yet strangely because of the influence those kids had on me I didn't care. When I got into high school the whole cycle started all over again. I was the bad girl not only didn't I get in trouble with my parents but also the schools and the law. The worst that ever happened was near the end of my sophomore high school when the last of my morals collapsed and I started experimenting with drugs. I wasn't addicted or anything I only did it twice with two different kinds. The first time, I didn't like the feeling the drug gave me, the second time was when I was caught by my father. He told me that he was tired of what I did and that he wouldn't deal with it or me anymore. Somehow, don't ask me how I never found out myself, he faked some needed documents that would get me into Exofleet flight academy and he forced me to join the academy. At the time I was still unable to join because the time I signed up was the exact time of the beginning of the second Neosapien war. My entire family was captured and likely killed but I got away and decided to join the resistance. The rest is all just, time. " she said in a soft, still hesitant tone. Sarah looked up at David who looked at her with the same understanding expression he had before she told him all this. " Your not surprised or appalled or anything like that? " she asked confused. " Not really. I am surprised but that at the fact that this history of yours doesn't fit the way you are now. Like said I think that the rest of Able squad won't react too differently. Even though, watch out for Kaz. He might not mind but he has this bad habit of popping jokes about the subject at the wrong time. " David said calmly. " Uh-huh. The reason I ain't like that now is that after I joined the resistance was forced into quitting that stuff cold turkey. It wasn't that hard, we were too busy with staying alive and fighting. " Sarah explained. " Ya know even though you should talk to the rest of the squad soon, I suggest you talk to Commander Colleen O'Reilly first. She, during her childhood had a similar experience even thought she wasn't involved in that kinda stuff herself. I think you'll be able to relate to her real well. " David said. " I'm sorry I've been so isolated that I don't know who she is. " Sarah said. " Don't be sorry, here. " he handed her a picture of Colleen O'Reilly. " When ever you want to talk to her just ask for her, this is what she looks like. " David said. " Thank you sir. " Sarah said happily. " Call me David. " David said and smiled. Sarah smiled back and left the room, David merely went back to his work.

" Has anyone seen my wings? " Pietro asked walking around checking everywhere for his pilot wings. " Maya have you seen my wings? " he asked walking up to Maya who was going over how much they lost in the flight deck explosion. She looked up and merely replied " Uh um, sorry. " " If you see 'em return 'em to me okay. " Pietro said and then walked to another end of the flight deck were some of his fellow squad members were. Janice and Jack were sitting on a planes wing talking about stuff when Maya finished and joined them. " So the workaholic decides to join her friends. " Janice said in sarcastic humor getting some laughs from Jack and some other girl who was in their squad sitting near them. " Come on guys, I'm never that busy. " Maya claimed. " Oh no? " Janice laughed. They were joined by Pietro " What'd I miss. I know something's going on when ever you girls are laughing together. " he asked curiously. " Oh nothing, were just poking a little fun at the commanding officer. " the other girl said. " I see you guys haven't grown up much. " David said also with sarcastic humor. " David! " they said almost in unison. " I told ya I'd come and spend some time with you people whenever I got the chance. " David said happily. " So, how's having your own command feel. " Maya asked coming back down from the other end of the fighter they were on. " Great. Tough but great. " David said quickly climbing up and hopping onto the body of the plane. " I heard that you got old J.T.'s command. " Pietro said. " Yep. They're a good bunch. Good pilots, good soldiers. There a lot more to them than you'd expect but you know I always liked that. What've you guys been doing since I left? " David said casually. " Nothing much flying, fighting, our things, stuff like that. Simon transferred out just after you left, Thomas was nearly killed during the last battles of the second Neosapien war and Thomas and Frances are over there. THOMAS, FRANCES! " Maya said and then called to the other two pilots half the length of the flight deck away. " Yep. Same loud commander I always knew you were Maya. " David said in reaction to her