Chapter 1       "They're running for it!" yelled Dirk. "Sergeant, the Comm line is quite sensitive, no need to yell." answered Remes. "Alright Able Squad, reform on me and follow that cruiser." Things had been going almost according to plan up to this point. H.I.A. had gotten wind of another terrorist attack and this time fleet ops had decided to lay a trap using Able Squad and Charlie Five. The target was a shipyard in orbit around Venus. The terrorists had hijacked a cruiser in transit from Mars and planned to use it as a modern-day Trojan horse. The normal crew of the shipyard had been given the day off and replaced with the Jumptroopers from Charlie Five. Able Squad, in the meantime, had taken position inside a half constructed exo-frigate. When the Elts showed up, they let them deploy their ground troops on the massive orbital assembly gantry and sprung the trap. The seemingly defenseless dock workers were in fact heavily armed Jumptroopers and a group of E-frames popped out of the frigate they were working on to take out the cruiser. Sufficive to say, the ground forces were not faring well. Their transport realized this and opted to make a run for it rather than sit and wait to get caught.       "Thrax, Dirk, take out the portside thrusters. Hallas, Worthington, the starboard side is yours. I've got the engines. Remember we want this thing intact." ordered Stan. He selected his cluster rockets from the weapon select menu and the shoulder mounted compartments to either side of the domed-canopy of his frame opened, revealing their deadly payload. With a thought, the rockets ignited and chased after the fleeing cruiser ahead of him. In the meantime, Thrax had made his first run on the port side of the ship shredding a few thruster stations with his laser fire. Dirk halted his run and waited for Stan's missiles to impact. With a flash, the two massive engines of the craft were no more. As Dirk started his run, Worthington was finishing her's, having taken out most of the starboard thrusters in one pass. Hallas moved into position and followed Worthington's flight path, taking out the remaining thruster stations. Both he and Dirk reported success at the same time. The comm line crackled to life. "Should we move in?" asked Dirk. "Negative." replied Stan. "Let them sit for now, they may try something drastic if we move too soon. If we give them time, they'll realize there's no way out and surrender." * * *       An Eltorian raced along one of the main support beams to the orbital assembly gantry, the mag-boots of his vac-suit allowing him to do so. In pursuit, clad in vac-suits of their own and carrying laser rifles, three jumptroopers gave chase. A voice came over the comm line, "Mathison! Have you taken care of that runaway yet?" One of the troops touched button on his helmet before answering, "Not yet. Pellegrino, Atkinson, and I are in pursuit along support beam D." "Understood. Notify me when you have him, Longfeather out." "This guy is beginning to to tick me off." mumbled Pellegrino. "Too much of a workout for you 'old man'?" joked Atkinson. "Old!?" exclaimed Pellegrino. He shot a glance at Mathison and the two of them zoomed ahead of Atkinson. "Hey, wait for me!" yelled Atkinson. "Old, my ass!" retorted Pellegrino. "Pay attention people, he's almost out of beam to run on - might do something desperate." warned Mathison. The Eltorian stopped at the end of the beam. A number of equipment modules and power lines covered it. The beam made no connection to any other structure, leaving no avenue of escape. He took position behind a pile of tangled power lines and drew his sidearm. "He's cornered! Let's get him!" yelled Atkinson as he charged the alien's position. "Atkinson, wait!" yelled Mathison. Jared realized his words were useless and ran after his over-eager comrade. As the alien began to open fire, Jared tackled Atkinson, his intent being to bring him down before the alien did. A bolt of energy ripped into the left arm of his suit. Jared yelled in pain as he brought Atkinson down on the beam. He frantically rolled off Atkinson and pulled a roll of engine tape from one of his pockets. He had to seal the hole in his suit before the depressurization killed him. Pellegrino suddenly appeared next to him and grabbed the tape from him. He vigorously rapped the tape around the hole in Jared's suit. As the hissing stopped, Jared calmed down. "Atkinson?" he asked. "See for yourself." answered Pellegrino. He rolled Atkinson over to reveal a hole in his face plate. "Dammit, he wouldn't listen to me!" exclaimed Jared. "Easy Jared, it was his mistake, not yours." Pellegrino aimed his rife at the pile of power lines. "Wait! Those things are used to power up ships before they leave the dock. You hit them and we're standing in the middle of a very big fireball!" Pellegrino kept his eye on his target and answered coolly, "Only if I miss." Jared looked from Pellegrino, to Atkinson, to the alien's position, and back to Pellegrino. "Take the bastard." Pellegrino