Freelancer Fanfic: Ragnarok (Updated 10/24)

Next chapter. It would be very welcome to see some replies. Chapter 6 Outside Planet Toledo, Omicron Minor System, 9 days later After many, many hours of meetings where they analyzed video from the first encounter with the new aliens (now dubbed and referred to as Invaders), noting their ship’s advantages/disadvantages, and discussing strategies on how to counter and overwhelm their attacks, Juni and Trent now waited just beyond the Toledo docking ring, waiting for the last of the Order Anubises to launch. The engaged couple were both deemed as wing commanders for the mission to take back the hypergate. Now the to-be-wed pair talked to each other as the number of Anubises around Toledo steadily increased. “I expected Orillion to launch a large force, but nothing like this,” Trent exclaimed. “Yeah. The Order must have reached deep into its pockets to afford this many fighters,” Juni said, a flair of concern in her voice. “Especially after their last encounter.” “I count ninety-two fighters. What about you?” “Ninety-six.” Juni shook her head. “Tell me again, Trent. With the strategies we’ve developed, we should be able to take these guys out with only sixty fighters. Why is Orillion sending so many people?” Juni was better at social logic, but after Trent’s travels in the Border Worlds, he was better with battlefield logic, something that he was somewhat proud of. “I think that Orillion is just trying to make sure that we succeed. This battle will be the most important of any battle, should the fighting continue. If we take back the hypergate now, the Invaders won’t be able spread to the other systems.” “I see,” Juni said slowly. She smiled into the comm. window. “Thanks for explaining, Edison.” “You’re welcome.” Trent returned the smile. As the last fighter finally launched, a voice came over the system-wide comm. channel. “Wing commanders, this is Beta-47. I’m the last one. We can now proceed to the jumpgate.” Trent keyed the system comm. “Roger. All fighters, proceed the nomad jumpgate.” Trent steered his Sabre towards the jumpgate and activated his cruise engines, followed by Juni and the massive fighter contingent. Even with the enormous number of ships to back him up, Trent couldn’t help but fell a little nervous. He hated being nervous. Trent keyed the comm. to Juni. “Are you ready for this?” Trent was more asking himself than Juni. “Can’t say I am,” she said nervously. “But Orillion said that the Invaders are locked inside the Dyson sphere, so we shouldn’t have any surprises getting to the entrance.” “I hope you’re right.” Trent dragged the sentence. As the fighters approached the waypoint, the green nebula withdrew as the ships entered the clearing where the nomad jumpgate was stationed. As they drew closer, Juni sent the ancient structure the activation sequence. Small, white lights outlined the hole in the middle of the gate, followed by a gold light that grew from the center of the opening. Juni broadcast over the fleet comm. channel. “The jumpgate is activated. All ships dock with the instillation.” Trent’s ship rapidly accelerated through the long bright blue tunnel that replaced the pale green of the nebula as he and Juni entered the gate first, followed by the long line of Anubises. Trent exited the nomad jumpgate facing the entrance to the dyson sphere. It had been a long time since Trent had seen this place. But this time, it felt like it was smaller… A quick look around gave Trent the very reason why. The area around the junpgate had been cleared of asteroids, and now it had been sandwiched in between two Invader battleships! He hit the thruster, and the Sabre lurched forward like a demon possessed. “Dammit!” Trent shouted in his mind. “How could I miss something like that?!” Juni and the Anubises started to pour in through the jumpgate. Juni went through the same reaction of surprise as Trent did, and her ship zoomed forward. Nobody wanted to be in between two lethal forces of that magnitude. Juni quickly established a comm. link to Trent. “Trent, the Invaders were supposed to be locked up. How did they get out here?” “I don’t know!” Trent began to multitask, scanning the surface of the dyson sphere while trying to get the hell away from the battleships. There, Trent found an opening in the sphere and read the data. The hole was where the entrance used to be. “They’ve blown out the damn door!” Trent shouted over the comm. “Sh**!” The Anubises continued to pour out of the jumpgate, and scattered when the pilots saw the battleships. All of them scrambled aimlessly in panic, not knowing what to do. The battleships took advantage of how they all were coming out of the jumpgate, and aimed their weapons at just outside the nomad structure. The