As the Wardancer ships in orbit, brought back by the Salvation's hyperdrive along with the rest of the fleet, organized their repairs, Carl headed back to the Terranova. Upon entering, he headed to the conference room, converted into a medical bay, where some Wardancers were attending to Commander Krg, who was injured.

"Free trip to Blacken Starport if you're interested," Carl announced.

One of the Wardancers attending to Krg nodded. "Fair enough. We will have a shuttle pick us up from the surface. It is too complicated for your ships to dock with ours."

Carl left the conference room and headed to the bridge, then ordered the Terranova, which was mostly repaired, to undock. A few minutes later, the ship touched down at Blacken Starport, followed by a Wardancer shuttle. As the Wardancers transferred over to the shuttle waiting for them, Carl headed to his office at Blacken Starport.

He quickly reviewed the course of events, his face a mixture of shock, displeasure, and slight amusement. When he finished reading, he nodded slowly. "This'll be fun," he reflected.

He ordered Colonel Matthias Bloodmoon, commander of the Rigel Division special operations detachment on Blacken Prime, to report for a mission briefing. Colonel Bloodmoon showed up at Carl's office two minutes later.

"What can I do for you, General?" Colonel Bloodmoon asked, sitting down on a chair that appeared from nowhere.

"I need your help," Carl replied simply.

"Is this about the Talus Incident?" Colonel Bloodmoon asked.

Carl nodded. "Objections?"

Colonel Bloodmoon grinned. "None. Whatever you need, my people and I can handle."

Carl nodded approvingly. "I knew I could count on you. Get together five of your best men and take the Terranova to Nordok Prime. Rendezvous with the Talus Republic force already there. Tell them I sent you. Help them with anything they need - personnel, logistics, munitions, strike ops, what have you. We need the Morningstar back here, but you are authorized to call upon the rest of Battlegroup Charlie if you need to."

"Done and done," Colonel Bloodmoon replied, standing up. "Is that all?"

Carl nodded. "Dismissed."

Behind the thirteenth ship in the Imperial flotilla, the Terranova silently exited from a slipstream jump, with Colonel Matthias Bloodmoon and five seasoned Rigel Division veterans aboard. Matt quickly performed a scan of the area; twelve missiles had been launched at the twelve Imperial ships visible to the Republic base, but the thirteenth ship was stealthed and out of range of the base's scanners.

Matt brought the ship carefully on an approach course, then deployed the boarding clamps. As he and his team donned their special-purpose environmental suits and headed for the cargo bay, the Terranova slammed belly-first into the hull of the Imperial ship, and specialized equipment drilled a passage large enough for all six of them to jump through at once.

They landed in a corridor aboard the Imperial ship and immediately drew their weapons, handheld assault railguns similar to those used by Civil Defense officers - not surprising, as most CivDef officers were retired Special Ops personnel. These mean monsters were only slightly bulkier than standard assault rifles, but fired eight hundred dense 8-millimeter depleted-uranium pellets per minute at a lethal two kilometers per second - enough to tear through armor, walls, protective shielding, and just about anything else. They could also be mounted with a variety of optics and accessories, including telescopic sights, laser pointers, and under-barrel grenade launchers.

They hurried through the corridor, making their way toward the bridge, gunning down any Talus Empire soldiers who offered resistance. Suddenly, they stopped. Guarding the corridor around the next bend was an automated guard turret.

One of Matt's squadmates loaded an EMP round into his weapon's grenade launcher, pointed his weapon around the corner, and fired. The skillfully aimed grenade bounced around a bit, then detonated, disabling the turret and allowing the team to proceed.

Down the final corridor, though, they were met with a Widowmaker battle drone.

Matt and four others laid down suppressive fire, avoiding the Widowmaker's tachyon and plasma shots, as the fifth threw a miniature fusion grenade. Once the grenade was thrown, Matt and the others took cover, waiting for the round to detonate.

Seconds later, the resulting blast left nothing of the Widowmaker, and the door to the bridge, but bits of scrap metal.

