Once back at his own home Robert was frantic with packing.

Once the invasion fleet had arrived within the system UEF droids were quickly dispatched to collect precious ore and gas from the third planet, a gas giant, and it's moons.

The second planet was a desolate rock with not enough mass to have a noticeable atmosphere. And the first one was so close to the sun that at the distance of the fleet. Sensory data from it proved incomprehensible.

The system was once inhabited by several Kallum mining colonies, and one of the moons orbiting the gas giant was once able to support life. But being so close to the front lines Alliance raiders would regularly jump in and destroy or capture cargo ships before escaping. The Kallum deemed it unprofitable and blew much of the planet to smithereens before leaving. And then resorted to the same raiding techniques as the Alliance to stop any other type of colonization. The project was deemed too costly to be profitable and was abandoned in favour of other planets.
It now serves as a waystation for further incursion.

Several hours later the Talus carriers flanked by some destroyers and frigates jumped into the system. Garrus immediately opened up a channel: "I'm sorry for the delay Jeodan, are you ready for the preparations?"
"We are just about rounding up and doing some final check-ups. Can we finally agree if we want to do an instant jump? Or go via the usual way." Jeodan asked.
"We can plan out an entire campaign but we cant choose whether we will wear a T-shirt or a Blouse..."
"What?" Jeodan said with confusion spread across his face.
"Just some human humour."
"I though we had signed a unilateral treaty preventing you from using it." Jeodan said in all seriousness.
A short pause ensued before the two men burst uncontrollably into laughter. "Dammit Jeodan we have a war to win here." Garrus said when the two snapped out of it.

"Either we risk the jump and pull every ship closer together, which will if they await us spell catastrophe or we go safe side and do regular travel. Your call Garrus."

The communication and laughter were interrupted. "We need your help, and in turn, we will give you ours." said a female voice over the communication channel.

There was a slight pause as it registered that Garrus and Jeodan were no long alone in the channel.

A lone Icharys frigate decloaked from along side the fleet, then a second and then a third. The ships has seem refit for combat with new weapon systems unseen previously. The sensors officer infront of Jeodan litterally feel out of his seat with surprise, exclaiming "Scion attack! Scion Attack!". Though he braced for impact none came.

The communications package that Jeodan and Garrus had opened remained silent.

Downloaded and update tactical information of the targeted system began flooding in. It showed that a concentrated jump would work, as the Kallum were no prepared.

As the information flowed in, "So, why would you help us now Scion? Against the Kallum, whom you have supported?" Asked Jeodan, asutely.

The tacitical information zoomed in, and it showed a Dark One in the ranks of the Kallum fleet awaiting them. "Certain members of the Kallum Empire have seen fit to join the Dark." After a brief pause, "The tactical information we are providing you show that if you had seen that a concentrated jump was suitable, you would have fallen into a trap. You should see that now." More highlighted Dark ones on the tactical display lit up.

Garrus asked in arather harsh tone. "Why don't you take care of this yourself, and save us the trouble Scion?"

After a deliberate pause, as if contemplating the possibilities of the reaction. "Becuase we are no longer winning our war with the Dark. We have been severely routed. There are only a few places with which we still have enough of a prescence rally and take back the fight to them. This galaxy is one of them.

Garrus and Jeodan may not have liked the Scion, but the Dark had taken far more lives in their attacks on various fleets over the past year.

"Even though it may hundreds of years before the Dark come here. I assure you, they will, and when they do, there will be no mercy. As a token of our show of support, these three Icharys have been offered to you. Control of them is being handed over now.

The arm, which the Scion had replaced on Jeodan began to glow a light blue. Out of his arm, materialized a device. Jeodan arm went into a momentary seizure, it tingled, and caused no pain. The arm itself remained as it was, and he instantly began to mentally be aware of the three Icharys frigates. In front of Garrus a similar device materialized. It was apparent to Garrus that it was a bracer which was meant to be worn.

The three Icharys introduced themselves to Jeodan psychically.

The Dreamweaver then materialized and began to head to deep space. "I cannot stay any longer, inform the Icharys's of your decision.." And with that she burst through to another dimension.

Jeodan got a tingling feeling on his arm, it was almost like someone was "knocking" at the door. As soon as he mentallly accepted the "whose there" routine, the lead Ichary's responded to his question about "who" with a rather short to the point.

