NationStates Jolt Archive

:ooc: No territory claims will be made in the making of this thread. It's a story tieing in some "recent" devolopments, and me nabbing a character for later. There is no telling quite where I'm going now, but it's going to get a little more evident as the story moves on.

-=Miranda Corridor, Arizone Prime

The cool of night had set as Agrippa Josu headed to the balcony off his apartment. A wind was coming in from the east that would hopefully break up some of the fog that regularly collected at the mid-level and the fresh air would be quite refreshing. He strode out to the edge and inhaled deeply as he looked at the twinkling lights and rush of traffic surrounding his perch. The Miranda Corridor was a little peninsula connecting two continents on the homeworld; it, like any other place near water these days, had been urbanized to the point of being solid skyscrapers down to the waterfront. He was lucky; at mid-level the crime, air, and sanitation was not too bad, as you got down further things got a lot worse. He was considering turning in when his little hoverstation flew out to him, ringing away.

“Ah hell, now? Pick up.”

A man’s face materialized on the screen – it was squarish, bald, and heavy-set, and a small logo appeared in the lower right of the screen as well.

Holy… that’s Naval Command! thought Agrippa. A call from them meant a couple things – something really good or really, really bad.

“Agrippa Josu? This is Adjutant Admiral Eitan.”

“Uh, this is Agrippa, sir. What do you require?”

Adjutant or not, getting a call from Admirality late at night meant serious business. Agrippa steeled himself as he prepared for whatever the man had to say.

The Admiral’s eyes narrowed at Agrippa a bit, and he gave a short cough, and said,

“The Navy is… hiring, Mr. Josu. I was directed to contact you about a possible command employment.”

Agrippa was immediately taken aback. Command employs to random mercs? It didn’t make any sense. Sure, he had gotten a little fame here and there on some raids, but this made no sense.

“You’re hiring me? For what?”

The Admiral continued to look Agrippa crossly in the eye and stated gruffly,

“No sense in dancing around the issue, I guess. We are assembling a crew for an experimental vessel. We are not, however, drawing it from our regular ranks as the particular mission we have in store for it demands a different kind of crew. We – I, have been instructed to seek out mercenaries of note.”

Agrippa pulled up a chair and sat down, and the hoverstation dropped a bit to keep level with him.

“Are you crazy? You’re hiring random mercs to drive around an experimental vessel? You're either incredibly naïve or this is a suicide mission and you don’t want to fry your favorites!”

The Admiral’s face reddened as he retorted,

“We wouldn’t be having this conversation if the instructions didn’t come from the throne itself! I’m just following orders. Do you want this job or not?”

“Wait a minute,” said Agrippa. “The throne? THE Throne?”

“Yeah, wise guy. The Throne. Anikar. Like I said, if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t bother with this. The very idea is ridiculous.”

Agrippa no longer knew what to think. The idea of the Empress knowing – however slightly – of his existence was incredibly unnerving. He had not been foremost among the law-abiding.

“She particularly mentioned the need for flexibility and… suave,” grunted the Admiral. “She also doesn’t believe that just filling the ship with diplomats and marines can get the job done properly.”

“What’s the ship?”

A picture of the vessel materialized on the screen and the Admiral said,

“It’s a prototype vessel, the Dosvedanya. It’s little more than a fast transport with a new drive system installed on it.”

“What kind of drive system?”

The ship disappeared and the Admiral reappeared. He regarded Agrippa shrewdly.

“We’ll answer that, when you give us your answer. You have twenty-four standard hours. Good night, sir.”

The Admiral’s image faded off, as Agrippa turned to walk back into his house. He needed to sleep on it.

-=Briefing Room, Indigo 5, Imperial Dockyard over Arizona Prime

Agrippa had returned his response. He was ambivalent about this “job” but his sense of curiosity and his inability to back down from a challenge had finally done him in. The Admiral had gone over payment, instructions and assured Agrippa clearance to one or another of those facilities the Empire hung in orbit. Now he was there. The rest of the crew that had been picked actually didn’t look too shabby; many were highly considered in the trade. The Empress had shopped well. The room was a cacophony of voices as they discussed amongst themselves the oddball nature of this mission, but it died down quickly when Admiral Eitan made his appearance.

“Ladies, gentlemen and assembled sentients,” he began with a cough. “I know you all are probably in the dark about some of the exact details of this mission, so I’ll give you a quick run-down of the specifics.”

The Admiral strode over to a holodais as he continued.

“As you may well know, some time ago after the final collapse of Capsule Corporation and the consolidation of its assets by foreign powers, we managed to take Noah PR 103 with a small strike force and maintain a garrison on the world. We managed to take back quite a bit of their technology and reproduce it at home. One such example is the spacefold drive.
The spacefold drive is – well, it would take a physicist to explain the specifics. Suffice to say it operates on the principle that the universe is nothing at all like we comprehend it and that we can 'fold' two points in space to meet, allowing for near-instantaneous transit. However, for all the power demands of this drive system in comparison to our current hyperdrive systems, utilization of this has been minimal.
That is, until now. Engineers have found a way to combine the two – hyperdrive and spacefold drive – into the cascading fold drive. Essentially, it is a jump into hyperspace followed by a spacefold, and a jump back out of hyperspace. The distances that can be covered using this method are mind-boggling.
Unfortunately, there is a catch. The distance covered by such a jump has to be mind-boggling; all tests of jumps shorter than from one rim of our galaxy to the other side have resulted in completely trashed navicomputers, rampant DS, and other seemingly inexplicable phenomena. Don’t get me wrong – it is safe, and in fact the longer the distance gets the safer it becomes, but for inter-galactic travel it just doesn’t work.
Now, we have refurbished a civilian heavy transport with a fifth generation prototype of this new drive system and began to make preparations for a scout mission when we were given this mandate: the crew for the vessel must not be military or diplomatic officers. They had to be furnished by the private sector. Thus, here you are now. Before I go on, do we have any questions?”

A thin, shrewd looking man leaning on the wall a ways back from the Admiral spoke up: “Yeah, so let me get this straight: you’re giving a ship with experimental technology to a bunch of mercs, to make some run out into God-knows-where, with your only assurance that they won’t run off with it being a generous payday for them and your faith in the brotherhood?”

The Admiral’s eyes narrowed but a little grin cracked his face a bit. He replied, “Yes and no, master Ziv. There are various precautionary measures in place to make sure that our orders are, in fact, obeyed. Merit?”