alien guns belched, and dozens of Anubises were destroyed as the super-concentrated orbs of dark matter passed over the human ships as they entered the system. Trent suddenly couldn’t think; his mind was in a haze. Disregarding the possible consequences, he located a turret in on one of the battleships, pointed his ship towards the thing, and accelerated towards it, pouring fire down upon the device. Juni’s heart stopped. What the hell was Edison thinking? He was going to get killed! She shouted over the comm. channel. “Edison, what are you doing?!” Trent snapped back to reality and veered away just as the turret discharged. Bright red light filled the cockpit as the blast missed him by only a few feet. Trent knew that he was lucky that had Juni not brought him to his senses; a moment later, and he would have never had enough time to dodge that blast, and he would have surely been dead. Trent shook his head to clear his mind. He couldn’t be making mistakes like this, especially with these guys. It had barely been a minute, and the number of human ships had already dwindled to half their original number when the Invader fighters began to appear. “What had taken them so long?” Trent thought. Trent and Juni unanimously paired up and engaged the alien fighters as a team, working together to separate one of the shrieking beasts away from its comrades and gun it down. This was especially hard since the fighter would disappear when its pilot realized that it was in trouble. A sequence of misleading cowardice and sudden aggression helped to catch the Invader fighters by surprise long enough to destroy the ship. Despite their effort, things just went from bad to worse after the Invader fighters engaged the human force. The Order fighters dropped like flies, both Trent and Juni were rapidly running out of shield batteries and nanobots, and the only damage that was done to the Invader capital ships was when they missed their intended targets and accidentally hit each other. Still, the massive ships took each other’s fire superbly, and showed no hint of any serious damage done to them. Juni shouted to Trent over the comm. “Edison, we’re losing people left and right!” She shook her head over the visual display panel. “We have no option but to retreat.” Trent looked down at his Sabre’s display panel. His shield was barely holding, half of the armor was gone, and he was nearly out of both bots and batteries. With a huff of aggravation, he made his decision and clicked on his comm. “Affirmitive. All fighters retreat!” Retreat. That was something that Trent hadn’t done in a long time. He had gotten used to winning all of the time. Trent pointed his ship’s nose in the direction of the nomad jumpgate and pushed the throttle forward. The Sabre lurched forward with Juni and what was left of the Order fighters. Suddenly the Sabre’s shield failed and something made severe contact with the hull, making a loud THUD as the ship lurched violently and spun off course. Juni’s Defender roared ahead. “What the hell?!” a surprised Trent said aloud. Then as one of the Invader fighters flew over him, Trent realized; one of the S.O.B.s must have rammed him. Trent mentally brushed the incident aside and concentrated on getting to the jumpgate. Red-hot antimatter hissed by the Sabre as the Invaders continued to fire down upon the retreating human fleet. Trent jammed the throttle up to full. “C’mon, c’mon” Trent muttered under his breath, trying to coax every ounce of speed out of his ship. Trent could make out what was left of the human fleet as he approached the jumpgate, and watched as Juni safely enter the gate. One worry down. At last, he made it. Trent docked with the gate, and was for once relieved to see the blue walls of the tunnel, and didn’t mind the intense vibrations. When he exited the jumphole, he could see the remnants of the human fleet crawling back to Toledo. Juni had stayed behind. “Edison, are you all right?” she asked, worry rolling off her tongue. “I’m fine, Juni. Thanks for ask-“ An explosion rocked Trent’s Sabre. The instrument panel sparked and went black. “What the hell?!” Trent shouted. Juni came back over the comm. “Edison, are you all right??” Trent shook his head and tapped the return comm. button. “Yeah, I’m all right.” He checked his instrument panel. “Everything’s shut down though. The only thing still working is the comm. system” Trent tapped the engine ignition key. No response. He tapped it again, and then a third time, but the engines refused to ignite. “Dammit,” he thought. Trent sent a comm. signal to Juni. “Jun’ko, I need a tow. You think you can help me?” Juni smirked over the display panel “What? You need help??” she said sarcastically. “That’s kind of backwards, isn’t it?” After losing the fight