almost yelling in his ear. They looked up fro what they were doing and smiled upon seeing David. They said something to each other and walked other to the rest of the squad. " Look who finally decided to drop by. How ya doing old buddy! " Thomas said very happy to see him. " It been a long time. " Frances said happily but more calmly. " We heard about your command, ya lucky bastard. You know that your in command of the most admired, well known squads in the fleet right? " Thomas said. " How could I not? " David asked and Thomas shrugged. " We also heard that you had quite a few run-ins with your old rival, J.T. Marsh. Was he any less pitiful than when we last met him? " Frances asked becoming more interested. " Actually, he was much better as far as that goes. I think he pretty much grown out of that. So have I mind you. " David said becoming slightly more serious. He suddenly noticed the young pilot who had been bothering Kaz before staring at him and then he walked away. " Who is that guy? " David asked becoming very curious and obviously a little spooked. " Huh? Oh that's Ramsy Alkana. Some weird rookie just assigned to Steel squadron. " Maya replied casually. " Steel squadron? " David said suddenly surprised. " Yeah. Anything special about that? " Pietro asked. " No, not really. Steel squadron's just our main back up. The special thing about them is that they're the only back up we have that hasn't been killed off within the first few missions we've been on. " David explained. " Yeah well, I don't know the guy personally but I've gotten to know a little what he's like. He's pretty much a loner, rarely talks to anyone, when he does say something it never been any kind of discussion, just a few lines, no friends as far as I've seen, kinda has a mysterious air around him. He seems kinda scary but when he wants to be he can be real nice. " Janice said and lied back. " In other words don't worry 'bout him colonel. He hasn't done anything to anyone yet and I don't think he will. " Maya said reassuring him. While she said that colonel David Sames and 2nd lieutenant Jack Akieny exchanged solemn but slightly worried glances as if sharing the same thought. " We'll see. " David said in a tone reflecting little emotion.

It was a little more than three days since the explosion that swept the flight deck in chaos and injured or killed most of the tech crew. Fortunately Maggie Weston was a strong and healthy person so it wasn't long after the explosion before she regained consciousness. " Owww. I shoulda stayed unconscious " the only words that came out of her since she regained consciousness. " Looks like I came just in time. " Alec said walking into the medical room " How ya feeling. " She lifted her head at his first line and the let it fall back onto the pillow with the second. " I feel like shit, how do ya think I feel. " she groaned still a little weak. " Sorry. " Alec said backing off a little " I just came to say hi and... " " Did they figure it out? Did they figure out what caused the explosion? " Maggie said suddenly excited. She tried to sit up and got a sharp pain in the area of her ribs and moaning she slid back down onto the bed. Alec looked at her worried for a minute and then said " Well, I was hoping to talk to you about that after a little personal discussion. " Let's leave the personal discussion for when we're able to talk in a more private place. " Maggie said and then sighed. Alec merely looked around the room at the other patients who some looked much worse than her, as for others, there were no others. " Looks like they're all unconscious. " he said and looked back at her. " Most are, some are just sleeping though. And someone else could walk in at any moment. Now could you please tell me how that explosion happened. " Maggie said annoyed at his stalling. Alec sighed heavily and looked away for a second, worried again " The are a whole bunch of theories, I guessing you could guess what most of those are. But when I was talking with commander Sames and captain Baris it seems that evidence is coming up that the explosion likely was caused by a bomb. " he said in a low but professional tone. Maggie was both surprised and frightened by his attitude and his answer. " So your saying... " Maggie began and was interrupted by Alec who nodded and said in a grave voice " Uh hum. We either got a spy, a traitor or both. " Before either of them could say anything more Nara walked in a and ignoring Maggie at the moment. " There you are Alec, we've been looking for you. " Nara said calmly. " Yes Lieutenant? " Alec said turning to Nara and speaking in a serious, professional tone. " David sent me to find you. He said that you have to be at an important meeting concerning the explosion. " Nara replied. "I'll be right there. You go ahead. " Alec said. Nara nodded acknowledged Maggie and walked off. " I gotta go... " he began speaking softly now when he was interrupted by Maggie. " I know I'm glad your going. The closer you get to capturing and killing this guy, the happier I'll be. " she said and Alec laughed. " Take care. " Maggie called to him and then under her breath in a very worried tone she said and " And please come back. "