Through a door at the head of the room came a droid, but not like the standard APE-IU that made up the army. This one was taller, skinnier, and had a head, though still not too human in looks.

“Admiral Eitan, ARDU Merit reporting for duty,” said the droid in a strangely organic voice as it did a quick visual scan of the room.

“This is Merit. She will be accompanying you to make sure that creative license is not taken with our orders. As well, I would not consider modifying the core module’s programming, however furtively – she has sensors on her sensors. In the bush if a rabbit snaps a twig a hundred meters away, she’ll know.”

One of the mercs standing neaby to Agrippa griped softly to himself. As if to drive the point home, the droid looked straight at him but didn’t say anything.

“Now, for you mission. We’ve been charting out near galaxies for a while now using mass-shadow scans to detect distortions in gravity to help us determine the relative locations of nearby galaxies.”

“Hold on,” interrupted the thin man again. “Another galaxy?”

The Admiral sighed and said, “Yes, another galaxy. Little use jumping around this one.”

“This drive can put us in another galaxy entirely?” continued Ziv.

“Yes, confound it. The longer the jump gets, the easier it is to make.”

“That makes no sense whatsoever,” grunted Ziv.

“Anyway, we have found an ideal location for the jump to terminate at.”

The Admiral fiddled around with a panel on the holodais and a representation of the galaxy in question appeared suspended above it.

“GFFA-BDZ05. I don’t know the numbers on distance, but take my word for it: it takes a computer to digest them. It’s far enough away that nothing explodes when it tries to work out the computations, and there are echoes.”

“Echoes?” someone asked.

“Yes,” said Admiral Eitan guardedly. “Echoes meaning energy signature and phenomena that would indicate civilization.”

“You’re crazy!” yelled Ziv. “You’re sending us into the middle of God-knows-who mess of sentients in a different galaxy now too! Whose idea was this?”

At this point Admiral Eitan’s patience broke. “I already told all of you! None of this was my idea. I am just following orders, and I have. You’re to ship out by 2000 hours dock time. After that I can only hope you’re not my damn problem anymore. Anyone too pusillanimous for this had best pack off before that point. Everyone else, get your copy of the Terms of Service, sign off, and I’ll see you dock side.”

The group broke up and went out amidst grumbling and nasty looks thrown at the Admiral. As Agrippa made to get out, he took one look back at the front of the room. The Admiral and the droid Merit were still at the front of the room, talking in hushed tones. The Admiral, to Agrippa’s surprise, was looking at the droid with a mixture of fear and trepidation, as if whatever it was saying cowed him. They finished their conversation and the droid looked about, fixing its “gaze” on Agrippa momentarily before walking out. The Admiral also turned and began walking toward him.

“Agrippa Josu? I would speak with you.”

“Yes, Admiral?” replied Agrippa.

He sighed. “This droid… let me give you some advice. Never refer to her as just ‘droid.’ She’s not an APE-IU, and she becomes very offended if you don’t refer to her by her name.”

“O… kay,” said Agrippa. “A digisent then?”

Eitan grunted. “In a manner of speaking. At any rate, Mr. Josu, I’d like to escort you to the ship now and get you acquainted. You’ve done some work with drive systems, yes?”

Agrippa’s personal ship, Salacia Fortuna, flashed in Agrippa’s mind. “I would say so.”

“Good,” said Admiral Eitan. “While the ship is in transit you will be in engineering.”

They walked out of the room and headed toward the lift to the main dock. When they got inside, Admiral Eitan began to speak again.

“Mr. Josu, there is something I need to tell you that you must promise not to disclose to anyone – it is your sole responsibility. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir,” replied Agrippa guardedly. “What is it?”

“We don’t know who lives there, Mr. Josu. We have no idea if it’s a collection of pre-single-world states or if there is some giant galactic nightmarish collective. If we meet anyone, and they’re aggressive, they might see this ship as their ticket out. They might try and take it, and use it as a vector or reconstruct the technology and launch an invasion force. We cannot allow that to happen. You cannot allow that to happen. I haven’t told you yet, Mr. Josu, but you are the head engineer on ship. If it is ever in danger of being overrun, I charge you – activate the self-destruct for the fold drive and navicomputer for the ship – for the good of this nation and this entire galaxy.”

“I understand, sir,” replied Agrippa. Holy shit… he thought. The weight of responsibility for the lives of literally trillions of people is not a light burden, much less so when suddenly given.

The two exited the lift, with Admiral Eitan pointing out the hallway to the dock.

“Your ships are refurbished civilian vessels, but don’t let that fool you. They have numerous defensive weapons embedded in the hull. It’s also stuffed with premium military equipment – Mad Cats, Blood Asps, heavy tanks, you name it.”

“Are we exploring or invading?” replied Agrippa.

“Even explorers need hardware with real punch,” said Eitan. “You’re using it only if you have to, and you probably won’t have to if you have any tact.”

They came to a window overlooking the dock, and Admiral Eitan motioned for Agrippa to look.

“There she is,” (http://anikari.zioncreation.com/Dosvedanya.jpg) said Admiral Eitan. “A.N.S.S. Dosvedanya, the flag of the group. Her sister-ships Intrepid and Lucidity are en route now.”

They continued down the ramp to the ship, until getting to the hatch.

“This is where I leave you,” said Eitan. “I trust you can find Engineering?”

“Yes sir,” replied Agrippa. “I’ll see you later then.”

It wasn’t difficult for Agrippa to find his way to engineering. Yet, when he got there – it was a completely different world than he was used to. There was the familiar parts to the hyperdrive in their place, but the parts governing the fold drive – it was a monster of engineering. It sprawled all over the place, and seemed very much to be a spliced in affair. He chatted a bit with the rest of the crew – sturdy folk, for the most part – as he examined it all. A voice rang over the comm system -

“All crew, casting off, engineering, please prep for departure.”

He checked his watch. Time flies when one is examining prototypical technology, it seems. He hustled over to his station and began making system checks, doing checklists once and again, redundant systems – all green. He picked up the comm,

“Bridge, all green for departure.”

The ship gently lurched as it slid away from the dock. Listening to the other channels of communication, it was evident that the Intrepid and the Lucidity were both good to go.

“Hyperspace warmup sequence initiated,” he spoke into the comm.

He continued checking the systems. The systems governing the fold drive were still green-lighted.

The comm crackled again. “Hyperspace coordinates confirmed. Still green across the board?”

“Confirmed,” said Agrippa.