Matt and the others surged through, immediately taking the bridge under their control. When they found the captain uncooperative, they immediately executed the entire bridge crew; when the captain still refused to budge, they disposed of him with a clean salvo of bullets, then flooded the ship with lethal toxin, killing the other Talus Empire soldiers aboard. Protected by their environmental suits, they quickly worked from the bridge to establish control of the rest of the ship.

The twelve other ships in its flotilla, proving equally stubborn, had been annihilated with the salvo of Republic missiles. Matt uncloaked the ship and immediately hailed the Talus Republic base.

Garrus's expression of shock and anger melted into astonishment as he recognized the UEF Special Operations personnel now in control of a fully armed Talus stealth destroyer. Matt grinned.

"UEF SpecOps at your service," he said simply.

General Michael Camore sat in his command chair, with an enourmous amount of paperwork to his left. He had spent the last two hours working through the various things people required his permission with, such as leave and redeployment. He rose and walked over to the water jug in the corner of the office and poured himself self a glass of the freshest water on Blacken.

Suddenly the door beeped and slid open. Michael turned and saw Admiral Bob Baine, commander off the Phobius Defence group and second-in-command of the entire Blacken space fleet.

"Admiral, what are you doing here, and why wasn't I notified?" Michael asked, taking his seat again.

"It's a matter of security sir!" Bob said. "Admiral General Grimnar has left Blacken controlled space with the Heleriya, Arnaya and the Prometheus."

Michael leaned forward. "Why?" He asked.

"He hasnt told anyone, he just had his family and some key personel from our staff pack for a lengthy stay away and left as soon as they were on board. From our scans, we know that they have headed towards the hyperspace sandbar they were trapped in long ago."

"Have a small scout force there within the hour, I want to know what the hell he thinks he is doing..." Michael trailled off as the comms. console lit up.

"This is Admiral General Logan Grimnar, for those who are preparing to send a force to bring me back don't bother, we are far away and out of reach. The Star-gods arrival into theis plane is nearing every second we speak. I have a way to postpone it indefinetly, but I do not know how long, or if we will survive. Good luck with everything on Blacken." He finished.

"Tell the fleet." Michael said with out any emotion.

Far away, the Heleriya opened a hyperspace tunnel, and the three ships entered.

"Sir, we've received a report from the outpost in the Kandarin system. They are under attack."

Admiral-General Robert Baines, new commander-in-chief of the Blacken Fleet, turned. "Who's the aggressor?" he demanded.

"A Kyrozch force of approximately one thousand," the junior officer replied.

Admiral Baines sighed. "Carl warned us this was going to happen... what's the status of the base?"

"The base is under heavy siege from the ground and from orbit," came the response. "They are holding, but not for much longer. They estimate they can hold off the Kyrozch for another two hours."

Admiral Baines looked at the map of Alliance territory nearby; a large chunk was now missing with the secession of the Talus, but Admiral Baines ignored this fact, concentrating on the space near Kandarin. The system was only four jumps away from Blacken.

He nodded. "Order Kandarin Base to evacuate. Consolidate our nearby ships in the Chateaupers system and send them to intercept."

_Subcommander Erf found Commander Krg running laps of the observation deck, his brow furrowed with thought, "I see their medical equipment works quite well" Erf said as he joined Krg, his armour clanking against the deck as he kept pace, "Too well, the medical team are in the brig." Erf frowned, "Why?" Krg lead the pair towards the hydroponics bay to port, "They stole some of their medical equipment, which has been found and sent back. As a show of good will I put the medics in the brig and sent our friends details of our armaments." Erf grinned and shook his head, "Now that they've seen what we can do." Krg stopped, "Yes. About that-" Erf put up a six fingered gauntlet, "Before you chew me out you should know that the Talus empire has grown increasingly unstable, which is having an effect on our friendly neighbourhood fleet, and some members don't like us, but that should not be a problem for a while as they now know we are not an insignificant force."