pulled the trigger once, hitting the alien square in the center of his helmet. Bluish blood splattered the inside of it. The alien released his weapon and his body went slack, though his mag-boots held him in place. "This is Pellegrino, we lost Atkinson and Mathison is hurt. Send a cleanup team for both Atkinson and our runaway, I'll get Mathison to the shuttle." * * *       "Awfully quiet, aren't they?" asked Dirk. "Think they're still debating about what to do?" asked Thrax. "We should move in, now." offered Hallas. "Everyone hold position while I run a scan" ordered Remes. He wasn't pleased with what he discovered. "Sue, run a level 3 scan on the ship and tell me what you get." asked Stan. "I not getting...anything." replied Sue, a bit shocked. A level 3 scan provided an activity reading on a given ship's vital systems. "What's going on?" asked Hallas. "There's no reading on a level 3 scan, that means those systems are shut off." explained Remes. "So?" asked Dirk. "So, I'm guessing that they turned off their life support and decompressed the ship." answered Remes. "Die, rather than get caught, just like before." added Thrax. Dirk's frame moved a little closer to the ship. He activated the magnification feature of his viewport. A small, close up picture of the hull appeared. Dirk concentrated and the picture shifted to scan the outer hull. "Sir, I think you're right. I'm looking at the viewports on this side of the ship. They're all blown out. We were probably too far away to notice when they did it." Remes muttered a curse under his breath. "Sir, what kind of terrorists are these? To do something like this, I mean." asked Dirk. "The worst kind," replied Remes, "fanatics." * * *       "Elionites." said Longfeather. "Elio-what's it?" asked Remes. "ill-e-oh-nites." repeated Longfeather. "Elionites? What are those?" "Its what the terrorists call themselves, according to one we cornered - right before he shot himself." explained Ramon. "They're not big on getting caught alive, are they?" stated Stan. "No, they aren't. When you think about it, its a good strategy. The less we know about them, the harder it is to stop them." Stan nodded his head in agreement. "Any word from Eltoria on these guys?" asked Stan. "They have a sent a representative to talk with the homeworld senate. He's supposed to share everything he knows on the subject." replied Ramon. "Well its not to hard to figure out. Elionites - Eliodon - the guy behind the Eltorian War. Looks like they aren't willing to let the past go." There was a clunk behind them, indicating the shuttle carrying the remaining Jumptroops had landed in the hanger of the Vigilance. The ventral exit ramp opened and the troops began to disembark. "Any loses among your people?" asked Remes. "Just one, and one injury. We were lucky." "Not if you were the one." pointed out Remes. "No, I suppose not. Will Lt. Takagi be returning to your squad?" Stan shrugged, "Yeah, when he gets his act together." * * *       Maggie Weston fumbled with her key cards. It had been a long day. Two fusion engine replacements, an armature rebuild, two canopy replacements, and sixteen mainframe replacements really took it out of her. All she wanted to do was relax and hopefully avoid dealing with Alec. He was due to return from Venus today. He had been stuck there dealing with the whole Vesta disaster for a month. He hadn't called her that much, which was fine with her as he hadn't paid much attention to her the last few months. It was obvious to Maggie that their relationship was coming to an end. She had accepted that, and could deal with the implications, just not tonight. She slid her card through the slot of the front door, it opened revealing the darkened apartment. Maybe he didn't come home yet. though Maggie. She strode into the apartment and started to remove parts of her uniform. Her headpiece, backpack, and tool belt were dropped in a chair near the door. She ambled over to the refrigeration unit, noted there was nothing ready-made to eat, and grabbed a can of soda instead. She headed to the living room and plopped herself in a chair after switching on the vid-screen. "Time to see what's going on in the world." mumbled Maggie. It wasn't long before she drifted off to sleep. * * *       There was a knock at the door, Thrax put down the book he was reading and opened it. The door slide back to reveal a man in old, battered flight suit. "J.T. Marsh! This is a surprise!" Thrax gripped J.T.'s extended hand and shook it vigorously. "Nice to see you again Thrax. So how's my favorite would-be flight instructor?" asked J.T. with a smile. "I am well. How is it that you are here?" asked Thrax. "Exofleet academy wanted me to test out a new style e-frame for them. So I took it for a spin and landed over here." replied J.T. "I didn't know you did that kind of work on Venus." said Thrax. "I don't, I took off from Earth." Thrax looked a bit shocked at the revelation. "That must be one very fast frame." J.T. arched a finger at Thrax. He