“Engaging…”

When Agrippa came to, there was smoke. A klaxon – no, like five kinds – were blaring.

“Shit.”

He got up and began looking around – then up. That was it – some venting above him had blown, sending a big chunk of tile flying at him. Luckily it was big enough to knock him out and not kill him while not being small enough to be shrapnel lodged in his head. He tasted blood in his mouth, and felt his head... intact. The nearby console was also still operational.

“Engineering to bridge, do you read?”

Nothing but static. He began sorting through the system menus to try and find an outside feed.

“Gotcha…”

A planet appeared on the screen. At least the coordinates hadn’t dumped them completely in the void. The console began beeping – incoming transmission.

“Mayday, mayday, this is A.N.S.S. Intrepid, Code 112 to any Arizonan ships in-sector, please respond.”

So it was the same situation everywhere – communications with the bridge cut and internal damage.

“This is Engineering: Dosvedanya, do you still have N.O.C.?”

“Hail Dosvedanya, Intrepid reading you, one moment – override control confirmed…”

“I have visual on a planet, haven’t scanned yet, are yours down?”

“Negative, sensors online – got a profile nearby, it matches the Lucidity…”

“Anything else?”

“…Negative. We’re alone.”

“Okay.”

Agrippa began weighing their options. They had at least two ships, for the moment without any contact from the bridge, a planet nearby, and presumably nobody around wondering who the visitors were.

“What should we do?” crackled the voice through the comm – no longer officious.

“We set down. No patrols, stay hot, and regular sensor sweeps of the surrounding area. Anything big comes in we haul.”

“And if the C.F.D. is out?”

“Then we enact protocol and blow whats left up. You got the same briefing, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Then you know whats on the line. Any navigation directives from your bridge?”

“No.”

“None here. Any word from the Lucidity?”

“We’re picking up an automated signal. Hell, the ship is taking itself down.”

“Then we don’t have a choice but to follow. See you planetside, Dosvedanya out.”

He switched channels to all-ship, and said,

“Attention, this is Chief Engineer Agrippa Josu. I am taking the ship in for an emergency landing, all personnel please hit re-entry stations at this time.”

He switched on the emergency landing warning, adding its cacophony to the mad symphony of the other alarms. He began checking the systems – most of the green lights had gone yellow, but the red lights were of course what concerned him. Hyperdrive cooling systems… computing nodes 1,5, and 8… good. The fold drive system was intact insofar as its components hadn’t gone red yet. It should still be possible to go home with some repairs.

Within minutes the proximity warnings went off, and the Dosvedanya hit air. The ship shook a little as it began its plunge into the world’s upper atmosphere. They came dayside, but whoever lived on the world would not have missed the ships as they began their descent, leaving brilliant streaks of light as they traced their descent down.

The console beeped at Agrippa – “A.R.E.S. activated, stabilizing descent vector.”

Agrippa simply nodded to himself. At least the computer still had enough about it to get the ships down.

The ships’ descent slowed dramatically as they neared the surface of the world. Retrothrusters fired brilliant plumes of plasma into the air as the ground came up to meet the ships. They hovered over the surface of a jungle, searching for a place to land, and eventually the ships found spots large enough and close enough in proximity to one another to accommodate the vessels and make a defensible base camp.

Within the Dosvedanya, Agrippa left engineering and began gathering crewmen and tending to the wounded. Still no order came from the expedition’s commanders. When he got near the bridge, he found a group of ragged looking men guarding the doors to the main corridor leading to the bridge itself. At his approach they broke off whatever conversation they were having and one of them approached Agrippa.

“Whats all this then?” asked Agrippa.

“Hello sir – Chief Engineer Josu, is it? I’m Kyo Shandar, Iron Wolf Brigade.”

“That’s nice – but whats going on with the bridge?”

Kyo looked at the barricade, and back at Agrippa. “We don’t know, sir… somefing went wrong with ‘em. They ain’t right in the head. Before you got here one of ‘em was screaming and clawing at the door.”

“What?” asked Agrippa incredulously.

“They’re all nuts!” yelled one of the men. “We got out of the jump, and I was heading down this corridor, when the first officer catches sight of me from the bridge. His eyes were rolling around and he begins screaming and running at me, and I turn and get the hell away from him and trap him in there. Something messed up their heads.”

Agrippa swore, then turned back to Kyo.

“Have they said anything?”

“Unless screaming and howling til they go hoarse counts, then no. That and rushing the door. It’s like they’re just animals now.”

“Alright. You lot, continue guarding the door and make sure none of them get out. I need to head back to engineering and touch base with the others.”

“Aye, sir,” responded Kyo. The rest gave responses ranging from affirmative grunts to lazy clapping.

Agrippa was now very concerned. Mechanical problems were one thing – but insanity? How many more people on the ship were like this? What did it do to them? He recalled grim stories about protetin-fired retroviruses that regressed sentient brains back to animal-states, making them savage and carnivorous for the flesh of the still-sentient… but if that was the case he’d probably be holed up in somewhere with a shotgun. Whatever this was, it was different.

He got to the console only to find that messages were already coming in – from the Lucidity. He picked up the comm.

“Lucidity, this is Engineering: Dosvedanya.”

“Greetings Dosvedanya, this is ARDU Merit. Am I speaking to Chief Engineer Josu?”

Agrippa was taken aback. The war droid was manning the comm? Its voice was organic, feminine, and crisply authoritative. It reminded him more of his old drill sergeant from the Andalus boot camp than one of the APE-IUs.

“Yes, this is he. What’s the situation?”

“Dire, Mr. Josu. After completing the fold and exiting hyperspace, explosions in some of the cooling manifolds and node overrodes incapacitated and killed some of the engineers. At the same time the bridge crew began exhibiting signs of extreme psychosis and dementia, and consequently the remaining crew were forced to seal the bridge. With the requisite engineering crew being tended to, I did not possess the proper command overrides, but the shipboard landing protocols activated and began the landing process.”

“We noticed – it gave us little wiggle room for planning.”

“At any rate, we are now here – wherever here is – and we need to begin planning our next course of action. We are at a destination. Whether or not it is the place we were intended to land, it is solid ground, which is much more than we could have asked for if any of the calculations had gone wrong. What are the condition of your crewmen?”

“Aside from our command crew – the same deal applies to the Intrepid by the way – everyone else appears relatively unscathed.”

“And your cargo – the guns, mechs, and other assorted equipment?”

“No cargo explosions or bay breaches have been detected, so I’m assuming they’re all right.”