_They began walking through the hydroponics bay which was awash with bright blue light and black looking plants, "Hmm," Krg said after a few minutes, "That explains why this was so easy to get," Krg removed a data slip from a pocket in his light civillian clothes, "It is a report by that Unification ship, the one that scanned the Crbrs." Erf nodded, "You are thinking that this is a 'we want you to know what we know' situation?" Krg nodded, "Exactly, a way of keeping us on a short lead. They may be a little concerned about the state of our relations, this alliance has been more beneficial to us than for them." As they left the hydroponics bay a grin slowly crept accross Krg's face, "Which brings back to who deasn't like us, and why?" Erf spread his gauntleted hands wide, "Why is easy; for most of them we present a problem regarding planet grabbing in the old unified Kallum sectors, and our membership of the Fleet gives us a legitimate territorial claim in that area-"
"-And protection from Fleet... oh, I see what you mean. Things are delicate right now, aren't they?" Erf nodded sagely as they reached the heavy door to Commander Krg's quarters, "I shall return to the bridge."
"No, no, I want you to see this too. Come in."

_Commander Krg's quarters were sparsely decorated, with only the main room painted a colour other than white, with Krg choosing bright red. There was one table, bearing a remote keypad, with two chairs either side of it facing a console mounted into the centre of the back wall, to one side was a wide sofa with an antique stereograph standing in front of it next to an uneven stack of stereograms. The sofa smelled strongly of something that Erf suspected was only legal for tax reasons, "I'll just get the console to scan this." Krg placed the data slip into the reader.

***

_Samantha hit record and the machine began to automatically transcribe her words, turning each syllable into a piece of encoded data. She listed the appropriate numbers and codes before listing her full name and rank followed by the date as she began reviewing the scanning records from the secondary science and tactical stations.

_"Their engines seem to be nothing more than very big ion drives. According to these readouts they are being powered by some kind of basic plasma reaction that reaches deep into subspace, not very efficient but immensely powerful. Their long range weapons appear to be little more than simple blasters, used primarily for picking off incoming ordnance it seems. Primary weapons use some form of basic plasma, again reaching deep into subspace and again more powerful than... Holy christ! Primary weapon seems to be designed specifically to counter energy-based shields, the Kallum shields can't deflect the plasma, it's just stuck there, burning! The smaller cruisers can't handle it, their shields are overloading... Hmm, they're turning on a heavy cruiser, looks like a dual explosion plus the plasma was too much for its aft shields... looks like all of the Wardancer plasma cannons are firing, I'd say thirty, predictable results against the Kallum armour.  That's odd, I'm reading metal coming from the Wardancer's flank, but they haven't been hit... Requesting higher resolution.

_"The Wardancers are using cannons, I can't tell how they're working in a vacuum but they are, and they're tearing the Kallum ship to pieces. There must be billions of hull-breaches on board, you can see a fine mist around the vessel as the atmosphere condenses in open space. It looks a little like a comet.

_"I personally would not like to come up against one, although I do not doubt that my own victory would be certain I also do not doubt the heavy damage and losses we would incurr. They are as equally determined in their goals as we are in ours, and for that reason alone I reccomend caution; Their presence in the outer arm is inconvenient but I doubt it will become troublesome without outside interference".

"Report from Colonel Bloodmoon on Temple Prime, Sir."

"Let me look at it..." Garrus said and gave an apologetic glance to the pair of Officers in his quarters. He quickly read through the report and set it down.

"And?" One of them asked, Garrus gave it to him and answered.

"And... Guerrilla warfare has erupted across Temple Prime, our bases don't have enough men are being hit hard. We haven't heard much from our forces on the other three planets, but it look that we'll lose the Temple system. Unless Matt can make miracles." Garrus said and then nodded for them to continue the earlier discussion.

"Sir, I was on the project team... But we hadn't conducted a live shakedown run yet. Unless they got a prototype from the Alliance, there

Commander Krg and Subcommander Erf spoke in hushed tones on the bridge of the Crbrs, leaning so close to each other that their visors were almost touching, "Already?"
"Don't forget we weren't in a hurry to get here."
"I know that, but this is still sooner than expected. So what do we do?"
"Well everything is now being completed much quicker on the colony, so everything has to be stepped up."
"But things are so unstable now, it could-"
"I know, I know, but a shift in the power-balance is not something we need to worry about any more, it will not be our problem."
"Should I contact the UEF then?"
"No, I'll talk to them, just put me through..."
"Time to make our alliance even more one sided. They're responding, on screen."
"Ah, Admiral! We need a power source, a big one, in our colony system."