leaned forward to listen. "To be honest, I'd fly this thing for free. I feel like I did when I first joined the exofleet. But hey, if they want to pay me - generously at that - who am I to argue? I've got two kids to support now." "Yes, how is the family?" asked Thrax. "Great, Colleen's doing well after the delivery and my little girl is absolutely beautiful." "In that case, it won't be long before the males notice her." noted Thrax. "Don't even joke about that, she's still a newborn and I have enough headaches keeping up with her now." "You will eventually have to deal with the issue, you know." Thrax was trying hard not to crack up, as the conversation seemed to be unnerving J.T. "No I won't, I'll just keep her under lock and key until she's forty." Thrax laughed, unable to keep a straight face any longer. "So any chance I can get a peek at this new e-frame?" J.T. smiled. "You didn't think I stopped by just so you can bust my chops, did you?" * * *       Maggie awakened with a quiet yawn. "Must have dozed off." she mumbled as she got out of her chair and headed back to the kitchen. To her surprise, she found a meal laid out for her on the kitchen table. A glass of wine, a small plate of pasta, and a plate of Chicken Cordon Bleu - one of her favorites. What the? wondered Maggie as she walked over to the table. A pair of arms wrapped around her waist as the body attached to them pressed against her back. "Hi Maggs." Alec whispered in her ear. Maggie removed his arms from her and stepped away from Alec. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Trying to make up with you." answered Alec. "Oh and now you're interested in not pushing me away. When did this happen?" answered Maggie. "I'm not sure when and its not important." "Yes it is." retorted Maggie as she pointed a finger at him. "We've been together for a long time. You had no right to just shut me out like that! I deserved better than that." "I know Maggie and you're right." Maggie opened her mouth to continue the argument, stopped midway, and started on a different track. "I'm right?" "Yes, I had a problem and I unfairly made it your problem. I want you to know that I'm sorry and it will never happen again." Alec took a step toward her. She took a step back and bumped against the refrigerator unit. Alec took another step towards her. "Oh no, you aren't getting off that easy. You think you can cook me dinner, say a few sweet words, and...and...give me that puppy-dog look of yours, and I'll just forgive you?" Alec placed his hands on her waist, "That was the general idea, yeah." "Well that's where your..." Alec drew close to her, his nose just barely touching hers. "...absolutely right...no fair being seductive like that." "All is fair in love and war, my dear." * * *       "It certainly isn't much to look at, is it?" asked Thrax. "No it isn't." concurred J.T. "But she's got it where it counts, and my report to the academy will be glowing." Thrax looked over the frame, a little bewildered it could win such praise from J.T. It looked a lot like his old Aerial Attack E-frame, only a bit different. There was a wheel on the left arm with another on its back. The construction seemed more complex than it needed to be for the frame's size. "Okay. Tell me. What makes this so impressive?" asked Thrax. "Glad you asked." replied J.T. "Its got your standard onboard computer with a few adjustments that are normally meant for capital ships. It's power supply lasts longer, it can fly farther, and faster than any other e-frame out there. But that's not the really revolutionary part of the design." "So what is the revolutionary part?" asked Thrax. "Watch, I'll show you." J.T. climbed into the frame and jacked in. The e-frame hummed to life and the canopy closed. J.T. took a step forward and the frame began to undergo a transformation. The wings slid back as the arms went up and the wheels shifted to the dorsal side of the frame as it leaned backward to place them on the ground. J.T. himself rotated completely around in the cockpit. When the transformation completed itself, the e-frame became a land based vehicle not unlike a motorcycle. "What do you think?" asked J.T. "Impressive. But what can it do in that mode?" asked Thrax. "In addition to having full access to all the frame's weapons, I've been able to get this thing moving at over three hundred miles an hour. A lot better than the walking speed of your average e-frame, huh?" "Definitely." agreed Thrax. J.T. shifted the frame back into its walking mode and got out of it. "What do you call that thing?" asked Thrax. "The techs call it an exoconverting e-frame. You'll probably get exposed to a lot of this type of tech when you join my flight school as an instructor." "You don't give up, do you?" noted Thrax. "Not when the talent is as good as you." replied J.T. He put his hand out to Thrax, who stared at a moment. "Why not." he said as he shook it. "You won't regret this. I'll save you a nice office and a brand new flight suit." "Remember, I look