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Chapter 4: The War Approaches Aegis

Date: November 23, 2776

"Commander Atkins, we are reading several incoming jump signatures. IFF has yet to be confirmed." A young female Human Ensign said at communications.

"Notify the fleets, possible contacts maybe in bound." The Tiger said in response. It had been several hours since they had lost contact with the temple, and the Captain had gone to sleep, working for twenty hours couldn't have been good for the old man.

"Sir, several ships have exited Jump, IFF is confirming. Four Lothian vessels have exited jump approximately twenty kilometers off of our port. They're setting in an intercept course."

"Red alert, all hands battle stations, Ensi-"

"We have several dozen contacts sir! Lothian warships are inbound to our location."

"God damn it! Notify of the York, Hampshire, and Boston that we are to engage the contacts ahead of us, In Amber Clad is to take the Enterprise, Wayward, and Bostogne to engage contacts to the starboard. Notify the other battle groups to form up and engage all other contacts."

"Understood sir!" She said in response. This wasn't good, there were approximately twenty contacts around them that exited jump, and knowing the Lothians, more were sure to follow suit. "Ensign notify Command, we need any other ships near our location to be on standby, if this goes the way I think it's going to go, we'll need extra help." They outnumbered the enemy ten to one, but their numbers didn't mean much when twenty out of their fifty ships where repurposed cruisers that where originaly civilian ships and ten of those ships where severely outdated and lack a proper weapons system. "Deploy all frigates, notify the Captain, poor bastard only had a few hours of sleep but we'll need him."

"Aye sir!" The Ensign went to work. Things where going to get bad, he had a feeling. Within a few minutes the enemy ships appeared closer.

"Sir, we're within firing range!" Said another younger Tiger.

"Fire!" There was a dull thud as several orange and red beams fired outwards towards the enemy ships. There was a bright flash of green and blue as the beam connected with their shields. They fired back several dark green beams that connected to their shields, a dull thud as the shielding held back against the attack. "Maneuver Alpha-Nine!" He shouted, the viewscreen tilted as the ship maneuvered to the left to avoid a barrage of torpedoes that the enemy ship had fired. A smaller UGSM vessel appeared in the screen, it's shields flickered the same greenish blue hue as it took fire then returned it. "Hampshire pull back a bit, we'll cover you!" The Hampshire's shielding was outdated and just from the amount of fire they where taking their shields wouldn't last much longer. The Hampshire apparently hadn't received the order, it proceeded onwards at one of the enemy ships and soon her shielding failed. "Hampshire fall back!" He shouted into the comms. There was static then several of the enemies beams connected with the hull. Streaks of red and puffs of red bursted out of the hull of the ship and quickly faded as the flames in the ship met the emptiness of space and went out. "Arm the banks, fire everything we have. Deploy all fighters and mechs" he ordered

"Aye sir." She responded There was a dull thud as a mixture of phaser fire and plasma hit the shield of the ship.

"Shields down to ninety-eight percent!" The tact officer said to the Commander.

"Status of the other ships?" He ordered.

"In Amber Clad's group is eliminating the last of their contacts, dozens of other ships are sending in battle reports and damage but most other contacts are attempting to retreat."

He stared at the enemy ship ahead of them, the two ships behind it had turn tail and ran but this one was still trying to bypass them. "Except that one." He said. "Run a scan on that ship, something's up."

"Running scan." the tact officer stated. "Scans are coming in, nuclear core detected. No life signs, but a single AI is running the ship." God damn it. "Sir, it's setting a course for the planet. Still tracking it trajectory."

"All ships open fire on the enemy ship! Don't let it get past the defenses!" He shouted. The Captain walked in and stared at the viewport. "Captain, Lothian Warship in bound to the planet, carrying a god damn nuclear core." The Captain nodded.

"You gave the order, destroy the ship before it reaches the planet." He ordered. Atkins nodded. Several more ships had gotten behind the enemy ship and where taking fire. They returned it. Red and orange beams hit each vessel, their shields flaring as the enemy ship slipped between them and the Bostogne. "Trajectory confirmed, it's heading for the temple!" The tactician yelled in surprise.

"Doesn't surprise me." Atkins Said. The Captain sat down in his chair and tapped on several commands and several items popped up on the right side of the view screen.

"Prepare the ARC." The Captain said. There was a low hum throughout the hull as the Rail Cannon spun up, electricity being fed to it. There was a loud thud as a shell was loaded into the cannon that echoed throughout the bridge. "Target enemy vessel." He ordered. Atkins knew what the Captain was trying to do. The ARC was capable of punching a hole through a ship, but with a ships shields up, it would just knock them down. "Once their shields are down use a tractor beam to try and knock them off course, once we get them off course we'll use torpedoes to knock out their engines and weapons arrays. I want that ship in one piece people. It'll have intel we'll need." He said. A large reticle appeared on the screen, it slowly aligned itself with the enemy vessel and turned red. "Fire!" He shouted. There was a loud thum as a blue streak left the ship.