The space outside was dark, darker then anything imaginable. Then soon enough it was replaced by the swirling red and purple that Logan had grown accoustomed to. Below the severely beaten Heleriya was the planet they called home these days. The dust and dirt was wrapped around the small planet and it gave the appearance of the very ground being on fire, especially with the dust storms; no one had yet dared move away from the camp to check. Helmond piloted the Heleriya towards the speck on the planet. The Heleriya had now only one working Ion engine, the others had been destroyed, but advancements made helped with the remaining one to function at three hundred percent effeiciency. The constant threat of death was a good helper, Logan thought.

When the Heleriya landed, Logan left the ship in one of the only remaining fighters and headed towards the Arnaya, it was just bigger then the Heleriya and was more 'living' comfortable. When he docked, he walked towards the control room/breifing room. His family were there, with Robert constrained, and the rest of the leadership.

"The Prometheus is still there, I don't think they have boarded, or they have and can't fly it. The crew is dead, as we thought. The hull seems to still be ok, and the Wall hasn't been touched." Logan said, nodding to Samel. He grimaced back, hardly able to smile. No-one smiled any more, there was no laughter and all warmth was left at the portal they enetered two weeks ago. "However, we were boarded for a split second, we lost Silvers and two other crewman. Helmond managed to adjust the shields and they were pushed back furthur then before, Samel I want you working on that." Samel nodded and walked out of the room. "Did anything happen while we were gone?"

"Nothing, I have managed to keep this part of the planet hidden, but they are getting impatient, they know we are near here." Amanda said. She gave a sideways look at her brother, who had nothing but pure hatred in his eyes for his father. Logan looked enquiringly at Amanda. "He's under control, he is getting easier to control, the demon is losing it's power, Robert has started fighting." She said with a hint of pride. Logan leant forward towards Roberts face.

"Robert, I know you can hear me. Fight it, keep fighting, we need you here with us." The bonds holding his mouth covered fell loose.

"I will call his might down upon you and all of your kind-" He began saying in a possessed voice before Elliot fixed the bindings. Logan stood and addressed the rest of the group.

"Be ready for boarding action, we're taking back the Prometheus." Logan said. The group rose and made their way towards the armoury.

Within ten mintus, the Soldiers had all boarded the Heleriya and were ready. Helmond piloted the ship upwards towards the dark fiery heavens. There were no stars visible from here, Logan assumed there were none here. As they began to pass the first fingers of flame, Helmond kept a steady stream of information going, while keeping the Heleriya on course. The ship began the now familiar vibrating, which slowly grew. When the flames were at their peak, Helmond called out.

"Optimum jump range."

"Execute." Logan said, keeping on eye out for the strange shapes in the flames licking the shields. They jolted forward and the flames were left far behind. As soon as they were no longer visible, a dark shap rammed the side of the ship and knocked everyone of their feet.

"Damnit! How did they get here so fast!" Logan shouted, furious. Helmond began to accelerate away, but the shape just changed direction and rammed the back of the ship, lurching it forwards. Helmond struggled to regain control then shouted out.

"Damn, the Ion engine is losing power! Not destroyed, just knocked loose!"

"Ok, gear up, were abandoning the Heleriya. Leave the selfdestruct, we're coming back once were done with the Prometheus!" Logan said. He never thought he would be giving that order, so he gave one sweeping look around the bridge before he felt himself being pulled along the transport stream to the Prometheus. Immedeatly they were set upon. Logan jumped to the left to avoid the thing, and turned to see as two man were ripped apart by another two. He slung the Kyrozch rifle and fired a few shots and the energy ripped through the black shadows and left a slight smoking vapour where they were.