David looked around the over-crowded briefing room that not only included Able, Steel and Phoenix squadrons but four others. The last of the pilots sat down and the last of the murmuring died down and all attention was put on David. " Everyone here? Good then we can begin. In the last twenty four hours the most trusted members of Able, Steel and Phoenix squad and I were called to a meeting about what to do about fixing the severe problems put before us by yesterdays explosion. Most of this entails triple shifts for extra patrols, extra security, clean-up and training of you to be somewhat skilled in repair and maintenance. " David began he was calm and professional. People around the room began murmuring and complaining when David held up his hand for them to be quiet and trying to speak over the crowd " THIS IS NECESSARY BECAUSE THE EXPLOSION TOOK OUT MOST OF OUR TECH CREW WAS KILLED OR PUT OUT OF COMMISSION BY THE EXPLOSION. ALSO... " The crowd upon hearing some of his reasoning settled down and became quite, David paused and took a deep but still somewhat short breath and spoke again. " Also we need to be able to clear the debris so that the Maranar can begin launching fighters again. And lastly the extra security is needed because investigations into the explosion have revealed the likelihood of a bomb ere go possibly a traitor or spy is aboard this ship. " he said. The murmuring picked up again this time surprised and somewhat fearful voices were picked up. Ramsy shuffled somewhat uneasily in his seat but remained silent and continued to look at colonel Sames. " NOW WE HAVE NOT PUT UP ANY PROCEDURE RULES... " he said and the crowd became silent again. " The reason is that we do not know if it's a traitor or spy and there are different ways of dealing with either. For now we advise you to remain calm and go about your duties for obvious reasons. If you encounter upon suspicious behaviors or people, just be careful or avoid them all together. This will be updated when we find out what it is. Dismissed. " he said. The pilots got up and filed out of the room talking an murmuring between themselves with the exception of his squad. " You seem calm. " Sarah said casually. " Yeah well, when your in a situation like this the commanders can't act panicky in front of your soldiers and pilots. They gotta have something to believe in. " David said looking at the last of the soldiers as they exited the room. He then turned to his squad and said " The truth is I'm scared just as much as anyone here. " " Your scared shitless too huh? " Jenny said with wry humor. " Yeah pretty much. " David replied turning to her specifically. Nara looked around a bit and then said " Well we're not doing anything 'round here so let's go to the rec-room an' try to take our minds off it. " " Agreed. " " Sure. " " 'Kay " words of approval pretty much went all around the squad and they exited the briefing room and headed for the rec-room.

" Look I found my wings. " Pietro said happily, walking up to Janice. " That's good Pietro. I'd be asleep by now if it weren't for that damn explosion ." Janice moaned in reply. They both turned around at the entrance of Able squad. Most of them were equally tired like every other pilot except they didn't drag like most people even though other signs were there. They sat down and began their usually activities of watching TV, playing some kinda card game or just plain talking. Kaz sat down at the bar next to them sighed and moaned " 24 hours. " Janice leaned over and asked " Since what? " " Since I last slept. " he replied tiredly. " Eighteen for me and Janice. " Pietro said leaning over. " Yeah well your on a different time schedule. David sat down at a table holding a cup of hot black coffee always his favorite kind and it'd wake him up too. He took a sip of the coffee and grimaced also noticing Elizabeth come up to him and sit down. He sighed and asked in a sarcastic tone " Haven't they learned to make a decent cup of coffee on this tub yet? " " It hasn't been their main concern. " Elizabeth replied. " It doesn't take that long to figure it out. " he said. He looked up at her, she was smirking with her head resting on one hand. He smiled back and put down his cup " Your