"Time to impact, 20 seconds." Said the tactician. The Commander watched in awe as the ARC hit it's target. There was a moment of sparks of light being shot outwards as it hit the ships shields, the blue green hue faded and the round connected hitting the ship sending bits and pieces of it's hull spiraling out into space. "Direct hit. Locking in tractor beam." The tactician said. "adjusting it's trajectory now." The viewscreen changed showing where the vessel was going to land, a long arrow began to move slightly away from the temple's location and soon away from the planet.

"Fire torpedoes and phasers. Knock out their engines." He ordered.

"Aye Captain." The tactician replied. Several long orange and red beams shot out from their ship with several smaller blue objects fired from below the viewscreen, they all connected hitting the ships engines. The blue flare of the enemy ships engines faded as they went offline. "Vessel is entering a sling shot orbit." The tactician said.

"Whats the status of the bomb?" The Captain ordered.

"Appears to still be active." The Tactician said.

"Liahn, can you hack into their systems and pull whatever data is on that ships computers?" The Captain said.

"Affirmative, one second." Came a smooth female voice. Liahn was the ships AI, she was specifically designed to handle any and all electronic warfare. "Breaching their security barriers, inside their systems. Beginning download of data." she said.

"Get a hold of Ishimura." The Captain said.

Location: Aegis surface, Temple.

Date: November 23, 2776

Akutenshi, Miranda, and the Talkinshi had made their way through several long corridors and eventually linked up with the rest of the team. Kijani had explained that the scientists where dead, attacked by the same kind of Lothians that attacked Akutenshi and Miranda. "We need to get an uplink with the Serenity. Let them know whats going on down here." Akutenshi said.

"Yes, but we also need to contain these Lothians here." Kijani stated.

"I can help with that." Grimm said. "But we need to gain control of the cryo-station controls."

"And where would we find that?" Lee asked.

"This way." Grimm said as he motioned to their left down another, short, gloomy corridor. The lighting had begun to fail around sections of the temple. The generators that where set up where failing one by one. Seemed like they where directing whatever energy they had into the data banks the scientists had set up. They walked down the short corridor and eventually came to the end of the corridor where a large entry way was sealed. "Through here, we can gain control of the cryo-tubes around the facility and awaken the Talkinshi that are asleep." Grimm said. Akutenshi nodded.

"Good luck, looks like it's been sealed." Kijani said. He walked over to a small panel next to the door. "The panel has it's circuits fused. Whoever did this wanted to make it difficult for anyone to get in." He said. Akutenshi stepped back, examining the door. "Lee, pull the panel apart. See if we can get this door to open, even a little." He said. Lee nodded. "Kijani, return to the dropship and see if you and Lupin can get a signal over to the Serenity, comms don't seem to be working in this temple. Let them know we'll need troop deployment planetside and to prepare for the war to hit Aegis."

"Got it." Kijani said as he turned around and ran towards the landing pad. "Miranda, stand guard over Lee. Grimm, I think it's time we woke up the other Talkinshi." Grimm nodded and motioned for Akutenshi to follow him. They proceeded down the same set of tunnels and hallways until they came back to the room he had woken up in. They proceeded towards the table and Grimm walked up to a small panel on the side of the tabel. He hit several keys and a holographic monitor appeared in front of them above the tabel shimmering. "The awakening process for the Talkinshi wil be approximately two hours Guardian. We must ensure that the filth do not interfere, let alone harm any of the survivors." He said glaring at the holographic screen. A round chart filled a half of the screen while a list of Talkinshi names filed upwards showing their status. The chart began to calculate the remaining Talkinshi and as it registered the ones who had died, portions of it became red while it outlined certain names. "Damn mongrels will pay for what they have done." Grimm growled. Akutenshi nodded in agreement as he hefted his gun and scanned the room. He felt the hilt of the phase sword hitting his side. He had hoped that everything was going well with the rest of the group.

Location: Landing pad outside of the temple

Lupin sat in the pilots chair, his feet up on the console whistling a little tune to himself. He sat there watching as the rain pelted the shield around the pad and smiled. It was rather relaxing to not be on the Serenity and to be planet side and simply watch the rain. Then watch as the lightning streaked across the sky. "Jenkins, how are you doing back there?" He asked yelling into the back of the ship. His copilot didn't answer. He reached up to his ear and tapped the comm piece with one finger. "Jenkins, This is Lupin, report." He waited a minute, now two. Where the hell was he? He wondered. "Jenkins, come on man, this ain't funny." He said aloud. Still, nothing. There was a shift in the air, something was amiss. But he couldn't tell what it was. He stood up and walked towards the small hatch that lead into the passenger compartment and saw no sign of Jenkins. "Damn it!" He muttered in frustration. "Swear to god Jenkins if you're hiding somewhere on-top or under the damn ship i'm gonna skin your hide!" The Human shouted, his voice echoing off of the steel walls of the dropship. He walked past the seats in the passenger compartment of the drop ship and stepped outside of the ship. Rain still pelting the shield around the landing pad, a bright green hugh illuminating the pad as well as hints of white and yellow from the lights on the pad. "JENKINS!" He shouted. He looked around, getting angrier. Where the hell was he?! Just as he moved to the left of the ship his comm piece sparked to life. "Jenkins?" He said tapping the ear piece to respond. Nothing but low static. "Ishimura, is that you?" He said tapping it again. "Kijani?" He paused, "Lee?"