"Damn, we lost Kruezer and Soloman. Regroup, stay behind me, weapons at ready at all times." Logan said, as he retreieved the dog tags from the fallen men. He then turned and turned the light ductaped to his rifle on. The beam of light lit up the hall way, and revealed several other bodies. He heard the clicks of other lights and the room lit up, revealling more shadows speeding towards them. They were quickly dealt with, and the group moved forward, making their way towards engineering. Bodies littered the ground, and soon they reached the required level. Nothing else was met on the way, and as they come across the door, the ship rocked slightly. Everybody looked around nervously.

"Two units, head up to the control room, when we have the power back, I want a full scan, and to get us as fast as possible back to friendly terrain." Logan said, and two men nodded, and took their squads off the other direction. Logan turned towards the door and went to open it when a voice sounded from inside.

"Hello? Who's there?" The voice was muffled, but Logan could still recognize who it was; Ronald Nebetz Commander of the Prometheus. The door slid open, to reveal the man standing their woth two fully loaded assualt rifles. He let them fall when he saw who it was and let out a huge sigh. which was the last thing he did, for two shadows ripped past the men enetering the room and charged into Ronald with such force, his torso was ripped away from his legs. Logan yelled in shock and fired instinctively at the retreating shadows. He let the men secure the room while he dropped to the side of the broken body. He lifted the limp head of the almost dead man and looked into his eyes.

"Be at piece, my friend." Logan said to his oldest friend, while he shook with the force of keeping the tears back.

"It's... it's working..." Ronald said, before his life force left his body, only to be snatched up by another shadow, which flew through the wall.

"Damn!" He said as he fired at the shadow. He hit it but did not destroy it and it staggered away through another wall.

"Ok, get the power up now, I want to get away from here as soon as possible." Logan shouted and looked around as everybody began to work. Only a few minutes later and the power was flaring through the ship.

"Sir, power is back on line, scans are complete. everything works out fine, were getting power to engines as we speak. What about the Heleriya sir?" Jackobson asked over the radio.

"I will deal with that afterwards. Get the ship as close as you can, were coming to you now." Logan said back. "Ok, Close up shop, we're moving out!" He shouted to the others. They all moved to the door and they were on their way towards the bridge. A few confrontations later and they were standing with the two units. Outside, the shadows were being repelled by the shield that Helmond had managed to adjust, and behind them, barely visible, was the Heleriya, drifting sadly away. Logan had never seen her so badly beaten up. He winced as the ship rolled and he could see the complete effects of continues atmospheric re-entry to that hell of a place had.

"Get us closer. I want Helmond, Martin and Jackobson with me, we'll get her back. When we get across, no waiting for us, go home. Understood?" The others answered in one. "Ok, Saul, do it." He said, and Logan closed his eyes and felt himself move.

When he felt himself being put back together, he opened his eyes and looked around, already in the crouching postion. Within a second he had searched the immedeate area, and knew the others had done the same when he heard them call out 'clear'. He stood keeping an eye out for any movement.

"Get to work," He called out over his shoulder, and they moved to the nearest consoles. The lighting became brighter with a few moments a typing, and Helmond replied with some data.

"The Prometheus has moved away and she just entered the safe zone." Helmond paused. "I'm reading fourteen shadows, drifting. They don't seem to notice us though, and I'm sure when we start the engine or anything else they will come." Helmond said. Logan leaned against the console Helmond was working at.

"Whats the status on the shields?" Logan asked.

"They're still up, at thirty-nine percent, but the shadows don't seem interested. I will run a full scan on the engine and see what we can do." Helmond said.

"Jackobson, see how much you can increase the yield on one of our nukes. Martin, get down to the engine room and wait to see if you are needed." Martin nodded and was teleported to the other side of the ship. They all waited for a few minutes while Helmond completed his scans.

"Ok, the power isn't getting to the engine, one of the engine cables was knocked loose, Martin should be able to get it back online in no time." Logan nodded and relayed the message to Martin who fixed the problem and was teleported to the deck. Helmond slowly powered the engines up and reported they were fixed. He straightened the Heleriya and turned to face the oncoming Shadows. Logan rushed to the weapons console.

"How's that nuke coming along?" He asked.

