Part 6: Order From Chaos       "Admiral Winfield, sir!" The admiral turned to face Captain Jamison. "What is it, Captain?" Jamison spoke from the sensor station. "Sir, you might want to have a look at this." Winfield walked over to Jamison and looked at the long range sensory readout. "Is this what I think it means?" He asked. "We think so sir, there is definitely some sort of battle happening on Mars. We lost contact with the Victorious some time ago and there has been no word from the rescue team itself." answered Jamison. Winfield brought his fist down on the console hard, "Damn! It was a trap." "Sir, should we send a force to try and get them out?" offered Jamison. "We would never make it to that side of the planet in time." he said, "There's nothing we can do." * * *       J.T. rolled out just as the Elt-frame fired. Below him, he saw Torres take a hit. Her frame spiraled out of control for a bit, but she managed to steady herself and take a swipe at a passing Elt-frame with her striking blade. She sliced its wing off and damaged its leg thrusters. It then lost control and ended up crashing into another Elt-frame. Torres brought her weapons to bear and both were engulfed in a fireball. She began to pursue another Elt-frame when a black frame descended on her and opened fire. Two of the shots hit her fist arm, a third struck her canopy, shattering most of it. "Rita, are you alright?!" said J.T. excitedly. "Canopy is gone but I'm OK, safety helmet kicked in." she answered. "Just be more careful." J.T. said. "I'd take your own advice if I were you. On your right!" J.T. spun to see a black Elt-frame vectoring on him. He brought his around and headed straight for it. Both frames accelerated, waiting to see who would flinch first. J.T.'s proximity alarm went off as a number of the Elt-frame's smaller green projectiles riddled his outer hull. One struck his canopy, cracking one of the small viewports. Just a little closer. J.T. thought. When they were a mere 20 feet apart, he opened fire. The Elt-frame was hit a number of times, but kept coming. At ten feet J.T. jerked his frame down, passing on the underside of the enemy frame, and executed an extremely tight loop bringing him behind it. He got a target lock and fired one of his missiles. It struck dead center and the Elt-frame exploded.       '(Kamilia!!!!!!!!)' Shanita heard Jerico scream over his comline. '(Jerico, what happened!?)' she asked. '(Kamilia was destroyed by the blue enemy vessel.)' he said, his voice trembling. Though they always pretended not to get along, Jerico and Kamilia were actually good friends, as were Kamilia and she. '(Jerico, take care of the other vessel, the blue one is mine!!)' With that she spun hard and down vectoring on J.T.'s frame. She flew right by Torres and had the opportunity to take a shot at her, but did not. Worried, Rita activate her comunit, "J.T. that last kill attracted some unwanted attention, there's another black alien frame that's coming your way. It looks like it wants you bad!" "Thanks for the warning Rita, I see him." J.T. banked left and tried to lose his newly acquired tail. But she slipped behind him none the less. His proximity alarm sounded and he juked his frame to the right hard. Green and red globs of energy shot past his frame. J.T. brought the legs of his frame forward and hit their thrusters while cutting back on his forward thrust. He shot backwards and the black frame scrambled out of the way. J.T. took a shot at him, catching the shoulder. The remaining shots missed. He settled in behind the black frame and acquired a target lock. He opened fire. The frame rolled to the left and the rockets changed course to compensate. The black frame rolled over onto its back, brought its arms down, pointing back, and opened fire, both missiles exploded harmlessly. Flying forward, inverted, he took out both rockets. This guy is good. thought J.T. He maneuvered for another shot. The black frame juked to the left and then wiped quickly back to the right and turned itself around. J.T.'s slower frame couldn't come back from the left fast enough and the black frame streaked by him landing a few shots on his frame's right side. It shuddered under the impact. Before he knew it, a new volley of shots came at him from behind.       "Kaz to your right, he's firing!" Kaz banked hard left as shots riddled the side of his fighter. He looked at his controls and noted his port thruster had caught fire. He cut power to it and and activated the extinguisher. He also noted his holographic projection system was off-line. "Thanks Thrax, I'm OK." he said. "How much damage?" asked Thrax. "Port thruster is off-line, and my hologram is toast. I can compensate though." he replied. "If your alright, then would you mind helping me with some trouble?" asked Thrax. "I'm on it" Kaz replied. He brought his fighter around and swooped down behind Thrax. Momentarily forgetting his decreased maneuverability, he temporarily lost control. Steadying his fighter, he noticed Thrax had taken a solid hit, blowing one of his ship's panels off. "Hey you guys, that's a friend of mine!" he fired and destroyed the two Elt-frames on Thrax's tail. "Are you alright?" asked Takagi. "It looks worse than it is." answered Thrax. "Well that's one less I owe you." gloated Kaz. "But I'm still one up on you." reminded Thrax. "Yeah, well it looks like I'll