He swore to himself as the static increased. He walked to the left of the box drop ship with it's nacels sticking out on either side on-top. Just as he rounded to the curved front of the drop ship he heard a voice coming in low over the comm piece, "Lup-ort. Enem-agement. Remain alert." He couldn't tell who it was, damn Pelzigans probably could've picked out who it was with with their damn ears. The Human grumbled to himself as he looked ontop of the ship and then movement caught his attention. He saw a dark bulbous shape move just out of his pereferal vision to the left. He slowly and gently placed a paw on the small plasma weapon on his right thigh and grasped the hilt of the weapon. "Jenkins?" He said, a tad bit of fear in his voice. "Come on man, this ain't funny." He said adding into it. There was a low growl, not like any canid or feline Pelzigan he heard, but another one he had, a Lothian. But, the issue with him is that they all sounded the same, especially when their dying breath escaped them. "Ok mother fucker, what'd you do to Jenkins?" He mumbled knowing the answer. He drew the plasma weapon, one of the billions of models they had produced during the war between Humanity and the Pelzigans. Wasn't anything like the phaser weapons they had developed in the following years of the war with the Lothians, but it still did it's job against most of the bastards. He rounded the front of the ship to the right side of it. He looked down seeing if he could spot the thing. Nothing. His pulse quickened, fear, and the urge to run into the temple, slowly building inside of him. Then there was the urge to get in the damn ship and take off leaving the team behind. He pondered that question, but decided against it. If there was a Lothian Presence here, he would be needed to extract the team as well as possibly provide air support if they needed. He hefted the pistol in his hand, it's curved sleek design comforting him a little.

"Come out, Come out, wherever you are." He sang in a light tune as he walked around the ship to the back of it. Nothing, still.

Ok, this is getting ridiculous, He thought. He stepped back into the ship and then heard something skittering up above him, ontop of the ship. Oh, He thought as he tilted his head to the left in peer admiration of how stupid he had been. "Well fuck." He muttered as he felt a claw grab hold of his shoulder and fling him back out the ship and almost through the shield. Rain, hail, and sound from the thunder all exploded on him, defeaning him for a split second and soaking most of his uniform as he felt the same claw grab his left boot and drag him back into the shield and throw him against the side of the ship. Pain soared through his body, starting from where his back hit the curved edge of the ship and then the back of his head as it came up and smacked into the ship. He tumbled to the side screaming out in pain as he raised his pistol in a quick reflex and fired where the thing use to be. Damn Chameleons! He stumbled trying to get back to his feet. "Alright, game on." He grumbled, beginning to tune out the pain firing throughout his whole body from the sudden attack. He looked around and caught a shimmer of light and fired several shots. Red bolts sizzled through the air as two missed the shimmer of light while three more hit a hard object. There was a loud screech as the Lothian came into view. Black blood oozing from it's left shoulder, arm, and close to it's heart. It screamed at him, making him cringe as he fired several more bolts at the creature, hitting it square in the chest, it toppled over, a long claw over it's chest. It gasped as it struggled back to it's feet, and reached down to it's right thigh unholstering a sharp metal object, it had a hilt, a trigger, and a pointed muzzle. He glared at the thing getting in good detail from the lighting.

It's scales where a blood red color, it didn't wear much armor on itself other than a small chest piece that had been scorched and burned through by the plasma weapon with pockets of black blood oozing out. The chest piece connected to the shoulder pieces, both steel black and shimmering in the light. The Lothian had on some sort of garment on his legs, covered in metal with a holster on his right thigh, a utility belt with ammo pouches and the likes for a soldier, a spy, more like it. There was a small knife, probably plasma or a metal knife with a plasma border around the blade, attached to his left side. He let off a low growl, his tongue flicking out. He quickly took aim as it pulled it out and fired several bursts of plasma into the chest again, this time watching the armor melt into the deep wounds in the things scales and skin. The Lothian screamed out in agony as it fell back, dropping it's unholstered weapon, and landed with a thud twitching and squirming, screaming, dying. A pool of blood slowly formed around it. Lupin, breathing heavy, his body shooting warning signals throughout his body, telling him he needed to rest, that his back was hurt, somewhere, and that the danger was over for now.

"Jesus." He stammered out in labored breaths, trying to control himself. He slowly walked up to the side of the ship and leaned against it for support, his head was now beginning to spin, the world was warping around him then returning to normal. Concussion, he thought, minor. He looked over at the dead body then heard heavy foot falls coming towards him. He closed his eyes cursing at himself. "Not again...." He said as he brought the weapon up ready to fire. He held it there for about a minute before a black figure bearing the UGSM's shining metal armor appeared running up to him. "Lupin!" He shouted. It was Haki.

"Kijani." Lupin responded in a weak tone, now struggling to stay awake.