good in red." They both laughed lightly at the comment. "So where's you're C.O.? Maybe I can steel him for my flight school too." Thrax's pleasant exterior drained away. "He's not my C.O. anymore. Not since he was removed by fleet command. Remes is in command now." "What happened?" asked J.T. clearly shocked. "I think you're going to have to see that for yourself." * * *       Nara Sterling walked to her office. She was feeling better than she had in weeks, and for the first time in a long time she felt good about the future. She had more or less entrusted her company to Mandy Wang for the time being. In the meantime, she had spent many hours consulting with Professor Algernon and reviewing the tapes from the Vesta incident. Nara was now confident enough to bring Mandy in on the project. She would be instrumental in getting the information Nara needed. As she entered the office, Mandy greeted her with a warm smile. "Hey Boss, looking good today!" "Thanks Mandy." replied Nara. As she sat down on her desk. She spied a jar of caramels on her desk and snagged one, popping it into her mouth. "I have a job for you." stated Nara as she finished with one caramel and grabbed a handful. "First things first, Boss. You got a visitor waiting in your office. Someone I don't think you want to keep waiting any longer than you need to." Nara finished with the caramels she had taken and grabbed another handful. Realizing what she was doing, she pushed the jar away from her. "Geeze, look at me, I'm an eating machine. Get these away from me!" Mandy smiled and pushed the jar toward her again. "You're not just eating for yourself anymore, its perfectly normal you know." "What? You're a doctor now too?" asked Nara. "No, I just read a few books about pregnancy." Nara nodded her head and got off the desk. She started to walk to her office door, stopped, picked up another handful of caramels, and continued after saying "For the road". "Whatever you say, Boss."       Nara entered her office to find a older Eltorian waiting for her. He was about six feet tall, with white hair and a well trimmed white beard. "High Counselor Zairum, it is an honor to see you again." said Nara. "No need for formality, child. You may call me Zairum." Nara seemed a little shocked by his gesture. While it was true that Zairum had always had a special interest in her husband he had never been openly friendly to either of them. "Please sit." said Nara. He sat in one of the seats in front of the desk while Nara sat behind it and continued to finish her caramels. "How are you child?" asked Zairum. "Holding up better than I thought I would, thank you for asking." replied Nara. She finished with the caramels and noted that Mandy had taken the liberty of placing a second jar on her desk. She began to drain its contents. "I just wanted to tell you, personally, that the Eltorian Government has in no way supported these terrorists and are doing everything in our power to bring their reign of terror to an end." "I thank you. But you didn't need to come here to tell me that. Surely there are more important matters for you to attend to." offered Nara. "I just felt that I needed to do this." replied Zairum. He rose to leave. Nara walked him over to the door. "Don't trouble yourself child. A woman in your condition needs to conserve her strength." "My condition?" asked Nara. "It was the candies that told me." Nara looked down at the now empty jar she held. Her stomach growled, demanding more. She let loose a nervous laugh, "I didn't realize it was so obvious." Zairum placed a hand on her shoulder, he looked like he was on the verge of tears. "You're child will keep the love and memory of your husband alive." He gently squeezed her shoulder and left the room. His departure left Nara with a number of questions about the reason behind his visit. She pushed them aside for the moment and turned on the intercom. "Yeah Boss?" asked Mandy from the other end. "I need to go over some things with you." "No problem, I'll be right in." replied Mandy. "Oh, and Mandy?" "Yeah Boss?" "Better bring that other jar of caramels with you." * * *       J.T. knocked on the door to Kaz's quarters. No response. Thrax assured him that he would be there as he had nowhere else to go. His flight privileges had been revoked and no one saw him around that much. He knocked again. No response. He hit the button near the door, it slide open. Unlocked, that's unusual. thought J.T. He walked into the room and nearly tripped on a beer bottle. The room stank of vomit and alcohol. On the bed across from the door was slumped a mass that J.T. assumed was Kaz Takagi. J.T. wandered over to him and nudged him with his right arm. Kaz moaned and rolled over. "What you want?" he asked as he started to wake up. "Kaz? Its me, J.T. Can you hear me?" Kaz seemed to respond and sat up in his bed with his legs dangling over the side. He stretched a little and rubbed his eyes. "J.T.? What are you doing here?" he asked. "I was