"Yield has been increased by two hundred percent, any more and we can't fire it without it blowing up before it leaves the bay." Jackobson said.

"Ok, fire it when the shadows are in range, not at them just between us and them, it should blind them enough for us to get through." Logan said, and Jackobson nodded and fired the weapon when ordered. The ordinance flew through space and the Heleriya started its acceleration run. The nuke exploded as the crewmen turned away from its deadly glare. When it dissapated , they looked back and could see nothing. Helmond fired the engine up and flew through the explosion, and they weren't intercepted and they managed to enter the tunnel back.

The flames died away and the planet grew into focus. Helmond guided the extremly battered and now unrecognizable Heleriya to it's resting site, and they all saw the Prometheus in it's own area. Logan rose and walked to the fighter bay to take the fighter back to the Arnaya.

"You're not going to hail them?"

"They came to us, we all know whats goign to happen. Talking to Septimus isn't going to change anything at this point." Garrus said and looked over the report of his strength versus the estimated Imperial strength. He sighed and began to send out commands, draggin figures around on a large hologram of the system.

"I had hoped to speak with him before the engagment began." Septimus commented to one of his Officers as the Fleet drew closer to the planet.

"Why don't you just hail them or send a message? Fake that it is a request for surrender."

"Ha. Garrus wouldn't buy it, we both know why I'm here. It was a matter of time until this happened. Captain, order the Fleet to prepare for engagment." Septimus said sadly, looking out at Nordok Prime, "Get ready to fire the first shot."

"Gentlemen, its time. It has been an honor to serve with you, I hope to see you on the other side. Lieutenant, you may have the honor of firing the first shot." Garrus said and bowed his head to the soldier.

"Captain, you may fire-" Septimus began before another person shouted out.

"Missiles! Incoming missiles, Sir! Hundreds of incoming, from both moons and the orbital defenses. Energy weapons are targeting us, Republic ships are coming into view!"

"Order the Fleet to engage! Just like Garrus, never sticking to formalities."

"Thats it, Sir. All missiles are away. Now its up to the boys upstairs."

"Not entirely." Garrus said, picking up his gear and heading outside, "The ground war is still to be fought."

Missiles impacted with ships. Graser cannons streamed jets of energy. Fighters exploded and chaos ensued. All around Nordok Prime, ships transformed into balls of fire and bits of metal as the Republic defenses fought on doggedly. Within an hour, however, the Republic Fleet and orbital defenses had been ripped apart by the Imperial invaders. The survivors, along with the cloaked ship, either landed on the planet or fled the system. By then, the Imperial transports had arrived in the system and were entering the atmosphere.

"Sir! First one is touching down, fourteen miles to the north!"

"Well, men, lets move out!" Garrus shouted and signaled the lead tank. Within moments the massive armed column was on its way, north, towards the landing area of the Imperial Army.

"What do you think our chances are?" An Officer asked Garrus after he climbed down into the APC.

"We're outgunned, outnumbered and they hold orbit, so the odds are against us heavily. Our only real chance to cripple the invasion is to assault the landing area. If we can drive them out, or even set up a few guns to fire at incoming transports, it may turn the tide. Or at least force them to land somewhere else, farther away from our main bases and strong points." Garrus replied optimistically.

"Well then, lets hope we're not late to the party."

On the way, Logan thought of the mission. He had not expected to see Ronald alive, but it had been extremely helpful, what the mission had been made to achieve; to see weather the energy wall they had erected over the portal was still up and working. The Star-God was here in the place some where, and Logan knew the energy would stop it, for how long, he did not know. He also wondered why the God hadn't turned up yet, something on the other side must of hindered it. Maybe too many souls leaving the galaxy at once? He thought. He grimaced at that thought. The galaxy already had lost too many people, fought too many battles that could of been avoided. And Ronald had said it worked! So, my plan has worked, maybe we can try for longer, and maybe get a message across. Life here was difficult, he knew, and the food and water situation wasn't sorting it self out either, even if they had managed to cut even with consuming and making the produce. And my ship needs a very thorough makeover, if I didn't know I had just left it, I would of wondered what ship that was, Logan thought as he turned to get a better look at the Heleriya. He focused back to controlling the fighter.