The Black Tiger brought a paw up to his comm piece, He had his helmet on this time and spoke into it. "Akutenshi, this is Haki, i've reached Lupin and it looks like he had a bit of fun with one of our friends. He looks banged up though." He moved over to Lupin and put an arm and a paw around him to support Lupin as he shifted him, taking most of Lupins weight onto the strong Black Tiger's body. Haki brought him over to the passenger section of the dropship and put him down on one of the seats and Lupin allowed himself to relax a little, still fighting to stay conscious. He let out ragged breaths as sleep tried to take over. "Kijani..." He muttered.

"Shutup, and let me see if I can help you out a little." Haki said as he walked up to the wall in front of him next to the hatch and pulled open a panel revealing a medical bag. He pulled it out with two tugs and walked back over to Lupin quickly. "Let's see...." He said as he shifted through the bag after unzipping the top of it. It was a black bag with the typical red cross on the sides of it. He hefted out a small hand held device, the bottom was a grey steel color and the top of it was a touch screen glass. The front of it had a small little circle monitor and he put it up to Lupins head letting it hover inches away from it. It let off a small moan as it came to life and started scanning him.

"You like playing rough don't you?" Haki said to Lupin.

"Damn straight I do." He responded mumbling, still fighting to stay conscious. "I can tell you I have a concussion Kijani."

"No shit, well, figured i'd hope something was knocked loose in there and you'd suddenly become another Shilo." Haki responded. Lupin gave a soft chuckle. Shilo was one of the engineers who had designed the gate's that they where now implementing on ships to allow them to open wormholes and travel through them permitting ships to reach destinations faster than using warp engines. Granted almost all of the ships in the current fleets, fleets being that they had thousands, if not millions of ships that where refitted for the war and had been build and continuously used and refitted since Humanities earliest space conflicts as well as the Pelzigan's oldest ships. The older models didn't receive the upgrades due to how incompatible they where with the gate's systems and schematics. Put it simply, a ship that was over five years old would have some minor trouble here and there having the new system installed and the parts needed to work it. A ship that was ten to fifteen years old would have a harder time, especially on the drain on the engines and cores of the ship. Put it simply, most ships ten to fiteen years old didn't have the juice required to power the new GS or Gate System that was being implemented into newer models. The GS worked by drawing continuous energy from the core and engines of a ship which it would use to deploy a set of triangle parts that would extend ahead of the ship and then tear a hole through space and time basically forming a wormhole.

That was the easy part for the system. The hard part, and the one that strained the systems and power of the ship was when it detached a smaller set of triangles through the wormhole and open up another portal at the other side, essentially, the coordinates for an entry point and exit point where needed, and when you put those in, one set goes out, tears the hole, then sends in their smaller counterparts through to the designated coordinates to tear open yet another hole in space and time. All while being connected to the ships engines, NAV systems, and power couplings and cores. The system was able to remotely receive an energy pulse from the ship that would power the gate up. So the draw back to the system was that in unknown space, they couldn't use it because they only have their entry coordinates, and did not have the exit coordinates. And there was also the stress on the shielding and hull of the ship, however very minor it was, would make it a dangerous thing to use if a ship where to immediately exit in the middle of a space battle. Jesus, he thought, I have a damn concussion and here I am thinking about the GS. He looked up at the helmeted Pelzigan. Parts where extended outwards for his muzzle and ears so they could be comfy up there, as well as the ear pieces being flexible so he could still move his ears and the mouth piece of the helmet was large enough so he could talk and open his mouth without it banging against the gel inserts in the suit.

"Such a good combat medic. Loving your bed side manors." Lupin said, not exactly coherent.

"Oh shutup Lupin and lay back." Haki said as he rested a paw on Lupins shoulder pushing him back into the padded seat. "Mild concussion, should get you back to the Serenity and to sick bay. Are the comms working?" He asked.

"Nope, something is jamming them." He said, trying even harder not to slip into unconsciousness.

"Stay with me damn it." Haki said calmly. "Gonna need you to help me get this bird in the air if we need to." He said as he walked out onto the pad and stared up at the top of the shuttle. "where would they put a jammer on a shuttle?" Haki said.

"Well," Lupin said mustering his remaining strength to stay conscious and tell Haki where the jammer would be located. "More than likely, if they could get it attached to the hull and activate it, bottom portion of one of the nacells, away from the sensors on the bottom of the ship so I couldn't pick them up."

"Got it, give me a sec." Haki said dissappearing around the corner of the ramp. It took him several minutes to search down the left nacell and saw nothing there then moved over to the right one and ran his gloved paw underneath feeling for anything strange and thats when he grabbed it. "Found it!" He shouted back. "Lupin you better be awake in there!" He added in.