with the Invaders, Trent wasn’t in the mood to play games. “Are you going to help or not?” he replied with a serious tone. “Don’t worry, of course I am,” Juni said with a smile. Juni lined up her Defender with Trent’s Sabre and attached the padded claw of her tow cable onto the Sabre’s segmented nose, linking the two ships together. Juni gave power to the engines, and the coupled ships began to move towards planet Toledo. After Trent’s ship had been safely settled onto the landing pad, Trent finally got a look at his Sabre. “Aw, hell!” Trent shouted with great anger. Almost the entire back end of the Sabre had been totally destroyed. Blackened metal outlined the destroyed area, with charred cables, sizzling fiber optics, and burst fuel lines that had spilled out of the wound, with their trailing ends piled on top of each other on the landing pad. The cargo hold had been breached. Half of the lower engine had been destroyed. However the upper engine, along with the shield and thruster, were missing altogether. Juni was pondering to herself about the battle as she exited her Defender and stepped onto the landing pad. “…or what if when they disappeared, they reappeared in a different place? That would mean that they can teleport themselves…” Juni shuddered. It must be such an ability that gave the Invaders such a horrendous advantage. The shouting of her enraged fiancé caught her attention. She focused her attention on Trent, and then followed his gaze to the gaping hole in his Sabre. “Uh-oh,” she whispered to herself. Juni knew that Trent loved his ship. Heck, he loved that ship almost as much as he loved her. Seeking to comfort him, she strolled up to Trent and stepped in front of him and succeeded in bringing his focus onto her. The two made eye contact. Standing on her toes, Juni gingerly kissed Trent on the lips. “Don’t worry,” Juni said in a soothing voice, “You can fix it.” In response to Juni’s soothing complexion, Trent felt relief spreading throughout his body. He felt calm, more relaxed. “I know,” Trent sighed, “but I won’t be able to replace the shield.” He turned around and looked towards the ground, deep in thought. “It’ll take me months to get my hands on another one like it.” Satisfied that she had done her job, Juni smiled and patted Trent on the shoulder. “Come on, Edison. I think I know someone who needs a drink.” Trent turned around and looked Juni in the eyes. He too, smiled. “You know, I think you’re right.”

Next chapter is due. Is anyone still reading this? Chapter 7 Battleship Relentless, Nomad Homesystem. 6 hours later. News of the human attack had spread like wildfire throughout Invader-controlled territory. Not surprisingly so, since the teleportation technology at the Invader’s disposal allowed them to move great distances almost instantaneously. By the time six hours had passed, Selestren-Kulam had been informed of the battle and Jori-Def-Olen-Nalemo had been sent to supervise the discovery of the system to which the humans had retreated. Currently Nalemo was engaged in a heated argument with Orad-Porel, captain of the battleship Relentless. “Your seekers have yet to return, what kind of crew you are you commanding here?!” Nalemo’s voice echoed throughout the cavernous docking bay. This chamber, easily the largest room in the entire ship, held roughly three hundred fighters. With no hatch, fighter pilots relied on teleportation to move in and out of the bay. Orad growled and flexed his powerful claws, his anger starting to get the best of him. “I command the best of the best. The tracking device was deployed, and I am confident that it found its target.” Orad leaned toward Nalemo, as if challenging his authority. “My seekers will triangulate the return signal.” Orad leaned further towards Nalemo, and extended his legs. He was now definitely challenging the smaller alien’s authority. “This military campaign WILL continue!” Nalemo knew better than to start picking a fight with this guy. Most Invaders could rip the arm off of a fellow comrade, and with Nalemo’s weaker body structure, Orad could not only dismember a limb, he could break Nalemo’s body in two. Deciding not to anger the captain further, Nalemo decided to back off. “You had better be right. You have no idea what Selestren-Kulam will do to us if your seekers can’t triangulate that signal.” BOOM-BOOM-BOOM. Three fighters appeared in the docking bay. The din was incredible, and was further amplified as the noise echoed throughout the massive chamber. Nalemo immediately covered his ears, his face wrenched in pain. Orad-Porel merely flinched; most combat veterans were hard of hearing, a condition brought on by the Invader’s own loud technology. Once the deafening roar had faded away, each fighter opened and the pilots