“Then we are merely without a head. Luckily for you the loss of my head would only result in the destruction of preferred sensor functions, and luckily for us all, there is a chain of command in place. If the entire bridge crew is, in fact, irretrievable, that puts you and the head engineers of both vessels in command, Captain Josu.”

“Alright…” said Agrippa. “Then whats the plan?”

“What are your sensors picking up?”

Agrippa browsed over to the sensor controls. Activating a quick active scan, he swept around a bit, looking for anything that might be buildings, energy signatures, or vessels. Nothing.

“Nothing but jungle.”

“Were you able to pick up any structures on the way down or other signs of sentience?”

He switched to the logs – everything looked mundane. Except…

“Weird… the computer left a minor note, about a small hill. Said it had a 75% correspondence to a ‘ziggurat’ design…”

“Then I doubt we are alone. We must start by sending out a patrol. I recommend you include yourself, Captain.”

“Er… wouldn’t it be better if I stayed behind and guarded the ship?”

“No, Captain – in another time that might be prudent but now is a critical juncture. The men will be uncertain when they hear you are now captain, and the loss of ‘legitimate’ command authority will make them less likely to follow orders, especially if the new authority is not present. This could be disastrous if we do run into any other sentients. Do not worry – I will also go with you. However, it would be prudent to make sure that there is still a link in the chain behind us if we should come to harm, capable of defending our vessels or escaping if need be.”

“I’ll call a briefing, then,” said Agrippa, “and get everyone up to speed.”

“Good. I will do likewise, and will likely be acting in a command position until our engineering crewmen are healed up. Lucidity out.”

Agrippa set down the comm. This was a little too convenient for his tastes. He wondered if the engineering on the Lucidity weren’t, in fact, being “held back” by interested parties from being brought back to consciousness. Yet he dismissed the thoughts from his head. He shouldn’t distrust Merit just because she was a droid. It was still awfully convenient, though. He pushed the issue aside and instead prepared to issue the announcement to convene for a briefing.

“…and that’s the situation,” finished Agrippa.

The assembled mercenaries all gave him hard, calculating looks. Agrippa was slightly nervous; many of them were grizzled leaders – heads of mechjock clans, the occasional pirate, retired commanders – mutiny was a possible and unnerving prospect. Not that he’d blame them, as aside from the droid state authority really had vanished, and the payday meant nothing to the dead.

“So you’re suggesting we just stick to the mission?” asked a man with a great scar down the right side of his face.

“I don’t like to think of it as a suggestion,” said Agrippa seriously. “We’re still in good shape, and we could get this ship all patched up fairly easily. Worst comes to worse, we could scavenge one vessel for parts, scuttle the engine, and move its crew onto the two remaining vessels. As well, the Terms of Service only guaranteed full payment if we brought back proof – testimonies as well as physical – and we could try to BS an expedition story but you know someone would screw up or get bribed to tell what really happened. Besides, we don’t know if everyone here is not, in fact, a federal agent.”

A low murmur broke out as they considered things, with everyone trading suspicious glances as the realization set in.

“So are we gonna do this?” asked Agrippa.

A general murmur of assent was the response.

“Alright. First we should send out a patrol to begin scouting a perimeter. Sensors didn’t pick up anything but if anyone is out there, as long as they aren’t toting around fusion reactors on their person they don’t get picked up, and I want assurance before we crack open the cargo bays. This patrol is strictly on volunteer only – unless no one steps forward, in which case I begin just picking. I will be the first volunteer.”

Slowly hands went up until Agrippa was satisfied with the count. “Good. Report to the Armory to suit up. Take what you’re used to, take as much as you can but not more than you can carry. Be at the Ramp by 0300, the rest of you are dismissed.”

Agrippa and the volunteers immediately headed for the Armory and began to stock up. Agrippa himself took a SIR-1 (no doubt recently decommissioned after the mass Marine disbandings), while others took up HAVML-5s anti-tank launchers and the old dependable McCormick rifles. Agrippa had to break up a brief squabble over a Kanuckistani MFP-330 – how one of those got aboard he had no idea – but whoever stocked the vessels with weaponry was incredibly generous. Finally everyone had what armor and weapons they could carry all assembled, and the group headed through the cramped, spartan corridors to the Ramp. It was one of the secondary ones, located near the bridge-spine, mainly for unloading people and not the heavy equipment. He paused at the console and took a deep breath.

“All you ready for this?” he asked.

The crew gave nods of assent.

“Right…” Agrippa punched the access code. With a hiss, the ramp began to lower. Immediately a blast of hot, humid air hit Agrippa square in the face. He stepped down the ramp, lowering his rifle and doing a quick sweep. Seeing nothing, he motioned for the scouts to follow.

“First thing we’re gonna do is scout a perimeter. Nobody goes off alone until we’ve had at least one sweep of the area,” ordered Agrippa.

The clearing the ship was in was barely large enough to contain it, and a wall of foliage was not more ten yards from the ramp. The air was suffocating, and the drone of all sorts of jungle insects created a sense-dulling backdrop. The group had not cleared much of a path into the jungle when one of the rear scouts came jogging up to Agrippa.

“I saw something, sir – skulking along aways to the south.”

“Any idea what it was?” asked Agrippa.

“About as big as a man, I think. Maybe bipedal, but it was pretty obscured so I’m not sure.”

“Alright. We’ll pass it on quiet – no need to sound an alarm yet.”

“Will do,” answered the scout.
Something then passed overhead of Agrippa. He swung his rifle up to the treetops as something scrambled down the tree and put its head squarely in front of him. It was Merit.

“Head Engineer Agrippa! It is splendid to see you.”

“Damn it Merit! What are you doing out here?” asked Agrippa angrily. “The droid is with us,” he called back to the rest of the group, who had already levelled their weapons at the droid.

“I’m scouting. It might just be me, but considering my designation is ARDU – Advanced Reconaissance Droid Unit – my very design might be conducive to scouting.”

“Save the sarcasm,” said Agrippa. “Did you find anything out?”

“I have not,” said Merit.

“One of my guys said he saw something humanoid running around south of us – was that you?”

The droid was quiet for a moment, and replied, “No, Mr. Josu, it was not.”

“Then we got company,” said Agrippa softly.

Suddenly a hoarse chuckle echoed around the group. “Outsiders! You trespass in the gardens of the Kaleesh, (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kaleesh) and it is only by our mercy that you have not yet been cut down! Now drop your weapons, or die at our hands!”