friends, they are trying very hard to please you. " she said. " They're not trying to please me, they don't need to. We're doing what we're doing to stay alive. We don't have room anymore to bother trying to please anyone, we just get the job done. " he replied in his usual calm and professional voice. " I have been so frightened lately by all this talk about a traitor or spy. What do you think it is colonel? " Elizabeth said leaning over to her. " It's impossible to tell Juliana. I don't see any reason for anyone to betray us in favor of the T'quan empire but then again if your crazy why do you need a reason? All we can do is wait and watch our step. " David replied calmly but seriously. " I hope that for all of our sakes nothing further will happen on this mission to our friends. " Elizabeth said suddenly becoming worried. " My I sit down, Kaz and Pietro are becoming more boring by the minute. " Janice said walking up to them with a cup of coffee. " She is a friend of yours David. " Elizabeth asked. " Uh hum. Elizabeth this is Janice, an old friend of mine from on of the other squads I was in when I was younger. Janice, Elizabeth commanding officer of our support squad and a newer friend. Oh and yes you may sit down Janice. " David said. Elizabeth and Janice acknowledged each other with a friendly nod and Janice sat down. " So what were you too talking about? " Janice asked. " We were just talking about what we thought about the possibility of a traitor or something like that. " David replied calmly. " Mmm that's a downer of a subject. " Janice replied and took another sip of her coffee and she grimaced " This stuff's terrible. " " You just noticed that " David asked. " I've been drinking soda lately while I'm on the go. I've just now been able to have coffee and I think I'm going back to soda. " Janice replied. Elizabeth laughed a bit and then said " Why don't we change the subject? Like your friend Janice said the topic we were on a very much of a downer. " " I think that suggestion of Marsala's, ya know the one to train the pilots more in maintenance and repair skills is working. Hell, Frances even bothered to clean off the smoke damage from the fire. " Janice said after a moment of silence. " Ah that is good to hear my friend. At least something is going right during this mission. " Elizabeth suddenly said in a happy tone. " Well it was bound to not be that hard. Pilots aren't stupid and every pilots always has some technical skills. " David said in response to Elizabeth's comment. " And some just have a knack for it. How 'bout you and your squad David, they have to have started the training by now. " Janice said turning to David. " Well Janice our fighters don't really need repairing right now. That and we've been helping with other heavy work. " David replied. " Like what? " Elizabeth asked. " Helping clear the flight deck so we can take off, helping make sure new supply shipments get here... " he said. Midway through what he was saying Janice interrupted " There have been flights? Why weren't my squad and I told about this? " " Janice, as soon as we got a chance to have some missions your don't really think that the commanders of this ship would keep us grounded? We'd be totally undefended, not that we haven't been through the time we couldn't fly and supplies need to get here to repair the ship and replace some supplies lost in the explosion. You weren't told because you and your squad were being trained. " David said calmly with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. " What kind of supplies? " Elizabeth asked. " Extra parts for repairing the fighter during the mission, jump fuel, coolant, food, medical supplies? " David answered and took a sip of her own coffee " All that?! " the girls said in unison. " We lost a whole shipment of the stuff in the explosion, and it's the essential stuff. " David replied. " What about ordinance? " Elizabeth inquired. " For some reason they couldn't spare it so we'll have to ration what we have and improve our gunnery skills. " David said. " Like the technician stuff, an easy task. " Janice replied. " It is probably going to be the last easy task we have during this mission. " Elizabeth said. " Correction it is the last easy thing your gonna have. " David replied. " All pilots report to the flight deck, all pilots report to the flight deck. " said the comm officer over the loud speaker. " What do they want this time. " Janice moaned. " Who knows. All I know is that we have to go down there. " Elizabeth replied her voice displaying her annoyance. " Come on. Let's get this over with as quick as possible. " David said. The got up and left the room with the other pilots and walked down to the flight deck.