"Shutup and pull it off so we can get comms on this damn thing back up!" Lupin responded. Haki grinned and wrapped his paw around the device and yanked it off. He pulled his paw out from under the nacell and stared at it. It was a small circular device with a small top that looked a bit like a dish and a larger smoother circular base with several buttons along the left side of it. He moved away from the shuttle and placed it on the ground then brought his boot up and stomped down as hard as he could onto it, and heard a satisfying cracking noise, followed by the sound of sparks and saw smoke rising from the crushed device. "Alright, I'm going up the cockpit to get a signal out to the Serenity." He said as he walked into the passenger compartment. Lupin looked up at him hazily and nodded. He moved passed him and through the hatch into one of the seats and powered up the shuttle. He tapped his comm piece and said "Akutenshi, this is Haki, Found their jamming device, comms shouldn't be spotty anymore. Making a report up to the Serenity and going to take Lupin up to the serenity, he has a mild concussion and bruising on his back and it looks like some minor damage to the spinal. Must have been a good toss for him to get that bad." He waited.

"Got it, get him out of here and come back as soon as you can, relay the current situation down here and request a full troop deployment, we have unknown contacts within the temple and possible within this town or, if we're unlucky, hiding in places around this planet."

"You got it, powering the shuttle up, we'll be leaving in T-Minus thirty." Haki responded. As he pressed a button on the left side of his neck piece and the the helmet began to disassemble itself around him and go into the suit. "I'll report in when i'm making my approach to the temple." Haki said.

"Got it, good luck." Akutenshi replied. Haki started pulling up the holographic control and put a paw on one of them and swiped it up, the shuttle thrummed to life, The engines whining a little. He then put paw on a circular holographic panel and brought it up a little and the shuttle lifted off the ground. He moved his paws in similar fashions and brought the shuttle out of the shielded pad and was buffeted by high winds and the rain streaking down the windshield of the shuttle. He turned to look through the hatch and saw Lupin, his eyes half shut, his body half limp as Lupin struggled to stay awake. He proceeded punching in several commands and watched as the clouds above them took up the whole windshield in front of him. He could feel the shuttle lurching forward as they sped towards the clouds and soon through them coming up above and being hit by a mid-day sunshine. The clouds below them where a light grey instead of the dark grey they where below on the surface. He could see a few more puffs of clouds as they proceeded further up through the planets atmosphere an orange and red glow enveloped the nose of the craft. The stars where slowly but surely coming into view. He kept a close eye on the hull temperature, engine temperature, and to make sure the NAV was on point. The shuttle lurched as it buffeted through the atmosphere and soon he could see twinkling lights of the starships orbiting the planet, hundreds of them, most military, some civilian and cruise ships. The biggest one, a giant rectangular one with the curves smoothed out and a small dip in the center ontop of it with a giant circular dome in the center of the bottom portion of the ship with two enormous engines on the back barely sticking out with several long spires alongside them.

Several antenna's stuck out ontop of the ship at the center and a small round shape hung at the front of the ship where the command center was, it wasn't exactly round, parts of it looked jagged and cut sharply. There where about ten black lines along the hull, five at the center of the ship and five more spreading out alongside the hull above those, their phaser's for the vessel. There were several large circular turrets hung below the bellow of the ship, their Plasma cannons and orbital bombarbment weapons. The Plasma cannons weren't as big as the bombardment cannons attached to the bottom of the ship, but they where still rather intimidating. At the top there were three large cannons all angled forward like the ones at the bottom where suppose to be, strange. The reason it was strange to him was that all cannons where meant to be facing the front of the ship, not behind it, to the sides, or downwards or upwards for that fact. Why where the bottom cannons on the bottom angled to the side of the ship. Just then the proximity alert went off and four ships, all shaped like arrows with long nacells on the side with triangular cockpits at the front glided in next to his ship and he then received a communications from the lead ship. The lead ship flew in front of him and kept it's distance but it's weapons turned backwards and aimed at his ship. The communications chirped at him again. He hit a button to get it through. "This is Guardian Haki Kijani, I have a wounded man and need to get him to the Serenity immediately."

There was silence.

"Haki Kijani this is Sergeant Forge, please hang back while we gain you clearance to dock with the Serenity." Came a raspy male voice, Human. Fuck me, He thought, but not without lube. He grinned at his own joke that formed inside his head even though it wasn't really funny. There was a moment of silence, they circled away from the Serenity and then made a maneuver around the ship.

"Kijani this is Forge."

"Go ahead."

"Clearance has been granted, proceed to docking bay 12, they'll have emergency personnel there awaiting your arrival."

"Understood, punching in commands now." The ships left him and he angled himself towards the massive ship and set in coordinates for docking bay 12. Something wasn't right.

Location: Serenity Bridge

The Captain sat in his ready room, a small section of the bridge that was made for the Captain and was used by the Captain when orders where being transmitted for his eyes only and certain other occasions. It had been ten minutes since Haki had brought Lupin aboard and he sat there wondering why it was taking the Black Tiger to make his way up to him. Once he got the request to let Haki dock he immediately granted it then sent a communication over to him to tell him to come directly to the ready room to report. The room was small, maybe about twelve feet long and ten feet wide. There was a small black polished granite desk in the room with a red leather chair for the Captain and two chairs in front of the desk, both red, and then a picture of him and the once young Akutenshi smiling into a photograph to the left of the desk facing him and then a picture of a lovely black haired woman with tanned skin and bright blue eyes staring at him on the right of the desk. He took a deep breath and sat back waiting for Haki. Another few minutes later The Black Tiger came in, still wearing the black metal combat suit, his green eyes staring at the Captain and he saluted. The Captain stood up and returned the salute and Haki relaxed. The Captain Motioned for him to sit down as he did and then said, "Report Kijani." The Pelzigan nodded.