The group jumped at the challenge, and began scanning around for the voice, when Merit called out, “Put your weapons down now!”

The group looked with bewilderment at the droid.

“I will not tell you again!” yelled the voice. “Drop your weapons or suffer the wrath of Kalee!”

Merit nodded. With great hesitation, the group set their weapons down.

There was a rustling in the underbrush and into the clearing burst the intruder. It was tall, wrapped in clothes that seemed far too thick for the weather, with an intricate cloak draped over his shoulders. Most unusual, however, was the bone mask covering the face – long and curved, it completely obscured the face, except for the eyes, which were yellow and reptilian. He held a long, wicked looking blade, and addressed the group contemptously,

“So, outsiders – you lay down your weapons? I have known of only two groups that do such things – cowards, or spies! Which are you?”

The group was silent. Agrippa spoke up, “We prefer the label ‘scouts,’ but coward will do for now I guess.”

“Hold your tongue!” snapped the creature. “I’ll determine what you are for myself! Do you serve the Empire? Are you the dogs of that Sith Lord come again?”

“We are the emissaries of the Arizonan Empire,” replied Merit. “Of these Sith, we know nothing.”

The creature looked at Merit with murder in his eyes, then back at Agrippa. “You allow your droids to speak for you? What weaklings are you?”

“The droid… well, there is more to her than meets the eye. Shes… our commander, I guess.”

The creature pondered this for a moment, then said: “You are not from the Empire, that much is clear. They do not stoop to commanding their expeditions with droids. Where do you come from?”

Agrippa gave a nervous look at Merit, expecting her to lash out at the creature, but she remained still. He answered, “We are not of this galaxy, sir. This is an expedition out of the… Milky Way Galaxy, from far, far away.”

The creatures eyes were filled with a mixture of contempt and disbelief as he looked at Agrippa and his scouts. “Another galaxy? What lies are this? I know enough of you outsiders to know that venturing out beyond the Outer Rim is suicide!”

“We have found a way to bypass the void,” said Agrippa.

The creature regarded them shrewdly. “You are not Empire… nor are you tied to anyone else here, if you speak the truth, and outsider, you had better, for your life now depends on it. You are surrounded, and by my best sharpshooters and warriors. Try to fight, try to run, it will make no difference – if half of you make it back to your ship, it would be a miracle. You have a choice – you can send a crewman back to your ship along with three of my warriors, and he will go in along with them, or I can have you all killed where you stand.”

Agrippa ground his teeth in anger as he considered the creature’s “terms.”

“Let you take my ship? Why?”

“I don’t intend to steal it,” said the creature. “I need a bargaining chip, though, to make sure you do as I command. I have uses for you, outsider. The Huk do not know you’re here, and if they do, they should have no idea what to make of you. Yet my reasons matter not to prisoners. Decide.”

Agrippa sneered at the creature. “If you were intending to steal the ship, you wouldn’t have even negotiated though, would you? You would have just killed us all and borne off some part of us to bypass the locks. Fine. We go back to the ship, then.”

The creature just looked at him, but Agrippa suspected he was grinning behind the mask. “Perceptive… for a hu-man. I might have a use for you after all.”

He motioned, and three more clad like him burst from the trees.

“Go with who the hu-man picks, and make sure that if he is treacherous, he suffers!”

Agrippa motioned to one of the men, and nodded. The man worked in Engineering. He knew what to do, if it came to it. The group quickly disappeared into the underbrush.

The creature turned back to the group. “As for the rest of you, follow me. As for you, loud one,” he said to Agrippa, “I would speak with you.”

Agrippa rushed up to him as the group started off.

“I suppose a… mutual introduction would be in order,” growled the creature. “You may call me Suhayl. What then are you?”

“Agrippa Josu,” he replied.

“I still have doubts about you. If you come from another galaxy,” Suhayl said, looking at Agrippa keenly, “then how is it you know Basic?”

Agrippa almost stopped dead. How is it that he understood them?

“You know… I just wondered that myself,” he said. “It appears that our languages are the same, but we call ours English.”

Suhayl gave a derisive snort. “An uncouth name for an uncouth tongue, and more so in your homeland it would appear. I speak Basic only that I may warn outsiders to leave this place. Outlander blood is so hard to clean from the soil of Kalee.”

“So, where is Kalee? In your galaxy, I mean,” asked Agrippa.

“I am not altogether sure. The only invaders we usually get are the accursed Huk. Once outsiders like you came, however – human, small, and frail. Dressed in armor, but they still could hardly fight. We drove them off, and they have not returned since. So you will understand if your welcome is not altogether… warm.”

“Then what do you plan to do with us?”

Suhayl looked at Agrippa again, and he sensed that the creature was probably smiling under that mask.

“Many years ago, the Huk used outsiders – Jee-dai I think they were called – to defeat and enslave our people. There were not many, and they turned the tide against us late in the war, despite our great successes. You are no Jee-dai, but you will do.”

Only a little while after that, the thick brush gave way to what looked to be a large village.

“Welcome to the encampment of my clan!” said Suhayl, gesturing broadly. “You are lucky, outsider, you landed where you did, though I would move soon. A few miles to the west and you would have set down in the middle of swarming Huk, and the worms would have eaten you alive as soon as talked with you.”

As they made their way through the camp, the inhabitants – men, women, and what looked to be children, gave suspicious looks and went indoors as the group passed. A few even stopped Suhayl and asked questions in hushed voices, eyeing the scouts. They arrived at a great central tent, and Suhayl led them inside.

“Do you have a way to contact your ship?” asked Suhayl.

Agrippa felt around for his commlink. “Yeah, here.”

“Good. I’d get in touch with your ships then. They may want to move before tomorrow.”

“Let me guess – you’re moving against the Huk?”

“Yes. It will be a long day, so I would advise you to communicate with them now, and get to sleep. I will have some mats brought to you.”

Suhayl departed. Agrippa took up the commlink and punched in for the Dosvedanya. In about a minute they picked up.

“There are rats in the hold,” said whoever was on the other side.

“Affirmative. They might be good rats, though,” replied Agrippa. “I hear there are bugs this time of year.”

“Uh, what?” There was a growl on the other side as the man yelped.

“Our guest doesn’t like the codespeak,” he said sorely.

“I guess not. They want us to help fight these Huk. Apparently they’re not nice customers either, worse than your friends there.”

“Great. Whats the plan?”