stepped out. They spotted their superior and began jog over to him. Orad-Porel turned to face the pilots. “See?” Orad muttered to Nalemo out of the corner of his mouth. “My seekers return.” Once the pilots came to a stop in front of Orad, all three kneeled down, tucking their heads into their chests to expose the back of their necks. A proper salute. “Sir, your seekers have come to report,” said the Invader in the middle. Orad allowed himself a slight smile. “Rise, and tell of your finds.” The trio arose, and the middle Invader continued to speak. “Sir, you will be pleased to know that we have successfully triangulated the tracker signal.” Orad looked at Nalemo out of the corner of his eye. “I told you my men would succeed!” he exclaimed with a triumphant smirk on his face. Nalemo ignored Orad’s gloating. Orad-Porel returned his attention to the seekers. “Did the device complete its cycle?” The middle seeker absentmindedly straightened the hair growing down his sides as he responded. “Yes sir. Soon after we received the tracker’s signal, an energy wave passed through the system, having originated at the same coordinates as the tracker. This is surely a result of the device’s self-destruction.” The seeker handed Orad a small piece of parchment. “Here are the coordinates and environment information.” Orad silently plucked the parchment from the seeker’s grasp and read the information in it. He laughed a low, guttural laugh. “Good. Seekers, you are dismissed.” Without a word, the three seekers headed in unison for the docking bay exit. Orad turned to Nalemo. “Go; tell Selestren-Kulam of the find. Bring back his word to advance the battle group,” Orad took a step closer to Nalemo and lowered his voice, “And I will bring him a victory.” Orad-Porel abruptly turned and made off for the exit, leaving Nalemo with nothing to do but return to his ship and depart.

Eco, Grit, thanks for your replies <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> I know the story has been kinda slow, but it will pick up later on. (Grit, in case you dont know, the story updates on monday) Edited by - Steel_Fang on 5/17/2005 2:32:09 PM Edited by - Steel_Fang on 5/17/2005 2:32:24 PM

Chapter 8 is ready to go! Feel free to praise or criticize. Chapter 8 Juni and Trent had were interrupted in the middle of their drinks to participate in a meeting that Orillion was holding to further discuss what the Order could do about the Invaders. Now the two colonels were walking down the hall to the research lab, where the meeting was taking place. As they reached the lab door at the end of the hall, both Trent and Juni were stopped by a woman dressed in garbs that signified her participation in the Order. She was a very tall woman, probably around six-foot five, with a stern face, in her mid-fifties with graying hair. She was probably a Corsair in her earlier days. “Identification.” She spoke with a very serious voice. Juni pulled out her ID first and flashed it toward the other woman, who quickly scanned it with a well-trained eye. She saluted. “Colonel Zane, you may proceed. Commander Orillion is expecting you. “Thank you.” Juni pocked her ID card and proceeded through the door. Trent stepped forward, showed his card and also received a salute. “Colonel Trent, you may proceed.” Trent entered the research lab. Like much of the rest of the base, the walls here were coated with a silver-gray alloy that was traditional of libertonian technology. There were tables and shelves strategically scattered throughout the large enclosure, upon which rested books, papers, scientific equipment, alien artifacts, and sitting on one certain table mounted against the wall, a glass case which Trent saw contained a nomad parasite, probably the one which had taken Chancellor Niemann as its host. Trent approached the table where six other people were gathered, including a corsair, and a bounty hunter, a Blood Dragon, as well as Juni and Kendra Sinclair, now one of the leading scientists of the Order. Trent approached the table and stood in between Juni and Sinclair, exchanging nods. He vaguely wondered just how well Kendra and King’s relationship actually was. Orillion was obviously very agitated by the Order’s monumental defeats at the hands of the Invaders. He had become somewhat fidgety, and was now susceptible to fits of anger. The majority of his forces had been destroyed within two weeks! Great pilots were unanimously slaughtered when their wits and cunning were overpowered by brute force! Orillion took a quick glance at Trent and Juni. At least his two best pilots were still with him. He was thankful for that. Orillion took a deep breath and began the meeting. “Now that everybody is here, we will discuss our…” Orillion paused, carefully choosing his