Midway through the trip to the Arnaya, Logan thought he could see a slight whitish trail burn through the fiery surroundings for an instant, and it prompted him to make haste. When he managed to land and make it to the briefing room, he saw someone he did not expect to see, but someone he was glad to.

"James, how did you get here?" Logan asked in surprise. Yes, how did he get through that energy barrier, because if he can whats to say that a _God_ can't? James appeared to have read his mind.

"The energy was very difficult to get through getting here, but you have nothing to fear. When I passed through, I attempted to see if I can get back, it was very solid. However, I can give you some help to making it stronger." James said. Logan nodded, and finally took a look around at the people seated around the standing men. He knew straight away that they had been healed. The scratches and scars that he had memerised in each of them were now gone, and everone looked brighter for it. Maybe not the smile he needed, but they weren't down cast.

Over the hours, Logan, the other commander; John Harnel and the command crew, or what was left of it from each ship and James had spoken about the affairs on both sides of the barrier. Logan surmised that the war now taking place could very well determine the success, or the amount of success this plan had. Finally it was time for thier resting period and Logan prised himself away from the continued talking; everyone seemed eager to hear what had happened. He walked to his quarters just off the breifing room, and he laid on his bed, listening to the deep rumble of voices rolling though the wall. He thought he heard laughter, right before he fell asleep. He learned not to dream in this place. Evil things could happen to men who dwell on things they cannot achieve...

The talking had subsided; everybody was deep in thought, or were whispering inaudibly to their left or right. James was near the circle head, next to Amanda, and the still bound Robert. James pulled at her arm and began whispereing into her ear, and with each passing word, a smile grew on her face, and it was the first seen for many days. They pulled apart when they realised some people had began to watch in interest.

"Come, bring Robert, I have a plan." Amanda nodded and lifted the boy to his feet and they walked a short way down the hall where they turned left; the room opposite Logan's.

They sat Robert on one of the chairs.

"Now concentrate. I will open my mind to you, my plan is far to complex to be put in any language, so you will see my thoughts exactly..." James trailled off as he starred directly at Roberts face and closed his eyes. Amanda followed suit, and instantly, a fine white mist enveloped the room. No one saw it but the Demon possessing Robert Grimnar cringed away, and as the mist thickened, the last thing on it's face was that of pure fear...

"Report from Battlegroup Bravo near Kandarin," an officer announced.

"What is it?" Admiral Baines demanded.

"They've engaged the Kyrozch. The C. Allen Riley has taken considerable damage, and the rest of the battlegroup is growing exhausted."

Admiral Baines sighed. He contacted General Stephen Clarke, a senior Alliance leader.

"What is it, Admiral?" Stephen asked.

"The Kyrozch are proving to be hard to crack," Admiral Baines explained. "I have a battlegroup engaging their main force now, but they are in need of resupply and replacement. Can you pull some extra ships out of nowhere?"

General Clarke sighed. "We have the resources, but not the manpower..."

"The AI you've developed for your ground and air troops," Admiral Baines pointed out, fishing desperately for a solution, "couldn't you adapt that for space?"

General Clarke scratched his head for a moment. "Space is more complicated than planetary warfare. Every report suggests that having a human presence in space is more effective than having an AI presence, at least for the foreseeable future."

In his office, Admiral Baines practically stood up. "I don't care right now. I don't need wizards in space. I need guns. I need armor. I need missiles. Anything to throw at those goddamned Kyrozch. If it's worth the expense, I could really use the help right now."

General Clarke thought for a moment, then said, "We have something. Our scientists have been working on a starship AI for a while now. It's still highly experimental, though, and may not behave as expected. Are you sure you want to risk it?"

"Does it mean I'll have more guns pointed at Kyrozch?" Admiral Baines demanded.

"It sure does," General Clarke responded.

"Then I'll take whatever risks are involved," Admiral Baines said firmly.

General Clarke nodded. "You have it. I'm deploying Battlegroup Juliet to the combat zone. Be prepared."