Jeodan got a chill up his spine at the reply. "Garrus, I believe that this moment in time it's not how did the Scion know.. but as our new friends have seen fit to point out, the bugs know, and why they were springing the trap. Believe we will have company, and soon, now that the trap is known."

Garrus replied, he got the message too from another one of the Ichary's.

Once again Jeodan got that tingle.

"Seems we have incoming." was said in unison.

Before them, a medium size floatilla of Kallum jumped in, who in turn were flanked by several large dark entities. The Ichary's immediately sprung to life, locked ina fight to the death with the dark ones. Streams of Scion beams flowed out from the Ichary's cutting the lead Kallum vessels in two, which then erupted into violent blasts. The other two ichari close in on the fleet and engages a fleet wide Scion shield.

Tai'Conderous, the lead Icharys broadcast openly to the fleet, that they should withdraw, and the shield will drop to allow them to exit.

Jeodan, this time, did not feel a tingle.. just a very clear message. "If you value your life, and that of your crew... jump now."

Behind the inital small floatilla of Kallum, new jump signatures became to form, it spread from one side of the vision from the "Morningstar" flag bridge, to the other. A massive Kallum Fleet was folding in, along side several even larger darkones.

"Alright then," Jeodan continued, "Set the Icharus' directly behind us so they can form the shield again if the Darkones are faster then the other ships, but I bet they wont risk going in alone against a whole fleet backed by scion ships."

"What are we waiting for?"

"Dramatic tension?"

"..."

"Plotted course, sent to the ships, lets go."

(more from the mysterious adventures of Robert!)

Robert made his way through the mass of people startled with each alien face he saw. Even though he knew many sentient beings existed beside the big Three he had rarely seen any as his company focused primarily on Human populous while using Cy'Tan manufacturing 'cycles' to get his goods.

"The next lot for auction is this fine frigate, it has sleeping quarters for six people can be run by two and has a lot of cargo space since it does not have energy supply for weapons and such. The bidding will start at two hundred million credits."

"One GCR!" Robert said as he raised his hand as high as he was able. The public was struck in awe, four times the starting bid right off the bat? It had never happened before. "Uhm...sir?" The auctioneer questioned the validity of this man's claim. But Robert quickly pulled out a custom-denomination note or a CD note and showed it to the auctioneer as he stepped on the elevated panel.

As the auctioneer examined the note Robert had the widest smile on his face since he found out he could afford it.

"Any other bids?" The crowd was hulled in silence.
"Sold to the rich human, your prize awaits you on the outskirts of town." Later the auctioneer gave him a note to give the guardian of the ship and a pass code.

By the time Carl got to the launchpad, things had taken a turn for the worse.

"We lost contact with Earth a few seconds before you arrived," the starport officer told him.

Carl nodded. "Earth is under attack."

The land gate flared brightly; a platoon of humans ran through. "Close the gate!" they yelled.

Carl nodded. "Close the gate."

The order was relayed, and the gate itself was powered down.

The commanding officer of the platoon, Colonel Ray Waterson, looked up at Carl. "Correction, General. Earth is gone."

Carl was stunned. "Gone?"

"They systematically tore apart our defensive line, our industrial base, our shipyards, everything. They just swept across the planet... and left nothing alive. We were the few who managed to gate offworld in time. We were being chased by assault bots. That's why we asked you to close the gate. If we let them in here..."

"...this starport would be in danger," Carl finished the sentence. He thought for a moment... "Then we have to destablize-"

The starport's klaxon went off. "Too late!" the starport officer exclaimed.

With a hand gesture, Carl brought a holographic screen down from nowhere. He quickly checked Blacken Prime's orbital view. "Oh, !@&#..."

They had ripped another tear in the fabric of spacetime right in orbit of Blacken, and flying through in ridiculous numbers were millions upon millions of alien aircraft? spacecraft? both? at the same time? Carl couldn't tell.

"How many ships do we have in orbit?"

"Few. All three carriers are out on assignment. Battlegroup Foxtrot is the only one in orbit, and it's already heavily damaged."

Carl bowed his head. "If this is what we think it is..."

Julius finished the sentence, walking in from a side door. "We need to evacuate Blacken. Now. While we still can."