“We help them. We can use some friends here, and these sentients look to be the kind that put a high value on honor.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. Get the ships in a safer position – survey the surrounding area, and look for a good point for an alpha strike, and get the mechs ready.”

“Aye sir. What if our friends here object to moving the ships?”

“Then pledge to let them hold you at swordpoint while you do it.”

“Not one for comfort eh?”

“Not really. Agrippa out.”

He put the commlink away and and turned to the rest of the group.

“Well, we should all get to sleep soon then.”

“So we’re just gonna go along with it?” asked someone.

“We don’t have much of a choice. We can help them, and suffer some casualties, or try and fight our way out completely, and suffer more.”

“I’d rather blow my way out,” growled a surly-looking fellow.

“You can try. I just hope when they bring back your eviscerated body they don’t screw the rest of us over too.”

A murmur of grudging assent settled over the group. Agrippa was satisfied.

“It’s settled. We help them attack tomorrow.”

The next day dawned, humid and hot. The buzzing of the lesser insects in the jungle could not mask the crash of the larger ones making their way toward the Kaleesh. The Yam'rii, or the Huks – depending on who was naming them – had been preparing for this assault for a while. They had only revealed a small portion of their forces to the enemy – and they had fallen for the ruse. Meanwhile the Kaleesh were marching forward – the occasional sniper poised in strategic positions, while the front lines of swordsmen and spearmen advanced. They too had a secret weapon, however. Hidden out of sight of anything but aerial scouts, were a number of mechs. Other surprises would make themselves known later in the battle.

The forces met suddenly in a ferocious clash of arms. The war cries and yells of the ferocious Kaleesh warriors echoed and themselves seemed to clash with the clicking and chattering of the chitinous Huk. The Huk were being cut down in droves, but even more seemed to replace them. Slowly, the Kaleesh began to give ground.

***

“Base, this is Firefox Flight, going low and steady toward primary objective.”

A small group of Valkyrie fighters screamed over the jungle. Their objective was every bit psychological as it was practical: they took off from their base and went out aways from the battle, then turn around, and hit their afterburners in time to crank it to a few degrees of mach, and drive into the heart of the Huk lines and unload enough ordnance to level their camp, then let the mechs crash in. It was hard to scare a bug… but shock and awe in massive proportions and good timing could convince them that all the sudden things aren’t looking too good.

***

Katii Ka’ka-ak and his group of Yam’rii were heading to the front lines when he registered an odd noise. It was still distant, and it was coming from the air – but it was no bird. He and the entire group paused to listen as whatever it was came closer – very fast. Suddenly the noise built to a roar, and then – the sky seemed to have sundered itself. The Huk screamed in pain and anger as his sonic sensors were destroyed by an earth shattering boom, and immediately the group went berserk, attacking wildly. Then the jungle and sky behind Katii lit up with the light of a sun, and a wave of super-heated earth and splinters the size of a man embedded themselves in the tortured creature. Katii was no more.

***

Ty Broggart impatiently champed at his chewing tobacco as he sat on his mount, Bonebreaker. His whole body was tensed up and the adrenaline was already pumping. The mech hummed quietly below him, the vibrations setting some detritus on the floor jangling. He heard none of that, though – every nerve in his body was focused on launching the thing in there like a bat out of hell. He only hoped he’d be able to differentiate from the “Kaleesh” and the “Huk” – they all looked damn weird to him.

A voice buzzed on the intercom: “Iron Wolf Clan, green light, green light to engage!”

Ty spit. “Bloody finally!” he bellowed hoarsely. He threw the mech forward, launching it almost into a full run as it crashed into the jungle. Within moments he was on top of the astounded bugs. Ty laughed like a maniac as he began pounding the jungle floor with the PPCs.* All around him the jungle exploded and chunks of Huk went flying into the air as the battlemechs crashed into the Huk flanks. The jungle floor, though wet and soggy, had little success holding the machines down as they smashed down trees and incinerated acres of forest blasting the Huks away. Others had outfitted their mounts with flame-throwers, machine guns – Ty noticed some crazy bastard who put a gauss rifle on his.

“Showoff!” he yelled into the mike as the other mech recoiled as the massive gun blasted a shell into a group of Huk, showering others in their remains. He laughed again and began looking for some more action.

***

The Yam’rii commanders had no idea what was going on until the airstrike. Things went downhill from their as comrades drenched in the entrails of other comrades came rushing back to the base, clicking and screaming about outsiders and walking machines, like the Imperial walkers, but smaller, more agile, and far more malevolent. After much hurried deliberation, the reserves were ordered in – everything they had. They prepared to send word to the rest of the forces on the planet – they must know of this turn of events.

***

Ty and the Iron Wolves were doing all they could to keep up with the retreating backs of the Huk. After less than ten minutes of the insane carnage, they had turned tail and begun swarming back the way they came. Now everyone was competing to find one of the bugs – sometimes the creatures would get annihalated by multiple beams of plasma and munitions. Then, all the sudden, there were hundreds.

“What the hell!” yelled Ty as they began to swarm toward the mechs en masse, their clicking and chattering now almost drowning out the explosions of munitions and the seething splash of concentrated plasma. They began swarming onto the feet, banging and gnawing at the joints.

“No you don’t!” screamed Ty, his voice beginning to go hoarse. He flipped open a panel and hit a red button emblazoned with a grinning black skull. A blast of plasma erupted from underneath the feet, and the mech began lifting into the air. Ty held down the button, and slammed the legs into a spin. They flew out, spinning the mech around in circles in mid air, the sudden G-forces pasting Ty to his seat as he set his teeth, holding the button. Huk flew off the legs every which way, and Ty settled out of the spin, cut the thrusters, and threw a missile down right ahead of his landing. He grabbed the mike and dialed for base –

“We need another airstrike! Theres like a million of the damn things swarming all over the place!”

***

Agrippa was back at base, listening in to the battle unfolding. The initial stages of the plan had unfolded perfectly – the Valks had blasted a gaping hole in the back lines of the Huk, with the mechs chewing away at the flanks. Then something changed – without warning, they had got multiple demands for another airstrike, with many of the pilots complaining about being rushed. Suhayl, on the other end of a commlink, was serene.

“I know these beasts. They are overconfident, brash – they become desperate easily, and when they do, they try and drown you in numbers. Just hold, and they will crumble. You have already broken them, outsider.”

“Still… our forces are limited. They can afford to lose an army, if what you tell me is true; we can’t. Besides… I have something I want to use. The more I look in the cargo bay, the nicer the toys get.”