have plenty of opportunities to pay ya back." Kaz responded looking at all the enemy frames in the sky. * * *       "Admiral! The lead alien capital ship has just fired on us!" Winfield turned, his mind racing, "Show me" he said. The view screen in front of him lit up showing a long range shot of the alien vessels. A large ball of energy was rocketing away from them and heading toward the Exofleet. "Isn't that the weapon Commander Marsh described?" asked Jamison. "Yes it is." replied the Admiral calmly. "What do we do, sir?" Jamison asked. "Have the fleet take evasive action. Spread out. Let's not give them such an easy target." ordered Winfield. Jamison issued the order and drew close to Winfield so the others would not hear, "Sir, based on what Marsh said about this weapon I don't think this strategy will work." "I know that." Winfield replied. "There must be something else we can do." insisted Jamison. The Admiral looked him straight in the eye and said, "Yes there is Captain, you can pray."       The sphere accelerated toward the Exofleet. Winfield and Jamison tensed, knowing it was the end. Suddenly the Sphere changed course and shot off for the outer solar system. Winfield looked at Jamison, "Track that thing Captain!" "It just passed Saturn, Sir. It looks like its heading to a point past Pluto." replied Jamison. In space, the Sphere streaked by Neptune and arrived at a specific set of coordinates where it circled in a tight loop generating some type of electrical field in its center. The Sphere's loop began to get wider and wider until it was the size of a planet. The planet Chaos then ripped its way through the dimensional barrier to arrive home in the sol system. The Sphere then sped off and began to return to the inner solar system. On the bridge of the Resolute II Captain Jamison turned white, "Sir! Planetary distress beacons confirm that Chaos has been returned to its orbit!" "Where is that thing now, Captain?" asked Winfield. "It just passed Saturn again, its heading back towards us!" replied Jamison. "Continue evasive maneuvers," said the Admiral, "it could be that thing can only swallow one planet at a time!" * * *       Taqueza watched the display with satisfaction. The tenth planet has been returned. First phase is complete, now to leave before the second is complete. Taqueza turned to leave, only to note that Rodar was missing from his spot on the floor. He raced out into the hall and found his escape pod intact. Though it looked like someone had tried to get into it. Good thing I programed a security code into the lock. Taqueza headed back into the Sphere's control room and punched his hands into the consoles. He concentrated, and his bioenergetic field turned the delicate computer components into slag. Now there is no way to stop it. Taqueza headed to his escape pod and punched in the security code. The door slide open and Taqueza got in, sealing it behind him. He strapped himself in and pulled the release handle. The escape pod jetted away from the ship and fell to the planet below. * * *       The sphere continued to accelerate as it passed Jupiter. Entering the vicinity of Mars it vectored on the Eltorian capital ships. It headed directly for the middle ship. Unfortunately another ship got in its way. The Sphere plowed through the other ship like it wasn't even there, leaving a gapping hole in its midsection. Numerous escape pods could be seen ejecting from it. The Sphere's flight leveled out and it smashed into the forward section of the ship that launched it, digging its way inside the ship and stopping at its midsection, where it self-destructed. The capital ship it was inside was atomized in less than a second. Winfield watched the events unfold before him with awe. Jamison open his mouth to speak, "What happened?" "Our prayers have been answered." said Winfield. He turned to Jamison, "Let's press our advantage while we have it. Launch all E-frames and order to the fleet to attack. Focus all fire on the undamaged capital ship!" He thought a moment and then added, "Jamison, send a carrier to the far side of Mars. Tell them to pick up anyone left alive." "Yes sir" was the response. * * *       The blue terran vessel rolled to the left and deftly avoided Shanita's shots. He was good, she had to give him that. He would still die for what he had done, but Shanita took some comfort in the fact Kamilia's death resulted not from a lucky shot, but a confrontation with a better pilot. The terran turned his vessel upward and looped backward in an obvious attempt to get behind her. She countered by executing a loop of here own which dropped her behind the terran once again. She charged up her plasma missiles and tried to get a lock on her target. Just then her comline crackled to life, '(Attention all Section Commanders, disengage immediately and return to Baseship 3. Baseship 1 has been destroyed, Baseship 2 has been crippled. Baseship 3 is under attack by the Terran fleet. We require section support to cover the retreat. Respond immediately!)' Shanita cursed under her breath, We'll finish this another day terran. She activated her comunit and responded to Baseship 3, '(This is Section Commander 25, we are on our way.)' Shanita then changed frequencies and addressed her section, '(Section 25, disengage immediately and vector on me. We go to cover Baseship 3's withdrawal.)' With that she broke off and headed for orbit, her section quickly followed suit.       