"You do realize..." Julius reminded Carl.

Carl nodded. "I'm just trying to buy us some time. In the meantime... fire up the gate."

"Where to?" the starport officer asked.

"Anywhere. I don't care. Somewhere where the civilians will be safe."

As the gate energized for what would be the last time, the massive doors at the other end of the Gate chamber opened to the outside, revealing air transports full of civilian evacuation and supply trucks.

/*
PERSONAL LOG, December 19, 2210.

The UEF command at Blacken met today behind closed doors with the Aeon command. Princess Burke warned us of a potential alien presence, the Seraphim, trying to break through. She estimated we had about two weeks.

She tried her best to impress upon us the danger of this alien race. None of my colleagues were impressed. They have too much faith in the strength of the UEF. To be honest, I probably do too.

It was only through a prodigious amount of convincing that the UEF command was persuaded to draw up a contingency plan.

It goes like this. Princess Burke said they would strike first at Earth - our Earth - with a force able to defeat any available or projected defense. There wouldn't be much we could do for the Earth residents, except activate the old Civil Defense protocols. Hopefully, a few would survive the initial bombardment - but we all know, if the Seraphim do strike, the people of Earth are doomed.

As soon as the initial strike occurred, the populations of all UEF, Aeon, and Cybram worlds would immediately pack up and evacuate to worlds outside the Quantum Gate Network, as it is assumed the Seraphim will be leveraging the Gates in order to establish control of UEF space. In the remote, but entirely possible, situation that the Seraphim jumped the barrier, the population of Blacken-controlled space would immediately do the same, evacuating to a world outside the expected reach of the Seraphim.

All battlegroups near Blacken would converge, holding off the Seraphim advance for as long as possible while the evacuation occurred. Any battlegroups off-world or on assignment would immediately initiate a long-range hyperspace jump - and I mean long range. They would have to be targeted outside the galaxy itself.

The Colossus-class carriers and the Blacken base ship are already completely self-sufficient, with enough supplies to colonize a star cluster on their own, but only four battlegroups are so endowed. All other battlegroups will have to be outfitted with colonization equipment - just in case.

Though my colleagues endorse the current contingency plan, I can still sense skepticism. I don't blame them. Ever since the end of the Infinite War, no one has been able to envision a situation where the UEF would possibly suffer such total defeat.

I know Princess Burke has superpowers, but let's all hope she's wrong this time...

END LOG.
*/

Back in orbit, the defense satellites rotated toward the alien fleet, unleashing a torrent of plasma and missiles.

The massive starship-sized bombers launched gigantic nuclear missiles at the defense satellites in response.

Impossible to shoot down, these missiles easily found their marks. Within seconds, though it had inflicted some casualties on the invading fleet, the Blacken defense grid was vaporized.

"That's the last of them," the report came.

"Thank God this is a small city. What about the Cy'tan?"

"They're moving all right, but I don't know *what* they're doing..."

Alexandra had discussed this point with her husband for some time now. She hadn't known why he had been so concerned, but she had listened all the same. And now, she knew. And she was prepared.

She and her two sons were on the Terranova almost as soon as the alarm came. "Don't wait for me," her husband had warned her. "You won't have time. Just get into orbit and jump out of here. Far out. Go to the galaxy's edge and start a new life there. One day we'll be able to come back home."

The Terranova rocketed into orbit, avoiding Seraphim missiles and energy bolts.

From across the battlefield, a nuclear missile rocketed toward the little ship like an avenging thunderbolt.

Just in time, the Terranova sliced through space itself and was gone.

Two minutes later, Alexandra looked at the world beneath them. Green, pristine, almost too perfect. She scanned the planet - habitable.

Chance regarded the image thoughtfully. "Is this the place?"

Alexandra nodded. "It's the place."

"And now?" Chance asked.

"We land... we build..." Clay began slowly.

"...and we wait," Alexandra finished.

They would be waiting for a long, long time.

Garrus was home, or what could be called his home. He stood on the bridge of the Lorean, his flagship. Then an alarm screamed behind him. He almost dropped his glass of water, spilling it all over the ground. he barely even noticed it, as he set the glass down and crossed to his chair. His face became pale as he read the heading of the message. It held the code for the highest priority in Alliance communications, which was known by less then twenty people. And it was from Blacken. He opened the message and the face of a young, pale, scared soldier appeared on his face.