“What do you have in mind?” asked Suhayl guardedly.

“We call it the Firecracker,” said Agrippa with a grin. “Nothing like a tiny bit of matter-antimatter annihalation, on the level of a tactical nuke, to tell ‘em we mean business. Doesn’t leave the radioactive mess either.”

Suhayl sighed. “Go ahead. Just remember, if you kill me – don’t think about heading back to the camp.”

“Understood.”

Agrippa dialed up the Lucidity.

“I need one Valk and a Firecracker, back Huk lines stat.”

“A Firecracker?” asked a familiar voice.

“Merit? Yes, a Firecracker. They’re zurging us. They need to know we mean business.”

“Coming right up. I’ve always wanted to do something like this…”

“Merit!” yelled Agrippa, but the comm had clicked off. “Bloody droid,” he growled. Within minutes the Valkyrie screamed by, heading into the fray.

Agrippa put some shaded goggles on. For safety…

A flash of light, far more powerful than anything that had been seen thus far, illumined the landscape, like the birth of a new sun in the middle of the jungle. For a split second, every detail of the jungle below, and even individual figures and vehicles were thrown in sharp relief. Then, a huge explosion rocked the earth, almost sending Agrippa to his knees, its roar echoing for miles. A shockwave followed quickly after, sending a blast of air rushing past.

***


The mechs felt the explosion too. Safely out of the blast radius, they were nonetheless not able to hold to the earth as the rolling shockwave came toward them, as trees were uprooted and thrown about. Using their jump jets, they stabilized, trying to avoid the flying bits of tree swirling about as they set back down on the ground. Huk were scattered all over the place, their broken bodies littering the ground, either stuck full of huge splinters or just crushed by the fall. The Kaleesh line was farther back, and while it felt the blast, it did not suffer as much. The Huk they were engaged with, however, now knew that the fight had fully turned against them. Some fought like maniacs, cutting down many Kaleesh despite gaping wounds and missing limbs. Others tried to flee, and were mercilessly cut down by the Kaleesh for their cowardice.

Within a couple hours, the battle was over. The main base of the Huks, stripped of troops and defenses, fell to the combined assault of mechs and Kaleesh, their commanders slaughtered. Yet the commander of the Yam’rii has succeeded in one thing – their cry of warning had gone out. The Huk army took note, and the silence that followed after told them more than the now deceased commanders could.

-=The Kaleesh Base Camp

After the complete sack of the local Huk forces, Kaleesh and Arizonan walked back to their own camp, boasting in triumph at the great victory they had achieved. Leading the revellers was Agrippa and Suhayl. Clutching a wound on his side, he walked with some pain but nonetheless enthusiastically went over his part in the battle with Agrippa.

"A glorious battle it was, the likes of which have not been seen for centuries!" Suhayl crowed. "You... Arizonans, was it? You have great prowess, for outsiders. You understand the brutality of war, and fight with that understanding."

Agrippa nodded. "My thanks, Suhayl. If you intend to make use of us later on, however, I don't think we have the element of surprise anymore. The Huk will know of us, and plan accordingly."

"A good observation," replied Suhayl. "That was only a part of the forces they have encamped on Kalee. Their next offensive is going to be against one of our own cities. This cannot be allowed. We must relocate our forces there, and in this, we still have some element of surprise. The Huk know you're here, but what they don't know is that you have cargo ships capable of moving thousands to the city in a very short amount of time. How were your losses?"

"Not as bad as I feared. We lost a number of mechs, but the pilots got away okay and touched down out of the Firecracker zone. We have more stuff in our cargo bays they can drive, and we can use the tanks now."

"Good. How quickly can we leave?" asked Suhayl.

"Um... how quickly do you need?"

"Tonight, if at all possible."

Agrippa fell silent a moment. "We just got done here... sentients are tired. Your men and mine."

"I'm not asking you to fight as soon as we get there, but the sooner we relocate, the sooner we can fortify our position further. To tell you the truth, Mr. Josu, when you arrived, the final hammer-stroke of the Huk was about to fall. We feared your arrival was another portent of doom. If you can turn the tide, though..."

Agrippa replied, "Alright. We'll start moving tonight. Are you moving your forces with ours then?"

"I would prefer it," said Suhayl.

"Then alert yours to begin moving to the transports."

Within a couple hours, the mass exodus from the Kaleesh to the Dosvedanya, Intrepid, and the Lucidity from their camp was completed. Agrippa went back into engineering and began warmup sequences. The lights began coming back on - same as before. He called up the other vessels.

"Lucidity and Intrepid, this is the Dosvedanya."

"Intrepid reading you," replied her head engineer and acting captain.

"Lucidity reading you, replied Merit.

"Merit," asked Agrippa. "Do you have N.O.C.?"

"I have acquired the codes," she said.

"Alright. We need to lift off and navigate to these coordinates," said Agrippa as he input Suhayl's instructions. "We find as defensible a spot as possible, and set down and await further instruction. We're expecting another assault from the Huk soon."

"Captain Josu, with all due respect," asked the Intrepid's acting captain, "is there any reason we're again putting our necks on the line here? I distinctly remember that this mission was less keyed toward fighting wars and more towards exploring and diplomacy."

"War is diplomacy to this people," said Agrippa.

"That may be," he said. "We're not prepared to fight a massive campaign."

"I know," said Agrippa. "Just bear with me."

"You would be wise to do what he says," said Merit coolly. "I know our predicament, but I would stay a little while longer before retreating."

"Fine. Intrepid out."

"We shall need to keep an eye on that one. Lucidity out."

Agrippa sighed and began activating the warmup. Bridge control had been fully shifted to engineering, so he began ordering about people. The ship moaned and groaned in response as the engines came online. They ascended above the jungle canopy, and did a roundabout in mid-air. Soon, the three ships were jetting at full speed toward the city of the Kaleesh.

The images unfolding in front of Travil could almost be out of a dream. The bridge bathed with light, the clean crisp silence; even the manner in which his officers conducted their affairs was almost... almost mystical. Everything today was moving perfectly.

"Starboard Engines firing; three second burst."

Travil extended his arm for the silver hand rail, just incase, but it wasn't necessary; even today the often stubborn inertial dampners were working without flaw. Gazing within his trance Travil's eyes slowly increased in intensity as the frigate banked towards the planet of Kaleesh. The long shadows of failing light stretching upon the walls behind him; The Empire was approaching from the sun.