words. “…Problem, with the Invaders.” Orillion stared at the attentive faces of his soldiers. He hated when he had to admit that a foe had the upper hand, which was especially true in this case. “Does anyone have a lead that will help to even the odds?” For Juni, this was the best time to suggest her theory. “Sir,” she started, “I may have an idea about their technology.” Everybody gave Juni their full attention as she began to reveal her hypothesis. “I believe that the Invaders have acquired teleportation technology. I think that’s the reason why they suddenly disappear and reappear in battle.” There was a murmur of approval among the table. Sinclair objected. “That’s impossible! No living thing can survive the matter-antimatter explosion required to pull off such a feat! Not to mention the unspeakably large amount of power required!” “That may be true,” Orillion said, “But the idea that they teleport fits the known data. But even so…” Orillion thought back to his first encounter with the Invaders, “That doesn’t explain why they only flew into the asteroid field during the first attack.” “Maybe they didn’t want to make a mistake and teleport into an asteroid?” Trent said, half guessing. There were more murmurs of approval, and Orillion beamed at Trent. “Great observation, Colonel Trent! This will give us a huge advantage.” “Oh… thanks.” Trent was surprised that his guess was right. Suddenly the communications speaker burped static, followed by an urgent voice. “Commander Orillion! An Invader battleship has appeared beside the Nomad jumpgate!” “Go to code red! Evacuate the station!” Orillion shouted back. “Aye, Sir!” The speaker clicked off. Orillion dismissed everyone at the table, minus Trent and Jun’ko. He then turned his attention to his two Colonels. “We don’t have enough fighters left to drive them off. We have to get everyone that is left away from here. I want you to protect the transports out of here.” “Yes, Sir!” Juni saluted. Trent looked at his fiancée. “Dammit, how can she mindlessly agree to these suicide missions?” Nevertheless, he wasn’t about to let his future wife be taken away from him. He needed to go with her, to cover her back. Orillion swiftly moved from behind the table. “I’m coming with you on this one. Let’s go! Quickly!” “I hope my Sabre has been repaired,” Trent said to himself as the trio ran out of the room. Edited by - Steel_Fang on 8/22/2005 4:28:40 AM

lol. i update on mondays, but the next chapter might be delayed, cuz im graduating

By the way, does anyone know how to drop a JPEG into a reply? Ive got some 3d images of stuff in my fanfic that i would like to show.

After the seemingly endless distractions of graduation, I finally found the time to write the next chaper. Feel free to comment. Chapter 9 Nomad Jumpgate, Omicron Minor System The bridge on the Invader battleship Relentless was quite different than those found on the battleships in human fleets. There were no windows, for reasons regarding security and structural integrity. To compensate, large monitors that displayed the ship’s surroundings were mounted on the walls above simplistic instrument panels. Everything was dirty. The floor and walls were smeared with grease, grime, hair, and even splatters of yellow blood where two rival crew members had brutishly engaged each other a few weeks back. Orad-Porel carelessly spat a rather large gob of saliva onto the deck as he surveyed the monitors. He had not waited for orders to advance the battle group. His eagerness, if not his impatience, had gotten the better of him. This action was against regulations, and he would probably be punished for it, but who knew? If his decision brought a strategic victory, he might be given an exception, maybe even praised. Through the monitors, Orad-Porel spotted a trail of lights that led into the nebula – the navigation buoys to Planet Toledo. Orad allowed himself a quick thought of how stupid the humans were to do such a thing, and then gave the order to follow the lights. As the engines were ignited, the lights on the bridge dimmed for several seconds before returning to their normal glare, and the deck trembled as the massive ship began to move. ***** Trent, Juni, and Orillion raced across the landing pad to their ships. As Trent neared his ship, he saw that two engineers standing beside it – the repair crew that he had ordered earlier. Trent ran up to them. “Is my ship fixed?” The engineer of the left, somewhat distracted by the current situation, began to speak rapidly. “We’ve been working at full speed, sir.” The engineer was obviously eager to leave. “Most of the ship’s been fixed. You have two new engines, a new shield and thruster, but the cargo hold is still ruptured.” “It’ll have to do. Go, get out of here!” “Yessir!” said