"You where right, the "Temple" is a housing facility for a genetically engineered species of Pelzigan known as Talkenshi. It is also a communications hub and the Lothians have been using it to send out whispers as transmissions to their forces. And there's more......Troubling news." Haki said. The Captain raised an eyebrow.

"Explain."

"We believe the science team down there has been working with the Lothians and they turned against us once they realized we found the communications array and had shut it down. One of them was going to shoot Akutenshi and Miranda. A Lothian killed him to try and keep the secret." The Captain stared at Haki with a neutral expression and moments of silence passed between them.

"That is troubling Kijani." he said. He stood up and walked around the table to Kijani and continued staring at him. "We had several enemy ships enter the vicinity, all have been destroyed but one was rigged as a nuclear device and was set to hit your location, we were able to stop it and have immediately reported it to command. There will not be any reinforcements because command believes that the fleet with Serenity as well as Omega, Charley, and Zeta should be enough to hold this planet if an attack occurs. We have a little over 90 ships orbiting the planet in defensive positions and the defense stations are coming online. We have notified all but a few settlements, cities, and towns, on the planet that the civilians needs to be sent to evac zones and prepare to board ships in the event that an enemy attack occurs." He let it sink in. The fact that command denied reinforcements meant that they believed that an attack force would be small, but at the same time, if that enemy ship came in he had no idea whether or not the fleets would be capable of even slowing the ship down long enough to evacuate the civilians on the planet. "All planetary batteries are also being powered up and ground forces are now being deployed to make sure that everything runs smoothly in the event of an attack."

"Now what about that "escort" I received Captain?" Haki asked. The Captain took a deep breath.

"We figured, if they did what they did, then they where more than likely planet side, we hope not, but if what you say is true we may already have a small attack force on the planet waiting to strike. We were using armed patrols to ensure that no civilian ship would try to leave without the proper clearance and also to make sure that no enemy escaped. We thought for a second that your shuttle was commandeered by an enemy force and was being used so they could escape." Haki nodded understanding. "As of now, all ships are on red alert, all stations are on standby in the event of an attack and all incoming ships are being told to not enter near the planet and to stay clear as well as to report any suspicious activity." The Captain moved towards the door and stopped to stare at Haki. "You are dismissed, I will attach a squad to your shuttle. Get them down to the surface at the temple and assist in securing the temple." Haki nodded standing up and moved towards the door when the Captain put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. "And please, make sure he's safe." The Captain said. Haki nodded and the Captain let go of his shoulder letting him walk out the ready room. Once the door closed the Captain walked back to his desk and tapped in a command on a small keyboard that was at the desk, a small tv came up from the inner workings of the desk and the UGSM's famous single planet with revolving rings and smaller planets appeared and chirped at him as he was connected to the Admiral. The old man stared at him and he took a deep breath. "There was a slip-up by the scientists down there." He said. The Admiral nodded back at him. "Not a good sign, ensure that it doesn't get out. At all costs Captain. They can't know about whats going on." The Captain nodded.

"I understand, what are your orders sir?" The Admiral took a deep breath in response and waited for a moment then said "Prepare to evacuate the Human population immediately, but try to do it discretely Captain. Or at least make sure there isn't a surge of anger on the colony. Send them back to the Sol System where we will have shelters set up for them." The Captain nodded in response and the channel went dead as the Admiral ended the call. He sat back in chair and finally relaxed. His whole body had been tensed since hearing that Haki had came up from the planet with Lupin and he knew that things where going sideways, but something was coming, and soon, and he would have to make a decision soon enough. But for now, he would follow the orders he was given to an extent. And he would work things out as they came. But for now, he had a war to prepare for because he knew that it was coming straight for him.

Location: Listening Post Omega-2, approximately five light years from Aegis

He sat there reading the reports from the other posts near him, scanning them to see if anything interesting had happened as of recently. Fortunately nothing so far. Jimmy sat back and scratched the back of his head and looked over at his partner, a Female Pelzigan Deer. She wore the same grey attire that was issued out to most of the Navy personnel of the UGSM and they were both fortunate and unfortunate enough to receive this position. The same symbol that the UGSM so famously used, the big planet at the center with several rings revolving around it and several smaller planets on the rings with the words U.G.S.M on the top were stitched onto their right shoulders. Their ranks dignified by a patch on their left shoulders where their ranks. Hers was Lance Corporal, his was a grade above her, Corporal. The station was a small one, a listening post that looked more like a big ball floating in space with docking rings around with tubes that connected the main station to the docking hubs and an indentation in the back of the ball shaped station that where her engines. They weren't capable of reaching Warp 10, but if they needed to try and move the station quickly they could reach up to Warp 4.3. Not fast enough to evade a massive warship, but if they had a squadron going after them they could escape. The station was outfitted with three rings that wrapped around it, one at the top, bottom, and middle. Their phaser banks. They where also outfitted with minor warheads in the event of an attack. He sighed and looked around. The room they where in was basically at the forefront of the station. There was a catwalk directly infront of him that was at eye level that wrapped around their work station and the other similar stations with stairs on most of the stations at the front and ladders for the back ones that went further down. At the center was an elevated command console that was circular minus some stairs that lead up to it.