in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by. Kaz, what's going on?" J.T. kicked one of the bottles littering the room. "Nothing I can't handle." said Kaz. "That's not what I've heard." replied J.T. "What have you heard?" asked Kaz. "That you lost your command, and I think I know why." "Do you now?" asked Kaz, his tone made him sound a tad hostile. "What are you doing to yourself, Kaz? You're a better officer than this. I realize you've been through a lot lately..." Kaz laughed at his comment, causing J.T. to stop speaking for a moment. "You think this is funny?" "Yeah, maybe I do." Kaz said with a sarcastic smirk. "Look Kaz..." "No!" said Kaz. He held his hand up prompting J.T. to stop again. "You listen. You don't know what I've been through. How could you with your perfect job, your perfect wife, and your perfect 2.5 kids? You've never lost anyone that really mattered to you, not like I have. So do me a favor and spare me the 'I know how you feel speech', okay?" "That's no reason to throw your life away, Kaz." said J.T. "Its my choice." retorted Kaz. "Then do yourself a favor Kaz, and make the right one." J.T. turned on his heel and promptly left the room. "Go on back to your perfect little life and see if I care." muttered Kaz. He rummaged through a box near his bed and picked up another bottle of alcohol. "Here's to life's little choices!" * * *       "Okay, so what's this new project?" asked Mandy. Nara stuffed another caramel in her mouth, chewed and swallowed it, then continued. "Cy and the others are alive." Mandy looked skeptical. "Look, Nara, I understand why you'd want to believe that, but you're going to have to learn to let go sooner or later." Nara expected the response, so she simply smiled patiently and tried again. "They're alive, I have proof." "Really? What type of proof?" "Shortly after the bombing, the thought occurred to me that Cy and the others were trapped in the lab. The lab housed all the reality warping technology my husband had been working on." "Reality warping? I read something about that, but I thought it was still in the theoretical stages." noted Mandy. "They were farther along than they let on in that paper. I've been talking with Professor Algernon about my theory and asked if there was a way to prove it. He loved the challenge of it and actually figured out a way to do it." Mandy shifted in her seat so she could hear better. "The long and short of it is this: whenever a rift in space is opened and then resealed, it leaves a distinctive energy signature for a period of time afterward. Kind of like a wound, it eventually heals. Algernon went to the Vesta site and found a signature there." Mandy looked skeptical again. "All that means is that one was opened there, if it was a test area then the rift that created that signature could have been opened hours or days before the Vesta explosion." "True," acknowledged Nara, "but we also had the sensor tapes from the nearby e-frames and the Vigilance to go by. While the Vigilance wasn't that helpful, the e-frame and shuttle logs were. Two of the frames present, and the jumptroop recovery shuttle, showed a second energy signature active in the building minutes before the explosion. The signature disappeared seconds before detonation." "It wasn't the bomb?" asked Mandy. "That's what Algernon has been working on for so long. He knew it wasn't the bomb because it never built up to a high enough power level. What he had to prove was that the realality warping technology was being used. After a few weeks, he managed to track down one of the reports he sent to Exofleet military intelligence. For some stupid reason, they requested to be kept apprised of the development of the technology - probably looking to see if they can use it as a weapon. That doesn't matter, what does matter is that Algernon continually sent them reports on their progress. So buy finding the appropriate one..." "He found an appropriate standard he could use to confirm that the second energy signature was from the tech, right?" concluded Mandy. "Exactly." said Nara. "So why didn't he just use his own files to find that report?" asked Mandy. "He would have, except his files were stored in the Vesta complex, along with all of Cy's files as well." "So there's no way to reproduce this tech without starting over, unless you track down these reports?" "Right again." confirmed Nara. "You realize that the Exofleet database is huge and that I don't have access to it?" stated Mandy. "I know, but I still have some pull at the Exofleet academy. So I arranged for you to get all the time you need with the database, provided you have an appropriate military escort." "Who?" asked Mandy. "Someone from Able Squad, I tried to get in touch with Lt. Takagi but all I could get a hold of was Lt. Remes. He assures me that he can find someone to fill the position. So, will you do it?" asked Nara. "What do you think?" said Mandy with a smile. Nara smiled back. "So what happens now?" asked Mandy. "Now, we work at bringing them home." On to Chapter 2