the engineer without hesitation. He shot Trent a salute and quickly ran off. Juni and Orillion had already taken off by the time that Trent climbed the ladder into the Sabre’s cockpit. He closed the hatch, unlocked the controls, and pushed the ignition key. He heard the reactor whine as it heated the H-fuel within its chambers, followed by the sensation of the entire ship shuddering as the reactor began produce plasma. A quick diagnostic proved that all of the Sabre’s new components had taken. Trent disengaged the levitation pad and headed out into space along with the stragglers who had lagged behind. ***** Juni exited the docking ring shortly after Orillion and positioned her ship a short distance from the planet. The transports were beginning to depart, heading to the Osiris hidden somewhere in the surrounding nebula. She noticed with much relief that the Invaders had yet to arrive. But she also noted with dismay that there were only a few other fighters. “We need to hold off the Invaders as long as we can, Colonel Zane.” “Roger that, sir.” Juni activated her long range sensors and scanned for approaching ships. The scan came up negative. But she knew that they had to be coming. Juni ran the scanner again. There - an Invader fighter, coming out of the nebula. Juni held her position; if she flew out to attack it, it could teleport around her and attack the transports. She didn’t want that to happen. An Invader battleship emerged from the giant chlorine nebula, forcing the noxious green gas to billow outwards as the massive ship pushed it aside. More fighters came out of the nebula. All of them were headed directly for the planet. Orillion keyed the system-wide comm. “Good luck to us all.” “Good Luck,” Juni responded. No sooner than Juni had closed her comm. channel that she heard a THUMP, and an Invader fighter appeared to her right. She took evasive maneuvers, working her Defender to get behind the alien ship before it got a chance to counter her attack. But before Juni was able to take down the fighter, it disappeared with its characteristic red flash and audible boom. Another THUMP and a second fighter popped into existence above her. It turned and pounded away at her shields, which quickly dissipated. Juni felt her ship lurch violently as one of the shots impacted upon her ship’s hull. The alien guns cycled again, and antimatter ate away at the Defender once more. The ship groaned in agony as its frame began to buckle. This dogfight was a death match, and it seemed pretty apparent who was going to emerge victorious. ***** An impatient Edison Trent at long last emerged form the docking ring, ready to fight for the survival of the retreating humans – and his fiancée. Even though be believed he was prepared for the worst, he was not prepared for what he saw. “Holy f***!” The space around Toledo was utter chaos. The Invaders had already arrived, and were currently in the process of whittling the defending forces down into nothing. Trent took a moment to survey the fleeing transports, and was relieved by what he saw: none of the transports were under attack. The Invaders were too busy to pay any attention to them. A panicked voice came though Trent’s comm. “Edison! Help Me!” “Jun’ko!” Trent said to himself. Trent scanned the ship ID tags and located Juni’s Defender. Trent saw that it was in bad shape, and that was all he needed to know. “Hang on, Juni, I’m coming!” Trent punched the accelerator and raced towards Juni’s location. As he got closer, he noticed that she was under attack by an Invader fighter. Trent lined up his ship with the alien craft, took careful aim, and slammed the trigger. His guns rained fire down upon the oddly shaped fighter and exploded upon its hull, burrowing into its greasy insides. A critical component was hit, knocking out the ship’s entire power grid. The ship spun wildly out of control, trailing black smoke as its own inertia carried it to the center of the battle, where it was found by stray mine. The mine overcame the ex-fighter’s speed, made physical contact, and blew itself to kingdom come, taking the alien craft with it. With the immediate threat gone, Juni finally had the chance to deploy nanobots, which she did gladly. Juni sighed with relief over the comm. channel. “Thanks, Edison.” Orillion suddenly came over the comm. “To all ships, retreat into the nebula. Fly to a random vector, and then change course to the Osiris. “Affirmative,” Juni said. “Edison, see you at the rendezvous.” “Alright.” Trent closed the channel. With all the transports successfully hidden in the nebula, it was time for the fighters to disengage and remove themselves from the battle with best speed. All the remaining fighters broke off their attacks and fled the scene in all different directions. Once well hidden in the nebula, they turned and headed for the Osiris. Once they had all docked, the Osiris activated its cloaking device and disappeared. Edited by - Steel_Fang on 8/22/2005 4:29:24 AM