J.T. Marsh noted the black enemy frame's departure with a sense of relief. "Able Squad check in and report your status." he said. The comunit sprang to life: "Torres checking in, I'm damaged but still here." "Takagi here, shot up but stable." "Thrax present, my fighter has sustained a considerable amount of damage. The Enemy appears to be in full retreat, your orders sir?" . J.T. clicked his com, "Let'em go people. We're in no shape to follow. Form up on me and we'll meet up with the ground forces." J.T. set course for the Jumptroopers' landing zone. It took two minutes to get there, though for J.T. it seemed like an eternity. Weston, DeLeon, and Bronski were shot down during the fighting. They may have made it, or... "We're at the landing zone J.T., can we descend?" asked Kaz, not making any effort to hide the tension in his voice. He's probably worried about Ellen, among other things. thought J.T. "Yeah, let's get down there." J.T. responded. * * *       Ellen Wright sat atop the captured alien ground unit and looked at the sky. She had anxiously watched the battle that waged above. Now she waited. She took her helmet off and breathed in the Martian air. "Takagi is a fighter, he'll make it." Ellen turned to see Captain Butler, "You know him, Sir?" she asked. "Yeah, back when I was Commandant of the Exofleet Academy I had the opportunity to make an officer out of him." he said. "What happened?" Ellen asked. "The war for starters." replied Butler. "Look Wright, you did a good job out here today. The squad respects you and you showed me some initiative. That's why I'm recommending you as the new leader of Charlie Five's point group." Ellen stood and snapped a salute, "Thank you Sir! I won't let you down." Butler eyed her, "You better not, I have no intentions to add you or anyone else in point group to the growing list of war heroes. Congratulations, Lance Corporal Wright." He stuck his hand out and Wright shook it. Just then what was left of Able Squad came into view. Ellen let out a sigh of relief when she saw Kaz's exofighter. They circled the ground unit and landed on its left side. Butler made his way down to meet them.       J.T.'s frame came to a gentle rest on the Martian landscape. He and the rest of Able Squad got out of their frames and were greeted by Captain Butler. "Captain." said J.T. "Commander." said Butler. "What's your status Captain Butler?" he asked. "We took some heavy losses but we managed to beat the alien ground units, even captured one." Butler gestured over his shoulder to the mecha standing behind him. "Great work, Captain. We had a rough time up there but it looks like the aliens were called away for something else. The Victorious was destroyed right after the attack started." said J.T. "Any chance one of you could go get help?" asked Butler. "We sustained too much damage, we can't make it beyond the atmosphere." J.T. answered. "Speaking of damage," said Avery wryly, "we picked up a couple of party crashers trying to get past our defenses, they look familiar?" As he finished Weston, DeLeon, and Bronski stepped from the crowd looking somewhat haggard but very much alive. "They look a bit familiar." said J.T. jokingly. He walked over to the three, "Nice to see you all made it. Maggie, I need you to come up with a way to contact Exofleet." Maggie looked skeptical for a moment, and said, "Our best bet is to try and cobble something together out of that thing." she motioned to the ground mecha. J.T. nodded in approval, "Give it a shot. Alec, give her hand."       Kaz wormed his way through the the crowd of Jumptroopers. He couldn't see Ellen anywhere. He stopped to ask here and there if anyone had seen her, no one had. A large hand grabbed his shoulder and Kaz spun around, it was Poedowski. He raised a ham sized fist, prompting Kaz to get ready for a hit. He then extended his thumb and pointed behind him with it. "She's over there." he said. "Um, Thanks." said Kaz. "Whatever." was the reply. He burst through a crowd to spot her leaning against one of the alien walker's legs. She had taken off her helmet and put down her rifle. Her red hair, freed of its braid, swayed in the Martian breeze. He casually walked up to her. She turned to him with a big smile on her face. "Look what I caught." she said tapping the walkers leg. "Something tells me you're going to have one hell of time trying to get that thing mounted." said Kaz jokingly. She put her arms around him, "What? Your not going to help me?" she said sweetly. Holding her, he said, "I'll need some motivation." She smiled coyly, "I got your motivation right here." They kissed, and in that moment nothing else seemed to matter.       Alec burst from the command pod of the walker. He called out to J.T., who was on the ground, "J.T. we just got word from the fleet. The Exocarriar Hudson is in route to pick us up. It will be hear in 30 minutes." "Great, is there anything else?" asked J.T. "Actually, there is." replied Alec still yelling for all to hear, "The rest of Exofleet has engaged the alien motherships. One was destroyed, one was disabled, and the third is getting chased out of the solar system by the fleet!" This prompted a cheer from the assembled troops, who could finally relax, safe in the knowledge that the battle was finally over. On to Part 7