There where five other individuals up there including the ten others around him and then the other five that where off duty. In all a compliment of 27 personnel for the station, most of the time 17 where needed to monitor the station and commence repairs when need be. So they took shifts and turns. Five go to bed for 8 to 10 hours, then come up and relieve the next five which would head to bed. God, it meant they'd be working for a long time prior to being able to be relieved for some sleep. And in the event someone got sick then they'd all be pulling 2 or 3 days worth of work to cover the missing shift. But it wasn't bad. They weren't bothered much except for reports, both military and scientific, sadly which this station didn't have much scientific research to conduct seeing as it was primarily used to monitor the traffic coming and going through this small sector of their space. They would also be used to monitor and study some of the freak "weather." that would occur once in a while in their small section such as Ion storms, Particle fluctuations in the space around them, anything that could hamper, damage, or destroy a ship. But other than that it was uneventful. The young Human, at the age of 34, knew that he wouldn't be deployed to fight the oncoming enemy they had been fighting since before he was born.

Well, He thought as he read through several reports showing nothing had changed in the past 24 hours, I don't mind. He smiled and continued skimming reports. The monitor in front of him was nothing truly special. A holographic square panel that popped up and showed him what was coming in. Then two large circular holographic panels would come up as well. One being the Proximity Alert System (PAS for short), the other being being the "Weather" panel as everyone called it, or the WP which would alert him when a storm, either Ion or another kind, had formed or was moving through. Sometimes Solar Flares would set it off which would annoy the hell out of him because it would mean having to go into the system to bring it back into normal operation parameters. He glanced over at his partner again and couldn't help but smile staring at her. They where one of the few interspecies couples known at the current time. Granted they couldn't have children, yet, they had had a lot of fun on their times off and where lucky to get stationed on the same station. His smile got wider and he chuckled. "What is it Jimmy?" She said glancing over at him buried deep in reports and communication's. "Nothing, just thinking of what we'll do for dinner tonight." He replied.

"Hopefully not my soul." She joked smiling.

"Hey, come on now! I may be a brunet but that doesn't actually mean I steal peoples souls!" he joked back.

"Uh-huh, and yet you have a freckle for every soul you stole." She said giggling.

"Eh, means that whatever bad deeds I do falls on those poor souls I stole, keeping mine nice and clean." He replied grinning from ear to ear. Just then the PAS went off. The circular holographic panel turned red and it showed a white triangle moving towards them. "Hold on." He said. He put his hand on the PAS system and swiped it in front of him and then enlarged it by opening the palm of his hand.

"probably just another old satelite or maybe a meteorite passing through babe." She said. He didn't respond, just stared at the white triangle as it moved. No, he had seen some of the old satelites Humanity had launched over 700 years ago and knew that this one was moving faster than that, or a meteorite. To him, it seemed much more like... "Oh shit." He muttered as he put his palm to the circle and twisted it around, an alarm blared throughout the station, the typical light blue hugh the station usually had turned red and immediately everyone started murmuring and talking to themselves.

"Report!" Said their Commander.

"Sir, unidentified vessel approaching on impulse power!" He responded.

"Have we been able to confirm it's IFF?"

"Negative sir, still working on it!"

The Female commander walked over to the stairs that lead down to him and came up to his console. She glanced at the screen and then looked at him. A few seconds past then she stood back up and walked back up to the command console. "All hands, battle stations!" She shouted. Her voice echoed down the halls via comms. "This is not a drill! All hands report to your battle stations! Aiden, detach the docking rings and bring our engines online! Chris arm all phaser banks and missiles! Amanda prepare damage control! Jenny send a comms to Aegis, let them know that we have a contact, unknown classification!" Everyone responded with "Yes sir." and went to work. "Jimmy, monitor their approach and scan the ship, we need to confirm the IFF tag on that ship!"

"Yes sir!" He responded.

He worked the console and started scanning the vessel, the first time no IFF popped up, second time, nothing but some schematics that he barely recognized, third time he got an IFF. "Lothian Capitol Ship!" He reported. He looked over at the captain and saw her face, her expression was disbelief.

"Sir, several other ships exiting next to the enemy ship! Several CCS Battle Cruisers just exited Warp in a protective formation around the Capitol Ship!" Then several smaller objects entered the radar range. "We now have five more smaller Frigates taking formation."

"What is their heading?!" She ordered.

"They're heading past us....wait.....Two frigates broke formation and are heading for us!"