A new chapter has arrived, and a new character is introduced. Enjoy! Chapter 10 Battleship Osiris, Omicron Minor System. The docking bay of the Osiris was crammed with so many ships that Trent found it difficult to navigate between them. He doubted that there was room for even one more. After some wandering, he finally found a wall and followed it to the main exit. Juni was already there, conversing with Orillion. Trent picked up on their conversation as he approached. “…I understand your intentions, sir, but is there a way we can do it without throwing everyone into a panic?” “I think that a mass panic is practically unavoidable now, colonel. But for now, I think that we should only notify the leaders of the houses.” Juni sighed. “Yes, sir.” Out of the corner of her eye, Juni saw Trent approaching and beckoned him over. “So, what’re we going to do now?” Trent asked as he joined the conversation. “There’s not much we can do, Colonel Trent,” Orillion started, “but for the moment we are going to notify the houses of these ‘Invaders’.” He took a breath and looked at his two trustworthy supporters. “We are going to take a nearby jumphole to Omicron Theta and dock with Freeport 9. Once there, my people will contact the Leaders of the houses, including the Outcasts and Corsairs.” A look of worry crossed Orillion’s face. “We need all the help we can get.” ***** Orad-Porel stood on the bridge, looking in disgust at the retreating human fleet. The stupid cowardly S.O.B.s, why didn’t they stay and fight? Anybody could take the easy way out and run away, but what good would that do? That just made them fish in a shrinking barrel. But still, Orad thought, the worms might prove themselves to be an enemy worthy of a challenge. Their retreat had proven to be quite ingenious. With every ship felling in a different direction, they had given no hint of there they were going. While this would slow Orad’s pursuit, it would no stop it. There were people on his ship that knew how to find out were the humans had gone. Orad-Porel’s mulling was interrupted when he heard the bridge door open behind him. There was a pause, followed a slow, steady THUD…THUD… Orad felt the deck tremble slightly in unison with the heavy rhythm, which only lasted for four repetitions. Another pause, and a deep, growling voice uttered a single word. “Sir” Orad-Porel knew all too well who had just stepped onto the bridge. He turned around and found himself looking at the massive figure kneeling in salute that was Ranes-Une-Teral. Only a few years younger than Orad-Porel, Ranes was an utter behemoth. Measuring more than thirteen feet from head to toe, the soldier was almost twice as tall as an Invader of average height. He had proven to be an accomplished soldier on several occasions, and while Ranes was not an official messenger, Orad preferred to have him deliver news. It made Orad feel smug to know that he controlled a being so large. Growing up, Rames had always been tall for his age, but as other Invaders his age reached maturity and attained their full height, Rames just kept growing…and growing…and growing. His height steadily increased over time, and continued to the present day. The reason for Rames’ continuous growth was unknown, and what medics there were could not diagnose the problem (the Invader society was not very advanced in the medical field; a human doctor could have quickly found that Rames’ excessive growth was directly related to a cancerous pituitary gland). A slight smile trickled across Orad-Porel’s face as he allowed Rames to rise. The soldier was so tall that he had to stoop forward to prevent his head from hitting the ceiling. Orad spoke with deliberate slowness. “Tell me, Rames-Une-Teral, on what occasion do you come to see me?” Rames’ rumbling voice filled the room. “Sir, the landing crew is ready to descend onto the planet.” Rames pointed to a display screen that displayed planet Toledo within its borders. Orad paid no attention to this act. “They wish to know when they can land on the planet.” Orad-Porel rubbed his hands together. “Excellent. Tell them they have my permission to leave immediately. You are dismissed.” “Yes, sir.” Rames acknowledged the order. Orad turned away and returned his attention to the display screens, until he realized that Rames had not budged from his spot. Orad turned around again. “Is there something else you wanted to say?” Rames’ face showed no expression. “Yes, sir. Jori-Def-Olen-Nalemo, a representative of Master Selestren-Kulam, is here, sir. He wishes to speak with you.”