When they reached the flight deck they noticed that much of the debris had been cleared and much of the critical damage had been repaired. The walls were still blackened from the fire caused by the explosion but some order had been restored to the flight deck. Jenny noticed David with his two friends and she told the rest of her squad. They moved through the crowd over to them were Jenny asked in a confused tone " Did ya notice the extra jumptroops? I wonder what going on. " " I have no idea. " David replied. He noticed captain Baris standing directly in front of the jumptroop squads. His face was blanked and he stood as straight as you would expect someone to be. The crowd quited expecting him to say something, all eye's were on the captain. " I know that all of you are wondering what is going on and that most of you are especially curious about the jumptroops standing behind me. Well I have good news, more good news and moderately bad news. The first part of the good news is that these troopers will provide the extra security against any infiltrator or traitor adding to the amount of rest time you'll have. The other good news is that they are merely an addition to our existing jumptroops forces so that the chances of this mission being completed successfully are increased. " he began mumurs of approval moved through the crowd and they became silent again. " The bad news is that after sending in the most recent report of events the admiral demanded that these troops also be allowed to search the rooms of certain crew members and interrogate at any time at their discretion. " the crowd remained silent. " Any attempt to deny them to be able to do so will be deemed a threat to security. Otherwise, you may go about your business. On a personal note I just want to say that I had nothing to do with the decision making and I sympathize with you all. You're dismissed. " The crowd dispersed, people were complaining about what they were going to have to go through until this guy was captured, which totally outweighed the fact that they were going to get more rest. The crew and extra jumptroops exited into the halls. David headed back to the rec-room which was virtually filled with the new jumptroops. " Aw man these new jumptroops are everywhere. " Bronski muttered. " Well they need R&R too Wolf. " Janice answered and Bronski sneered at her. For now at least they didn't seem to have started going about their business yet so they were sure that their quarters weren't being turned inside out. The crew didn't mind the jumptroops and they just did their thing.

" A few people's beds are missing, some people's stuff is gone. It's to be expected in this war, O'Reilly can't protect them all. " thought the old captain. Avery F. Butler once commanded the once proud platoon of charlie-five, now as he saw there were very few left. He knew many things about the recent jumptroop missions. They had inadequate weapons and other supplies, they were being sent on missions which they were sure to loose a lot of men and other things that would quickly reduce a company's size. " He-llo? " Lori said in a hesitant when she noticed him as she came in. Captain Butler turned around to directly face young Lori Kenith" Afternoon trooper. " was his only response. " Afternoon. May I ask who you are? " Lori said slightly suspicious. " Captain Avery Butler of Charlie-two squad. " Avery said standing up straighter. " Oh, sorry cap'n. " she said nervously standing at attention. " At ease. It's alright. By the way have you seen captain Colleen O'Reilly anywhere? " he said calmly. Lori still hesitated a moment and then said " Naw, but you might wanna go up a level check out the o-deck, she spends a lot of time there. " She walked past him and started going through what was here stuff. He opened his mouth as to ask her if it was her stuff and what she was looking for since the captain told him to be careful but then he walked out and left Lori to herself. Avery Butler entered the o-deck, stood in the door frame and looked around. The room was pretty full right now, some of the people in the room looked up at him for a second and then just went about their business. He was only bothered by the one young mysterious pilot who watched him as he walked through the room. To help assure himself that there was nothing wrong with the boy he walked over to his table " Have you seen captain Colleen O'Reilly? " captain Butler asked masking all emotion. The pilot took a sip of his drink and looked at him " Sorry, don't know who yer talking about sir. " he said his voice slightly reflecting a sly tone that could easily be mistaken for the way he sounds. Avery still looked at him strangely and then slowly walked away. He passed where Elizabeth, James and several other pilots were sitting and talking among themselves when James looked up and said " Hey cap'n. " Avery turned around to face James and asked " Yes soldier? " James motioned for him to come closer and he did and then James said in a fairly low tone " Might wanna avoid Ramsy over there, the kid you were just talking to. Rumor has it that while he was in the resistance his family was killed by neos in retaliation for the first retaking of Australia. He blames the Exofleet for their death when the Exofleet still refused to take back Earth even after the continent of Australia was taken, says they were just being cowards. In other words he might be a little funny in the head cause he joined the Exofleet despite him hating it. " " I'll keep that in mind. By the way how do you know all this stuff? " Avery asked suspiciously. " Well as strange and isolated looking as he is Ramsy has friends. And no matter what kind of friends you have, stuff like that is bound to get out. " James explained calmly. " Well then. Do you know where captain Colleen O'Reilly is? "Avery asked humored by James' answer. " She was just her a little while ago. Overheard her saying she was going to her quarters. " James replied. " I was just there, she's not there. " Avery said confused now. " Well then I don't know where she is. " James replied. " Thanks anyway. " Avery replied and then headed for the doorway. Just then James called after him " Watch yer back lad. Even if I'm wrong the traitor's still among us. " Avery though he heard what James said paid him no mind, her already knew that.