"All hands prepare for combat!" She shouted.

"The fleet and two ships are within visual range!" One of the other personnel reported.

"On screen!" she ordered.

In front of them a large vid screen showed the sillouhets of the enemy fleet, the Capitol Ship engulfing the rest of the fleet and then two smaller arrow shaped frigates twice their size were seen heading straight for them.

"They're powering weapons!"

"Evasive Maneuvers!"

The station lurched to the left as a blast of plasma and phaser fire scrapped across their hull.

"Shields down to 98%!" Someone reported.

"Maneuver Alpha-One-Tango-Nine!" The Commander ordered. The station rolled to the other side evading more fire then ducked beneath one of the ships. "Fire!" She ordered. On the screen they saw flashes of Phaser fire streaking across the enemy ships, their shields taking the hits and then several smaller red objects being fired at the back end of the ships and exploding.

"enemy ships shields are down to 67%!"

"Continue evasive maneuvers and try to deal as much damage to their engines as possible, Helm, prepare for Warp on my command!" The ship continued rolling and pivoting side to side exchanging fire with the frigates. They where outgunned but the stations defenses gave them the slight upper hand.

"Shields down to 75%! Enemy ship is down to 43% the other one is down to 94%!"

"Keep pounding away!" She said. There was continuous fire between the two ships and the station. It went between the two ships firing bursts of phaser fire at both ships while evading the other ships attacks which resulted in them hitting each other.

"Haha!" someone laughed.

"One of the ships shielding is down!"

"Target that ship and fire our last barrage of torpedoes!" The Commander ordered. On the second they saw five red lines slamming home into the enemy ship as well as ten red orbs streaked towards it's command center, weapons array, and engines. They each collided and exploded.

"Direct hit!" someone shouted and they cheered as the ship's hull started exploding, shooting out bits and pieces of the ship in quick white flashes as compressed air rushed out into the emptiness of space. Suddenly half of the ship broke away and a bigger explosion could be seen going further into the ship. Their command deck exploded into sparks and white clouds, bodies could be seen flying outwards out of the command deck.

"Bring us about and prepare for immediate departure!" The Commander ordered. Just then the station lurched forward and the sound of an explosion could be heard. "Report!" She ordered.

"The other vessel was able to make a direct hit to our engines! Warp Coils are going critical!"

"Helm, bring us about to the enemy ship and prepare to dump those coils on the bastard!"

"Yes sir!"

The screen lurched and they then saw the enemy ship going towards them. They continued exchanging fire, but the station was able to make several direct hits on their shields while they took a few. Soon they where gliding acorss the top of the ship and the Commander gave the order. There was an audible thump throughout the ship as the coils where launched into space. The screen showed three bright blue lights pulsing as they went towards the enemy ship. "Lock phasers and fire!" The Commander ordered. The station shook violently just as they fired and one of the coils had blown sending a massive shockwave towards them which ended up knocking those who were standing up over and some of the consoles blew apart sending shrapnel into those sitting at them. One of them was Jenny. Jimmy stared as pieces of metal and glass pertruded out of her body, several pieces sticking out of her chest and others in her shoulders and arms. "Jenny!" He shouted as he caught her from falling to the ground. "Medical Team up here immediately!" The Commander ordered. There were several other screams, and some of them died out as those screaming passed into the abyss. Jenny reached up, her uniform soaked in blood, and held Jimmy's hand and gripped it. Her breath was deep ragged and the station shook violently. "No, no no no no no...." He said holding her paw. Immediately there was another explosion. "Shield failure! Direct hit from the explosion!"

"Report on enemy ship!"

"Destroyed but we can't escape the shock wave!" No! He thought as he held her close ignoring the rest of the situation to hold her. He didn't catch it all the way but he heard the Commander give the order to get to the escape pods, and he ignored her. He knew that when the coils went, if they couldn't escape, and without shielding, the shockwave would tear the station apart and whatever escape pods managed to get out of the station would be thrown around and most of them were more than likely to blow up or get destroyed by the debris from both ships and the station. So he sat there, holding her and crying. As he did there was a bright flash and he saw cracks forming along the command center of the station and got them under a desk, he didn't know what else to do. There was the sound of metal wrenching apart and there the sudden explosion of decompression down the hallway and he watched as bodies flew out into the coldness of space. He held on tight not letting her go and not getting sucked out into the hallway with the rest of the crew. There was another shutter, the lights went out and he felt light headed. He looked down at her and saw her lifeless eyes staring up at the cracking ceiling and knew it was over. He held onto her paw as long as he could then heard the deafening explosion as the top of the command center blew apart and felt them get lifted out into space. Then, he was ripped from her, her body drifting in the opposite direction as they where thrown out of the station. He felt cold, he couldn't breath, and he could feel the life going from his body as he watched Jenny drift away from him. He was able to smile knowing that her last actions were to alert Aegis, to give them a chance to get the colonists off the planet, and knew that their actions would in fact leave the enemy fleet with two less ships and with the planet ample warning to set up defenses. Then, he slowly allowed himself to slip away.