"This is Blacken Colonial Command," The man said, "requesting immediate assistance. An unidentified alien fleet has entered the system and engaged Blacken Orbital defenses with Nuclear weaponry. Blacken itself is under going immediate evacuation." The message was then cut off. It seemed too staged. The soldier was reading a script, he wasn't simply talking. Garrus felt his stomach flip. There was only one meaning to this message, no matter what the soldier had said; Blacken was under attack and the UEF, the strongest force in the Alliance, had failed utterly at stopping them. Which meant, of course, that any system attacked by this new threat was hopelessly doomed.

"Get me a link to the President's home office. Also, bring the entire fleet to battle stations." Garrus said softly to his bridge crew. They snapped to action, as he forwarded this message to Jeodan. The President's face appeared on his screen.

"Admiral, what can I do for you?"

"You can begin immediate evacuations," Garrus said as he sent the President another copy of the message, "This system is no longer safe."

Thirty minutes later, evacuations were underway, as the fastest ships arrived from Gerudo's small colonies. Garrus finally got out of the Cabinet's meeting and attempted to establish a link with Carl, but it was disconnected before either of them could say anything. Damn it Carl, Garrus thought, what the hell is going on?

Energy blasts slammed into the city's shields. Key military personnel had been evacuated into hardened bunkers; it was clear that the Starport building was no longer safe. Carl stayed behind, frantically working to re-establish the link with Garrus.

After a few seconds of fizzling, the link came back up. "What the hell-?" Garrus asked.

"We're under attack. There's nothing you can do. We're holding them off as long as we can, but we could break at any time. Run!"

"Who are these things?"

"Not the Scion, not the Darkones. Seraphim. There's nothing anyone can do. Run, and don't look back!"

Garrus was about to say something, but at that moment, the shields went down, and the upper levels of the Starport were slammed by a negative-energy bomb. The communications array was instantaneously torn apart by the blast, and the entire building shook.

As the consoles around him began spitting sparks, Carl felt another presence. It was a disembodied hand that Carl recognized as Julius's, and it seemed to be beckoning.

Carl grabbed the hand and felt himself being pulled out of space and time.

A second later, another bomb slammed into the Starport building.

The resulting explosion flattened half of the now-deserted city.

Garrus clenched his fist to keep it from trembling. Carl was scared, he was talking calmly, but his face gave everything away. Carl had faced down more terrors then any single person Garrus knew of, and now Carl was not only scared, but by the explosion directly before the disconnection, probably dead. He sighed and slammed the fist down on the table.

"Sir! The Morning Star just left Gerudo!" Someone said. Garrus looked up sadly.

"No message?"

"None, Sir." Garrus leaned back heavily into his chair.

"So... We don't know what we're up against, only we can't do anything to stop them from smashing the most heavily defended system in Alliance knowledge, other than Earth itself. And we don't know where to go, because the only UEF ships that might have been able to give us that information have cut and run." There was a long pause as the crew watched Garrus think. After several minutes, he spoke again. "Get us jump coordinates, random ones, some where on the Outer Rim of the Galaxy. Give them over to Jeodan, if he survived the attack on Blacken, that way we'll have someone to communicate with once we arrive. Order everything of use to be taken from the planet, were leaving ASAP." Garrus said and stood up. He left the bridge and walked to a conference room, pulling up a hologram of the Milky Way, with the explored areas highlighted. He selected a cluster of stars, on the other side, outside of explored space. He sent them to the bridge and then rubbed his eyes.

"Thats almost funny. If the Morning Star was sent back to Blacken and is obliterated, it's likely no one will make it out of there alive. Which means, honey, our family will be exactly half of the entire Galactic Human population." Richard Hearn said as they docked with Garrus's flagship.

"Then whose the other half?" His wife asked him.

"The Lomptons. Political Prisoners of the Imperials, now turned into a corporate business man heading a merchant cartel. Do you smell the irony?" Richard said and his wife simply shook her head and sighed. As they stepped off the shuttle, Garrus met them.

"Welcome aboard The Lorean, Mr. and Mrs. Hearn. I hope you will enjoy your stay during your journey to unknown space. It sure will be exciting for the crew." Garrus said with a slight grin.