Able squad, Elizabeth and James dragged themselves onto the O-deck after a long grueling mission to patrol and protect the Maranar from the enemy while it continued to restock supplies and continue on their destination to the enemy colony. O'Reilly who was back in room watching the stars go by turned around and said jokingly " Bad day at the office. " " No just a long one. " David replied. David and Elizabeth sat down at a nearby table and was quickly joined by Colleen. " It's amazing how small this solar system can really be. " Colleen began. " Oh? How's that? " Elizabeth asked and took a sip of her soda. " I just met my old commander, before I was in charge of Charlie five, Avery Butler. " She paused and turned to David who looked in thought " J.T. might've mentioned him to you whenever he talked about our relationship. He always told me he talked about me a lot. " " Yes, now I remember. He was the one J.T. mentioned as always being hard-nosed right? " he asked, O'Reilly managed a weak smile and nodded. " Well that's the first time we've seen you smile in a while, and be able to mention him without getting all upset. " David said in a surprised tone. " I'm still mourning him but I'm trying to put that behind me. " she said softly. " Ya know, some people say it's good to talk about someone in a good way after that person has well, left. " David said casually. " I know. " O'Reilly said. " Well my friend then if you were so close to this J.T. and all maybe you could tell me a little about him sometime. It'll be good for you. " Elizabeth said in a slightly joking tone. Colleen managed a slight smile, took a sip of her drink and turned around to watch the stars go by. James, who had been sitting with the rest of Able squad turned back to them from eavesdropping on the other three's conversation " Poor girl. The lass obviously misses this J.T. " he said sympathetically yet in a low tone so none of the other three could hear. " We all miss J.T., he was our former commander and a good friend to us all. " Nara said softly in the same low tone. " I know how she feels. I lost, someone in the Second Neosapien War and it just feels...well... " she searched for the right word and noticed they were staring at her interested. " It feels like someone reached down your throat and ripped your heart out. " she explained. " Hurts that bad huh? " James asked and Maggie silently nodded. " She must be even more hammered down by where they were in the relationship. " Alec paused and looked at his squad feeling sorry for Colleen. " I few more weeks and they would've been hitched. " " I knew her for a little while before J.T. died. She used to be a truly very strong woman, now, I don't know she's had such variations from sad to serious to happy I think she can only act like it. It's all so unfair. " Jenny said softly. " Who ever said life was fair. " Bronski said and Jenny scowled at him. " Well let me tell you something that my mother told me. " James began " You can remember that far back?! " Kaz said very surprised. James raised his hand for Kaz to be quite and " I woman who is naturally strong and turned weak can never remain weak. " James said and got a confused look from Kaz and Jenny. " What I mean is she won't be this way forever. She'll eventually go back to the way she was before. " James explained. " If she doesn't commit suicide or get killed. " Kaz said sardonically. " Oh don't be so negative, she'll be fine. " Jenny said impatiently. " Yeah I guess so. " Kaz said in agreement. " I don't want anyone's sympathy it won't help. " O'Reilly said in a frustrated tone. She gave a heavy sigh and said in a melancholy tone " I don't know what I want. I haven't since he died. " Colleen quickly got up and went back over to lean on the guard rail where she was before. Elizabeth got up and walked over to where Colleen was, put a hand on her shoulder and said something in a low tone. They began their own little private discussion and David went over to the rest of his squad. The stars suddenly became blurred as the ship went into the wormhole, into hyperspace and into the unknown.

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