Captain Travil for the most part was not a dominating man, his bland grey uniform, his perfectly polished shoes almost consumed the captain into the flurry of background operations and decor. Most Imperial officers would take insult at such a standing, but not Travil; for to him it was a gift, to be hidden and to be ignored was a trait that could always come in use. This thinking had earned the good captain a reputation for being disciplined and a remarkably calculating tactician; in fact it was something he prided himself on. His superb analytical mind and often flawless reasoning had proven his worth many times to High Command. Frequently he had been inundated with command offers of bigger, stronger and faster warships, some of which were even Imperial Star Destroyers; of course he had refused.
The Carrack class itself was in his opinion, the greatest warship the Empire had ever produced. It was fast, it could carry fighters, and its firepower was far from lacking; a perfect combination for an almost perfect commander.

As Travil turned towards his duty his back was briefly silouhetted by the dominating shadow of an Imperial TIE squadron.....

"Delta Flight, form up on me. Two-thirds throttle, sensor gain to maximum." On his sensors, Lieutenant Ashton spotted a line of small asteroids, about five kilometers out. " Delta Two, follow me on a flyby of the rubble; Three, Four, hang back two klicks and watch out for trouble." He received acknowledgments over his helmet comm and throttled up close with the Asteroids.

As they approached, Hira reported, "Sensors indicate nothing but solid rock Lieutenant; not even crater space for enemy ships." When they closed to within one kilometer the two TIE Interceptors pushed their thrusters and prepared for evasive action; anything could be lurking within the shadows. Passing the asteroid grouping without event the advance party gracefully circled back rejoining their comrades. As Ashton brought his fighter to a stand still he watched as the Punitive accelerated into orbit of the fourth planet; Kalee.

"Stay alert" Ashton said cautiously. "We don't know if these scum are still barbarians..." His hand moved to the red weapon primer; the fighters Tabana gas cylinders receiving a pre-emptive spark. Suddenly, Ashtons sensor board lit up, but it wasn't incoming bogies as he first suspected, instead it was the guns of the Punitive firing down upon the planet. As Ashton and his wingmates watched, the Northern continent of Kalee was slowly engulfed in flame.

Once settled down, the three vessels quickly began to disgorge their cargo of Kaleesh and military hardware. If any other parties had caught sight of the affair it would have been an unusual sight - battle-scarred Kaleesh warriors walking alongside dented and scratched Cougars and Mad Cat battlemechs and hovertanks. They moved quickly to set up rudimentary fortifications and barricades - the Huk were expected to make their attack with the dawn.

The Huk did not come with the dawn, however - only fire and bombardment from the merciless heavens.

As the bombardment began, Kaleesh and Arizonan looked to the skies in dismay at the turn of fortunes. Agrippa rushed down the lines seeking Suhayl even as the turbolaser fire lit up the jungle, too close for comfort, occasionally showering him and everyone around him in splinters. Running along the trenches and barricades, he continually looked up for more incoming bolts, and didn't see it when he ran headlong into Suhayl himself.

The Kaleesh pulled himself up amidst much cursing in his native tongue, looking enraged - but also bewildered.

"Suhayl! What's going on here? I was expecting Huk, not an orbital bombardment!"

"I don't know either!" hissed Suhayl. "They don't have anything capable of this! Unless... Agrippa, we must get to your ship, and sensor-sweep right now!"

Agrippa nodded as another tree exploded into flame only meters away, bathing him again in heat and splinters. He rushed with Suhayl back up to the Dosvedanya. Running up the hatch, they burst into engineering breathlessly. Waving aside the alarmed questions of his crew, Agrippa ordered a sensor sweep of everything out to the first moon.

"Sir," said the operator, "We got something in low orbit - about frigate sized."

"Does it match any profiles?" asked Agrippa.

"No national ones... a light cruiser maybe?"

Suhayl looked at the readout, and tensed up. "It is them," he said.

"Who?" replied Agrippa.

Suhayl continued to simply stare at the readout. "The Empire... they've been gone for years. The Huk probably contacted them, I just know it! Accursed bugs, always running to those scum whenever it appears a fight is against them!"

Agrippa's jaw clenched. "The Empire? The what Empire?"

Suhayl said, "The Galactic Empire."

Agrippa turned, and then punched a nearby wall. "GALACTIC? GALACTIC... EMPIRE?" he yelled at the top of his voice.

Suhay rounded on him, drawing himself to his full height with renewed rage in his eyes. "I did not know! They were supposed to be a dead force in the universe - why else would their forces withdraw? There has been nothing for years..."

Agrippa pointed up. "Well, they're apparently there right now, raining plasma and God knows what else on us!"

"That is not the worst of it," growled Suhayl.

"What?"

"They are slavers and parasites," spat Suhayl. "This is only the beginning. They will bombard us, then they will bring troops, endless hordes, and kill those who resist and enslave the rest. If they have to, they will set the very earth aflame. They are without honor, and scum!"

Agrippa sat on a bulkhead, clutching his forehead. "We have to leave, Suhayl... we can't get caught here. We're carrying technology that could enable them to go to our galaxy as well."

Suhayl replied, his voice subdued, "How much room do you have aboard these ships?"

Agrippa looked up. "What?"

Suhayl repeated, "I said, how much room do you have aboard these ships?"

"Are you asking what I think you're asking, Suhayl?"

Suhayl looked Agrippa straight in the eye. The rage has subsided, replaced with a defiance that was cold and hard. "I will not suffer that my whole people be subdued by these animals. Not now, and not ever. We cannot make an affective resistance here and now, but a scion can escape. They can leave this place, leave this galaxy, and go where they will be free of these sorcerors and monsters; free from Jeedai, free from Huk. Your galaxy is not cursed as ours with an infernal empire, is it?"

"No," said Agrippa.

"Will you take them? Will you take my people there?"

Agrippa weighed the decision. The mission was derailing, that much was evident; the time for leaving was definitely now, if not sooner, which was even more evident. There was room... but this was unprecedented. Could he live with himself, though, if he said no? Probably not.

"Yes. Take everyone who is willing, and get them on our ships."

Suhayl nodded, and ran back toward the bridge and gangplank.

Agrippa grabbed the mike on the console and dialed the Lucidity and the Intrepid, and announced, "All ships, prepare to embark immediately with mass emergency refugee transport. Fill to standard capacity. Emergency SCRA-precedence invoked, and if my orders are modified or ignored, I will see you executed or killed when we're back home, one way or another. Thats a promise. Captain Josu out."